SECRETARY'S REPORT. 25T 



destroying them. In this way, a man would have but a small 

 fenced farm, and own a large flock of sheep, horses, colts and 

 cattle, as he need get only hay enough to keep his horned cattle 

 and horses a few months in the winter ; and they were turned 

 out every day, cold or not, unless it was a storm too severe, and 

 at such times the colts would come homo for a little hay to be 

 eked out to them. At no other time were they allowed to 

 encroach on their owner, till about four years old, when they 

 were taken up and nearly starved, to break them, (the term 

 then used,) as it was less trouble to bring a dumb little colt into 

 harness, than if he was spirited. 



It will be seen by this method that the owners of the lands 

 could not receive any income, but still the flocks increased, 

 the lands becoming poorer, till there were about fifteen thousand 

 sheep, their average fleeces amounthig to the same number of 

 pounds. There could not be a gate open in the town or out ; 

 if it were, one or more sheep would get in and destroy everything 

 before them. 



Here was a case where forty owners could annoy eight thou- 

 sand inhabitants, till 1848, when the town voted to choose men 

 for field-drivers that would do their duty, and clear every hoof 

 from the unfenced lands and the highway. Then began the war 

 which drove the sheep from the island, and their value into the 

 pockets of the lawyers. 



It al^o obliged the man with a small fenced farm to dispose 

 of his surplus cattle at whatever price he could get, and he that 

 owned largely in the undivided lands fenced large tracts for 

 pastures. But the farmer had become so used to large herds 

 that he could not bring himself to the notion that he could get 

 along with a smaller number, and make more on them, if well 

 fed and cared for, than on the greater number, and thus he 

 continued to grow poorer, till it was said the more stock or 

 undivided land a man owned, the poorer he was. 



For many years before and after this time, as much hay and 

 as many vegetables were yearly brought to the island as were 

 raised. Then to be obliged to fence against every kind of stock 

 was such a tax on the owner of land that he would sell at a less 

 price than the same would bring to-day, while no other property 

 is worth more than fifty per cent, on its cost. 



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