266 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



here in the northwestern part of the State, and am trj^ing to 

 run it alone. If I could turn it into sheep I could do it with 

 less labor, but with this everlasting dog question all the while 

 before me what can I do ? Even up in that country I have to 

 get up nights to see whether they are among my sheep or not. 

 It is enough to make the cold chills run up and down your 

 back when you go out in the morning and find perhaps thirty 

 or forty of them dead. I do not want to buy a flock of sheep 

 and turn them loose just for the privilege of giving those curs 

 that snap at you as you go along the street something to do. I 

 have got discouraged. What is the use of putting good money 

 into a class of live stock that those little curs are liable to go 

 among any night and destroy half of them ? I do not think I 

 will do it. I hope something will be done so that things can 

 go back on the old basis. I can remember the time when 

 every farmer in my section had from twenty-five to three hun- 

 dred sheep, and they all of them had money. That is one 

 thing that the farmers want to cultivate — something they can 

 get money from, and you can get cash for mutton and wool. 

 If wool is to go back in price to where it was in those days then 

 it is all the more reason why we should be able to raise sheep 

 in Connecticut. I agree with Mr. Ward that something ought 

 to be done to improve the stock if the industry is going to 

 amount to much. Lambs on the ordinary farm today, from 

 the ordinary run of stock, are worth about five dollars apiece. 

 Out among our farmers we are not talking much about lambs 

 bringing from fifteen to forty dollars. Those are most too 

 precious for the ordinary farmer to talk about raising. Up 

 in my section there is nobody left but old men and old women. 

 All the young folks are gone. Those old farmers are a little 

 slow about learning the principles of modern farming and 

 stock raising, and it will not do any good to talk to most of 

 them about this expensive manner of raising forty dollar 

 lambs. Our old farmers are not going to do it. We must 

 have something that will do well on our New England hills. 



