No. 4.] SHEEP RAISING. 155 



can get at the vegetation when it is starting, and stock it 

 sufficiently well, they will keep vegetation down. 



Mr. Pratt. What we call huckleberry bushes come up 

 in our section to a great extent. 



Mr, Bennett. I think the sheep would be of great assist- 

 ance if the bushes were mowed down tirst. When they are 

 four or five inches high I do not think the sheep would eat 

 them. If the sheep were put in the pasture early in the sea- 

 sou, and the bushes had been cut, it is my impression that 

 they would keep them down if the pasture is sufficiently well 

 stocked. 



Mr. Pratt. I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Bennett's 

 farm this last season, and I gained the impression that the 

 sheep were nearly taking care of the pasture. 



Mr. Bennett. I think they will, but they will not take a 

 large-sized bush. 



A. E. Blount (of Colorado). I want to ask why the 

 Australian breed produces the finest wool in the world and 

 is so poor in carcass. I have had experience with sheep in 

 the south and in the south-west and west, and I find that the 

 South American sheep do not produce wool, but hair, and 

 the mutton is very inferior. Three hundred and ten thousand 

 lambs were introduced in the vicinity of Greeley last week 

 for feeding purposes. They are fed on alfalfa. It is very 

 dangerous to feed to cattle and to sheep when it is wet. 

 The sheep are fed the alfalfa from the stack. The sheep are 

 kept in flocks of 1,500 to 2,000 or 3,000. We have no grub 

 there. We have no disease among the sheep. The only 

 difficulty there is the interference of the cattle men. The 

 sheep will destroy any pasture in the west. The western 

 pasture is subject to a very small amount of rain during the 

 year. We lose sheep by storms. I wish to ask about the 

 breeding for fine wool. 



. Mr. Bennett. So far as the question relates to in-breed- 

 ing in New England, there are probably those in the audience 

 who know more about it than I do, because the results and 

 conditions arc exactly the same in all the other animals and 

 in mankind. I would like to touch upon that a minute. 

 Australia is not a good mutton country, and New Zealand is. 

 I think that is almost wholly a question of the kind of sheep 



