250 HAMPDEN SOCIETY. 



another farmer if he can aiford to grow wool at the present 

 prices, and he rephes he can, — if the increase of his flocks were 

 not prevented by the dogs. If these offenders do not kill them 

 outright, they lame and mangle them so that their scanty skel- 

 etons will not survive the winter. Ask the butcher to purchase 

 the best of your flock, and he throws in your teeth their pov- 

 erty-stricken carcasses, and the farmer can only reply again, 

 " the dogs ! the dogs ! " It is next to impossible to keep sheep 

 in his pastures, they are in such constant fear of their canine 

 enemies, and he has found that sheep will not fatten when they 

 live in constant alarm. 



A nervous sheep, if we may so call it, is never a thriving 

 one. Ask the buyers and consumers of lamb and mutton for 

 their ideas on the subject, — they cannot aff'ord to pay such 

 prices for it as eight, nine and ten cents a pound, for the same 

 which they formerly paid three, four or five cents. So that 

 they have come to the reasonable conclusion, that the increased 

 price is an unreasonable dog tax, of three to four cents per 

 pound. Look back a few years, and as you passed through the 

 county, and observed the farms, almost every farmer had his 

 10, 20, 40, 50 or 100 sheep, all quietly feeding in his pastures. 

 Then we had good mutton and fat lambs, and cheap enough. 

 Now travel around the county, and what do you see ? More 

 dogs than sheep, — as might be proved by a census. The com- 

 mittee are of the opuiion, that all the breeds of sheep now 

 amongst us, can only be raised profitably, when the people of 

 this county are satisfied that they have paid an indirect tax on 

 their dogs long enough, and not till then. 



DAYID MOSELY, Chairman. 



Milch Cows. 



There was awarded for milch cows, under six years old. 

 To Horace Putnam, Springfield, 1st premium, - |4 00 

 James Chapin, " 2d " - 3 00 



