No. 11. 



Destruction of Sheep by Dogs. 



351 



sources of all our difficulties. Need I add, 

 to further exemplify our excessive indolence, 

 that the Charleston market is supplied with 

 fish and wild game by northern men, who 

 come out here as regularly as the winter 

 comes for this purpose, from our own waters 

 and forests, and oflen realize, in the course of 

 one winter, a sufficiency to purchase a small 

 farm in New England." 



Now I have been not a little am used with 

 the home truths expressed in this rather 

 rough specimen of gentle reproof; and I 

 have suspected it would do no hurt if they 

 were thrown before all the readers of the 

 Cabinet, which 1 know circulates south as 

 well as in other directions. It is more than 

 probable too, that many a one of your nor- 

 thern farmers might take a hint from it in 

 relation to the close employment of his own 

 time, and that of his boys. The great object 

 of the farmer, it is allowed even here, should 

 be to lay out as little money as possible, for 

 any thing he may want. Of course an em- 

 ployment of all the leisure moments and 

 rainy days in making or mending the tools 

 will supply him, not only W'ith hoe handles 

 and ax helves, but also with many far more 

 important items among the expensive imple- 

 ments needed in the prosecution of his busi- 

 ness. Furthermore, the effect produced in 

 making his boys handy and expert in the use 

 of tools is of great importance. 



I have been much pleased with the com- 

 munication of Miquon in the last number; 

 and consider that single article alone, of 

 more worth several times over, than the sub 

 scription price of the Cabinet lor a year. 



L. P. 



Fredericksburg, Va. 1845. 



For Ihe Fanners' Cabinet. 

 Destruction of Sheep by Dogs. 



To THE Editor. — As the manufacturing 

 establishments of the country are rapidly in- 

 creasing, and the demand for native produc- 

 tions appearing to keep pace therewith, it 

 behoves the agricultural community, to do all 

 in their power to produce the necessary raw 

 material requisite to meet the demand. Most 

 parts of this state are well adapted to the 

 keeping of sheep for the growth of wool, as 

 well as for the supply of mutton and lamb 

 for the markets. Many farmers are desir 

 ous of keeping those useful animals, but are 

 deterred by the fear of having their flocks 

 destroyed by some of the great number of 

 half starved and worthless dogs that infest 

 their neighbourhoods. And such dogs are 

 generally owned by persons having little or 

 no use for them, and who allow them to 

 range over the country -regardless of the 



mischief they may do: the consequence is 

 that many valuable sheep are destroyed an- 

 nually, one of which would be of more value 

 to the country than half of the dogs in a 

 township. I very recently witnessed the 

 most distressing sight on a farm of a friend 

 in Chester county, where some twenty sheep, 

 from the beautiful imported Leicester, to the 

 valuable native stock, were killed or man- 

 gled in the most shocking manner. It was 

 a sight distressing to witness, and no redress 

 could be had, as there is no tax on dogs in 

 that neighbourliood. 



It is quite time for the owners of flocks to 

 take this affair earnestly in hand. If a tax 

 cannot be levied on all dogs sufficient to pay 

 for the injury done to sheep by them, or the 

 owners of such offenders made responsible 

 for the mischief they do, the farmers own- 

 ing sheep should at once come to the deter- 

 mination to kill all dogs found running at 

 large on their premises ; for the question to 

 be decided appears to be, whether the most 

 usueful and valuable animals in the country 

 shall be destroyed by the most worthless, or 

 otherwise. C. 



Philadelphia county, May 30th, 1845. 



The subject spoken of above, is seasonably intro- 

 duced. We have always believed that there is in thia 

 vicinity, scarcely an article of luxury that could more 

 legitimately be subjected to a high tax, than dogs. We 

 are no friend to their extermination; for we some- 

 times come across individuals among them, who mani- 

 fest a nobility that might put many an "unfeathered 

 biped" to the blush. But they are in the general, use- 

 less to the community— they are even worse than use- 

 less—they prowl upon it, and it ought to be reimbursed 

 for that prowling, by those who keep them. And cer- 

 tainly there should be no doubt on the subject of hold- 

 ing the owners of dogs responsible for particular 

 damages committed by them, when they can be iden- 

 tified. It is excessively annoying, as we well know by 

 experience, to have a fine flock of sheep, which you 

 have perhaps been for years selecting, and raising to 

 your mind, killed, and wounded and worried by your 

 neighbours worthless curs. It is not merely the killed 

 understood by sheep masters, that even those which 

 may not be touched by the dog, are nevertheless so 

 and the wounded that constitute the loss— it is well 

 ^Tightened and worried, that a flock hardly ever recovers 

 from it. — Ed. 



To DRY YOUR Boots. — If you wish, after 

 tramping through snow and water all day, 

 to have a pair of dry boots to put on the 

 next morning — instead of leaving them by 

 the stove to burn or half dry— hang them 

 up near the ceiling of the room where the 

 warm air is. 



A hog upon trust, grunts till he is paid for. 



