124 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Governor Hoard. Do you attribute it to improved breed- 

 ing? 



Mr. Hollis. Yes, sir. 



The Chairman. Well, gentlemen, we have learned that 

 there is a demand for mutton, and we want to learn how to 

 raise it, and we want to know how to keep out troublesome 

 and dangerous intruders. Mr. Sessions, I think, is pre- 

 pared to talk a little about fencing. 



Secretary Sessions. Mr. Chairman, I am of the opinion 

 that the proposition advanced by the lecturer that the feme 

 question has had considerable influence in the decadence of 

 sheep keeping in Massachusetts is correct. As I go among 

 farmers and talk about the sheep industry they reply 

 to me, "We cannot keep them anywhere; it will cost so 

 much to fence them in or fence them out that it is a nui- 

 sance ; and without fences we do not "know where we shall 

 find them in the morning or in the evening." Now, this is 

 a serious problem, as the lecturer has pointed out. The 

 fences in the more rural and farming districts of the State 

 are of the character which he has noted, — the old Vir- 

 ginia rail fence and stone wall ; and every one who has 

 had experience with sheep knows that a stone wall is of 

 very little use, unless it is a very expensive wall, built 

 perpendicular on the side towards the sheep. And then, 

 again, the old Virginia fence that was a good fence when 

 it was first built, becomes old and dilapidated and costs 

 a great deal for repairs ; and when you have got to refence 

 a pasture or make repairs to any great extent, the cost 

 will be enough to deter a beginner from undertaking to 

 raise sheep. 



Now, the essayist also alluded to a new material for fenc- 

 ing, — barbed wire. There is in the minds of some people, 

 many people, perhaps, a prejudice against barbed wire, 

 because of its liability to injure any animal; but my own 

 experience teaches me that that objection does not apply to 

 sheep. I have fenced sheep for years with barbed wire, and 

 I never knew a sheep to be injured by it. Occasionally a 

 sheep will be caught by it, and perhaps a trifle of wool will 

 be pulled o<F, but the waste and suffering that comes to the 

 sheep from that cause is trifling. 



