SHEEP. 1039 



Indeed, these knolls will eventually become so enriched as to 

 produce grass too rank for profit, when they will have to be 

 inclosed and cropped. 



Dogs. As to sheep and dogs and the ravages of the latter, 

 I have no statistics at hand but those of Ohio, as the Compen- 

 dium of the Tenth Census gives no information on this subject. 

 In 1882 the number of dogs in Ohio was returned at 170,911 ; 

 the value of the sheep killed and injured by them was $173,976. 

 Therefore, a tax of one dollar on each dog, if fully collected, 

 would not have reimbursed this loss, though it would probably 

 have sufficed to pay all the actual claims for damages under the 

 existing law. 



Dogs always have been and always will be kept by mankind. 

 The only practical question for legislators is, How to assess upon 

 and effectively collect from their owners the damage caused by 

 them. A law requiring the personal presence of the sheep-owner 

 and one or more of his neighbors as witnesses, at the meeting of 

 the commissioners at the county-seat, is burdensome and unjust. 

 These claims ought to be relegated to the local officers, and the 

 latter ought to be authorized to make allowance, not only for 

 the sheep lost, but also sufficient to compensate the sheep-owner 

 and his witnesses for the time spent by them in holding the 

 inquest and going to make their affidavits. 



An examination of the Ohio statistics reveals the fact that 

 the number of sheep killed and injured by dogs, in a given 

 county, bears no sort of relation to the number of sheep owned 

 in the county. For instance, Licking 251,989 sheep; killed 

 by dogs, 679. Lawrence 4,782 ; killed by dogs, 109. It is 

 observable, as a general rule, that two classes of counties suffer 

 the heaviest losses, viz., those which are most backward and 

 non-progressive, and those which contain the largest cities, 

 though this rule has some exceptions. 



