WOOL GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 429 



Mr. D. P. Dewey, of Grand Blanc, was in favor of Michigan breeders meet- 

 ing with tlie Vermont Registry, on condition that the name be changed to the 

 National Register. 



By request, Mr. Peter Martin, of Rush, N. Y., explained briefly the charac- 

 ter of the American Merino Register proposed to be issued by the New York 

 breeders. He preferred the plan to that of Vermont, or any other, and invit- 

 ed the cooperation of Michigan and other States. Still, he would be willing 

 to unite with Vermont, if the name of the register were changed so as to be 

 national. 



After some further discussion, the subject was referred to the committee 

 having that subject in charge, with instructions to report the next day. 



APPOlNTiMENT OF COMMITTEES. 



The following committees were then appointed: 



Besolutions—R. F. Johnstone. J. "N". Smith. D. P. Dewej'. 

 Finance— W. J. (J. Dean, R. B. Canisp, B. T. Ino^alls. 



State Fair Premium List— A. F. Wood, Hugh McDonald, William Ball, W. E. Kea- 

 nedy. J). Hubbard, R, B. Caniss. 



On Sheep Shearing Shoio — R. M. D. Edwards. D. P. Dewey, R. Dougherty. 

 On Begistnj—J. W. Tliompson, M. L. Ray, E. W. Hardy. 



Mr. C. A. Miller was then called upon for his paper on '' Practice in Sheep 

 Husbandry," which he read, after which the meeting adjourned until the 

 next morning. 



After a careful glance over the subject of practical sheep husbandry, it seems to rae 

 as if notiiing new could be added to its llistOI•J^ Sheep husbandry is connected inti- 

 matel,y with the early historj' of man. What records we have are mingled with 

 romance and allegorj'. The sheep and the owners are placed in climes fanned by soft 

 zephyrs, in lands where the scenery is enchanting, where shady nooks under umbra- 

 geous trees are cooled by purling brooks that meander through luscious pastures 

 dotted with Hocks feeding and luxuriating on tlie sweet herbage, while lambkins 

 sport around them to the music made by the singing rivulets. Add to this beautiful 

 scene the silver-haired shepherds watching the constellations as they pass through 

 the heavens by night, or resting b}' day, while the youthful shepherds and sliepherd- 

 esses are engaged in their duties with the flocks and rehearsing to each other the old, 

 old story that has tingled in the ears of man and woman since the fall from Eden. 



Then again we read of monarchs, and their princes and nobles using their despotic 

 and feudal powers to promote the production of wool bj'' the protection of the flocks 

 of their vassals, making stringent edicts, not permitting tiie feet of the waj^farer to 

 tread on the sheep walks, and appointing regular corps of shepherds to care for the 

 flocks, and to lead them from the plains of Estremadura to the mountain slopes of 

 the Sierras of Castile and Arragon, and as the rigors of winter descended on the 

 mountains, to bring them back to the milder climates and more productive pastures 

 of the valleys and tiie plains. 



The Electors of the German States eagerly seized on the sheep of Spain, and poured 

 out tiieir treasures to propagate them. The king of France accepted the sheep of 

 the Escurial flocks as a royal gift from his brother on tiie throne of Spain. England 

 herself, through King George the Third, made her diplomacy serviceable in procuring 

 the best flocks of the merino, though Spain had her laws prohibiting the exportation 

 of her sheep. This infringement of the law, tacitly submitted to, led to other 

 infringements, of which our own ancestors at last took advantage, and the true merino 

 was at last imported into the United States in the early part of the present century. 



It was about the early part of the eighteenth century that we began to learn some- 

 thing of the inner workings of sheep husbandry, and tluit romance and poetical con- 

 ceptions were brushed away by the hand of reuiit3\ It was then that the wants of 

 mankind swept away tiie privileges lieretofore enjoyed by the nobles and land- 

 owners and the edicts of monarchy were as idle wind against the march of progress. 

 Then it was that plebeian energy accomplished what neither emperor nor kings had 

 been able to conniiand with all their untold wealtli. One of these plebeians was 

 Bakewell of England. The wonderful results which lie worked out in the Leicester 

 sheep gave him the credit of being in possession of some secret by which he would 



