6i5 HAMPSHIRE AGJRICULTUHAL SOCIETY. 



this description of stock. We also noticed the weight of four pairs^, 

 which were as follows: The first weighed 2,600 lbs.; the second 

 2,470 lbs. ; the third 2,390 lbs. ; the fourth 2,400 lbs. 



The one year olds were all very good steers, but in the opinion of 

 your committee, the number was small in comparison with what it 

 ought to be, and with what it might have been, for we know of several 

 pairs, of large size and beautiful form, which Avere not present, but 

 which we expect to see next year in the list of two years' old. We 

 would only add, that if we expect good oxen we must have, not only 

 good two years' old, but good yearlings and good calves. 



GILES F. MONTAGUE, Chairman. 



ON SHEEP. 



We approach the important subject assigned to us for discussion 

 this day, Mr. President, with no little trepidation and self-distrust. 

 When the announcement was first made to us, now, thought we, we 

 must have all our thoughts about us, but instead of this we find to 

 our mortification and regret, that all our senses have " been a wool" 

 gathering," and all to little or no purpose, for we fear wehave scarce- 

 ly a new or original idea to off'er you on the subject we have undertak- 

 en to descant upon. We are sensible that to treat it properly in all 

 its varied ra?7iifications, requires the greatest acumen and depth of 

 thought, while the language employed would be the purest, " first- 

 clip " Saxony" and altogether uncrossed with either Norman French 

 or Latin. We profess that our subject to-day is wool-groiving, but 

 we feel that we must approach it with the utmost care and caution, 

 or we shall suddenly find ourselves and our subject most essentially 

 worsted ! 



Sir, it cannot be denied, and the fact is a most Zr/mJentable one, 

 that the business of sheep-raising, has not of late years, received the 

 attention from the farmers of this region, which its importance de- 

 serves. Living as we do, in the finest grazing country in the world, 

 it is strange that our farmers devote so little attention to a culture 

 which pays the largest and surest profit on the amount of capital in- 

 vested and of labor bestowed. Why sir, if the Patriarchs of old, 

 possessed such a range of hill-sides and mountain-sloj^es as this val- 

 ley presents, instead of the barren deserts of Syria, or the arid plains 

 of Moab, it is hardly unreasonable to suppose that their flocks would 

 have increased to such a degree as to have left room scarcely for the 

 human species. Let the farmers in this vicinity who are beginning 



