378 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



poor sales, a lack or excess of water, disa])led machinery 

 and how to get new, and a thousand perplexities that the 

 farmer has not the least idea of. As a class, we farmers go 

 to bed to rest and sleep, and to recuperate for another day's 

 work. Suppose it rains the next day. All merchants will 

 tell you a rainy day is never fully made up. We don't 

 miss it, and quite likely it is what we have been praying for. 

 If there is a Avcdding or a funeral to be attended we find tinie 

 for both. "We know that our business, the raising of stock 

 or crops, goes on just the same in the night as in the day, 

 Sundays included. Our stores and factories are not closed 

 once in the entire year, and how many nights in the summer 

 are we entertained by hearing the refreshing rain fall on our 

 roofs. Even the worst snow-storms in the winter are wel- 

 come, for they insure the drawing of the indispensable ice, 

 the wood, the crop of hay next year, and the merry sleigh 

 ride. The long winter evenings furnish time for reading. 



I am not unaware that we suffer heavy aggregate losses by 

 death in our stock and in failures of crops, but many of us 

 are not specialists in any one line, and if one crop fails, 

 another does not. To myself there is great pleasure in 

 beins: next to the Creator in creatinu: something, either from 

 the earth or in raising and caring for stock. In our pur- 

 suits we are happily of diversified tastes. One man inclines 

 his attention to earth crops ; another one to cattle or horses, 

 sheep or swine, and some compass all of these branches of 

 farming, and if one is moderately successful in them there is 

 a degree of satisfaction and just pride united in the endeavor 

 that eclipses the ordinary sharp and close dealing that seems 

 inevitable in any other vocation that employs capital. 



I have given some little attentioii to sheep for the last few 

 years. Beginning with twenty-five merino ewes, I have 

 now over fifty of their descendants, largel}' Southdown or 

 Hampshire Down, among them some noble animals, and 

 some of the originals. I have sold over 300 early lambs at 

 profitable prices, and still improved and increased my little 

 herd. Last season it gave me great pleasure to show more 

 than forty-five lambs, not losing any that or the previous 

 year. This year I ought to have more than sixty. Now, 

 any one with a small farm, not otherwise overstocked, can 



