SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 167 



But, before I speak in regard to the law, I wish to empha- 

 size what Mr. Bowditch said in regard to sheep and dogs 

 becoming acquainted Avith one another. A dog, quicker 

 than any other creature in the world, can be taught what his 

 master wants, and to respect what he knows is property. A 

 dog likes to protect your property rather than to destroy it ; 

 and the reason that our isolated and small flocks of sheep are 

 attacked and destroyed by dogs is not so much the inherent 

 viciousness in the dogs, but the fact that the dog does not 

 distinguish that creature as one of the domestic animals 

 which is the associate of man, on a par with himself, and to 

 be treated as farm stock. I fully believe this. I have had 

 some hard experience in this regard. Ignorant or inexperi- 

 enced doffs will sometimes attack calves. I remember an 

 instance on my place. A dog that I had raised and kindly 

 nurtured until he had grown to weigh about 140 pounds, one 

 day suddenly saw a calf, — perhaps the first he had ever 

 seen, he being about a year old. I heard a noise, and on 

 looking out saw the calf and dog tumbling upon the ground. 

 I immediately took part myself in the conflict, and the re- 

 sult of it was that the next time that dog saw a calf he came 

 up to me, and, looking in my face with a confidential ex- 

 pression, manifested to me his profound conviction that he 

 would never touch another calf as long as he lived. I had no 

 trouble in teaching him that. Every man who has raised a 

 pup upon his farm knows that he is liable to lose a chicken or 

 two until he catches the dog in the act, and then and there 

 convinces him that a chicken is something to be respected 

 and taken care of instead of being destroyed. We want to 

 keep sheep so that the dogs will get acquainted with them ; 

 for people will keep dogs. There is no use in farmers com- 

 plaining that their neighbors keep dogs. Dogs are kept all 

 over the world, and they are going to be kept. You cannot 

 get a stronger law than we have now ; and if you should suc- 

 ceed in getting a law ahead of public opinion, it would be of 

 no use. When you go to the Legislature you find two or 

 three hundred men who are interested, not in sheep, but in 

 dogs. There is not a single man in the Legislature, per- 

 haps, who has the slightest interest in sheep ; while three- 

 quarters have a direct interest in dogs, either their own 



