400 NORFOLK SOCIETY. 



goes out of the county. A part, at least, and we think a 

 large part, might be as well supplied from our own farms. 

 From the best information we have been able to obtain, there 

 is not annually raised in this county at the present time, nor 

 has there been for a number of years, one thousand dollars 

 worth of wool. Let the same interest be felt for raising and 

 improving sheep, which there has been for raising and improv- 

 ing swine, during the last few years, and our annual exhibi- 

 tions would present as fine a show of sheep as we have seen 

 this year of swine; and we believe the profit to the farmer 

 would be as great. There have been imported within a year 

 or two, some very superior French Merino sheep, that will 

 shear from fifteen to thirty pounds of wool, each. The chair- 

 man of the committee has examined both the full and the half 

 blood sheep of this stock, and has never before seen any equal 

 them. They cost, at this time, rather more than our small 

 farmers can afford to pay ; say from two hundred to three 

 hundred dollars per head for full blood, and from fifty to one 

 hundred dollars for half blood. The half blood sheep are, 

 however, increasing very fast, and may soon be bought at 

 lower prices ; and they are very much better than any now kept 

 in the county. 



The committee would not wish to occupy too large a space 

 in their report, but they feel it to be a duty to make a few re- 

 marks founded upon their own observation, respecting the 

 profit of raising and keeping sheep in Norfolk county. 



A farmer in Walpole, having a small farm, formerly kept 

 forty sheep, four cows and one horse, and had food enough for 

 them the year round. The price of w^ool falling, he sold his 

 sheep, and for a number of years has kept other stock alto- 

 gether. He now keeps but three cows and one horse the year 

 round, and pastures two cows extra through the summer — say 

 from the first of June to the first of November — sells very lit- 

 tle hay, not half enough to keep another cow ; he has the same 

 amount of pasture and mowing as when he kept 'the forty 

 sheep in addition to his other stock, and yet his farm does not 

 look near as well as it did then. He used to raise turnips 

 among his corn, for his sheep to eat in winter, and gave them, 

 besides, a few bushels of grain. The lambs, however, more 

 than paid for the extra feed. 



