1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 73 



exceedingly practical. I wish to allude to just one point to 

 which I think the speaker did not allude, which is an im- 

 portant one to those who keep sheep, that is the time of 

 shearing. Years ago there was an old adage : — 



" If you shear sheep in May, 

 Shear them the last of May; 

 Shear them in June, — 

 You can't shear too soon." 



Well, sir, in the latter part of my experience in keeping 

 sheep, I made the rule to shear the first of Miiy, and found 

 it decidedly the best ; and then if we had a cold storm I 

 would keep them shut in. In regard to dogs, we find in 

 Connecticut that the average agricultural society awards 

 more premiums to dogs than it does to sheep. It always 

 seemed to me that this is going in the wrong direction. 

 Well, Connecticut is hardly a wool-growing State now. The 

 business has been driven out by dogs ; and they not only 

 attack sheep, but also cows, and horses, and calves. A short 

 time ago I heard of a registered Jersey heifer, worth one 

 hundred dollars, that was so bitten as to be virtually spoiled. 

 I do not know but the owner can get damages ; but I rather 

 doubt it. I do not know that their law applies to anything 

 but sheep. But, in regard to the award by the selectmen, 

 I think the rule has been in Connecticut, that, while they 

 get the mutton value of the sheep, if a sheep is specially 

 valuable for breeding purposes, they do not get satisfactory 

 •damages. We find the average selectmen are not willing to 

 give liberal damages in the matter of fancy or high-priced 

 sheep. But we have in Connecticut, as you have in Massa- 

 chusetts, sheep in some of the back towns. We have a great 

 deal of land that is going to waste, and we might keep 

 thousands of sheep wdiere none are kept. 



There is one point I want to allude to — a practical point. 

 There came very near l)eing a syndicate formed in Middle- 

 sex County, Conn., in which I live, for l)uying up three or 

 four continuous farms, and making a sheep ranch, inclosing 

 it with a barbed wire fence. I should hope that the idea 

 would be carried out ; for it does seem that where there is a 

 considerable tract of good sheep land, which might be put 



