292 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



sheep by showing to them the results of the experience of 

 men of their own class and in their own State. The results 

 of this experience, worked out by years of observation and 

 practice, attended with losses and disappointments as well 

 as success, should have weight with other farmers, who, 

 under the disadvantages of high taxes, costly labor, increased 

 expenses, and low prices for all the products of the farm, are 

 seeking the most profitable return for the capital invested in 

 their farms, stock, and implements, and for the toil and 

 drudgery of themselves, their families, and of their hired 

 laborers. 



If there be any force in the suggestions we offer, it should 

 tend to induce some of our farmers to change somewhat their 

 course of farm-management, and, smothering old prejudices, 

 to try something a little different from their established lines 

 of farming, — perhaps to feed sheep instead of cattle ; per- 

 haps to substitute sheep and lambs for dairy cows ; or, again, 

 for those who have large flocks of fine-woolled sheep, to try a 

 smaller number of coarse or middle wools, where the mutton 

 and lamb should be the first consideration, and the wool the 

 secondary ; though, at the present time, the fleeces of these 

 last are worth nearly as much, sheep for sheep, as those from 

 the fine-wools. 



While we do not intend to give an elaborate history of the 

 introduction of sheep into this country, yet it seems not 

 amiss, at least for us of the descendants of the Pilgrims, to 

 trace the coming-in of this most useful animal to the Colo- 

 nies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. 



Either the sheep were not very early introduced here, or 

 the old chroniclers did not see fit to make any special men- 

 tion of them, unless under the general head of cattle : horses, 

 cattle, and, strangely, goats are much earlier and oftener 

 noticed than sheep. In 1629 royal permission was given to 

 ship from Southampton a hundred and forty cattle, horses, 

 sheep, and goats. How many, if any, were landed, does not 

 appear. July, 1631, from Barnstable in Devonshire, were 

 shipped eight heifers, a calf, and five sheep. June 15, 1633, 

 thirty-four Dutch sheep were landed, forty having been lost 

 at sea ; and April 3, 1635, eighty-eight Dutch ewes were 

 brought in, valued at fifty shillings each. These Dutch 

 sheep were rather large, white-faced, no-horned sheep, long- 



