240 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



late, and it would be well for the farmers to consider whether 

 it would not be for their profit to try and bring it back to 

 prosperity again. I refer to the sheep industry. There are 

 many farmers who are getting good returns from their flocks, 

 and they are paying them as well as anything would. One 

 of the greatest drawbacks is the damage to the flock by dogs, 

 and this is the most discouraging feature of the business. 

 To have gotten together a fine flock of sheep and then have 

 them raided or spoiled by dogs is certainly enough to make 

 the owner think of a great manj^ expressions not found in 

 church hynuis ; but there is no better maxim than to keep on 

 trying, for it is the persevering one who succeeds. 



In regard to breed of sheep for our New England farms, 

 for very early or hot-house lambs, so called, a fine wool ewe 

 and a Southdowni buck will give the best results with the 

 least trouble. For lambs in March, April or May, a cross 

 between the Southdown and the Shropshire makes a good 

 model, especially if the Southdown blood predominates. 

 Never raise any but the best, and not in large flocks, so that 

 they can have the best of care. A few sheep on a majority 

 of the farms would be a profit to the owner, as well as an 

 improvement to the farm ; and if you have good lambs you 

 will always find a market, for they are preferred by consum- 

 ers to the lamlis that are brouo;ht in refrigerator cars. Here 

 is an opportunity for the farmers of our hill towns to engage 

 in that which Mill be for their profit, if entered into with 

 care and good judgment. Whatever you undertake, put in 

 a large amount of faith and lots of hard work ; be thorough 

 in all you undertake, and do not get discouraged at a few 

 failures, but keep at it, and it will turn out some time in 

 your favor. 



When Solon Robinson was agricultural editor of the ' ' New 

 York Tribune," and corn had been scarce and the price high 

 through the winter, he wrote in the spring to the farmers of 

 the country, asking them to plant one acre more. In the 

 fall of that same year, in an address delivered before the 

 Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden Agricultural Society, he 

 said that it had been estimated that the publishing of those 

 two lines in the "Tribune " the previous spring had increased 

 the corn crop of the country over one million acres. But he 



