170 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



weakness, loss of vitality, goiter, etc., all shake their heads, for with a similar 

 mode of treatment as regards feed and care, the same flock of ewes will raise 

 most of the lambs dropped one season, and lose nearly all the next. The same 

 mode of treatment jiroves good one year and bad tlie next. One man has one 

 remedy and another a dilferent one, most of wiiich fail when tested. (.)ne man 

 feeds clover hay to his breeding ewes and loses his lambs from goiter. Another 

 feeds in a similar manner and has good luck with his. One gives his ewes 

 plenty of food and exercise and loses his lambs; another gives plenty of food 

 and no exercise and raises his lambs, and so on to the cud of the chapter. 

 With all these facts of experience and observation before us, conflicting as 

 they are, what shall we do? The question is easier to make than to answer. It 

 is our opinion that no solution of the vexed question has ever been made 

 relative to goiter and its kindred maladies. 



There are some suggestions, however, that we will venture to offer, and they 

 can be received for what they are worth, or discarded as worthless. It is a 

 physiological law, that in order to live, animals must eat and drink ; that if 

 left to themselves, especially sheep, they will seek a great variety of grasses, 

 weeds, etc., for food, and good clear running water if possible, and if both 

 food and water be abundant, accompanied with plenty of exercise, they will 

 thrive well and rear their lambs well. Especially is this habit of exercise 

 natural to the Merino family, made so no doubt from their earlier habits of 

 roaming from Cabana to Cabana in search of food. As nature is a good in- 

 structor, it might be well to apply her teachings, or some of them, in the case 

 of a flock of breeding ewes. First, when we come to feed for svinter give 

 plenty of different kinds of fodder, such as clover hay, marsh hay, straw, 

 stalks, etc., alternately, with plenty of exercise and plenty of good wholesome 

 water, at the same time keeping their dwellings well ventilated and well litter- 

 ed, making them healthy, and a good protection from the storms and inclem- 

 ency of the weather during our winters. As a sire, select a thoroughbred, of 

 good robust constitution, of good family, and in all respects as he should be, 

 and I think the farmer has done his duty, and may await the result without 

 much fear. 



As our paper is already becoming lengthy the subject matter of the thor- 

 oughbred must of necessity be brief. Improvement in this class of stock 

 is much more difficult to obtain. One reason is that so many men are 

 engaged in it whose models or types vary so greatly. One breeder is a strong 

 advocate of the Bates family of Shorthorns; another of the Booth family; 

 another of a mixture of both families. A's model is a large, massive animal, 

 rangy, standing up proudly and grandly, representing certain characteristics 

 pleasing to himself and those wlio agree with him. B's model is low 

 in stature, blocky, compact, fine boned, meaty animal, and so on through the 

 list. Another breeder prefers tiie Herefords, with their peculiar colors and 

 fine carriage and far-famed meat producing qualities. Another the Jerseys, or 

 Devons, or Galloways, or Ayrshires. One breeder prefers what have been 

 known as the Atwood blood in the Merino family, another -the paular, mixed 

 with the Atwood family. One prefers the black-faced sheep, another the long- 

 wooled breed. In swine, one prefers the Poland-China, another the Berkshire, 

 and anotlier the Essex or Suffolk. In horses, one cliooses the farm horse, 

 another the trotter, and anotlier the thoroughbred or running horse. Which 

 is the better of all these different breeds or kinds of stock it is not our province 

 to decide. Each breeder will settle that matter to liis own satisfaction. The 

 question is, how shall improvements be made? The same great physiological 



