SECRETARY'S REPORT. 87 



and the wool can be thrown into our markets at a cost of about 

 one cent per pound. With such competitors, our wool-growers 

 find it difficult to contend. In other respects, the advantage is 

 rather in our favor. Our provision markets must be supplied 

 from a nearer source, and this will probably make it profitable 

 for us to pay more attention to the raising of sheep. Many 

 localities in the western part of the State are admirably adapted 

 to this branch of husbandry. It would probably be for the 

 interest of many farmers, even in the eastern portions, to 

 engage in this business. Mutton and lamb will, doubtless, long 

 continue to command a ready sale in the neighborhood of Boston. 

 The price, when compared with the cost of raising, is such that 

 they can be made profitable, particularly if those breeds be 

 selected which fatten easily. My own experience, in the State 

 of Maine, though limited to three years, was enough to convince 

 me that a few sheep would be an efficient means of renovating 

 the worn-out pastures of eastern Massachusetts. They eat off 

 and destroy the bushes, white-weed and wood-waxen, and soon 

 bring in a thick mat of white clover and other sweet grasses. 



It is thought by some that sheep may be pastured with cows, 

 and that a number of the former equal to the number of the 

 latter, which the pasture will support, may be kept there with- 

 out injury. This was the opinion of some, in whose judgment 

 the farming community have placed great confidence. Inquiries 

 have been made by letter, in different parts of the State, to 

 ascertain the opinion of men experienced in sheep husbandry 

 on this point. The following remarks of a practical farmer and 

 wool-grower, in the western part of the State, well express 

 the opinions which seem to be entertained by all heard from : — 



" Sheep, as well as all other animals, have a relish for the 

 sweetest and most fattening productions of the earth, and no 

 animal that the farmer keeps has a greater dislike to coarse, 

 rank grass, than the sheep ; consequently they run over and 

 tread down, in search for the best and sweetest food, good, 

 healthy grasses, that cows or neat stock would eat freely and 

 do well on. This, however, is not all ; sheep are a strong- 

 scented animal, and wherever they huddle for any length of 

 time, cattle will not readily feed ; therefore, I think they never 

 should be allowed to run together." 



