174 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



live stock. While the ■writer of this report hopes that nothing here, 

 will warrant a thought on the part of any one, that there is a 

 departure from so judicious a determination, still, it has seemed to 

 him no more than just, that where the whole field of Maine has 

 been allotted to a particular breed upon the mere ipse dixit of one 

 individual, however learned he may be, the action of the Board 

 should open the gate for a fair and free discussion among its mem- 

 bers and the farmers of the State, so that if the theory, which mili- 

 tates against the practice of a general experience, be correct, those 

 who have uvfortunatehj been making money in so unwarrantable 

 and unscientific a course, may be able to obtain reasons for the sub- 

 stitution of a single breed in place of those which, for aught they 

 can see, are every way well suited to their markets, their climate, 

 and their soil. 



In an essay upon Sheep breeding, published in the Patent Office 

 Report for the year 1851, P. A. Brown, L. L. D., maintains that 

 there are two distinct species of sheep — the woolly and the hairy — 

 each of which has its appropriate place, where the other must not 

 intrude. And to but a dozen or so of all the sheep which there 

 are in Maine, would he accord an abiding place upon the earth, 

 because they have. hair mixed with their wool, and by that same 

 token, according to his theory, are hybrids. He says, "There is a 

 place for all natural things. There is a place to breed and raise the 

 hairj sheep ; and there is a place to breed and raise the woolly 

 sheep ; but for the hybrid sheep, which is not a natural, but an 

 unnatural production of man's making, there is not any place in the 

 United States ; and therefore their propagation ought not to bo 

 encouraged. If a line be drawn diagonally through the United 

 States, beginning at the south east corner of New Hampshire, pur- 

 suing pretty much the course of the line of tide water, and ending 

 in Texas, it will be found that every where north west of it, the 

 woolly sheep may be bred and will thrive, provided the blood of 

 his species be kept pure ; and every where south east of this line, 

 the hairy 'sheep may be bred and will thrive, provided the blood of 

 his species be kept pure : but that neither will thrive on the other 

 sides, respectively, of that line, nor will they if the species are 

 crossed.''' 



Dr. Brown illustrates his argument for this distinction of species 



