210 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



" The sheep at the present time is in good condition ; weighs ninety- 

 seven pounds and a half, and has good teeth, every tooth being perfect. 

 Her last lamb was dropped the second day of May last, by Cotswold 

 ram, and, when four months old, weighed ninety-seven pounds and a 

 half; at five months, weighed a hundred and seventeen pounds and 

 a half ; and at six months old it weighed a hundred and twenty-seven 

 pounds, — without grain. 



"This lamb was sold to Capt. Fellows of Shelburne, Mass., the vet- 

 eran sheep-feeder in this vicinity, for eight dollars." 



I have another farmer in mind who has a very prolific 

 sheep; and the statement which he gives shows how very 

 quickly one can, with the right kind of a sheep, raise a 

 flock. He says, — 



"I have a sheep that is three years old. When one year old, she 

 dropped a ewe-lamb ; at two years old, she dropped two ewe-lambs ; 

 and at three years old, or last spring, she dropped two lambs, — one 

 ewe and one ram lamb. The first ewe-lamb dropped a ewe-lamb when 

 she was two years old, or last spring; and the next two lambs, at one 

 year old, each dropped two ewe-lambs, making, in a period of three 

 years, including the mother of all, a flock of eleven sheep. Her breed 

 is Southdown. She is nearly pure-bred, and was herself a twin-lamb." 



I am of the opinion that late feeding is more profitable to 

 the feeder than early. The markets for the past few years 

 have been decidedly better, and then it affords the feeder 

 an opportunity to retain the fleeces of wool, that bring more 

 money from our local wool speculators than the pelts will 

 bring in market with the wool on. This is very strange, yet 

 true, and should be corrected in some way. 



Mr. Henry B. Goodnough of Boston, one of the largest 

 butchers of sheep and lambs in that city, in answer to some 

 questions which I asked him, writes as follows : — 



" About the class of sheep for farmers to feed, it would depend some- 

 what how they could be bought in the fall ; but, as a general rule, the 

 best sheep are the most profitable to feed. A very good class of sheep 

 to feed would be small fine-wool lambs, or half-bloods, either ewes or 

 wethers, and feed them until June. Shear them about the 1st of May, 

 and then feed them high. They will gain very fast, and will readily 

 bring a good price. Such lambs can usually be bought low in the fall, 

 and it will not take as much to feed them as larger sheep ; and the prices 

 per pound are higher on such classes of sheep, if well fed." 



The feeder with his two hundred or five hundred big 

 fat wethers is sure of getting for the dirty, greasy wool 



