SECRETARY'S REPORT. 121 



When you have procured the best sheep, it then becomes 

 necessary to take care of them. AVhile you get clear of the 

 diseases and dangers incident to large flocks, still there is care 

 necessary. They should be fed and sheltered in the winter. 

 They should have protection from the rains and heat of summer. 

 Rain is the great destroyer of sheep. In clear, dry, cold weather, 

 the tenderest one will in no way be injured. With the thermom- 

 eter at zero, the sheep is comfortable and happy, while on a 

 drizzly, warm day, or in a rainstorm, in either winter or sum- 

 mer, the sheep is a great sufferer. The reason is obvious. The 

 temperature of the body of a sheep is higher than that of any 

 other domestic animal. It is usually in healthy sheep about 104° 

 above zero, as marked on our common thermometer. Nothing 

 tends to lower this temperature so readily as the saturation of€he 

 fleece by wet. And as the temperature is lowered, so he sinks 

 in condition. It requires all that he can eat to furnish sufficient 

 carbon or heat to expel the cold from his system. Nothing is 

 left for nourishment, and so the damp weather actually produces 

 starvation. Clear weather, and the colder the better, we may 

 almost say, is the sheep's holiday. His casing of wool is suffi- 

 cient protection. But a continued rainstorm is the messenger 

 of disease and death. Therefore, we close with recommending 

 our farmers to keep sheep ; to keep but few ; to change often 

 their pastures ; to let them follow on behind their cows to clear 

 up their pasture land ; to keep Southdowns ; to keep them well 

 fed ; to shelter them in wet weather, and in winter, or when 

 there is dew in summer, to see that they can get water ; and 

 further, to remember one thing, that 45 pounds of pease or beans 

 are equal, for feeding them, to 100 pounds of best hay, and 

 equal to 504 pounds of turnips or 276 pounds of carrots. 



Mr. Smith, of Middlefield, being called upon, said he pre- 

 ferred that gentlemen should ask him questions on any points 

 with regard to which they desire information. 



Mr. Stedman, referring to a statement in the report read, 

 that there luas a time when sheep could Ije raised at a profit, 

 inquired if there ever was a time when they could be raised at 

 a greater profit than now. 



Mr. SxMiTH. — I think not. In my opinion, where you can 

 raise beef, and make butter and cheese, — those heavy articles, — 



16* 



