SHEEP. 121 



such farmers cannot undertake this kind of farm business ; 

 and hence, for them, sheep husbandry would especially be 

 largely profitable. 



The dogs, we admit, constitute a serious objection, — but 

 such an objection ! Is it not disgraceful to the intelligence 

 and good sense of every thinking farmer, and does it not 

 become his duty to make his influence so felt, that there 

 shall be fewer dogs and more sheep ? " Those who have been 

 engaged in sheep culture are fully aware of the disastrous 

 effects to a flock of sheep of .the attacks of savage dogs.. It 

 is not alone the value of the sheep which are killed or maimed 

 (for it is often the smaller part of the loss which is sustained) ; 

 it is the moral effect produced upon the whole flock by the 

 intense fright and excitement, resulting in a diminished 

 thrift and increasing timidity, which is hone the less formida- 

 ble be'cause difficult of estimation." There is no animal so 

 timid and so sensitively alive to rough and harsh treatment 

 of any kind as the sheep, and on this account a flock once 

 harried by a dog is sometimes well-nigh ruined. Incapable 

 of defending themselves, it becomes a constant source of 

 solicitous care and watchfulness to prevent the flock from 

 being worried by savage dogs, and so great has this care 

 become that, on this account alone, very many farmers have 

 abandoned the business. 



In this agricultural district there are licensed 3,535 male 

 dogs, and 1,585 female dogs, while there are probably at 

 least one-fourth as many more not licensed, making an aggre- 

 gate of about 4,418 male dogs and 1,981 female dogs; and 

 all told, of 6,399 dogs, which is one dog to less than two sheep, 

 furnishing a remarkably brilliant and intelligent public esti- 

 mate of the value of the two animals. The tax paid for 

 these dogs for 1874, amounted to $7,894, and the amount 

 paid for the damages which they committed was $1,023, and 

 there was returned to the several towns, $6,850. This latter 

 sum was generally appropriated by the towns for library 

 and school purposes, which is about the only redeeming 

 feature of this dog business. It is very questionable, how-, 

 ever, whether this constantly increasing number of dogs 

 (although reaping a tax therefrom even for such purposes) is 

 not, after all, a greater evil than good, and whether it would 



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