164 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



1840, and the sheep purchased by hundreds and thousands at 

 prices varying- from $5 to $15 per head were with their increase 

 sold at about $2 50 per head ; and men were as eager to sell as 

 they had been to buy. Yet in three years afterwards sheep had 

 again increased in value. This policy we have been pursuing for 

 thirty years. We have nothing like the number of sheep we had 

 in 1840, and our growth of wheat has fallen off in about the same 

 proportion ; there is something reciprocal between the two. I 

 close by saying that this is something our farmers cannot think 

 too closely npon. I believe if they will put money into sheep, 

 stick to the business, and manage it with the same prudence that 

 they would any other, in twenty years from this time the agricul- 

 taral wealth of the State will be doubled. 



Mr. Farrixgton of Orono. I have been astonished at the prac- 

 tice of the farmers, to which our friend has referred, to change 

 with the changing times from one method of husbandry to another. 

 If, for instance, for a few weeks butter brings a good price how 

 many will enlarge their stock of cows, and if it sells a few cents 

 short they will sell the cows and buy sheep at a high price. These 

 changes inevitably come, and those farmers who follow them are 

 always seeking for what they never find. I wish our farmers 

 would heed the caution given by Mr. Wasson, and when they 

 have once adopted the system of sheep husbandry they would 

 follow it through evil report and good report — through high prices 

 and low prices, aud I believe as the years go on they would fiud 

 in it a constant source of profit and prosperity. 



Gen. John Marshall Brown of Portland, member from Cum- 

 berland county. I rise for the purpose of asking the question, 

 why it is that as a matter of fact our people are not fond of mut- 

 ton as an article of food ? For the past year I have been trying 

 an experiment of my own with a flock of 60 sheep, and I am told 

 by the butchers that our people do not eat mutton. Of course 

 some of it is eaten, but as a rule our people eat beef and pork, 

 and mutton is sent out of the State. In other countries it is con- 

 sidered a delicacy. I consider it so mj'self, and I do not see why 

 it is not more highly appreciated by our people. 



Mr. Flint. It is a hard subject to throw light upon, but it is a 

 fact that the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers are opposed to 

 eating mutton. The only reason I have ever heard given for it is 

 that we have not raised choice, first-class mutton sheep. I do not 

 know whether that is it or not, I think the time will come, and 



