INJURIES INFLICTED BY DOGS. 395 



are the two extremes, the truth lies in the middle, because 

 there are fully as many dogs in cities, towns and villages, as 

 there are in the country. Therefore the amount expended 

 for food for dogs in Ohio, is worth annually the sum of three 

 and a half millions of dollars, or more than three-fourths the 

 total amount of State taxes for the years 1861 or 1862, and 

 just the amount of State taxes for 1860 ! Reflect for a 

 moment on this fact, that if the amount of food consumed by 

 the dogs in the State in a single year were properly disposed 

 of, the sum obtained for it would pay the State taxes ! 

 How desperately some people complain at the amount of 

 taxes, yet none complain of the cost of keeping* a dog. 

 Aside from the expense of keeping dogs, they have killed 

 and injured sheep in 



' 1858, to the amount of ....$146,758 



1859, " " 102,398 



1860, " " 86,795 



1861, " " 87,092 



1862, " " about 85,000 



Total in five years, 508,043 - 



Annual average, 101,608 



"There are then $100,000 worth of sheep killed and 

 injured every year by dogs ; and this has been going on ever 

 since sheep were in the State. In 1846, sheep were first 

 enumerated and valued for taxation; in that year the number 

 in the State was 3,141,946. In 1862, the number was 

 4,448,227, an increase of 1,306,281, or 41^- per cent, in 16 

 years. In this same period of time, the number of swine has 

 more than doubled, cattle have just doubled, and horses not 

 quite doubled. Were it not for the destruction of sheep by 

 dogs, Ohio would to-day have ten million head of sheep; but 

 when sheep growers are compelled to pay an annual tax of 

 $100,000 to $150,000, according to the caprice of worthless 

 dogs, aside from the regular township and county tax, it is 

 no wonder that they become discouraged, invest their surplus 

 capital in Western lands, and thus let the productive interests 

 of the State sufler. There is no kind of doubt that the dogs 

 have annually destroyed $100,000 worth of sheep from 1846 

 to the present time, or an aggregate of $1,700,000, and to 

 what purpose ? Who has been benefited by this destruction 

 of sheep? NOBODV ! When the lightning strikes down one 

 of the ' monarchs of the forest,' or destroys a house and kills 

 some of.the inmates, the benefits in health and continuation 

 of life to those remaining is still of greater benefit, than the 

 loss incurred is a damage. The explosion of the electric fluid 



