82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



and the diseases which they are in the habit of having where 

 they are kept confined. They huddle together much like 

 our poultry ; and I have found in poultry the larger the 

 flock the less profit. And, though I have no practical expe- 

 rience in keeping sheep, it occurs to me there must be con- 

 siderable danger from various diseases to which they are 

 liable in keeping them at certain seasons of the year without 

 proper ventilation. I should think that might be brought out 

 in a few words. 



Mr. Avery. I have never had any trouble from those 

 diseases. 



Mr. Sessions. The essayist urged that they should have 

 plenty of air and plenty of fresh, clean water. 



The Chairman. He said that he fed them well and kept 

 them clean. 



Mr. Avery. I once heard a man ask another who had 

 had considerable experience in sheep raising, what was the 

 best thing to prevent grub in the head. His reply was, 

 "plenty of grub in the stomach." I think there is a good 

 deal in that. 



The Chairman. I have had a good deal of experience 

 with sheep, and a great deiil of observation. I undertook at 

 one time the breeding of Merino sheep, not in accordance 

 with the high ideas of Vermont men, but as a practical 

 thing ; and I secured a flock of two hundred and fifty Merino 

 sheep of good Vermont people, which fed on a pasture 

 within a mile and a half of the city of Salem. The pasture 

 is very admirably adapted to sheep-growing and sheep-feed- 

 ing. I found that it was very difficult for a man to succeed 

 with that class of sheep unless he was remote from the town, 

 and unless he understood thoroughly well the wool market ; 

 for the increase of Merino sheep for the mutton and lamb 

 market was so inconsiderable they could hardly be counted. 

 I have studied the business in Vermont. I used to go to see 

 a great raiser of American Merino sheep there. With regard 

 to the price of sheep, he once made to me an interesting 

 statement. As I went into his field, he had perhaps a couple 

 of hundred beautiful ewes, and he had in an adjoining pen 

 eight or ten rams. Anybody who has seen his flock of sheep 

 will remember what a charming object it was. The shape 



