70 



grain or roots. They should drop their lambs by the first of 

 Febuary. After lambing they should be fed on grain. By the 

 time the lambs are a month old they will begin to eat meal, if 

 placed where they can have access to it, and should have all 

 they will eat. With such treatment until the first of May 

 (and that is as early as there is a market fur them), they will 

 dress from thirty to thirty-five lbs. each, and will usually 

 bring twenty-five cents per lb,, making 88 per head, and six 

 sheep will usually bring eight lambs and produce six pounds 

 of wool per head, that will sell for two shillings per pound, 

 making an income of $1Q, and they can be kept as cheap as 

 one cow. It is stated upon good authority that the cows in 

 Essex County will not average over six quarts of milk per day, 

 and will average but three cents per quart, yielding an in- 

 come of $65.70 per year. It will be seen that the sheep are 

 the most profitable without taking into account the improve- 

 ment of the pasture or the extra labor required by the cow. 

 This estimate is made for small flocks of not more than fifteen ; 

 larger flocks will not usually do as well, and no allowance is 

 made for the risk of damage by dogs. 



The ravages of dogs is the principal cause of so few sheep 

 being kept, but that cause should not and need not exist if the 

 farmers of the .State would unite in demanding of the Legisla- 

 ture an amendment of the Dog Law that would give us a rea- 

 sonable protection. With the existing law it often costs as 

 much to recover damage as the amount we receive. If the 

 damage occur in January we have to wait a year before we 

 can recover, and then if the amount of the Dog Tax in the 

 Treasury is not enough to pay the entire damage we have to 

 accept a percentage, and if a sheep is killed and the carcass is 

 not found, as is often the case, we receive nothing. If the 

 law was so amended that we should receive the full amount of 

 actual damage on its occurrence, the farms in the back towns 

 would soon be stocked with sheep to the benefit of the owners 

 and the Agricultural interest. 



Albert Berry, Chas. Corliss, N. W. Moody, T. C. Thurlow.— 

 Commiltee. 



