52 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



to SO much as people sometimes think in keeping meat. An 

 ordinary front room is an excellent place in which to keep 

 mutton as long as you keep it hung up and pay attention to 

 these few points that I have been speaking of. So that every 

 man must have about his house somewhere a suitable place in 

 which to cure his mutton, if he wishes to enjoy some of the 

 choicest meat ever made to eat. 



Now, after you have killed your mutton you will find that 

 it will not stand you in over seven or eight cents a pound, 

 whereas, if you went out into the open market you would have 

 to pay eighteen or twenty cents, I suppose, in Connecticut. 

 There is quite a difference. Quite a saving. But you see that 

 a farmer can have some of the verv best meat for his table at 

 a very reasonable cost if he will only exercise good judgment 

 and carry out these plain little practical points that it is neces- 

 sary to observe. If he will do that he can enjoy at his table 

 such meat as is seldom found. Corned mutton is most excel- 

 lent, but it should be given age before you corn it. If you do 

 not, the fat will taste bad, and the lean will have no flavor. 



Now, I do not believe in carrying a small flock of sheep on 

 a dairy farm. There is a point I want to discuss. Some of 

 you will be very successful, perhaps, in doing that, but I want 

 to say to you that the buildings of an ordinary dairy farm are 

 very unlike what a sheep wants, and if you have the cows, giv- 

 ing them your principal attention, you are taking away things 

 from the sheep and giving them to the cows. The sheep get 

 neglected. I believe if you are going to keep sheep it is best to 

 keep a sheep farm and pay entire attention to it. Although 

 for fancy purposes, if you want thirty or forty sheep around, 

 that is another thing. Ordinarily, however, it is much better 

 to pay particular attention to one particular line. But if you 

 go into it do not be afraid to keep a lot of sheep. If you can 

 do better with one hundred and twenty-five sheep than you 

 can with a hundred, you can do better proportionately with a 

 thousand than you can with a hundred. You must provide 

 facilities, however, for properly taking care of a large flock. 

 I believe myself that you can do better with five thousand sheep 

 than you can with fifty, proportionately, and I will tell you 

 why. If a man only has a few sheep they are apt to be neg- 

 lected, and he will not take the care of them that he will where 

 he has a substantial investment in his flock. If a man keeps 



