390 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



sheep ai'e not attended to throug'h the whole winter, but it is where 

 nature furnishes thickets of dwarf evergreens, shrubs and bushes 

 which serve them for shelter, and where they have access to rocks 

 covered with algte and various salt water plants and get a great 

 deal of food from these marine plants and mosses. So that while 

 he may be correct as to the leugth of time they sometimes receive 

 attention in his section, I do not believe the statement would hold 

 true in regard to the interior of the State, where they certainly 

 have to be attended to more than three months during the year. 



Then, again, I doubt if his position is tenable, that we can com- 

 pete with the West in growing wool. There is no doubt that wool 

 can be grown much cheaper in some other sections of the United 

 States than here. I believe that there are men who were born and 

 brought up in the State of Maine, owning sheep now by thousands 

 in other and distant parts of the United States, who, notwithstand- 

 ing the distance, can afford to send their wool to this market and 

 sell it cheaper than we can. But for other and abundantly good 

 reasons we ought not to abandon sheep husbandry. We can afibrd 

 to raise sheep, because, in addition to the direct returns in wool and 

 lambs, they furnish us a means of fertilizing our farms, for there 

 is truth in the Spanish proverb, that the sheep carries a golden 

 foot. Your land can be greatly improved by sheep ; but that we 

 can compete with the West in raising wool I do not believe. 



I have seen Mr. Gold upon his farm and among his sheep, and I 

 would be glad to have his views on this subject, and more partic- 

 ularly because, as I before remarked, the county in which he 

 lives bears a very close resemblance to considerable portions of 

 Maine. 



Mr. Gold. Sheep husbandry is a favorite topic with me, and 

 one in which 1 have always been deeply interested. It is impos- 

 sible, however, to raise the best sheep, or even good sheep, with 

 the slight amount of care which the gentleman in his paper repre- 

 sents. It is impossible to raise nice South Downs, or nice Cots- 

 wolds, or nice Merinoes, except with very excellent care. In that 

 case we believe them to be still paying farm stock, notwithstand- 

 ing the great depression that now exists with regard to sheep 

 husbandry. 



But the highest proof that I would present of the importance of 

 sheep raising as one of the branches of husbandry, is the fact that 

 in Great Britain, witli its enormous population, its high-priced 

 land, and everything, as we suppose, that operates against the 



