68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



result is, I shall send every single sheep of that flock to the 

 butcher as soon as I can fatten them. The flock that I have 

 been raising for some years is spoiled. When I was on the 

 board of selectmen we always put into the appraisal of sheep 

 the worriment of the flock, as near as we could get at it. It 

 is impossible to get it accurately. AVhen on the board of 

 commissioners, if that question came up, we meant to be 

 fair; as has been stated here, the general sentiment in 

 western Massachusetts is to be fair. It has come to this, 

 either the sheep must go or the dogs ; now, which is it? [A 

 voice, " dogs."] I say so, too. It is but a few years since 

 I bought a nice flock of thorough-bred Southdowns. I paid 

 eighty dollars for a yearling buck ; I paid two hundred 

 dollars for ton ewes, just imported, and I paid for four more 

 $125. I had not had those sheep at home two weeks before 

 I was aroused one night by my own dog in the horse-barn 

 barking. The buck and a few ewes were near the house, 

 and the l)uck was only bitten on the side, and that passed 

 off*. In less than a week the dogs were in three flocks the 

 same night; and, in one flock of seventeen, thirteen were 

 killed. It broke up the flock entirely. Well, I tried that 

 for a few years, and I found it unprofitable on account of 

 the dogs ; I either had to keep my sheep shut up nights, or 

 else watch them. I had had no sight of the dogs. I then 

 disposed of the Southdowns and commenced with Merinos. 

 If I cannot grow sheep for mutton I will grow them for the 

 wool; and that is what I am doing now, and it is a step 

 down. Several of my neighbors are doing the same also. 

 It has come to the pass that we must give it up or must 

 have some way to control the dogs. Now, shooting them at 

 sight is well enough if we can catch them at it ; that is im- 

 possible in the night. I would have the dog tax made ten 

 dollars instead of what it is now. The trouble spoken of 

 here is not from the class of dogs that guard the sheep ; it 

 is a mongrel dog that generally comes from the city. A 

 thorough-bred dog I never knew to attack a sheep, unless he 

 was led off' into bad company ; and I believe a tax of ten 

 dollars, and that law enforced, would go further toward in- 

 creasing the number of sheep than anything else, and I do 

 not believe there is anything wrong in it. The persons who 



