60 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



method is to use them for sheep culture, but there are some 

 very serious drawbacks to sheep culture in Connecticut. We 

 want to know how we can make sheep pay on these back hill 

 lands, and particularly without interfering with our dairy inter- 

 ests. I think there is just one thing we want to do. We have 

 got to grapple with this question, and we have got to bring about 

 conditions where we can raise sheep. We want to get back to 

 sheep raising. There is no question about that. Why, I can 

 remember when a farmer in my town used to have a large 

 flock. I have known my father to have five hundred. They 

 used to make money, and they saved money, and the boys 

 today, I think, are spending it. I do not think there is any 

 doubt about it. They used to make sheep farming pay, and I 

 am sure we can do it again. It seems to me that the young 

 men of today are not alive to their opportunities. I know, 

 of course, it is some work to take care of a flock of sheep, but 

 it can be done, and done profitably. You can turn off lambs 

 and sell mutton, the old sheep, and sell the wool, and in fact 

 everything that comes from sheep is most always cash, and 

 there is everything about it to encourage sheep raising. I 

 concur in about all that this gentleman has been telling us, but 

 he has taken a very favorable outlook of the sheep industry. 

 He spoke about the good land being devoted to that industry, 

 where you could keep a large number of sheep to the acre. 

 It has got to be pretty good land to do that, and, of course, our 

 hill lots will not do it. But it seems to me if we can encourage 

 the boys to see what can be done in this line that most any of 

 us, even on our small New England farms, can keep from 

 ^wenty-five to fifty, or one hundred sheep, right along, and with 

 our general farming, and dairy farming, it will make a more 

 diversified industry, which will interest the boys and help to 

 keep them at home. 



Now, then, the great question is as to how we can improve 

 our farming, so we can get sheep husbandry back in the State 

 of Connecticut, and upon a paying basis. That is the question. 



