SECRETARY'S REPORT. 123 



Mr. Smith. — A good flock, washed in cold water before 

 shearing, will average four and a half or live poulids — that is, 

 really fiuc wool. There are those that will shear six, eight or 

 ten pounds ; but I hardly think I know a whole flock that will 

 shear over six. The extremely heavy weights that are reported 

 — twenty pounds and so on — are unwashed fleeces. 



Mr. Davis. — Can you get six pounds from pure Merino, or 

 arc they grades ? 



Mr. Smith. — Pure Merino. I do not believe in cross-breeding. 

 You don't know what you will get ; it will be neither Merino 

 nor Southdown. You injure the quality of the wool, and I 

 think you will not increase the quality of the mutton enough to 

 overbalance it. It is the oily and soft wool of the pure Merino 

 that makes the soft cloth. Our hard hills, as Dr. Loring told 

 us, are the seed-bed of the Merino sheep. They do deteriorate 

 in warmer climates and richer pastures. By taking them West 

 they rather run out in some qualities, though they get a larger 

 growth. They lose the dark coat of the wool. But we can 

 make it profitable to raise sheep to sell West, as they do in 

 Vermont. 



Mr. Davis. — Did you commence breeding your flock on new 

 land, or land that had been exhausted by cattle ? 



Mr. Smith. — It was old land. If I was going to run in debt 

 for a farm, and wished to pay for it as soon as I could, I would 

 keep as many sheep as I could. You can turn off more money 

 with sheep than you can with cattle. But if I wished to keep 

 my farm up, and have a better farm in the end, I would keep 

 cattle. 



Mr. Davis. — Can you take your land and fence it, and put 

 sheep in to make them clear the brush quicker than with cattle ? 



Mr. Smith — Yes. But neither sheep nor cattle will clear out 

 brush properly. Sheep will run out blackberries, and the white 

 daisies, too. That is certain. I have heard much about the 

 white daisies, but I don't care any more about them than I do 

 about white clover. A flock of sheep will clear them out in two 

 years. They will eat them as quick as they will hay. The 

 yellow daisy I do not like so well. I would keep cattle on a 

 field about three years, and then sheep one year. There will 

 a good many things like the daisy, work in, that the sheep will 

 clean up. 



