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reared only for wool, they have a wide range, scattering 

 their odure over the hills, where it remains on the surface 

 until washed off by rains. 



The big, heavy mutton sheep, however, are fed in enclo- 

 sures for the purpose of fattening, with rich food of grain ? 

 oil-cake, meats, roots, and luxurious pastures, and to pro- 

 cure these kinds of food the farmer is compelled to resort 

 to the most approved system of tillage, using manures with 

 a free hand, and this plan naturally gives life to the soil. 

 Besides, the droppings of the sheep fed so freely are rich 

 in nitrogenous substances, and being plowed under the soil, 

 soon acquire a surprising degree of fertility. Thus, we say, 

 good sheep raising makes good farms, and the husbandman 

 makes his farm and himself rich. 



The demand for mutton has already been noticed. It is 

 steadily on the increase. Twenty per cent, more mutton has 

 been consumed as an article of food in the United States 

 since 1876, up to September, 1879, than for any years pre- 

 ceding. One city alone, New York, uses nearly a million 

 and a half of sheep annually. Add this consumption to 

 that of all the other populous cities of the United States, 

 and we can form some idea of the > vast number of sheep 

 aten as food every year. And now that the carriage of 

 live animals to Europe has become a success, we may expect 

 to see almost every steamship that goes over carry a large 

 oargo of early lambs. Within the past three decades pork 

 was the universal food of the country, larnb and beef 

 coming in at rare intervals as a luxury. Now it is almost 

 reversed, and the ordinary diet of the community, especially 

 of all towns and cities, consists of beef and mutton. Owing 

 to this cause the rearing of sheep for mutton alone is be- 

 coming more and more a prominent feature in agriculture. 



We have no native mutton sheep in this country ; in fact, 

 the attention of the farming community has been directed 

 to it for so short a time, new varieties have not yet been 

 originated. The native sheep of the United States consist 



