272 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Kate, faithful horses, and welcome 

 Ford and Packard ; good-by, timid and 

 mild eyed sheep, but it is not good-by, 

 Don and Daisy. There are more dogs 

 now than ever. 



Sheep Breeding in Connecticut. 



Since the foregoing item was put in 

 type we have noticed an interesting 

 article in "New England Earms and 

 Connecticut Earmer" regarding the an- 

 nual meeting of the sheep breeders of 

 Connecticut. The members of that as- 



Others made statements as follows : 



"Professor McNutt referred to the 

 great number of sheep in New England 

 a hundred years ago, and said there is 

 no reason why the sheep industry can- 

 not be as profitably conducted now, 

 with the markets for mutton and wool 

 so many times larger." 



Angus Park, general manager of the 

 Arlie Mills stated: 



"The most serious obstacle today are 

 the ravages of the flocks by dogs and 

 he advocated adec^uate protection by 



ON JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER'S LAW NS. 

 Pocantico Hills, Tarrytown-on-Hudson, New York. 



sociation regard sheep breeding in 

 Connecticut as profitable, more so than 

 the breeding of any other animal, but 

 they are unanimous in their assertion 

 that the chief trouble is the dogs. In 

 my own boyhood on a farm in eastern 

 Connecticut, the dogs were then the 

 chief obstacle, but evidently the diffi- 

 culty has increased in recent years, so 

 much so as to have almost completely 

 annihilated the industry. President 

 Charles L. Gold of Cornwall, said: 



"At one time the farms in the state 

 kept besides other stock more than 

 300,000 sheep more than are now car- 

 ried. The number has shrunk to less 

 than 20,000. The hills on every hand 

 cry out for the sheep to come and re- 

 deem them. Brush and weeds and 

 moss, have crowded out the white 

 clover and grasses. Our pastures are 

 gone, but sheep can reclaim them and 

 our association is here to point the 

 way." 



the Legislature. 'If I had my way,' he 

 said, 'no man should be allowed to keep 

 a dog that had not had a college educa- 

 tion. I do not desire the extermina- 

 tion of the dog but only that he be con- 

 trolled.' 



"Professor H. L. Garrigus of the Con- 

 necticut Agricultural College at Storrs 

 said the reasons why farmers do not 

 raise more sheep in the state is owing to 

 the damage done by dogs and general- 

 ly the too conservative appraisals made 

 l)y the selectmen when the flocks are 

 wounded and killed. The difficulty in 

 getting breeding ewes was also cited 

 in the discussion that followed. Others 

 were in favor of keeping sheep, but the 

 dog menace seemed to be the chief ob- 

 stacle." 



At a conference of the Philadelphia 

 Wool and Textile Association recently 

 held in Philadel])hia, President A. C. 

 Bigelow explained that the same 

 trouble applied throughout the coun- 



