SHEEP. 115 



of the sanitary value of these two kinds of animal food, beef 

 and mutton, as articles of daily diet. Important, also, as this 

 is to the physical health, none the less so is it to the mental 

 and moral culture, which is greatly diminished in its inherent 

 force and outward vigorous application, because embarrassed 

 and fettered by the restraints of an infirm body. In these 

 days of Christian civilization and increased knowledge, the 

 means for cheaper and more wholesome methods in every 

 department of living should be constantly improving, and 

 whatever tends to this should be generously fostered and pro- 

 duced in abundance. 



At present a large proportion of the mutton killed is con- 

 sumed in our large towns, cities and manufacturing villages, 

 but when our farmers acquire a taste for this kind of meat • 

 and begin to understand that the use of more fresh and less 

 of salted meats is more conducive to their health, and to learn 

 that the eating so largely, as very many of them do, of pork, 

 especially. of salt, fat pork, does not constitute a healthful 

 diet, or a very wise economy, they, too, will appreciate the 

 greater value of mutton, will become large consumers of it, 

 and will more frequently go to the pasture for their daily 

 meat than to the pork-barrel in the cellar. 



From the fact of this increasing demand the question natu- 

 rally arises, "Whether our farmers can profitably raise and 

 fatten sheep for their mutton ? " We have no hesitancy in 

 answering the question decidedly in the affirmative, and we 

 have no doubt but that the larger part, if not all, the mutton 

 required for the market — both now and for a long time to 

 come — can be supplied on our home farms, and at remuner- 

 ative rates. When we consider the nearness of our markets, 

 the great benefit to the land, the amount of labor and cost of 

 keeping and the growing necessity for a mixed husbandry, we 

 are satisfied that there is no product of the farm, one year 

 with another, which returns a better remuneration than the 

 sheep; and when a practical view is taken of the conditions 

 and circumstances of our agricultural interests, it is difficult 

 to conceive why this form of husbandry has fallen into such 

 shameful neglect, for there are but few farms or farmers withiu 

 the limits of this Society but would find in it a mutual 

 advantage. Owing to the changes which have been brought 



