122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



BREEDS OF SHEEP BEST ADAPTED TO NEW ENGLAND 



CONDITIONS, THEIR COMPARATIVE YALUES 



AND PROFITABLENESS. 



EDWARD DANIELS, PLAINFIELD, VERMONT. 



I do not want any of you to think that I am any authority 

 on sheep breeding, although I have learned considerable by 

 experience and observation since I began to take care of sheep, 

 and during that time I have seen a vast change in the sheep 

 industry of New England. 



When I began to take care of sheep there were more sheep 

 kept in the town of Plainfield, my native town, than are now 

 kept in the whole State of New Hampshire, but at the present 

 time they have nearly all disappeared and the fertility of the 

 soil has disappeared too. 



Farms that were once fertile and stocked with sheep have 

 been abandoned, and where prosperity prevailed, want and 

 poverty are seen on every hand. Now I understand that the 

 same conditions prevail all over New England. I think that 

 all of you will agree with me that something is wrong with the 

 sheep industry of New England; that either the farmers do 

 not understand the management of sheep, or else they have 

 been trying to keep sheep that are not adapted to New Eng- 

 land conditions. 



I will try to explain why some breeds of sheep are better 

 adapted to New England conditions than others. 



Fifty years ago a large part of all of the farmers in the New 

 England States kept sheep, and at that time no one claimed 

 that New England was not well adapted to sheep; twenty- 

 five years later the world's production of wool became so great 

 that the price of wool, mutton and lamb dropped to less than 

 one-half the cost of the production here in New England, and 



