1907.] DISCUSSION. 257 



Taking- the tails off will make a difference of from fifty- 

 cents to a dollar a head, and they will gain faster than any 

 other lambs. In order to get the best price in the market, the 

 lambs must be sent in the very best condition. They must be 

 fat. The market demands that they should be fat, and it 

 wants them that way if it takes them at all. That kind of 

 lambs will sell from now on, from December through into the 

 spring, and certainly until the middle of December, at very 

 high prices. But those lambs must be fat. Anything short 

 of that does not sell for a high price. One of the chief sales- 

 men over in New York told me a week or two ago, when I 

 asked him about prices, that the best ones were then selling for 

 about sixteen dollars, that the ordinary were selling for about 

 ten, and that the common were worth usually enough to about 

 pay the freight and commission. Now what we want to do is 

 to sell the sixteen dollar kind. The farmers that do not be- 

 lieve what I say I presume will continue to sell the ten dollar 

 kind, but brother farmers, let me tell you, that that is the kind 

 that does not pay. You want to handle the best. Raise the 

 best and sell the best. And let me tell you another thing in 

 that connection, that the demand for that kind is a demand 

 that is far above the supply. The time will not come when it 

 will not pay to raise that kind of mutton. 



Now in closing I want to say what I said in the beginning, 

 that if you are determined and intelligent in selection, and if 

 you care well for the flock, the flock will care well for you. and 

 you will make a greater net profit on a Connecticut farm in 

 sheep breeding than you ran v^p.ke in any other line of work 

 that you carry on. (Applause.) 



DISCUSSION. 



The President. If you have any questions to ask Mr. 

 Ward let us have them now. 



A Member. What kind of fences do you use around your 

 pastures? 



Mr. Ward. I will tell you. In the first place, the boy 



that leaves his home usually leaves it for some pretty good 



reason, and I do not believe that you need to be told that he 



will stay there if things are to his liking. It is just the same 



Agr. — 17 



