42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Chandler said that a dog of real value should be taxed like 

 other objects of value. Very few, however, were of any value. 

 The large majority were worthless, and many of them destructive. 

 He had known a hundred sheep killed by dogs in one night. In 

 the Insane Hospital was a boy who had been rendered idiotic by 

 fright caused by a vicious dog. Were all the dogs in Christendom, 

 and all the property they protected to be offset against damage 

 like that ? lie knew a family of paupers whose sole possessions 

 consisted of dogs. 



Mr. Lancaster said he never found a man who would confess 

 that his dog was vicious. He related a case in point. Having 

 lost a sheep worth $10 by a dog which he saw kill the sheep, he 

 complained to the owner, but the owner had more faith in the dog 

 than in his testimony, and that was all the satisfaction he got. 

 He would make a scale of taxation on dogs. For instance, he 

 would tax one dog a dollar, the second, owned by the same man 

 $5, and so on. 



Mr. Anderson would not except even the shepherd-dog from 

 taxation. Every man who has a dog which is really valuable can 

 afford to be taxed for that as well as for other valuable animals. 



Mr. Norton said that if shepherd dogs were exempted all dogs 

 would become " shepherd dogs," as rum ^jras converted from a 

 beverage to "medicine." 



Mr. Pcrcival wanted to know how a dog, which was not worth 

 a red cent, could be made available for taxation under the ordinary 

 rules governing assessors of taxes. 



Mr. Norton suggested they might be treated as "polls" not 

 worth a cent — let them be taxed specifically, and not ad valorem. 

 He thought a round tax on dogs would result in the saving of a 

 thousand sheep annually. 



Mr. Stackpole said the taxation of dogs would operate unequally 

 on classes. In his section of country more poor men than rich 

 ones owned dogs. 



Mr. Dill said many persons keep them whose families suffer for 

 bread. 



Mr. Wasson said it was generally conceded that the dog was a 

 most destructive animal. He believed more sheep were destroyed 

 by them than by all other animals and by all diseases. Tlie ques- 

 tion was, which of the three modes was best to rid ourselves of 

 this nuisance. One was by means of license. This, he tlionght, 

 would be attended with difficulty, and would not be effectual. 



