1905.] SHEEP. 41 



There is hardly any edible plant that grows in our climate but 

 they can use. In fact I would be willing to buy a farm in 

 Connecticut today, and run in debt for it, and run in debt for 

 my stock and my tools, and rely entirely, as a means of getting 

 out of debt, on my prospects of what I could get out of it by 

 farming the sheep. I know I could pay the mortgage, because 

 I have done it. 



Now, I am not going to ask you to let me discuss mutton 

 alone, though even that is more than I can handle, in the lim- 

 ited time allowed me, as it ought to be. The Secretary wanted 

 me to discuss, sheep. I suppose I shall have to. But I am 

 going to talk a little about mutton too. He said I had got to 

 discuss sheep, but I have got the advantage of him now. Now, 

 for the next half hour, while I have got the advantage of the 

 Secretary, I can say what I have a mind to. I am going to try 

 to tell you something interesting about sheep, but really my 

 heart is in two things. I want to teach you that every man of 

 you that raises sheep should raise rape. If I can make five of 

 you put in a piece of rape another year I shall do as much good 

 as a man usually does in this business, because it will be a step 

 in the right direction. Another thing that I want to teach you, 

 and I am sorry there are no more of the women folks here to 

 hear it, and that is, how to kill a sheep, and how to take care of 

 it after it is killed, and how to cook and how to eat mutton. If 

 I could get three or four of you here to understand this matter, 

 so that the next time you buy a piece of mutton, instead of put- 

 ting it into a milk pan you will put it in the cellar and hang it 

 up in the proper way, then I have accomplished one of my 

 objects in coming here. If I can make you understand that 

 mutton is not fit to eat until it has been killed at least six weeks, 

 then I have made a great step towards bringing you up out of 

 barbarism into the enlightenment of a better day. Mutton prop- 

 erly aged, properly killed, and properly cooked, is the least harm- 

 ful of any meat, and the cheapest. Now, before I take up these 

 two questions, I want to lay down the financial proposition. 

 And this is a good audience before which to do it. I do not 

 know how it is going to be disseminated out among the poor, 

 because they are not here. You gentlemen that are here are 

 well-to-do, you do not have to work very hard, and I think you 

 have considerable leisure on your hands. I think that state- 

 ment covers this audience, as a rule, and in consequence of that 



