146 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



grounds not too wet, are also improved by being 

 grazed to some extent by sheep, as feeding off 

 the aftermath, and being pastured through the 

 season once in four or five years. 4th, Sheep 

 may be made to kill out shrubs, briars, &c., which 

 they do by constantly cropping the leaves and 

 tender shoots, thus weakening and ultimately kill- 

 ing the plants, when grasses and white clover 

 take their place. 



Mr. Howard then proceeded to spe^k of the 

 breeds of sheep, and said that no domestic ani- 

 mal, except the dog, presents such s'riking di- 

 versities of character as the sheep. All sheep, 

 said he, are one species, although attempts have 

 been made to divide them into two — hairy and 

 woolly, and this he considered absurd. He said 

 they wore either the aboriginal or natural and the 

 artificial breeds. 



Our breeds, said he, with the exception of the 

 Merino, have been derived principally from Eng- 

 land, the Merino being first brought here from 

 Spain. The choice of breeds by farmers should 

 be regulated by the object in view, and by the 

 particular circumstances in which they are to be 

 placed. For wool alone no breed will pay so well 

 as the Merino, and its sub-varieties, as the Sax- 

 on, Silesian and French. In the eastern section 

 of the country, where the great markets are read- 

 ily accessible, some of the British breeds will be 

 the most profitable. As in their native country, 

 so it will be here, those of the larger class will 

 be found best adapted to the richest and best pas- 

 tures, and the smaller class to the rougher and 

 poorer districts, and he mentioned among the 

 former, the Lincoln, Cotswold, and others, all 

 long wooled breeds, next the South or Sussex 

 Down, the Hampshire and Shropshire Down and 

 the Oxfordshire Down or Down Cotswold. For 

 mountainous districts, where more hardihood is 

 required, he said the Cheviot and the Black faced 

 Mountain, both Scottish breeds, are well suited 

 — the latter being the hardiest breed known, al- 

 though we have very few of them in this country. 



Mr. Howard then spoke of the characteristics 

 and origin of the different breeds of sheep, and 

 exhibited to the meeting a large number of sam- 

 ples of wool from the various kinds — both fine 

 and coarse, long and short. 



Speaking of the comparative number of sheep 

 in Great Britain and the United States, he said 

 that McUueen, in 183G, gave the number of long 

 wooled slieep in Great Britain and Ireland as 

 19,800,000, while the number of short wooled was 

 28,'J00,000, the former averaging 7A lbs. per 

 fleece, and the latter averaging UA lbs., and alto- 

 gether producing 240,700,000 lbs. of wool. The 

 number now in the United Kingdom is about 

 55,000,000, of which all but about a quarter of a 

 million, in Ireland, are in England and Scotland. 



Mr. Howard stated that by the census of 1850 

 the number of sheep in the United States was 

 22,000,000, but he understood this number had 

 now decreased to 20,000,000. He closed by urg- 

 ing on farmers the numerous advantages of rais- 

 ing sheep, and expressing a hope to see this branch 

 of agriculture receive the attention its importance 

 in a pecuniary sense merits. 



Mr. FiSK, of Shelburn, considered that the ob- 

 ject in keeping sheep was to make money, and 

 the kind of sheep that brought the most were the 

 best to keep. In his county the pastures were 

 good, but the farmers there found sheep improved 

 even the good lands ; they could not afford to 

 have their sheep eat bushes and briars, as they 

 considered it cheaper to cut them down with the 

 scythe in August. We keep, said he, large flocks 

 of sheep, and we find it best to limit our pas- 

 tures. He thought that if land was not worth 

 more than $8 or $10 per acre, it was better to let 

 it grow to wood, but by feeding by sheep they 

 found their poorest lands were doubled in value. 

 They kept the South Down sheep, and from them 

 got large and splendid lambs. In Franklin coun- 

 ty they recommended the coarse wooled sheep, 

 mixed with Merino, and from these they got 

 fleeces which would average $2,50 each, which he 

 considered was better remuneration than could 

 be obtained from cows. He had 25 ewes which 

 yielded him 35 lambs for the market ; for the sin- 

 gle lambs he got $6 each, and for the twins $5, 

 and could do it every year for 10 years. It cost 

 much to keep his sheep, but he considered this, 

 to him, the most profitable branch of farming. 

 That great torment, the dog, had checked the 

 breeding of sheep, and until the useless and vag- 

 abond curs were killed, sheep husbandry would 

 never prosper. In Franklin county, he said, no 

 farmer kept the number of sheep he would do 

 were it not for dogs. If these could be killed 

 there would be sheep enough, but now the dogs 

 outnumbered the sheep. He said that the sub- 

 ject of repealing the dog law had been spoken of, 

 but he thought that those who had the interest 

 of the farmer at heart would rather insist on its 

 enforcement instead of its repeal. 



Mr. Clark, of Framingham, spoke briefly on 

 the dog question, and advocated the enforcement 

 of the law requiring dogs to be muzzled. 



Richard S. Fay, of Lynn, said he was glad 

 to hear the expression of opinion on the dog law. 

 We have a good law now, he thought, if it was 

 only enforced, and if this was properly done he 

 had no fear for the sheep. He considered that 

 the reason it was not better enforced was because 

 the penalty was uncertain and the matter of com- 

 plaint was troublesome. In his town, the dog 

 tax had made every dog respectable, and when 

 sheep were killed the owners could be reimbursed. 



