186 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



during the same period that the same capital is employed in 

 beef raising. This, however, is beside our subject. We have 

 heard a striking advantage of wheat and sheep growing over 

 dairy farming commented upon by practical farmers. In dairy 

 farming there is an unvarying routine of providing food for stock, 

 selling the dairy products, and shovelling manure. There is no 

 let up, no vacation to the farmer. In wheat and sheep farming 

 combined, there are two short periods of excessive activitj^ — the 

 harvesting and lambing seasons ; in the intervals, long periods for 

 other pursuits or intellectual culture. Hence this has been called 

 the aristocracy of farming. 



The breedino; of animals is now recognized as among the great- 

 est of the creative arts. Professor Agassiz says enthusiastically 

 of the stock breeders of the present day : " The practical realiza- 

 tion of a theoretical acquisition has led them to make science the 

 foundation of their business. From very empirical workmen they 

 have raised themselves to be a class of thinking workers, who, 

 as regards mental range, will very soon surpass every other 

 industrial class, and before long will give society a totally new 

 impress." 



No class of stock-growers have done so much to merit this high 

 praise as the breeders of sheep. This species being so plastic in 

 its character that the breeder, according to Lord Somerville'a 

 celebrated saying, " may chalk out upon a wall a form perfect in 

 itself and then give it existence," presents the most signal illus- 

 trations of the modern doctrine of evolution. The breeder has 

 become a veritable creator. The products of his art have the 

 permanency of primeval species. There are convincing reasons 

 for believing that the precious merino was converted by the art of 

 man from the coarsest of the primeval sheep, the hair being 

 dropped, and the underlying down, found still in the rudest of 

 the ovine races, having been developed into fine wool. All 

 the most valuable long-woolled races of England, so distinct in 

 their characters, have been developed by human agency. The 

 merino of Spain has been converted on the one hand to the 

 electoral race of Germany, and the sheep Naz of France ; produc- 

 ing fleeces of the utmost fineness, but weighing not more than a 

 pound and a half, and with a length of fibre of less than an inch ; 

 and, on the other, to the Rambouillet sheep, producing fleeces of 

 thirty pounds weight, with a length of five inches. New and 

 unexpected qualities appear from time to time through accident, 



