SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 143 



fertile soil, furnishing abundance of tillage and pasturage ; with 

 prudent husbandry, you have every condition that nature can 

 furnish. If you do not succeed and make it profitable, it 

 will be contrary to all past experience. 



The particular breed or class of sheep, matters little, 

 compared with their care and management. There is an in- 

 creasing demand for mutton and for the long and medium 

 wools that seem to point to the larger classes, suitable for 

 mutton, having care not to sacrifice the wool by so doing. A 

 good mutton sbeej) may as well have a good fleece of wool as 

 a poor one, paying all costs as it grows, and leaving the 

 mutton as net gain. In Dodge's report of the International 

 Exposition at Vienna, it appears that the Merino crosses, 

 with sheep of larger bodies and longer wool, combine quali- 

 ties that will meet our market. The same report says : 

 "The INIerino element is so prominent in Austria that the 

 growing demand for better mutton, is beginning to be met, 

 rather by cross breeds, than mutton sheep of full blood." 

 Cotswold merinos are mentioned, " having a girth of nearly 

 six feet over the wool ; with fleeces at eleven months old, 

 four and one-half inches in length, finer than the Cotswold, 

 with much of its lustre." 



These points are brought before . you to prove that sheep 

 are capable of being bred to any desirable point of excellence. 

 If the varieties you now possess do not suit, feed better, and 

 select your stock animals with a view to the result you wish 

 to attain. Profits are light in careless breeding of any stock, 

 and no improvement in price may be expected, where you 

 compete with ninety-nine men of every one hundred around 

 you. You must aim at better results ; decide on what you 

 want, and breed with that want constantly in view. 



Distance from market can in a measure be counterbalanced 

 by the amount that can be obtained. He who can afibrd to 

 go into the country one day's ride to purchase one car-load 

 of mutton, can afibrd to ride two days, if he can purchase 

 two car-loads. Capital is always looking for a profitable 

 investment. Value of difierent products change as facilities 



