INTRODUCTION. 



The traveler in England, Scotland and parts of 

 France and Germany is impressed by the importance 

 of the sheep industry to these lands. Sheep farms 

 are often found close together and of large size with 

 great numbers of sheep thereon. The writer has 

 stood on one hill in Dorsetshire and counted eight 

 shepherds, each with his flock of about 400 ewes and 

 their lambs, in sight at one time. Nearby, in an 

 adjoining county, flocks of Hampshires exist as large 

 as 2,500 on farms of not above 1,400 acres of not 

 extra soil. These flocks are very profitable and they 

 make rich soils that without the sheep would be 

 hardly worth cultivating. They exist in wonderful 

 health and vigor on lands that have been sheeped 

 since civilization peopled the land. In Scotland and 

 the Cheviot hills flocks exist over the entire land, 

 and without sheep the land would almost lapse into 

 wilderness. In France on lands worth $250 per acre 

 great flocks of mutton sheep are kept. The agricul- 

 ture of these countries leans strongly on the sheep. 

 Long experience in maintaining fertility, in creating 

 it, has taught the farmers that without the flocks 

 they cannot continue profitable agriculture. Sheep 

 fit in well to an intensive system of agriculture. 

 They are docile, tractable, easily kept within bounds, 

 not fastidious in their appetites but willing to de- 



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