17(3 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



pounds of mutton in carcases of from eighteen to twenty pounds pcT 

 qii.irter than in carcases of from twenty-eiulit to thirty pounds, tlieii 

 eviM V one mu^t a<'"ree that tlio advanluires are on the sidi: of the smaller 

 carcases. The reason of this is ubvious. In times ot dromrht and 

 scarcity, a small animal can collect as much food as a larn^er one, and 

 havinir a smaller c ircass, it derives much more advantaire from it. 

 While, therefore, the larger animal is losing- in condition, the smaller 

 one, if not improviiiir, remains slaticjnary ; and when the period arrives 

 at which abundance of food can be obtained, it almost immediatt^ly 

 reassumes its position, and is fit to go to the market sooner than the 

 larger animal. I do not presume to offer anything like dictation to 

 this meeting, but I am confident that those <rentlemen present, who 

 have had experience on this subject^ will bear me out in saying that 

 there are advanta'Tes in breedin"" the description of stock to which I 

 have been referring, which do not attach to animals of better appear- 

 ance and larger size." 



Nevertheless, we should say, that if the farmer have at command 

 a superabundance of grass and corn, which it would be his interest 

 to convert into meat, that its value may be more condensed and por- 

 table, thi'n the most economical machine or animal is that one which 

 above all will, as a machine, soonest convert that superabundance of 

 food into meat of a kind that will bring the best return in the market. 



In all ages, among nations in any degree removed from the lowest 

 stage of barbarism, a census in some form has been deemed neces- 

 sary to an understanding of their condition, resources, and means of 

 defence; and the fullness and accuracy of these periodical returns 

 may be said in some sort to mark the progress of political science 

 and civil polity. As yet the census of the United States is altogether 

 defective in many particulars connected with important questions of 

 political economy, and there is too much reason to believe that the 

 actual r'Hurns have been made with a degree of carelessness and want 

 of uniformity sufficient to create distrust in the results as they have 

 been published. Yet such as it is, it forms the most reliable means 

 of calculation on questions like the one in hand. We have, it seems, 

 no return, for instance, (as we happen to have had occasion to observe) 

 either of the number of mules or of the iurnip crop in the United States. 

 In the following table we have embraced the returns of hay and of 

 palatoes, as these in the northern States constitute the chief food of 

 sheep, as before said, for four or five months in the year. We have 

 added to the table, as nearly as could well be ascertained, the number 

 of acres to a sheep in the sev^eral States and territories ; and the reader 

 will be struck with the fact, that while fine wool may be transported 

 at such a trifling expense in proportion to its value, they should he in 

 such a very large proportion located very near to the wool market, 

 and on land which bears the hi<xhest price, while the natural distribu- 

 tion would appear to be to rear the fine wool on the cheap table-lands 

 of the mountains, and the limitless prairies of the v*^est. It has been 

 ascertained that wool luay be sent from the prairies of Illinois to 



