SHEEP. 201 



SHEEP. 



UINGHAM. 



Frovi the Report of the Committee. 



Sheep husbandry and the production of wool has become one 

 of the largest and most valuable interests in this country. The 

 United States, with their almost boundless territory, and num- 

 berless railroads connecting it with the markets, affords peculiar 

 advantages for this branch of farming and promises a profitable 

 field for future operation. Millions of acres of herbage, suited 

 to the wants of fine woolled sheep, are annually left to decay 

 and waste for want of animals to consume the abundant spon- 

 taneous growth, and millions of dollars are thereby lost to the 

 country. It is true that the markets have lately been over- 

 stocked with wool, and the farmers have suffered much less in 

 their flocks from disease and otherwise ; but as the railroads 

 build up the country and open communication with the vast 

 fields of the West and South, the raising of sheep will become 

 more and more profitable, and be a source of infinite wealth to 

 the people. Our pastures are limitless, and yet we have to-day 

 less than half the number of sheep in Great Britain, our last 

 returns showing about twenty-five million as against fifty-five 

 million in Great Britain. This arises, of course, from the nature 

 of the country and the vast tracts of land as yet unexplored, 

 and hence unimproved. 



We do not expect in Massachusetts, however, large or very 

 profitable returns from the rearing of sheep. In a State so 

 densely populated, with so many small farms, and the people 

 so extensively engaged in manufacturing and commercial pur- 

 suits, the farmers can hardly hope to compete with the farmers 

 of the newer States, at least in the production of wool. The 

 farmer of Hingham, with his cosset tethered at his back door, 

 or even his flock of one hundred sheep, can hardly expect to 

 undersell the Texan herdsman with his ranch of fifteen thousand 

 acres and as many sheep upon it, even if he is nearer tlie mar- 

 ket. Wool can probably be produced in Texas and shipped to 

 market at half the cost that it can in Massachusetts, and at the 



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