202 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



kets, it is hardly conceivable that they should not 

 afford to grow Wool, for which they receive higher 

 average prices than the British farmers do, who feed 

 their Sheep on the produce of lands worth from $300 

 to $500 (gold) per acre, 



II. Interest being relatively high in this country, 

 and Capital with most farmers deficient, it is a serious 

 objection to cattle-growing that the farmer must wait 

 three or four years before receiving a return for his 

 outlay. If he begins poor, with but a few cows and 

 a team, he naturally wants to rear and keep all his 

 calves for several years in order to adequately stock 

 his farm, so that little or no income is meantime 

 realized from his herd ; whereas a flock of Sheep 

 yields a fleece per head each year, though not even a 

 lamb is sold, while its increase in numbers is far more 

 rapid than that of a herd of cattle. 



III. Almost every farmer, at least in the old States, 

 finds some part of his land infested with bushes and 

 briers, which seem to flourish by cutting, if he finds 

 time to cut them, and which the ruggedness of his 

 soil precludes his exterminating by the plow. In 

 every such case, Sheep are his natural allies his un- 

 paid police his vigilant and thorough-going assist- 

 ants. Give them an even start in Spring with the 

 bushes and briers; let their number be sufficient; 

 and they are very sure to come out ahead in the 

 Fall. 



IV. Our fanners in the average are too much con- 

 fined in Summer and Autumn to salt meats, and es- 



