Sec. 13.] WILD AND TAME ANIMALS OF THE FARM. 257 



tlic dog. Tlie Scotcli dog is always gentle, and generally very affectionate. 

 In France, tlie sliopliurd dogs are soniewiiat like the Scotch, but smaller. 

 The Spanish sliephcrds luive a breed ol' dogs peculiar to that country. They 

 are the size of a full-grown wolf, with large head, thick neck, inastiff-lookin"', 

 fierce and strong, and are often armed with a spiked collar, to make them 

 more formidable to dogs, wolves, and bears, if they shouUl attack tlie Hock. 

 Their color is generally black and white — their daily rations two pounds of 

 black bread, with milk and meat when it can be had. In Spain, the "real 

 Hocks of the country, always in charge of siieplierds and dogs, make Ion" 

 migrations every year from their lowland home to the mountain pastures, 

 two or three hundred miles distant, feeding all the way in the roads and 

 commons. 



Sheep are the wealth of Spain, and without the aid of shepherd dogs, that 

 wealth, under the present system of management, could not be produced. 



2S7. Dos l-^aws. — In New Jersey there is a dog law which should l)e 

 entitled, " An act to encourage the keeping of the most ordinary breeds of 

 sheep, and no others, and to induce owners to have them killed by doors." 

 This act provides that all sheep killed by dogs shall be paid for out of the 

 ]i\ililic funds, at live dollars a head. To improve your Hock, if you <jet a 

 buck worth a hundred dollars, and the dogs kill him, you get live dollars. 

 If your neighbor has one killed that }-ou would not have on your farm, if 

 paid five dollars for taking him, he gets five dollars. It is not a law to 

 encourage improvement in sheep-breeding. 



The number of sheep annually killed by dogs in Ohio has been ascertained 

 by the assessoi-s. The munber ami value are astounding. 



Thereupon a correspondent of the Ohio Farmer says: ''Shall we have a 

 dog law, or niu€t we give up keeping sheep? That is the real fpiestion. 

 There would bo kept fifty per cent, more sheep in this country, but for dogs; 

 not that quite that amount are dogged, but most farmers lose some, and this, 

 with other risks, discourages them, and compels them to abandon the business. 

 Now let every farmer make this a test (picstion in the elections this fall. 

 Let it be siikep vs. docjs, and let all Republicans and Democrats see to it that 

 cvciy man ]iut in nomination for the Legislature is sound on dogs. Let the 

 canditlatc choose whom he will serve — sheep or dogs. I am in earnest, 'Sir. 

 Ediliir. The sight of a few line Leicesters, each worth more than all the dogs 

 in Ohio, mangled and torn by worthless curs, who are only kept because 

 their owners are too lazy to kill them, has made me in dead earnest; and 

 wo to the Ohio legislator, if he depomls on my vote, whose fear of dog 

 constituents shall induce him to oppose or dodge a severe dog law ! Now is 

 the time, wool-growers of Ohio, to look to this matter, and see that antidog 

 men are put in nomination by your respective parties." 



There is no use in talking about taxing dogs. Tlie dogs that really do the 



mischief are the dogs of gentlemen of elegant leisure, who are too l.azy to 



hunt with them, and of the democratic loatcr, who don't like to work, but 



•glories in the luxury of a house full of children and a dozen dogs. Honest 



i: 



