SECRETARY'S REPORT. 167 



With regard to pastures, I am altogether in favor of stocking 

 with sheep. Tliere is no need of keeping one -kind of animal 

 on a pasture for a hundred years, as we have been told they do 

 in Berkshire. I would not be guilty of pasturing cows or sheep 

 three, four, or six years on the same pasture. Put your sheep 

 into the cow-pasture, and your cows into the sheep-pasture, — 

 make a rotation m that way, and you benefit your pastures at 

 once. There is no kind of fertilizer that is equal to slieep 

 manure, — it is of great value. 



I have not been in the habit of keeping an exact account of 

 how much it costs me to raise my sheep, but I know it don't 

 cost me, to raise a Cotswold lamb, that will weigli, when dressed, 

 one hundred and fourteen pounds, anything like the figures 

 that have been produced here this afternoon. That is not an 

 uncommon weight at all for a good Cotswold, but what I like 

 full as well is an Oxford Down, which was produced, some years 

 ago, by crossing a Southdown ewe with a Cotswold buck. 

 That is the best sheep I know of. I find that it does not injure 

 a Cotswold, Southdown, or Oxford Down ewe to have a lamb 

 when she is a year old, only the lamb must not be allowed to 

 run too long with its mother. 



A discussion followed in regard to the present dog law. The 

 general sentiment expressed was, that it was inefficient, inas- 

 much as there were so much trouble and expense necessary in 

 order to secure the compensation provided by the Act, that 

 farmers would prefer to lose their sheep rather than undertake 

 to get pay for them in that way. Several instances were men- 

 tioned, in which selectmen had required such an amount of 

 testimony as practically to nullify the operation and purpose 

 of the statute. It was suggested in the course of the debate, 

 that if the towns were made responsible for all sheep killed by 

 dogs, without reference to the amount of tax collected from the 

 owners of dogs, the town authorities would see that the law 

 was enforced. It was also suggested, that if the farmers of the 

 State would make up their minds that they must have sheep, 

 dogs or no dogs, and that tliey would defend their sheep against 

 dogs, there would be no trouble. Yermont was pointed to as 

 an illustration of this point. Nobody, it was said, ever heard 

 of a dog law in Yermont that amounted to anything, and yet 



