No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 409 



ers or the Legislature of Pennsylvania. I acknowledge that while 

 I am an American, and intensely so, that I haA r e not been long in these 

 United States to get right down to the bottom of the politics of the 

 country, so that I will not attempt to give an impression along that 

 line, which might be erroneous. 



I would like to make this suggestion, Mr. Chairman; I think if 

 there is any one thing in the world that is more valuable to a man 

 than any other thing, it is the way that he makes a proper use of 

 time and opportunity. I do think that a man is untrue to himself 

 and to the man he talks to, when he is given an opportunity to talk 

 about a question when he does not try to make some suggestion of 

 a practical character that can be put to a proper use, and before sit- 

 ting down I would like to leave this thought with you. I would like 

 to know why the winter lamb industry does not tower way up higher 

 than any other industry in any other state in the Union in this State 

 of Pennsylvania. I know that dogs may interfere with this industry 

 to some extent, as the sheep industry is ordinarily carried on. 



You know that a winter lamb is grown in the winter. It is fed 

 rapidly. It is pushed along until it reaches the age of about two 

 months or two months and a half, and attains the weight of about 

 thirty to forty-five pounds, and then it is sent to market, and com- 

 mands a high price. Now, it seems to me that the markets that you 

 have in this State — you have markets everywhere — markets right at 

 the door,-and it seems to me markets among the very best that can 

 be found anywhere, and it seems to me that the demand for that 

 kind of a product would be almost unlimited. 



I worked out that problem myself in the State of Minnesota. What 

 I wanted to do was to find out how the farmers could begin cheaply 

 and get that habit established with common ewes. I worked out 

 the problem and it worked out very satisfactorily. We began with 

 ewes that could be bought for three or four dollars apiece. We 

 saved the progeny and improved it, and we had not to go three gen- 

 erations until we found that the proper habit of dropping the lambs 

 in the fall had been, as it were, completely established, and the only 

 other considerable expense was the outlay that was involved in the 

 purchase of the necessary rams. I do not know what those lambs 

 would sell for in the State of Pennsylvania, but I know that that kind 

 of lambs has been reared in Minnesota and sent to New York and 

 sold for ten dollars apiece. You may say why didn't the people of 

 Minneapolis pay ten dollars rather than send them to New York? 

 It was simply for this reason. The people of Minneapolis had not 

 got schooled to their use. I did succeed in selling them in St. Paul 

 and Minneapolis for seven dollars apiece; we never got quite to the 

 ten dollar mark. We got that for lambs that weighed forty or 

 forty-five pounds apiece. Now, when a man can get that amount of 

 money for a lamb so readily raised and at so comparatively small ex- 

 pense, and the profit so quickly realized, he is engaged in a business 

 that is going to keep him on the farm. 



Mr. Cook, of New York, was called for, and came forward and 

 spoke as follows: 



ADDRESS OF H. E. COOK. 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the State Board of Agriculture: I 

 am sure it would be impossible for me to follow the eloquent gentle- 

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