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cows, or most other neat stock, and hence the expense for labor, 

 which so rapidly eats up the profit in dairying, is little felt by the 

 farmers who direct their attention to sheep. The fodder article* 

 required in sheep raising are also very favorable to the business as 

 compared with feeding other farm animals. In summer sheep will 

 thrive on pasturage that would barely keep cattle alive, sheep eating 

 with relish weeds and many forms of herbage that cows refuse to eat. 

 This has the double advantage of supporting valuable farm livestock, 

 and destroying noxious weeds that are very detrimental to farming 

 operations. I have seen the white daisy, the poison-ivy and other 

 weeds destroyed by pasturing sheep on the land where they grow. 

 Does it not appear that the keeping of more sheep will be to the 

 decided advantage of the farmers in New England, to improve their 

 pastures, to curtail their outlay for labor, and to lengthen their bank 

 account. 



The Hampshire Agricultural Society is certainly doing a good work 

 in interesting farmers in this important branch of husbandry. 

 Kespectfully submitted, 



F. S. CooLEY, Committee on sheep. 



REPORT OF JUDGE ON SWINE. 



In submitting the report on the swine exhibit at the last September 

 fair there is very little that can be said of the animals on exhibition, 

 except to deplore the smallness of their number. There were awards 

 enough to pay for showing forty or fifty animals, yet only half a 

 score completed there being one entry in each of three classes. 



The lack of swine at your fair was not due to any depression in 

 the business, nor to the scarcity of this class of livestock in the sec- 

 tion. How to awaken an interest in this department of our annual 

 fair should be one of the problems for the society to solve. The 

 object of the society is to encourage and educate farmers, and by 

 showing them what has been done, to stimulate them to still greater 

 efforts in all branches of their vocation. With pork products as high 

 as they usually are, especially for the last two years, where can we 

 find a better opportunity for making improvements pay? Why 

 despise the prosaic hog when his carcass is worth eight cents a pound 

 in any market? It is well known that it costs less to produce a 

 pound of pork than a pound of any other meat, yet at present it sells 

 for more than one and one half times as much as beef. 



