42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



there is a good deal of responsibility resting on you to inform 

 the other fellows that are not here. Really, they are the ones 

 most in need of information and instruction. 



Now, we will assume a young man, twenty-one years of age, 

 starting out as a farmer. Of course, he has got to have some 

 capital, and if he takes another branch and divides his capital, 

 of course, he will require more than if he devotes all of his 

 funds to one branch. But if he will go to work and be diligent, 

 in a few years he can have considerable capital by following, 

 in the main, what I am going to tell you. Now, here is an 

 important thing. I might talk here a month, and I could not 

 make a good shepherd out of a man that is not a good shep- 

 herd naturally. Shepherds are like poets, they are born, and 

 unless you know when 3^ou see a sheep what is going on in that 

 sheep's head — and it has got the smallest head of any four- 

 footed animal, and they know less — but unless you know what 

 that sheep wants, do not go into the sheep business. Now, last 

 year I wanted some ewes. I saw a farmer who said to me 

 that he had some in his flock. I said to him, " I will be at your 

 house at nine o'clock tomorrow morning, and I wish you would 

 gather them up so I can run the flock over and see what you 

 have got." He said he would. When I got there I found that 

 he had the flock shut up in a cow stable, had not ventilated it in 

 any way, and it was packed with sheep. Now, that flock of 

 sheep, if it had been good for anything in the first place, never 

 would have been good for anything after that. In a moment 

 of thoughtlessness he ruined his flock of sheep, if there had 

 been any ruin to it. I am afraid there was not much worth to 

 it before he shut it up. Anyway, it was useless for me to pur- 

 chase any of the flock, for they were not adapted to my pur- 

 poses, and I do not buy that kind of sheep if I can help it. 

 The simple fact was he did not know how. He had run behind 

 every year. Now sheep will not stand a lack of air. They 

 have got to have it. They have got to have it all the time. 

 Neither will they stand a damp place. Now, I know you will 

 say, " I know of such and such a man, who is called as good a 

 business man as you ever saw, and he keeps them in his barn 

 cellar." That simply goes to show, my friends, that that man 

 is an excellent shepherd, except perhaps in that one particular. 

 If he would use greater care with his flock I w^ould wager he 

 would have a great deal better flock of sheep. But we must 



