146 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



retain them, the farmer must feel assured that he is going to 

 be able to keep them for a series of years, and not be so 

 pressed for funds as to be compelled to sell them, without 

 breeding, the second year, when they would possibly bring 

 less money than they would have brought as lambs. 



The decline in sheep husbandry in New England undoubt- 

 edly began with the decline in household manufactures, and 

 was enhanced by the competition of the great grazing regions 

 in the free ranges west of the Mississippi River and by the 

 ravages of dogs among our small flocks in the badly fenced 

 pastures of the eastern States. When the wholesale sheep 

 raising of the west and the passing away of household manu- 

 factures in the east first began to reduce the flocks of the 

 New England farmer, he failed to build the industry upon 

 new conditions. He also failed to resist the depreciation of 

 his flock because of in-breeding, and to adopt a class of sheep 

 that would endure such housing in considerable numbers 

 as is necessary through the New England winters. That 

 ' ' worms kill more sheep than dogs " is the terse and true 

 heading of a good many advertisements of various vermifuges 

 throughout the United States ; and a multitude of internal 

 parasites are developed in the so-called mutton breeds of 

 sheep by excessive housing. In the severe winters of our 

 New England States, where considerable housing is necessary, 

 the sheep should have some percentage of Merino blood, in 

 order to survive the artificial conditions under which they 

 are kept. 



The breed of sheep which I have selected as the proper 

 cross from which to obtain this resistance to the evils of 

 winter housing is the Rambouillet. The "native sheep" 

 of New England, being wholly of English origin, contract 

 fatal diseases with such certainty, if kept in large bands, that 

 the farmers of Massachusetts and Maine have been accustomed 

 to assert in general terms that sheep will not thrive if kept 

 in flocks of more than 30 or 40 head ; but, with a fair per- 

 centage of Rambouillet or other Merino blood in them, there 

 is no limit to the number of sheep that can be kept in a flock 

 in Massachusetts or others of the New England States. 



Before referring briefly to the various English breeds of 

 sheep, we will consider for a moment the origin of the Ram- 



