1907.] SHEEP BREEDING. 243 



due or wise, but I want to get all I can out of this for your good. 

 I did not come down here to say unkind things, but when a man 

 stands before an audience and attempts to be a teacher, he is 

 •^false to himself and to his audience if he does not speak what 

 he believes to be the fact. I mention this because I am firmly 

 convinced of its truth, and I believe it is for your good to have 

 it stated. 



I was so tired yesterday that I wanted to go home and 

 go to bed, but, my friends, I did want to bring a message to 

 the farmers of Connecticut. I am glad to be here. I want 

 to say to you that I came because I am interested intensely in 

 this most interesting subject, sheep breeding. I always liked 

 something that was alive. I had no use for anything else. I 

 like a live man today, or a live animal. I have no use for the 

 fellow that is not alive and not on to his job. When I was 

 four years old my father went with an uncle and bought some- 

 sheep, a small flock, some of which were imported. I do not 

 remember all of the arguments I first used at that time, but I 

 remember that I never ate a square meal until I got some of 

 those sheep. I just set out to have them, got them, and from 

 that time, when I was four years old, I have been a sheep 

 breeder. I have bred different classes of sheep, pure merino 

 sheep kept alone for wool and worth nothing for anything 

 else but wool production, because the merino does not enter 

 into or become a factor in mutton production and never will. 

 None of the various classes of merino sheep enter into mutton 

 production at all. I do not want to step on anybody's feet 

 here, and I hope they will not feel hurt by my making that 

 statement, but that is the fact. The merino is a wool-pro- 

 ducing sheep. It never has been a producer of first-class 

 mutton, and never will be. I have always owned a flock of 

 long wool sheep, a good many of them. I have had many dif- 

 ferent varieties. I have crossed the Atlantic and had my pick 

 among some of the best flocks on the other side, Cotswolds. 

 I have imported others. I have spent a great deal of time in 

 studying sheep breeding in a country that is successfully 

 breeding what are known strictly as a mutton breed of sheep, 

 and from this experience, and from a lifetime of breeding, ex- 

 periment and observation, I want to talk to you a little while 

 this afternoon upon this subject just as I see it. 



