*° ADDRESS. 



for sheep. The truth is that good farming tends so 

 explicitly and so universally to increased favor for 

 mutton growing, that I cannot but think it is that 

 direction which the improvement of our Agriculture 

 at the East must take before our farmers can hope to 

 accomplish much more than they are already doing. 



For you will please note that it is not with the most 

 remote reference to the present high prices of wool, 

 that I speak. The cheaper lands of Michigan and 

 Wisconsin, and, when the Union is re-united, of Texas 

 also, can grow wool as fine as we can grow it here, and 

 send it to market with as little, or still less, loss from the 

 cost of transportation's any other productthey can raise. 

 It is the breeding of mutton sheep that is suffering most 

 from neglect, yielding an income every year, involving 

 some profit, from the fleece, which cannot be had from 

 cattle, and selling at last to the butcher at a rate that 

 shall return at least as good results upon the food and 

 labor they have cost, as can be yielded in fattening beef. 



Now among the breeds suggesting themselves for 

 the purpose, there is considerable range for selection. 

 The South Down has the advantage that its name goes 

 far in commanding a price, like that of Alderney butter, 

 with those who can appreciate and are disposed to pay 

 for it. But the Oxford Downs which have been intro- 

 duced into the neighboring county of Essex by my 

 friend Mr. Fay, are a somewhat larger sheep, which, with 

 their other merits, is constantly gaining them increased 

 favor in Great Britain. The Cotswolds give perhaps 

 still greater size, and on good pasturage yield a good 

 account for all they consume, while, moreover, you have 

 flocks of them in your own vicinity worthy of encour- 

 agement. 'J he ci Leicester " sheep bred in this country 



