688 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



sheep. Abundance follows in the wake of sheep, and shuns the land 

 that neglects them. With sheep we can eat and be clothed, and our lands 

 increase in richness every rear. For yourself, your State and your na- 

 ituon, I urge you to hold fast to your flocks. The sheep is one of the 

 best gifts mankind has received from the Creator. If to-day I had to 

 choose which of all the breeds of domestic animals I should keep, and 

 could only have that one, I should certainly choose the sheep— ^and I feel 

 confident I would make no mistake. 



The discussion that followed showed a general unanimity of opinion 

 that the sheep industry was about entering upon an era of advancement 

 and prosperit}'. 



When the discussion had closed, attention was called to the fact that 

 the committee on ways and means of the House of Representatives had 

 given notice that a tariff bill intended to be introduced into the new 

 congress, at a special session which will probably be called in April, was 

 in preparation, and that hearings would be accorded all interests on 

 special days, those for agricultural products, wool and its manufactures, 

 and live stock being set for January 5, 6 and 7. Resolutions passed by 

 the State Merino Sheep Breeders' Association were then read, and the 

 Association requested to take action upon them. These resolutions read 

 as follows: 



Resolved, By the Michigan Merino Sheep Breeders Association, That 

 the ways and means committee of the National House of Representatives 

 be earnestly requested to incorporate the schedule of duties on wools 

 embodied in the McKinley tariff law, except that portion relating to 

 skirted fleeces, which should be excluded in the contemplated tariff bill. 



Resolved, That the schedule of duties upon wool adulterants and sub- 

 stitutes, included in the so-called McKinle}' law, be also incorporated in 

 the proposed tariff bill, with an additional paragraph including so-called 

 vegetable wool, or any other substitute or adulterant. 



After discussion, these resolutions were indorsed without a dissent- 

 ing voice, and an amendment or addition to them adopted, which reads 

 as follows: 



Resolved. By the Michigan Association of Breeders' of Improved Live 

 Stock, That the committee on ways and means of congress be requested 

 to incorporate in the contemplated tariff bill, the duties upon imported 

 live stock enacted in the tariff law known as the McKinley law. 



A committee having been appointed to draw and submit to the meeting 

 a series of resolutions regarding the loss of one of its most honored mem- 

 bers, Hon. James M. Turner, of Lansing, who has died since its last meet- 

 ing, reported the following: 



Whereas, since the last annual meeting of the Michigan Association 

 of Breeders of Improved Live Stock it has pleased an all wise Providence 

 to remove from among us one of its most esteemed and honored mem- 

 bers; t lierefore 



Resolved, By said Association in convention assembled. That by the 

 death of the Honorable James M. Turner we are untimely deprived of the 

 able counsel and energetic activity of one of our most efficient members. 

 whose earnest and intelligent interest in advancing the live stock in- 

 dustry of our State has been of vast and enduring benefit to his fellow 

 breeders; that the success achieved by him will leave such an impress 



