162 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Now, in relation to the cost of keeping sheep, I had the plea- 

 sure of listening to a lecture from ex-Governor Boutwell this 

 fall, and he stated that a man in Wilbraham, thought they could 

 be kept for one dollar and fifty cents a year, but he was satisfied 

 they could not be kept short of three dollars. A few years ago, 

 I could hire them kept through the winter for a dollar a head ; 

 this year, I can hire them for from two to three dollars a head. 

 The expenseof summering them, where I live, is merely nominal. 



I think I can make more money by dealing in sheep, by buy- 

 ing and selling, raising mutton and lamb for sale, and selling 

 wool, than I can by breeding. If I go to breeding, I cannot 

 buy and sell with my neighbors. I believe it to be for my 

 interest, and for that of a great many, to traffic, but it is for the 

 interest of some to deal in these thoroughbreds, and I presume 

 there are those here who are dealers in them. 



Mr. Smith, of Middlefield. — I think the Merino sheep are the 

 most profitable to keep in the western part of Massachusetts, 

 where land is cheap, and they can have a large run, but in the 

 eastern part of the State, it is altogether different. I have taken 

 some pains in breeding Merino sheep, and I am fully satisfied of 

 their hardiness. I have taken the ground always, that if a man 

 wants to keep a large number of sheep, he had better keep the 

 Spanish Merino. I think they are the most profitable, I have 

 tried the Saxony, the Silesian, and the French Merinos, and I 

 am fully satisfied the Spanish Merino is the best we have. I 

 have gone somewhat extensively into the improvement of sheep 

 for my section, and I have used a Vermont buck. The sheep 

 in our section are not so far behind the Vermont sheep, after 

 all, as we are apt to think. I do not claim that they are as good, 

 but the difference is more in the attention and care they receive 

 than anything else. I had occasion .at one time to send to Mr. 

 Hammond for a buck ; and for my own gratification, I ordered 

 a ewe. This was when my sheep were at the highest point to 

 which I had ever got them, and I sent for this ewe to see how 

 their sheep would compare with mine. It was six years ago, 

 and I paid twenty-five dollars for the sheep. Such a sheep 

 would sell readily now, I presume, for one hundred dollars, and 

 perhaps more. I thought I would know the value of this sheep. 

 I served her just as I did my other sheep. We live in a country 

 where we cannot raise grain ; it is grass, and hardly anything 



