FAKMERS' INSTITUTES. 253 



Hon. Wm. Ball, of Ilambiivg, read the following essay on 



SHEEP RAISING AND AVOOL GROWING. 



Mr. President and fellow fiu'mers : Tlie committee to whom was assigned 

 the duty of preparing a programme for this institute instructed me to prepare 

 a paper upon the subject of " Sheep breeding and wool growing." The subject 

 is one of so great importance to every farmer engaged in raising sheep that it 

 should have been placed in abler hands than mine, that it might receive such 

 intelligent treatment as its character demands. Sheep breeding and wool 

 growing are somewhat divisible in their nature, though closely connected, as 

 without the sheep we could not produce the wool, nor without the wool would 

 it be desirable to produce the sheep, but a combination of both is worthy of all 

 the attention and study that can be given to it. How to perfect the form, 

 giving it size, constitution, physical vigor, while at the same time producing a 

 fleece that shall pay the producer and satisfy the manufacturer, is a prob- 

 lem that is in process of solution by scores of men all over tlie country ; and 

 when we compare the results as they appear to-day with those of fifty years 

 ago the comparison is highly favorable. For the long, slim necked, high 

 horned, bare-faced, long bare-legged, thin fleeced Spanish merino of 1812, we 

 have the short, heavy folded neck, the nicely turned horn, well covered face, 

 short, well covered legs, thick, heavy fleeced American merino of to-day. In- 

 stead of the two and half pound fleece of that day we have fleeces ranging any- 

 where from ten to thirty (and even more) pounds of wool. A very creditable 

 showing. And while from the common flocks of the country at that time, and 

 even many years later, the clip of wool would average from two to three 

 pounds per head, the grade flock of to-day that will not average from five and 

 one-half to seven pounds of well -washed wool is not considered a profitable 

 flock to keep. 



These facts, to the thinking farmer, suggest the inquiry: How have these 

 improvements in the general character and form of the sheep and the large in- 

 crease in the amount of wool been obtained? The answer is patent to every ob- 

 serving man. It is the result of close thought, study, care, and the determina- 

 tion of men who have been engaged in this branch of business to bring it to its 

 highest state of perfection of which it is susceptible, as well as attention to na- 

 ture's laws, a knowledge of the wants and requirements of the animals bred, 

 together with a close comparison of results. This question also presents itself : 

 If, in so few years, so much worth has been added to this noble creature, why 

 in a like number of years, or even less, may not even greater improvements be 

 made? When perfection has been obtained, and man has filled his mission in 

 this experimental world, then perhaps he will be excused from further trial, 

 but so long as so much remains to be accomplished his motto should be on- 

 ward and upward. It is said, and justly to, that "the man who causes two 

 blades of grass to grow where only one grew before is a public benefactor," and 

 certainly the man who can cause two or three pounds of wool to grow where only 

 one was produced before is still a greater one. The large increase in quality 

 and quantity of wool now produced by the common flocks of our State is very 

 largely due to the use of thoroughbred American Merino rams, and those that 

 have done the most good are those which have been bred with the greatest care, 

 whose ancestry traces directly back to one of the two great families of the 

 Spanish importations known as the Paular and Infantado. At the present 

 time a good many men are investing money in fine wooled sheep. No mau 

 should buy sheep as thoroughbred without a pedigree, one that is already re- 



