study the best method of extracting: this nutri- 

 ment and turning: it into meat, and at the same 

 time save the elements of plant-food in the shape 

 of manure for future crops. 



Of course, in a paper of this kind, I cannot pro 

 into details. The crying necessity of the age is 

 more and better meat. The better our educa- 

 tion, the more skillful and intelligent our popu- 

 lation ; the harder we work with our brains, the 

 more animal food we seem to require. Improved 

 animal", like the Short-horns for instance, re- 

 quire richer food than Texan cattle, and bright, 

 active, energetic men, as a rule, require, and 

 will have, more nutritious and more easily di- 

 gestible food than the slow, plodding farm 

 laborer of the past. Tn all civilized countries the 

 demand for animal food is increasing much more 

 rapidly than the supply. England is searching 

 the world over for meat. And, what is still more 

 strange, with all our immense area of cultivated 

 land. New England. New York and Pennsylvania 

 send thousands of miles for beef cattle. This is 

 very well, but we shall soon learn that we must 

 look to improved agriculture, rather than to 

 cheap land and semi-wild animals, for a steady 

 supply of good meat. The farmers of New York, 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota need have no fears 

 that Texan cattle will crowd out Short-horns 

 and their grades from our markets. We shall 

 produce better meat and we shall get better 



? rices for it. Poor meat is the di-arest of all 

 DOd. Many of our farmers think they cannot 

 afford to produce beef and mutton. And this is 

 probably true, unless they produce beef and 

 mutton of better than average quality. There 

 is an astonishing amount of poor meat raised 

 and sold even in the better farmed portions of 

 the country. We must raise arood beef and good 

 mutton. To do this with profit we must furnish 

 richer food and this will afford richer manure. 

 And taking meat and manure into account we 

 can make a profit. 



A few years ago the wool from Leicester, Cots- 

 wold and other long-wooled English sheep sold 

 for from 20 to 30 per cent, less than Merino wool. 

 Now all thisis changed. Desirable combing wool 

 brings from 20 to 30 per cent, more than Merino. 

 This is a great change. Congress was at one 

 time urged to take off the duty on combine: wool 

 because it was said the farmers of the United 

 States could not produce this kind of wool. It 

 could be grown in Canada, but not here. On the 

 west side of the Suspension Bridge, over the 

 Niagara Kiver, combing wool could be produced 

 of excellent quality, but not on the east side. 

 And while the Canadian farmers on the east side 

 of the Detroit river could produce the best of 

 combing wool, the farmers of Michigan on the 

 west side of the river could not do so. And a 

 member of Congress, a lawyer from the state of 

 New York, and in many respects a very intelli- 

 gent and able man, actually asked me in all sin- 

 cerity and earnestness whether this was not 

 really the fact. I need not say that there is not 

 a particle of truth in the idea. We can raise just 

 as good combing wool in the United States as 

 can be raised in Canada. And the only reason 

 why Canada combing wool sells for from 15 to 20 

 per cent, higher than our combmg wool is that 

 the Canadian farmers understand the manage- 

 ment of long-wooled English sheep better than 

 we do. They raise more roots and feed better. 

 It is not any difference in soil or climate. We can 

 raise just as good combing wool as can be raised 

 in Canada, and we are learning how to do it. 



Some time since I read an article in the London 

 Agricultural Gazette headed "The most profit- 

 able flock in Essex, England." Merino sheep 

 were imported into England nearly a century 

 ago when fine wool commanded hijrh prices. But 

 it was found that, owing to the demand for 

 mutton, the coarser-wooled sheep were much 

 more profitable. Still the sheep were kept for 



many years. Finally, however, the attempt to 

 raise fine wool was abandoned, and these Merino 

 sheep were crossed with the English mutton 

 sheep. And it was a flock of these cross-bred 

 English and Merino sheep that was pronounced 

 the most profitable flock in the County of Essex. 

 My own experience in this country is in the same 

 direction. By selecting a flock of common Merino 

 ewes, which averaged at full maturity 80 pounds 

 each, and which cost me $2.40 per head, and by 

 putting them to a high- bred, pure Cots wold ram 

 I got a lot of strong, healthy lambs which, with 

 good feed, irrew rapidly and afforded excellent 

 mutton and the wool, even the first cross, sold 

 for combing. A second cross, that is, by takine 

 the ewe lambs from the first cross and putting 

 them, when about 18 months old, to a pure- 

 bred Cotswold ram, produced lamhs which ap- 

 proximated closely to the Cotswold in size and 

 in length of wool, while the lambs are hardier 

 and stronger, and the wool finer, and the mut- 

 ton of better quality than the pure-bred Cots- 

 wolds. I killed one of these % Cotswolds-Meri- 

 no sheep, which, at 15 months old, dressed 26 

 pounds per quarter. 



We have millions of these hardy, common 

 Merino ewes, which can be bought at from $2 to 

 $4 per head, and two or three crosses of Cots- 

 wold or Leicester blood will, with good feed, 

 give us not "the most profitable flock in Essex" 

 merely, but, in certain sections, the best and 

 most profitable flocks in the world. The Cots- 

 wolds and Leicesters are too fat. The Merinos 

 are too thin. The Cotswold wool is too coarse 

 and unnecessarily long. The Merino wool ia 

 very fine but too short. By crossing, we can 

 get just the wool and mutton most in demand. 

 And the sheep are admirably adapted to our 

 climate. Of course we must feed better than 

 we are in the habit of feeding common Merino 

 flocks, but that is precisely what the require- 

 ments of our agriculture dema ids. We shall 

 feed higher and make much richer manure. 



Good mutton in England brings a higher price 

 than beef. We are shipping beef quarters to 

 England, we shall ship mutton carcasses also 

 just as soon as the farmers of the United States 

 raise such sheep as I have alluded to. Well- 

 fatted mutton will keep longer and better than 

 beef, and I should think there would be no dif- 

 ficulty in transporting it across the Atlantic. 

 And if I can trust my own taste the mutton of 

 these grade Cotswold-Merino sheep, when well 

 fatted, will be found nearly, or quite equal to 

 South Down mutton, especially when kept till 

 nearly two years old. I have just weighed 

 (Aug. 24) one of my two year-old grade ewes 

 that has been running with the rest of the flock, 

 but which did not have a lamb last spring and 

 is consequently almost fat enough to kill. She 

 has two crosses of Cotswold blood in her, she ia 

 perfect in shape, except that her legs are a little 

 too long, but she is a remarkably strong, vigor- 

 ous sheep, admirably adapted to our climate 

 and mode of farming. She weighed 200H Iba., 

 and would probably dress 28 IDS. to the quarter. 

 I do not wash my own sheep, but I sold some 

 grade lambs to one of my neighbors who washes 

 his sheep. He told me that one of these grade 

 Cotswold-Merino lambs this spring sheared 12 

 Ibs. of washed wool. 



Now if we can raise such sheep, and I am sure 

 we can, and if we can send the surplus mutton 

 to England after we have supplied our own 

 markets, I see no reason why we cannot adopt 

 a higher and better system of farming why, ia 

 other words, we cannot keep more stock, feed 

 higher, and make more and richer manure. 



There are only two points to be observed : 1st. 

 We must use pure-bred long-wooled rams, and 

 2nd. We must teed the ewes and lambs liberally. 

 We have plenty of corn, and clover is easily 

 raised, and bran is usually cheap. I hope to 

 live to see the time when we shall send less 



