402 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



seven animals. The islanders still continue to resrard wool 

 as the prime object in sheep raising, considering the flesh of 

 mutton and lamb as secondary, and accordingly offer, first, 

 premiums for fine-woolled sheep, and then for natives and 

 grades; and this, too, when their 9,225 sheep only shear 

 25,782 lbs. of wool, or two and three-quarters of a pound to 

 the sheep, worth twenty-six or twenty-seven cents per pound, 

 while mutton is worth ten to twelve cents per pound, and 

 early lambs from six to eight dollars each, and grass lambs 

 from four to six dollars. 



Every delegate who has visited this society has commented 

 upon its capacity for raising sheep and lambs for market, and 

 has recommended the introduction of some of the hardy 

 Down sheep to give good shape and early maturity to the 

 Iambs, and has insisted on the importance of shelter and 

 better care for the winter than the sheep on the island are 

 wont to receive, to keep the ewes in condition, to save the 

 lambs and to improve the fleece. Perhaps a comparison may 

 stimulate them. Franklin County, with 11,000 sheep of all 

 kinds, — including wethers, barren ewes and yearlings, — 

 raises over 8,000 lambs, which are valued straight through 

 at $4.35 each, and sends to market over $16,000 worth of 

 mutton. Dukes County, with a safer sheep-raising country 

 and over 9,000 sheep, raises only 1,400 lambs, valued at 

 $1.50 each, and sends to market only $1,700 worth of sheep 

 meat. The islanders say that the improved sheep are not 

 hardy enough for them. No sheep that wears wool is hardy 

 enough to thrive, scarcely to live, on such treatment as most 

 of these Vineyard sheep receive, when they are kept the 

 whole winter unhoused and scantily fed, if at all. It is no 

 wonder that the wool comes ofi", becomes dead and of little 

 weight ; or that they raise less than 16 per cent, of lambs to 

 the sheep, while the Franklin County shepherd, by care and 

 feed, brings up 95 per cent, of his lambs, and reckons at least 

 125 lambs to the 100 ewes. 



With such a range of pasture, and with winters ninety 

 days or more shorter than ours in the interior, the islanders 

 ought to beat in market with early and grass lambs every 

 county in the State, except Nantucket. They are compara- 

 tively free, too, from ravages by dogs. It is said that 



