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a large scale, are deterred from doing so alone from fear of the dogs. 

 Some protective laws can be enacted that will be constitutional. As the 

 law now is, any one is liable to the owner for killing any straggling dog. 

 A law giving the right to kill, without liability, any trespassing dog, 

 would be a good step in the right direction, and assist materially in the 

 protection of sheep 



As will be seen by reference to the breeders' directory of our agricultu- 

 ral papers, we have breeders in Tennessee of all the improved stock 

 horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, etc. If you want either a race horse, trotting 

 horse or saddle horse, a lordly Durham to improve your beef cattle, or a 

 little Jersey, should the madam have a fancy to excel in golden butter, 

 or the beautiful Devon, which, for all purposes, milk, butter and beef, is 

 hard to excel, or any of the improved stock, you have only to refer, as in- 

 dicated, to know where to get them. Our breeders have been at great 

 expense in importing, rearing and acclimating improved stock, and it is 

 to the pecuniary interest of the farmers of the State to sustain them, and 

 save to themselves the heavy tax incident to transporting live stock singly 

 from a distance, and the risk in acclimating them afterwards. 



The effect of climate is probably greater upon the improved sheep than 

 upon any other of the imported, improved stock. It is, therefore, better 

 to purchase rams desired to improve our flocks from those raised in and 

 inured to our climate. With me the only trouble with the imported sheep 

 has been to pass them safely through the first summer, while those of my 

 own raising have been as healthy and hearty as the native sheep. 



But, gentlemen, I have already trespassed too far. Your President, in his 

 letter addressed to me did me the honor to say that he knew " I had made 

 money out of sheep," and requested that I " tell them how to do the same 

 thing." I presume he did not mean this intelligent body. That would 

 be like " carrying coals to Newcastle," as I am but a novice in sheep cul- 

 ture, compared with some whom I address, but to the general farmer who 

 has given it but a passing notice, what I have said, or may say, may be of 

 some advantage. I do not know that I can tell them how to make money 

 out of it, but I can tell them how I have done so. 



Without any knowledge (or very little) of the industry, except what I 

 could gain by reading the authorities on sheep, and the experience of 

 others, as expressed through the agricultural press, I began sheep hus- 

 bandry in 1864, by the purchase of twenty native ewes, for which 1 paid 

 $100 war prices the same could be bought now for $25. I bred these 

 ewes to a Spanish Merino ram. Why ? Because the Merino was a native 

 of a climate similar to that of Tennessee was acclimated was of a long 

 established breed possessing a dense coat of fine, soft wool ; all of which 

 I wished to perpetuate in my cross, and cover the naked places of my na- 

 tives. In this I succeeded, and got a sheep yielding from four to six 

 pounds of fine, soft wool, with carcass considerably increased, and a greater 

 aptitude to take on flesh. I then desired a larger carcass, with the staple 



