8HEEP AND WOOL-GROWING, 



pecially to Pork. However excellent in quality these 

 may be, their exclusive use is neither healthful nor 

 palatable. With a good flock of Sheep, the most se- 

 cluded farmer may have fresh meat every week in 

 haying and harvest-time if he chooses ; and he will 

 find this better for his family, and more satisfactory 

 to his workmen, than a diet wherefrom fresh meat is 

 excluded. 



Y. Now, I do not insist that every farmer should 

 grow Sheep, for I know that many are so situated 

 that they cannot. In stony regions, where walls are 

 very generally relied on for fences, I am aware that 

 Sheep are with difficulty kept within bounds; and 

 this is a serious objection. In the neighborhood of 

 cities and large villages, where Fresh Meat may be 

 bought from day to day, one vah'd reason for keep- 

 ing them has no application ; yet I hold that twice 

 as many of our farmers as now have flocks ought to 

 have them, and would thereby increase their profits 

 as well as the comfort of their families. 



The most serious obstacle to Sheep husbandry in 

 this country is the abundance and depredations of 

 dogs. Farmers by tens of thousands have sold off, or 

 killed ofi", their flocks, mainly because they could not 

 otherwise protect themselves against their frequent 

 decimation by prowling curs, which \vere not worth 

 the powder required to shoot them. It seems to me 

 that a farmer thus despoiled is perfectly justifiable in 

 placing poisoned food where these cut-throats will be 

 apt to find it while making their next raid on his 



