SHEEP. Ill 



The wool would pay for keeping. This is reckoning all 

 gain and no loss. One hundred per cent, compound interest 

 would double in a very short time. One hundred dol- 

 lars' worth of sheep, let it double the stock in four years, 

 would, if kept out at that rate, amount in twelve years to the 



sum of $800. 



T. Clark, for the Committee. 



HAMPDEN. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



It is not our intention to attempt to describe the various 

 breeds and families of sheep, the principles of breeding or 

 their distinctive excellent qualities, but rather to call attention 

 to the practicability and profitableness of raising and keeping 

 sheep. Years ago, large numbers of them were kept, and 

 hardly a farm of any size but had its flock, for they were con- 

 sidered indispensable, both for the good of the farm and 

 the interest of the farmer; and notwithstanding they were 

 comparatively of a very inferior kind, they were always 

 regarded as being very profitable stock. They were gener- 

 ally small, bearing a coarse fleece, but had the quality of 

 being tough and hardy, and capable of enduring, with ease, 

 the rough and negligent treatment they received ; and it was 

 on account of these very qualities that they were profitable, 

 for they were easily kept, and not only served to clear up the 

 uncultivated, weedy, briery pastures, but they produced 

 enough wool, although of poor texture, to supply the house- 

 hold wants, and furnished a nutritious, if not a very palatable, 

 article of animal food. 



In these early times the sheep were considered as necessary 

 as the neat-stock, as the homespun products of blankets and 

 clothing of our grandmothers can fully attest. But times 

 change, and the introduction and rapid improvements of 

 power-machinery in the manufacturing of woollen goods drove 

 the cumbersome hand-loom and spinning-wheel into the gar- 

 ret, introduced new fashions and finer varieties of fabrics, and 

 not only superseded the household product but called for a 

 better and finer quality of the raw material. The staple of 

 the old sheep was unfit for such purposes, and they were 



