1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 55 



enced in your gardens, that if you transplant a plant into 

 land liglitly worked up, you will find that plant will stand 

 still for a long time, and will be of slow growth ; and the 

 gardener knows it so well that he always presses down the 

 soil in his pot. Now, when subsoiling makes such soil, it is 

 always injurious, as I have known any thing about it ; but 

 what we want is a close soil, not a ^oose one. It is a distinc- 

 tion not always recognized. 



Mr. Ware of Marblehead. I would like to know how 

 far this theory of the doctor extends. Some carry it a great 

 deal farther than he does. I have heard it said that those 

 who have observed the effects, think it is beneficial to their 

 sparse land ; that is, land of a gravelly nature. 



Dr. Sturtevant. I think I can give one rule which will 

 apply to nearly every possible case of that kind. Water 

 which stagnates in the soil is extremely injurious, as every 

 florist knows, and nearly everbody will know if he stops to 

 think. When you have a soil, no matter Avhether it is clayey 

 or sand or gravel, in which the water table rises to the surface 

 and stagnates on the soil, then that soil is benefited by draining. 

 Where the water table does not rise, then we have a natural 

 drainage which offsets the necessity of artificial drainage. 



The chairman then introduced Mr. J. D. Avery of Buck- 

 land, Mass., who read the following paper on " Profit from 

 Sheep:" — 



PROFIT FROM SHEEP. 



BY J. D. AVERY OF BUCKLAND. 



M)'. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, — I will say at the 

 outset that I was requested to treat my subject from a 

 practical standpoint ; this I will gladly attempt to do. 



The interest in sheep farming, as the most of you are 

 doubtless aware, has been sadly on the decline in this State 

 during the past twenty years. According to the census of 

 1865 there were in this State at that time 160,997 sheep ; in 

 1885 the number had fallen to 55,170. 



The object of this paper is to create, if possible, a greater 

 interest in this neglected, but to my mind, profitable branch 

 of agriculture. 



The first question which naturally suggests itself is, what 



