103 



* 

 Dukes, Massachusetts. Frequent mention is made of tlie fact that 

 farmers hud care and feed to pay them better than neglect. 



The only reports of bad condition in Xew York come from Chautau- 

 qua, Seneca, and Franklin ; in Pennsylvania, from Washington. All 

 other sections of the Middle States report fiiir or superior condition. 



Accounts from Maryland are uniformly favorable, and from thirty-two 

 counties in Virginia a like unanimity is only lost by a slight deprecia- 

 tion in Albemarle. All but three of the forty-four reports from North 

 Carolina illustrate the good condition of sheep, which ranges from 

 "fair" to "fine;" the exceptions are from Union, Stokes, and Person. 

 All returns from South Carolina are favorable. Of fifty counties of 

 Georgia reporting, only Morgan, Clayton, and Baldwin return bad con- 

 dition ; and the same favorable state of things exists through the South, 

 the only exceptions being in Marengo and Etowah, in Alabama ; Yazoo, 

 in Mississippi; Dallas, (from severe exposure,) Burleson, (very poor,) 

 Galveston, Kendall, in Texas; ISTewtou, Arkansas, (feeble for want of 

 care.) 



Our extensive correspondence in the Western States includes only 

 the following counties in which sheep are not at least in average condi- 

 tion : Wayne, in West Virginia, (from lack of attention ;) McCracken, 

 (from want of proper- protection,) Butler (poor but healthy,) in Ken- 

 tucky; Iron, Putnam, Phelps, (from cold storms,) and Henry, Missouri ; 

 Bureau and Marshall, in Illiiuiis; Wayne, Marion, (not many alive, 

 owing to disease,) in Iowa ; Atchison, in Kansas ; La Fayette and Out- 

 agamie, in Wisconsin ; and Ramsey, in Minnesota. Ohio, Indiana, and 

 Michigaii make no return of sheep in inferior condition, and a majority 

 of the reports are very favorable. 



In Lake County, California, " many lambs and ewes died from back- 

 wardness of grass ;" " losses from insufficient feed " are reported in Ala- 

 meda; in Stanislaus, the severity of the winter has wrought injury ; in 

 Tuolumne, sheep are poor, owing to lack of pasture ; in Xapa, inferior 

 in condition. 



The only unfavorable return from Oregon is from Douglas County. 

 The Territories present their flocks in fine condition almost without 

 exception. 



DISEASES OF FARM AXIMALS. 



It has been necessary, on each recurring annual investigation relative 

 to farm stock, to chronicle an amount of animal suffering, disease and 

 death, disagreeable in the recital, burdensome as a tax upon industry, 

 and much of it unnecessary as it is expensive. Neglect and exposure, 

 habitual and almost universal in the barnless sections of the country, 

 and too common in the more recent settlements of the colder Northwest, 

 have cost the farmers of the country millions annually. The past win- 

 ter has been mild, and more humane and economic views are beginning 

 to obtain; and the record of the present spring is therefore greatly im- 

 proved. A large preponderance of the returns concur in this view, and 

 many of them bring cheering evidence of more rational iiractices in the 

 treatment of domestic animals. Even where hay was scarce, as in 

 Grand Isle County, Vermont, " extra care and attention more than off- 

 set the reduced quantity of fodder." It is gratifying to notice as one 

 of the reasons for less mortality in the Northwest, "the more general 

 erection of warm shelters," as in Fillmore County, Minnesota. While 

 cattle " do well," as is frequentlj- reported, without anj- shelter prepared 



