164 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I don't think the largest Merino sheep are the most profitable 

 for raising wool. I want short-legged, compact sheep. They 

 are more quiet, more apt to do well, and it is less trouble to 

 take care of them than of the long-bodied sheep. I have 

 sheared between six and seven pounds from a carcase that 

 would not weigh more than forty pounds. Take one of these 

 sheep that shear twenty-five, thirty, or forty pounds of wool, 

 and you would think such a fleece would clothe all your 

 family, but when you cleanse it, and bring it down to the 

 cards, you get but little wool. I think that four pounds 

 would be a very large average of cleansed wool for the cards. 

 Possibly there may be six pounds, but I should doubt it, 

 exceedingly. So you see, there is not, after all, the real 

 value in these heavy shearers, so far as the wool alone is 

 concerned. There is no question, however, that it is profit- 

 able to buy them for the purpose of crossing with other sheep- 



I have seen it recommended in one of the governor's messages, 

 that more sheep be kept in Massachusetts, as a matter of good 

 husbandry, to bring up poor land. That was contrary to my 

 experience, and to the experience of the farmers in our section. 

 I once believed that sheep would improve a farm anywhere, but 

 I have come to a different conclusion now. It is just as it is 

 with all other stock. You want the kind of stock that is 

 adapted to the locality. I am convinced that sheep are ben- 

 eficial to some lands, but to other lands, to loamy, rather heavy 

 soils, where we do not plough, they are decidedly injurious. 

 I know they are a sure remedy for the white daisy. I defy 

 a man to find any of the white daisy on a pasture that has been 

 occupied by sheep for two years. Ten years ago, our people 

 began to get sick of sheep, though they had made a good deal 

 by keeping them. I don't think sheep manure is as good as the 

 manure of cattle. Our grass grew short and fine on lands 

 that are fed with sheep. Where the sheep manure was composted, 

 I don't think it had that effect, but where it was not composted, 

 our grass grew short and fine, and did not head out well. I 

 think if a man wants to improve his farm, he had better keep 

 cattle instead of sheep. 



Prof. Agassiz. — I would like to ask whether there is any food 

 which has been found by experiment, to increase the amount of 

 wool produced by sheep. 



