ESSEX SOCIETY. 83 



sheep are subject ; but it is believed there is little to fear on 

 account of disease in any of its forms, as a general thing. 



Neither do I claim to have set forth all the reasons which 

 can be given why sheep husbandry should have a greater share 

 of the farmer's favor. I should deprecate a sheep fever like 

 that in the time of the last war with England, when fortunes 

 were ruined in a day. But we may be, and probably are, 

 upon the other extreme. One sheep upon every 52 acres only I 

 at the same time that more than 100 sets of woolen machinery 

 are within three hours' ride for every man in the county I 

 15,000 pounds of wool only, grown in Essex, while 2,292,500 

 pounds are manufactured ! 4,467 sheep only, in a county 

 where there are 2,650,000 yards of flannel and blanketing man- 

 ufactured, together with 700,000 yards of woolen cloth, not 

 specified, and 100,000 pounds of woolen yarn spun, none of 

 which is made into cloth !* • 



But there is much reason to believe that the day is not dis- 

 tant, when public attention shall be turned to this subject; 

 and that, avoiding the sheep fever of 1812, and the poultry 

 fever of a later day, we shall see the sober thought of our 

 county adding a few thousand a year, till there shall be some 

 20,000 to 30,000 sheep within our borders, a thing which can 

 be done without any change that would be thought, for a mo- 

 ment, violent. 



* See Hayward's Gazetteer of Massachusetts, for 184o. 



