324 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



October. Six entries of steers, some very good ; a half dozen 

 milch cows and three bnlls completed the list. These animals all 

 looked well ; they were mostly what would be called native 

 stock, with an occasional dash of other blood from the main 

 land. I should think the Ayrshires would be a desirable 

 introduction on the island. 



Sheep have been raised on this Island for more than two 

 hundred years. In 1G53, Capt. Humphrey Atherton obtained 

 leave from the provincial government to keep sheep on the 

 Island of j\Iartin's Vineyard. I expected to see large numbers 

 of this profitable animal, so many years cultivated in this 

 locality so peculiarly adajited to them, and I was very much 

 disappointed that more were not shown. Seven entries of 

 twenty-five sheep were all that appeared on the ground, and 

 this in a county having 21,000 acres of pasturing, having 9,200 

 sheep, producing 19,800 pounds of wool, valued at §7,359, — 

 a county eminently adapted for raising sheep, and where grow- 

 ing sheep for wool and for market, ought to be a principal olvject. 

 I almost feared that they had not recovered from that raid of 

 the Biitish in the revolutionary war, when Lord Gray with his 

 troops drove off 10,000 sheep and 2,000 cattle. 



Those who have sheep or other stock, ought on such occa- 

 sions to be at some trouble to have them on the ground. It is 

 an injustices to the active men of the society, to the community, 

 and to themselves, not to contribute ; and I understood that 

 many of the best farmers of the Island either staid away 

 entirely, or came to it empty-handed. It seems to me that 

 they ought to keep a great many more sheep and of a better 

 quality. In 1855, (and it won't differ very much now,) they 

 had 1,350 Merino sheep, which yielded only about two pounds 

 eleven ounces to the fleece, and 7,781 common or native sheep, 

 shearir.g two pounds two ounces each, the whole averaging 

 thirty-six cents per pound. These sheep, when killed, dress 

 onl)' about forty-eight to sixty pounds; with such pastures and 

 facilities for kecj)ing sheep, it seems to me they should breed 

 more positively for either meat or wool. The first would be 

 gained by introducing the hardy Down sheep, to give size and 

 perfection of form, and early maturity ; to attain the latter, 

 careful adherence to correct breeding of the Merino would 

 accomplish every thing they could wish. The farmers of the 



