122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



you can raise wool with a profit. Where joxi can go into gar- 

 dening, I don't think you can. My experience is, that in our 

 part of the State, where we raise the heavy articles I have 

 mentioned, it is profitable. I think, so far as dollars are 

 concerned, it is more profitable, one year with another, than 

 raising beef. 



Mr. Stedman. — What is the average price of pasture land ? 



Mr. Smith. — I have known some bought for two dollars, and 

 it is not often as high as twenty-five dollars an acre. 



Mr. Keith. — How much can a man afford to pay for his land, 

 and devote it exclusively to sheep, and not sell his sheep for over 

 ten dollars apiece ? 



Mr. Smith. — I think just about as much as you would if you 

 were to raise beef, and make butter and cheese. I could not 

 exactly determine. I think you can pay for a farm as quick by 

 keeping Merino sheep as anything. I have no sheep for mutton, 

 and never kept them for that. If I were to go into raising 

 mutton sheep I should take the Southdowns. A few of them 

 would pay on most farms, where you have other cattle. But I 

 doubt whether any man can make much profit by stocking his 

 farm for mutton. You cannot get sheep very fat where you 

 have a large herd ; where you keep a few you can. Their being 

 fat increases the value per pound. For an extra quality of 

 mutton, the Merino is not the best. It is impossible for an 

 animal to be very fat and grow fine wool at the same time ; no 

 animal .can give fifteen or twenty pounds of wool and be enor- 

 mously fat, any more than a cow can give a great amount of 

 milk and be very fat. 



I think the Merinos will pay the best. I have never seen a 

 large flock of one or two hundred that a man ever made money 

 on, for mutton ; I have known many sink money on them. 

 There is no sheep that will do so well in large herds as the 

 Merinos ; and they will not d© as well in large flocks as in 

 small ones. But, as they are grown for wool, if they don't get 

 very fat, we get a pretty good supply of wool. 



It was stated in the report that was read that the Southdowns 

 produce the most wool. That is not so. Any ordinary flock 

 of Merinos will produce more wool than the same number of 

 Southdowns. 



Mr. Davis, of Northborough. — What does your flock shear ? 



