12G BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



instruction which I am sure I never obtained in my youth. I 

 am exceedingly gratified that it should have fallen to my lot to 

 be in here a moment, and I owe it to my friend that the sugges- 

 tion has been made that it was somewhat my duty to speak on 

 this present occasion. 



I have had little experience in sheep, other than to obtain 

 some six or seven hundred dollars for an animal when they were 

 more valuable than they are now. 



One gentleman has referred to the use of sheep on land where 

 the white daisy grows. My father had land on which he kept 

 some thousands of sheep, and he cleared his out-lands almost 

 entirely by pasturing them with sheep ; especially of the large 

 yellow flower, the jolmswort. Those who lived at that time 

 will bear me witness that the productiveness of his pasture lands 

 was greatly increased by sheep-husbandry. I recollect perfectly 

 well, that the lands were exceedingly fertilized by the sheep 

 running over them ; and it was said that their tails supplied 

 much more than their mouths destroyed. 



My own experience was much to that effect. As I intimated, 

 I went into sheep-husbandry at a time when there was a great 

 rage for that branch of business. I procured a valuable sheep 

 from a clergyman of Brookfield, Rev. Mr. Stone. But I left 

 the bvisiness when I went to Washington, — not with a loss, but 

 a profit, — and in 1820 I sold two crops of wool for two 

 dollars a pound, to be manufactured in the town of Millbury, 

 in this county. Were it not for the very great cost of land in 

 this neighborhood, and for that everlasting discouragement, the 

 keeping of dogs for the destruction of sheep — for I know of little 

 other purpose for which they are kept — I think it would be good 

 husbandry in all parts of the State. I have no doubt of it. 

 Certainly, they are kept without very great labor, and in that 

 respect, it is a great advantage. At the price which wool now 

 brings I can scarcely conceive that it should not be profitable 

 l3ut for the two causes that I have mentioned, — the great price 

 of lands and the almost entire destruction of some flocks by 

 dogs. This is all the hint that I can suggest that will be of profit. 



As to their eradication of weeds, I thought it might be 

 important that, I should state what I knew as to their keeping, 

 in my early years. With regard to the great quiet of the animal, 

 I was not so fortunate as the gentleman before mo, (Mr. Smith.) 



