432 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



sliire lambs at six months old weigh about 125 pounds. Although the 

 hill region of Sussex and adjoining counties are especially adapted 

 to the raising of mutton sheep and lambs, in which the Hampshires 

 would play a prominent part, they are, nevertheless, given up to the 

 dairy, every farmer being engaged either in selling milk to a creamery 

 or making it into butter and shipping it to the city. 



The Dorsets were first introduced into the State in September, 1887, 

 by Robert J. Buck, of Bridgeton, and in July, 1888, by Rutherford 

 Stuyvesant, of Warren county. Mr. Stuyv . ant imported two rams 

 and twenty-eight ewes from the English flocks of John and William 

 Kinder. His experience with them has been highly satisfactory. 



Scattered throughout the State there are many small flocks of South- 

 downs, kept to supply the home table and the village butcher. These 

 flocks run from 12 to 20 and are generally healthy and hardy. The 

 number of lambs is usually about the same as the number of ewes. 

 Losses of lambs are rare, and when they take place the 'twins keep up 

 the average. Lambs are dropped in February, and are sold to the local 

 butchers for $4.50 to $7 per head, to be taken as wanted from June to 

 October. Four to 5 sheep are sold with the lambs at the same price, 

 and a like number reserved from the best lambs to keep up the flock. 

 The wool is sold from 18 to 25 cents unwashed, the weight of the fleece 

 running from 4 to 6 pounds. Usually the sheep are shut up every night 

 in the year in the barn or basement sheds for protection against dogs. 

 They are not fed when on pasture. When off pasture they receive hay, 

 corn-meal, and, in the early spring, mangels. There is not much money 

 profit in keeping these small flocks, but they pay for themselves in the 

 service rendered in keeping the fields clean and in the valuable manure 

 they furnish, and it is noticeable that wherever such a flock is kept 

 the farms look thrifty and the grass fields green and luxuriant. 



But these and other flocks are gradually diminishing. The causes 

 assigned for the decrease are greater profits in dairy farming and mar- 

 ket gardening, and the destruction caused by dogs. There is no farm 

 in the State over 7 miles distant from a railroad station, and this ready 

 access to the markets of all the principal cities in the State arid to New 

 York and Philadelphia, encourages the production of milk and cheese 

 and every variety of garden truck, consequently fields that will yield 

 $20 to $50 per acre annually, and sometimes much more, in these in- 

 dustries are not willingly consigned to the raising of sheep with the 

 attendant risk of dogs. Two per cent of the sheep of the State are 

 annually killed by the dogs, and there is more protectiim for the safety 

 and life of these worthless animals than for the valuable sheep. 



