170 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



told in reports to this Board of Agriculture two or three 

 times ; it is an old story, and to me it is a very painful one. 

 The attempt that so many of us make to induce the farmers 

 of this State to engage in sheep husbandry is constantly met 

 by the answer, " We cannot do it on account of the destruc- 

 tion by dogs." It has been said here, and said truly, that the 

 Legislature is composed of dog owners, or dog lovers, ralher 

 than those in favor of the sheep industry of the country. One 

 attending a farmers' meeting or a meeting of this Board, and 

 seeing the expression on the faces of those present, would 

 suppose that dogs were in disfavor and that sheep were the 

 favorites ; but it is very different when you go to the polls. 

 Then you do not think of that, but you choose a man who 

 keeps a dog and disregards sheep. You take a lawyer or a 

 shopkeeper, who is not connected in any way with agricul- 

 ture, and send him down to Boston to make your laws. That 

 is what is the matter, and that was the difficulty when, three 

 or four years ago, we submitted amendments to the dog law 

 which no reasonable being could object to. It was passed 

 in one branch of the Legislature, but in the other it was 

 killed by a dog owner, a dog breeder and a lawyer to boot, 

 in the city of Boston. (Applause) . 



Secretary Russell. He has run away since that time. 

 Mr. Grinnell. I know it perfectly well, and I only 

 wish he had left no successor. Every man who speaks on 

 this subject tries to excuse and apologize for the dog. We 

 have had two or three here to day, — shining lights. They 

 are dog owners, and think more of their dogs than they 

 do of their sheep. 



Secretary Russell. Do you mean me ? 

 Mr. Grinistell. Yes, sir, I mean you. 

 Mr. BowDTiTCH. I will guarantee that I keep more dogs 

 on my place than any other man here, but still I keep sheep 

 with them. I say that we can keep sheep and still keep 

 dogs, and any man who wants to keep sheep is a weak- 

 backed brother if he cannot keep them in spite of dogs. 

 For the last five or six years I have kept sheep, and there 

 have been five or six hundred dollars' worth of sheep, at 

 least, killed within half a mile of me. That did not frighten 

 me at all. I buried the dog that attacked my sheep ; the 



