256 STATE liOARD OF AGRlCULTtJEE. 



We regard witli something of wonder and admiration the man or woman who 

 lias skill to mould the clay or fashion the marble into the likeness of the living 

 representative, or make it seem the living representative of that which is already 

 >dead, — making it a thing of beauty, which is a joy forever. 



Tliink you that he or she who has studied Nature's laws, and has become 

 skillful in their use, so that they can take the descendants of Pharaoh's lean 

 kine and in time produce the short-horn of to-day, or the common sheep of 

 Bakewell's time, and produce the noble specimens of mutton sheep which we 

 ■'■see on exhibition from year to year, or the small, greasy Merino imported 

 from Spain in the beginning of the present century compared with the Merino 

 ■of to-day? In short, of horses, of hogs, and all sorts of poultry, which are bred 

 to the nicety of a feather (I mean the poultry, and not the horses and hogs), I 

 «ay if these are not evidences of as high an order of skill, perseverance, and 

 success as are exhibited in any other department of man's usefulness, then I 

 can't understand what would be. 



If he is accounted a i^ublic benefactor who causes two blades of grass to grow 

 where only one grew before, I can't see why he is not equally so, who causes 

 two pounds of beef or two pounds of mutton to grow where one grew before 

 (and of better quality at that). The foregoing has opened the way for the dis- 

 cussion of the question before us : 



First. What kind of sheep shall we breed? 



Second. How shall we breed them? 



Ihird. The prospective reward. 



In reply to the first question, what kind of sheep shall we breed? I say 

 emphaticfillij let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Breed that 

 kind of sheep out of which you are confident, under all the circumstances of 

 your surroundings, you can make the mod. If you were horn a sheep man, 

 that is if the love of sheep for their own sake was born in you, and if you have 

 had experience in breeding, and have proper conveniences and have mastered 

 the science of feeding and growing young animals ; know how to care for them 

 when well, and what's the matter when sick, and are willing to work for the 

 fun of it, and not for pay, then you will do to breed that kind of sheep known 

 as the fall blood, merino, a valuable sheep when properly cared for, and that 

 value in great measure estimated as that of mankind in general, by the quality 

 of the coat they wear. 



No doubt the time is not far distant when the increased demand for mutton 

 for consumption at home and exportation abroad will greatly stimulate the 

 breeding of the large mutton producing breeds of sheep. But we shall fail to 

 succeed with them if we forget that they are large, and consequently we can't 

 keep so many as we can of the smaller kinds of sheep, also that that they have 

 attained to their present form and size by a process of breeding and feeding 

 wdth which Uiost of us are little acquainted, therefore we shall need time and 

 experience to insure success. 



The facilities for marketing whatever we have to sell are now so good that we 

 need hesitate no longer about producing fancy articles of food for distant cities. 

 The fast increasing demand for such food gives assurance that he who is first 

 to meet this demand will find his reward. You who have ■watched the ready 

 sale of early lambs for the summer market know that it is a paying business, 

 and one I think there is small prospect of being overdone. A cross of one of 

 our large mutton breeds on our common ewes, to be dropped in January and 

 pushed with a generous diet until ready for market, I am confident would 



