262 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [J^n., 



the name of anybody in his town that was interested in sheep 

 breeding, and after receiving that Hst of names, by writing 

 back to those people asking for more names. In that way, 

 we have been able to obtain the names of about 525 active 

 sheep breeders in the State. Further returns from a great 

 many of these would indicate that the average flock was about 

 twenty sheep, and with something over five hundred breeders, 

 would account for about ten thousand sheep. Now in my ex- 

 perience, 1 feel that it is within the fact to state that we have 

 not touched or reached fifty per cent, of the sheep breeders of 

 the State, and as we only know of 525, there is in all proba- 

 bility something over a thousand, and that would bring the 

 sheep population up to somewhere between twenty and twenty- 

 five thousand. Then we have these facts before us. We had 

 in 1888 a dog population of 32,000, with a damage of $10,000, 

 and with a sheep population of 38,000, which we can compare 

 now, in the year 1905, with a dog population of about 55,000, 

 and with damages of $7,800, and with a sheep population of 

 about 20,000 to 25,000. If these figures mean anything at all, 

 they simply confirm the statement made at the commencement 

 of my remarks, that the leading question in connection with 

 sheep husbandry in Connecticut today is not a question of 

 dogs because, manifestly, taking these records covering a 

 period of about twenty years, the dog population has steadily 

 increased and the sheep population decreased, but in spite of 

 that fact the primary question for a rehabilitation of sheep 

 husbandry in Connecticut today is not, I affirm, one of dogs, 

 but it deals to a very great extent with the economical prob- 

 lem connected with the general business situation with whiqli 

 we are face to face. Of course, I do not wish to be under- 

 stood now as claiming that dogs are perfectly immaculate, or 

 that nothing can be or should be done to restrain the evils re- 

 sulting from them. In fact, the board of directors have had 

 the matter up along those lines, and have discussed it thor- 

 oughly. They have been working along that line, or rather 



