SECRETARY'S REPORT. J -^3 



capital invested can be so readily increased or diminished according 

 to increased or diminished demand, none where so little labor of 

 body or mind is required, and none where the returns arc so fre- 

 quent and sure. 



Wool makes a healthier clothing than cotton, and mutton is a 

 very cheap and wholsome meat. This is a consideration worthy of 

 fixed attention from each inhabitant of every agricultural town in 

 the " Union." The owner of a flock of sheep can have fresh meat, 

 of the best character, throughout the year ; he can at any time, kill 

 a lamb or wether, without damage or loss, and have a pelt to sell, 

 with meat that becomes more palatable from keeping, and in quantity 

 sufficient, without his being encumbered by its weight, or annoyed 

 about its disposal, so frequently the case of the farmer who butchers 

 a neat animal. It is believed that this substitution of fresh lamb 

 and mutton for the vast quantities of salt pork now consumed in our 

 farming communities, would be as happy an innovation here, as it 

 proved in England. "The farmer raising wool can have, at his 

 own door, cash at prices not more than from five to ten per cent, 

 lower than at the best markets, and if wool happens to be unusually 

 low, can store it for one per cent, of its value, with an assurance 

 that he loses nothing of weight." By instituting and encouraging 

 the system of '• wool depots," which has already gone into successful 

 operation in Vermont and New Hampshire, a still less per centage 

 off the best market price, even, may be obtained, and equal prices, 

 according to quality, might be had throughout the country. With- 

 out such institutions, wool raisers must continue to rely upon the 

 integrity and knowledge of the few isolated, woollen factory owners 

 and wool pullers, scattered about the country, who now name their 

 own prices, and frequently evince a want of discrimination which 

 tells against either one or the other of those desirable qualifications. 

 The design of this report, is not to dictate nor even to recommend 

 in detail, a definite course of action, but in calling thoughtful atten- 

 tion to the subject of sheep breeding, to lend such aid as it may, to 

 farmers looking in this direction ; to offer a word of encouragement, 

 and perhaps, to open up some unsettled questions for general dis- 

 cussion among able and experienced men. 



The Board of Agriculture has signified its intention, not to be 

 committed to the advocacy of either breed of the several kinds of 



