PROFITS OF FEEDING SHEEP. 



207 



and feeders, the very profits to which yon are entitled for 

 your labor of care and toil. I know whereof I affirm, and 

 can cite numerous instances where it has been practically 

 demonstrated. 



Farmers, let us be men, and no longer allow ourselves to be 

 duped and deceived by this middle class, who delight so much 

 in boasting of their wealth obtained by sucking at our vitals. 



Co-operation is the plan that will save us, as it has saved 

 others. It is also alleged that the farmers cannot afford to 

 consign their stock to the Boston butchers to be sold on 

 commission; but this, too, comes from the same class of specu- 

 lators. I will simply say, that, wherever and whenever it 

 has been tried, it has effected grand results. 



I will now give the statement of a farmer in the county 

 of Franklin, who has the ability (like many farmers in the 

 county), and is not afraid, to go to Albany or Michigan, and 

 purchase his sheep, and, after feeding them, take them to 

 Boston and sell them. He says, — 



In 1868 my sheep cost in Albany- 

 Weighed 116§5 pounds per head, cost 

 Expense carrying home, and to Boston, per head 

 Entire cost of sheep per head 

 Commenced feeding the 20th of January, and sold 



May 4 : time of feeding 

 Sold sheep at . 

 Weight of sheep per head 

 Amount received per head 

 Received for feeding per head 

 Gain per head (almost) 

 Amount of corn consumed per head 

 Corn was worth per bushel 

 Cost of grain per head 

 Leaving, for care and hay, per head 



He further states, that in 1869 he fed lambs, and received 

 for feeding per head $3.03. The amount $3.03 is what he 

 received in Boston market more per head than the lambs 

 cost him there, or, in other words, is what he received for his 

 hay and grain per head. This is but one of many state- 

 ments which I have received from the feeders of sheep in 

 Western Massachusetts ; and nearly all add, that they be- 

 lieve there is a larger profit in feeding sheep than any other 

 stock, — if a flock is rightly managed, — and with immensely 

 less labor. 



