200 State Board ok Agriculture, &c. 



ant from the anequalized capacity of sheep for rapid 

 increase and large profit. 



The cold stages, the seasons of depression, have always 

 been traceable to direct causes, either from lack of knowl- 

 edge or change in the wants of consumers by fashion or 

 otherwise. 



To trace out some of these causes, and to learn from oth- 

 ers' mistakes how to avoid our own, was the primary object 

 of this history (if it may be so called), necessarily con- 

 densed and incomplete to be within the limits of such an 

 occasion as this ; and my only fear is that il: is not now con- 

 densed to within the limits <*f your patience, which virtue I 

 bespeak in the outset ; for, believe me, had it been possible 

 to have done justice to this very important interest in one- 

 half the space, I should have been only too happy to have 

 done it so. 



From the earliest period of the world's history sheep 

 have been domesticated and appropriated to the wants of 

 man, and have ever stood in the foremost rank of essentials 

 to his comfort and prosperity. 



He has been food and raiment, the type of man's salva- 

 tion even, in the gift of the " Lamb of God that taketh away 

 the sins of the world." " Unto Adam also and to his wife 

 did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them." 



" Abel was a keeper of sheep, and brought the firstlings 

 of his flock and the fat thereof as an offering unto the 

 Lord ; " and if, as Merrill has it, there is no authority for 

 supposing that the flesh of the sheep was used for food until 

 after the flood, the Divine permission was given unto Noah, 

 " even as the green herb have I now given you all things " 



