No. 4.] SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 117 



the demand, that they could not raise the market a half cent 

 a pound, and finally sold with difficulty. Just twenty years 

 after that, Christmas week, 1859, five thousand four hundred 

 sheep changed hands from the drover to the butcher. On 

 the week preceding Christmas, 1889, fifty years from the 

 first date, the receipts were $10,444, and the demand such 

 as called for advanced rates, and a quarter of a cent per 

 pound was easily realized. This increase has continued 

 annually. In 1890 the number of live sheep discharged at 

 Brighton and Watertown was 583,545, of which the Western 

 were 370,067, from Canada 88,313, sheep of Massachusetts 

 6,181, from Rhode Island and Connecticut 48 head. A 

 very few of these are sold for breeding, some for export, 

 but almost all are slaughtered at the market. 



The reports of animals every week (for which I am 

 indebted to Mr. Whitaker of the "New England Farmer") 

 show receipts varying in numbers from 5,000 in March to 

 17,722 in September and October. This indicates a very 

 enlarged demand for a most nutritious, cheap and wholesome 

 article of food, shown by theoretical considerations, as well 

 as by careful experiment, to be quite equal to beef and 

 superior to pork or almost any of the meats we use. 



Dairy Industry. 

 Probably the great interest at the present time and for 

 some years past in the making of milk, cream, butter and 

 cheese, with a paying price and quick returns for the prod- 

 uct, has had much to do in repressing the keeping of sheep 

 and raising lambs, aggravated by the uncertainty of that 

 branch of farm industry through destruction by dogs. The 

 growth of the dairy production has been as remarkable as the 

 decrease of sheep products. As a matter for comparison, I 

 give the dairy products of 1865, the first year that a com- 

 plete census was attempted for them, with the last, of 

 1885: — 



1865. 



Milk, $1,930,409 



Butter, 1,389,027 



Cheese, 582,253 



$3,901,689 



