1907.] DISCUSSION. 277 



it has in the state of Ohio? My friends, the dog question, as 

 I said before, is really a secondary one, and the decline of the 

 sheep industry was due more to economical conditions, and its 

 revival will be due to the restoration of practically the same 

 conditions which existed in the first place. It never could have 

 attained any magnitude in Connecticut if it had not been for 

 certain economical conditions which were favorable for it. 



Now I was interested in what the gentleman here said about 

 the cost of fencing in an area for sheep pasture. Do you 

 realize that you can put up a fence that will keep dogs out at 

 a cost of about one hundred dollars per mile ? You can. You 

 can buy wire fencing today for about twenty cents a rod, four 

 feet high. You people have got to bear in mind the fact that 

 the cost of all that kind of material is very low. It is only 

 three years ago when I had to pay from twenty-eight to thirty 

 cents for the same wire. 



Professor Brewer. How much does it cost to put up the 

 fence ? 



Mr. Stadtmueller. Why, that depends upon the forma- 

 tion of the ground. If you have got to blast the holes, you 

 cannot put it up for one hundred dollars a mile, but there 

 are thousands and thousands of acres of land in Connecticut 

 where it is entirely possible to erect dog-proof fences at that 

 price, and that is the place in which to start the sheep industry, 

 gentlemen. 



Now the fact has been brought out here that there should 

 be a better enforcement of the law. There, I think, you are 

 coming to the real gist of the matter, and that is just a question 

 for action by this Association as I regard it. There is where 

 an organization of the sheep interests can do great good. You 

 can frame your laws the way you are a mind to, but so far as 

 the enforcement is concerned it will always come back to a 

 question of policy in the town where the trouble arises. The 



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