67 



Merino blood has been introduced, with the same result as fol- 

 lowed Mr. Kandall's cross with the South Downs. And while 

 we admire the public spirit and judgment, which have induced 

 leading agriculturists to introduce the various breeds of heavy 

 English sheep into our State, we cannot but believe that the 

 sheep-husbandry of Massachusetts will be greatly advanced, 

 when it is understood, that for our soil, and climate, and mar- 

 kets, a breed of sheep whose fleece has been improved by 

 Merino blood, and whose mutton is of the size and quality 

 which our pastures can produce, is the most profitable for a 

 very large proportion of our farmers. 



There are many matters relating to sheep-husbandry upon 

 which the limits of this report will not allow us to dwell. The 

 care of sheep in winter, the best modes of feeding, the time 

 and mode of shearing, the care of lambs, treatment of disease, 

 &c., are matters to be learned by experience, and from rules 

 laid down in the many elaborate treatises which are within the 

 reach of every farmer. The beneficial efi'ects of sheep on pas- 

 tui'e land, about which there is great difference of opinion in 

 various parts of the State, we simply refer to as a subject of 

 vast interest to the farmers of this county, where pastures are 

 annually deteriorating for the want of some economical mode 

 of cultivation. But if we shall have succeeded in attracting 

 the attention of the members of this Society to the importance 

 of the question, and if we shall have brought forward any 

 views which will tend to increase the interest in one of the 

 most profitable parts of agriculture, and one in which Essex 

 County is peculiarly interested, and to which she is well 

 adapted, we shall feel that we have faithfully discharged the 

 duty imposed upon us. 



The Chairman of the Committee would state that he has 

 been unable to consult all the members upon the opinions ex- 

 pressed by him in this report — and he is aware that some of 

 them may differ from him. To the following award of premi- 

 ums, however, there was no dissenting voice — and to this por- 

 tion of the report, he has therefore appended the names of the 

 whole Committee. 



