10 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Of sheep, the show was exceedingly good in coarse and 

 middle wools : fine wools " are extinct as fire among thorns." 



The enormous capacity of the vast prairies and ranches of 

 the West and South-West for the growing of sheep and the 

 production of fine wool, with limitless means of transpor- 

 tation, has rendered that branch of industry comparatively 

 unprofitable here : but, on the other hand, the increased con- 

 sumption of mutton and lamb at the East has largely devel- 

 oped another line of sheep-husbandry in coarse and middle 

 woolled sheep for their meat, aided, also, by their fleeces of 

 combing and delaine wool, which arc worth as much per 

 sheep as the Merino ; while the carcass is worth many times 

 as much. In 1875 our county made more than one-fourth 

 of all the mutton produced in the Commonwealth, and our 

 fat lambs (nearly ten thousand) outnumbered those of any 

 other county in the State. Our mutton brought us nine 

 cents per pound ; and, while many of our earliest lambs sold 

 at from seven to ten cents, the average of the whole, early 

 and late, was four dollars and a half each, or seventy-five 

 cents above the average of all the lambs in the State ; and 

 the sheep averaged about half a dollar a head more than all 

 others. In 1845 we had 49,797 sheep ; thirty years later, 

 only 11,318, — a decrease of 38,000. 



Unwise, thriftless, and stupid as has been the course of 

 many of our farmers to quit entirely a paying and pleasant 

 branch of farming if judiciously conducted, the few who 

 have continued in it have, by their skill and good judgment, 

 partially redeemed us, and have shown what may be done. 

 They have made their sheep to average four dollars and a 

 half each, which in 1845 were valued at a dollar and sixty- 

 seven cents each ; and the lambs then worth a dollar and a 

 half they have brought to the average of four dollars and a 

 half each, and no end to the demand. The wool, too, from 

 these sheep has come to four and six pounds, worth forty-two 

 cents, against two pounds and fourteen ounces at thirty-eight 

 cents in 1845. 



With all these facts so plainly before them, it is not strange 

 that many of our farmers are entering earnestly into the 

 business of keeping sheep, raising early lambs, and making 

 mutton. 



For a reliable basis in this business, the Downs must be 



