302 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



wood we consume is usually of inferior quality ; therefore the 

 thousand pounds of sugar the farmer produces costs him really 

 but little, and adds much to his comfort, it being not only a 

 necessity, but a luxury, which we would not willingly forego. 



Some of our farmers keep no stock, scarcely, but fine-wool 

 sheep. Instead of the style of sheep kept here twenty years 

 ago, — fleeces weighing only two or three pounds per head, — we 

 have improved our flocks by introducing the Vermont Merino, 

 and the weight of our fleeces now is about four pounds each, 

 which has increased the net profit more than fifty per cent. 

 There is chance still for improvement, as is plainly shown by 

 some of our best flocks producing five and six pounds per head 

 instead of four. 



This Vermont Merino investment is all that saves us from 

 being compelled to abandon this favorite pursuit, owing to the 

 nominal cost of growing wool in the TVest and South- West. 

 There is no stock so easily managed, making so little trouble, 

 summer and winter, as the fine-wool sheep. The coarse-wool 

 sheep receive very little attention with us, yet there are some 

 excellent specimens of the coarse-breeds. 



Some of our farmers owning large pastures, buy in the 

 months of March and April from fifty to one hundred farrow 

 cows, or a corresponding number of three-year old steers, turn- 

 ing them upon the pastures as soon as there is abundant feed, 

 where they remain until an Eastern purchaser appears, buying 

 the lot, usually in the month of July, reserving the privilege of 

 taking them in lots of ten or twenty at once, to suit his conven- 

 ience. Some of our farmers have made small fortunes in this 

 business within the last ton or fifteen years. 



Some of us milk cows every night and every morning, Sun- 

 days and rainy days not exceptions. Some make butter, some 

 only cheese ; others, more skilful, manage to obtain both. Here 

 I would drop a tear for the Eastern consumer. There is but 

 one or two milk carts within my limits. Others keep a few 

 extra breeding cows, always raising the calves from a respectable 

 sire, compelling them to grow rapidly and mature early ; if two 

 or four happen to be steers, they are broken to w r ork, and trained 

 to appear w r ell when a purchaser comes into the yard. 



The majority of our farmers keep a variety of stock, — a few 

 cows, some steers, some sheep, two or three colts, swine, geese 



