6 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



innumerable varieties of small fruit ; but this is no argument 

 for neglecting the cultivation of Indian corn, when it is 

 apparent that it can be raised for less than it costs in the 

 market. 



In other respects, also, the season has been favorable to 

 farm production, especially to the grass and hay crop, on 

 which our prosperity so largely depends. No general and 

 severe drought, to which we are liable every j^ear, affected 

 the crop through the growing season. The rainfall, though 

 not large through the months of May and June, was well 

 distributed over the period of growth ; and the result of the 

 grass-crop was satisfactory. 



The yield of apples was unprecedented, while that of pears 

 and grapes was light. The complaint has frequently been 

 made that the apple-crop was so abundant, that the price was 

 too low to make it pay to harvest and market it. There has 

 been, no doubt, some ground for such a complaint ; but it 

 ought not to be overlooked that the apple is a most valuable 

 food for stock, containing about ten per cent of nutriment, 

 while the potato contains but thirteen, and that it can be fed 

 out freely to advantage in such a season as the past. 



I find great complaint among the owners of sheep and 

 those who desire to engage in sheep-husbandry, of the inade- 

 quacy of the protection afforded by the " dog-law," so called. 

 It is evident that it can be amended to advantage. Sheep 

 are often injured by the worrying of useless curs, when no 

 damages can be recovered under the law. They are often 

 maimed, and rendered worthless, and the owner appeals in 

 vain for redress. If a class of sheep especially valuable for 

 the purity of blood and excellence of breeding suffers loss, 

 the owner is met by the official authorities with the objection 

 that a sheep is a sheep, and that no sheep is worth more 

 than three or four dollars, or what it will bring at the 

 butcher's. The result is to depress all enterprise for improv- 

 ing our flocks by the importation or breeding of high-cost ani- 

 mals. The owner of a low grade of sheep has the advantage 

 over the owner of a pure-bred flock. Now the law has com- 

 mended itself to public opinion, and will be enforced ; and 

 there seems to be no reason why it should not be made more 

 effective, so as to operate as a powerful stimulus to the 

 increase of the most useful stock of the farm. 



