390 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Beeler, Yoti don't limit them to fifty in a flock ? 



Mr. Nelson. No, I do not. I let them go together, but I have other stock also 

 with them. 



Mr. Quick. If we have only one kind of sheep, it is all right ; but if we have 

 different kinds of sheep, and bucks and ewes, we have to have different pastures. 

 It seems to me we would have diflSculty in that case, but if he only has grades he 

 don't experience this difficulty. Of all animals, the sheep is the most delicate and 

 particular about food, grass as well as grain. After they run over a pasture a few 

 weeks they get tired of it, and they renew their appetite by changing to a fresh 

 pasture. 



Mr. Nelson. I don't wish to be understood that I let my bucks run together 

 with the rest of my sheep. I never use tar among my sheep in connection with 

 Bait. I salt every few days. They require much salt. They will take a little 

 every day if they had it. 



Mr. Conner. My experience, when I was actively engaged in breeding sheep, 

 was with grade Cotswold, and was similar to that of Mr. Tomlinson. Eegardiug 

 the disposition to sell off and quit the business, some fiockmasters said, during the 

 pendency of the Converse tariff bill, that they hoped for the restoration of a bet- 

 ter condition of tariff rates on foreign wools, that in their opinion the present 

 tariff affected the price of wool three or four cents on the pound. I had some cor- 

 respondence with thoi^e who were engaged exclusively in the business, and I have 

 had some correspondence with the fiockmasters, since the defeat of the Converse bill, 

 who expressed themselves as being hopeful, with the intention of hanging on to 

 the business, while some seem to think the profit in sheep was not so great at pres- 

 ent as in other branches of husbandry. 



Mr. C. A. Howland. I do not attach so much importance to the tariff question, 

 as relating to the price of wool, as some others. People make a great blow some- 

 times about little things. If there was any profit in keeping sheep when wool wag. 

 twenty-five cents per pound three or four years ago, there is profit to-day at twenty 

 cents per pound. Everything else has come down in the same ralio. There is no 

 good reason to assign for selling off our flocks of sheep ; overproduction is the 

 /starting point of this. There has been an overproduction in many things by the 

 American people, which often occurs; they enter in it with a zest, giving their 

 whole soul to manufacturing implements and raising wool, and out-do any other 

 people. This small matter of two cents a pound should not affect the sheep hus- 

 bandry. While so many are seeking to get ou! of the sheep business, it is the very 

 time for us to step right in, and have a good lot on hands. We will make money 

 if we do. I have stejiped out and in again. My advice is to "Stand by your guns,"' 

 and in a few years you will make a good thing of sheep raising. 



Mr. Smiley. I can not say much of interest to the Society. I breed a small 

 flock ; I have full blood Merino, and also some high-grade Cotswold and Leicester. 

 I use Merino buck on my long-wool ewes. My idea is to produce a general pur- 

 pose sheep, one that will produce a fair yield of wool and mutton combined. My 

 flak last season was half and half divided. My sheep averaged 8| lbs., when 

 clipped, for the Merino, and the long-wool a little less than 8 lbs. I would cross 

 with Oxfordshire. I use pure buckf. I sold my wool last year at an average of 

 twenty-tvro cents per pound. 



