SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 117 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



MIDDLESEX SOUTH. 



From an Address hy George S. Boutwell. 



I have selected this topic for this occasion because I am 

 quite sure that Massachusetts, and possibly our county and 

 neighborhood, may engage, profitably in sheep husbandry. 



There are two classes of subjects on which a man may write 

 with profit, — those that he understands thoroughly, and those 

 that he is ignorant of entirely. If his subject is of the first 

 class, he will interest his hearers and readers. If it is of 

 the second he is sure, in the preparation of his papers, to 

 educate and improve himself. If, however, a man undertakes 

 to write upon a subject with which he is well acquainted, but 

 yet has never carefully studied, his conclusions and opinions 

 answer to the average conclusions and opinions of those who 

 listen, and hence but little advantage is obtained by anybody. 

 My present claim to consideration is due to the fact that I enter 

 upon the discussion of a subject, of which I had as little knowl- 

 edge as can be assumed of any one ; and if, therefore, you fail 

 to obtain instruction I ask you to believe, whether the address 

 gives evidence one way or the other, that I know more of sheep 

 husbandry than when I entered upon the present investigation. 

 I have read several elaborate essays from the antiquated article 

 on sheep in Rees' Cyclopaedia, to a comparatively recent paper 

 prepared by Prof. Wilson, of Edinborough, and published in the 

 Transactions of the New York Agricultural Society for 1858. 

 These discussions are too minute for repetition here. They are 

 largely devoted to different breeds of sheep, many of which 

 have never been introduced into this country, and many also 

 that are not esteemed anywhere. It is a noticeable fact that 

 the article in Rees' Cyclopaedia contains nearly everything that 

 is found in the papers of modern writers. The value. of the 

 Southdown sheep seems to have been as well understood at the 

 commencement of this century as now, though the breed has 

 been greatly improved within fifty years. 



It is to be assumed, I suppose, that every one knows a sheep, 

 though there are children in the public schools of the State, and 



