118 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



manner, that it must be done by the principal use of the 

 manure produced on the farm, it becomes a matter of no 

 small account to make use of every means to accomplish this 

 important end ; and for this purpose every farmer, therefore, 

 should keep a proportional number of sheep, with his other 

 stock. The wool, also, is an item of no small importance. 

 For the last twenty-five years the price of medium-fine 

 washed wool has averaged quite forty-five cents per pound, 

 and a good quality of sheep — and a farmer should keep no 

 other — will thus average, annually, wool worth at the least 

 the value of two dollars and a quarter per head. 



But it is not alone for the manure or the wool that our 

 farmers should engage in this business ; another and a very 

 profitable item arises from the annual sale of the lambs. As 

 we have before said, it is the mutton from which comes the 

 largest profit. From its increasing demand there has also 

 been an increased market value, so that for the last fifteen 

 years no kind of meat, compared with the cost of raising, 

 keeping and fattening, has commanded such high prices. 

 The average price paid for lambs through the season, from 

 early June to October, has been ten cents per pound, live 

 weight, and some lots, which were earlier in market, sold as 

 high as twenty cents, live weight — so that lambs, at from three 

 to four months old, sold for an average of five dollars and fifty 

 cents per head, and the earlier lots for double that sum. The 

 annual yield of profit of the sheep, then, is about forty-five 

 per cent. , — an income certainly worthy the attention of every 

 good farmer. 



For the- last ten years good Southdown sheep have been 

 worth six dollars a head. A flock of fifty ewe sheep would, 

 then, be worth three hundred dollars, so that, at fair estimates 

 of cost and yield, it will be seen that the percentage is as 

 stated ; viz. : 



Dr. 



Cost of keeping fifty sheep per year, . . . $230 50 

 For extra care when lambing and for shearing,' . 25 00 

 Interest on investment, 7 per cent., . . . 21 00 



$276 50 



