No. 4.] SHEEP KAISING. 151 



also, for cows, but of course must not be used where horses 

 are pastured. 



Some people think the barbed-wire fence is improper for 

 sheep, because little tufts of wool are seen hanging upon it 

 in sheep pastures where it is used ; but all the wool that is 

 ever lost in this way in a flock of 500 sheep would hardly 

 amount to the value of a single animal. The sheep speedil}^ 

 get acquainted with the fence, and leave it alone. The dogs 

 cannot crawl under or through the wires, and they will not 

 jump over; because my experience is, that a fence of that 

 height is never troubled by a dog unless it is something that 

 he can put his paws upon when jumping over. I have made 

 some examination of woven wire and other forms of fences 

 for sheep, and am convinced that for my own use they are 

 not equal to barbed wire, and are several times as costly. 



I early took the ground that, if we saw a dog in our sheep 

 field, he should be promptly shot, and then we would decide 

 afterward whether we had a right to shoot him. My men 

 said the dogs were licensed ; but I said I did not care, — 

 they must be shot. Curiously enough, yesterday I saw a 

 decision of the supreme court of Massachusetts on this sub- 

 ject. A valuable dog had been shot on a man's premises in 

 the act of worrying hens. The owner of the dog fought the 

 case through the supreme court, and the supreme bench re- 

 turned a verdict justifying the killing of dogs under such 

 circumstances. I think that is a very useful thing for us to 

 know. A predator}' animal, being engaged in killing do- 

 mestic animals, there being no other way to prevent it, can 

 be killed. 



Since the above was written I have been compelled by un- 

 fortunate circumstances to add the following postscript. I 

 had been interested in sheep more or less all of my life, and 

 quite largely during the past ten years, without any trouble 

 of consequence from dogs, but during the past few weeks 

 I have lost a ram and three valua))le ewes from dogs. In one 

 case an occurrence in Saugus, which o('cui)ied much attention 

 in the daily papers, caused thousands of visitors to swarm 

 over the fields in our neighborhood, and they would leave 

 the gate open and walk into our sheep pasture. In one 

 instance such an invader was accompanied by a dog that 



