SECRETARY'S REPORT. 163 



else but grass. We raise pretty good cattle and sheep, but we 

 raise them on grass almost entirely. I put this sheep in with 

 my flock, and let her run. In the spring I sheared her with 

 the rest, and she sheared the most of any, with the exception of 

 one ; but you see she had been kept in Vermont until the middle 

 of November. Well, she went- out to my pasture the same as 

 my other sheep, and the next year she did not shear quite up 

 to the average of the flock. I kept her two or three years, and 

 I did not consider her an average sheep. She certainly was not 

 an average in the quality of her wool ; and I have generally 

 found, that our sheep in Western Massachusetts yield a better 

 quality of wool, nicer, softer wool, than they get in Vermont. 

 There are exceptions to that, but tliat is the general rule. A 

 great deal is owing to the care. I don't do as well by my sheep 

 as I think likely it would be profitable to. I think if we kept 

 less cattle and sheep, and kept them better, we should make 

 more profit. That is the great secret of the superiority of Ver- 

 mont sheep. Now, in regard to our sheep, we let them run 

 about as long as they will live, and then put them up and feed 

 them with hay. We let them run in rain storms, which are 

 worse for sheep than snow storms. In Vermont, they house 

 them in storms ; and if a person is situated so that he can, it 

 will pay, but he cannot with pastures from two to seven miles 

 from home. This care adds a great deal to the weight of wool. 

 I presume there are men within the sound of my voice who 

 have bought bucks that have sheared enormous great fleeces, 

 and yet they have never been able to get them up to the point 

 they had reached before ; they do not understand keeping them 

 up to it, as the Vermont breeders do. 



One great point to be looked at in selecting sheep is to see 

 that the wool runs all round them. You can get about as good 

 wool on the belly as on the back, if you work at it carefully. 

 It is a matter requiring a great deal of care and attention, like 

 everything else in good breeding. One of the first things I 

 thought of, was to get the wool on the belly long. I didn't see 

 why there should not be wool on the belly as well as on the 

 back; I found there was a difference in sheep in that respect, 

 and so I selected with reference to that, and I have ha d sheep 

 that I have never seen excelled, in that respect. 



