188 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



and noble as they are, are but as a few clusters of grapes which 

 our scientific spies have brought back to us from the " promised 

 land " — the destined inheritance of an enlightened and well 

 developed humanity. 



We have been wandering, not forty years, but forty centuries, 

 in the wilderness of sin and ignorance, and are but now approach- 

 ing the banks of that Jordan which divides the present, with its 

 uncertainties and doubts, from that future which shall be charac- 

 terized by an intelligence competent to understand the laws of 

 nature — and to direct every industrial enterprise in accordance 

 therewith. 



With these preliminary words, let us come to the subject of the 

 hour — "Sheep Husbandry in New England." 



I do not now propose to speak of any particular class of sheep,^ 

 or to advocate any special system of breeding, or to give statistics 

 to prove the profitableness of sheep husbandry — for these 

 questions are all two-edged swords — quite as likely to wound him 

 who handles them as those against whom they are used. I 

 propose rather to hint at some of the principles which underlie 

 this subject, knowing well that this intelligent audience will need 

 no aid of mine to enable them to deduce correct conclusions from 

 well established principles. 



In this as in other departments of human activity, we need, as 

 a motive for self-action, not so much an analysis of any given 

 class of facts, as an intelligent view of the principle which 

 regulates them, and around which they all center. Since modern 

 science has demonstrated the correlation of the differently named 

 forces of nature, we learn that the ultimate source of that power 

 by which both the farmer and the manufacturer produce the varied 

 results of their labor, is one and the same. 



By solar heat a constant evaporation is carried on from all the 

 land m\d water surfaces on the globe. But a short distance above 

 the surface of the earth, this evaporated moisture is driven about 

 by air currents, and finally descends to the earth again in the form 

 of rain. Hence the streams are filled, and an abundance of water 

 is ready to turn the wheel which human ingenuity has placed in 

 its pathway. Here is the source of power for the manufacturer. 

 If he convert the water into steam, it is but the same thing in 

 another form. 



The amount of water power that a given stream will furnish, is 

 then the first question to be settled when a capitalist wishes to 



