1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



179 



LEGISLATIVE AGBICULTUIIAL SOCIETY, 



Reported for the Farmer by D. Vf. Lothrop. 



The eighth meeting of the series was held on 

 Monday evening last at the State House. The 

 subject for discussion had been announced to be, 

 Fruit Culture; but Mr. Wilder being absent and 

 indisposed, Mr. Flint, Secretary of the State Ag- 

 culturai Board, called the meeting to order, when 

 a motion was carried to postpone the subject of 

 Fruit Culture and adopt that of Sheep Husbandry. 



Mr. Flint, being in the chair, made a few intro- 

 ductory remarks. He said sheep husbandry was 

 important, generally, to the farmers of New Eng- 

 land, and had been to those of Massachusetts ; 

 but in this State, within the last twenty or thirty 

 years, it has declined. The cause of this, he 

 thought, was to be found mainly in the introduc- 

 tion of the fine-wool Merinos, and their subse- 

 quent crossing with our common sheep, so that 

 neither fine nor coarse wool was the result. Dogs 

 were also a great drawback to sheep-raising ; but 

 now we have a stringent law for its protection. 

 In the eastern part of the State the raising of 

 mutton is a profitable branch of business, and for 

 this purpose he recommended the Cotswolds and 

 South Downs. He would not enter fully into the 

 description of the various breeds of sheep — leaving 

 that to others — but in the western part of the 

 State he advocated the Merinos for their fine wool. 

 Some farmers had thought that sheep improved 

 the pastures where fed, but in our western coun- 

 ties complaint had been made that they run them 

 out. Upon this point he hoped others would 

 speak. 



Mr. Howard, of the Boston Cultivator, ob- 

 served that much improvement had been made in 

 sheep husbandry — particularly in a national point 

 of view. English poets had sung of the beautiful 

 white flocks of their land as the glory and strength 

 of the nation, and he thought there was much 

 truth in it. Lavergne, a French writer, had had 

 his attention arrested by the greater number of do- 

 mesticated animals in England than in France, 

 particularly of sheep, and was favorably impressed 

 with their economy, though some others thought 

 diff'erently. Throughout Great Britain — a territory 

 only one-third larger than some of our States — 

 there were fifty millions of sheep ; and they are 

 raised for the purpose of occupying and improv- 

 ing their waste lands, which abound in AVales and 

 Scotland. They have been kept on the same soil 

 for years, and it has sustained them. Mr. H. 

 spoke well of sheep manure, and considered the 

 question as to sheep running out the pastures in 

 this country. In England, sheep pastures are 

 continually increasing and improving ; but here 

 our summers are very hot, and sufi'er for want of 

 moisture, and this condition is aggravated where 

 thev are fed too closely, as is often the case. Nev- 



ertheless, sheep have a tendency to improve the 

 land in spite of close feeding. 



Mr. Fearing, of Hingham, observed that if the 

 man who made two blades of grass grow where 

 only one gi'ew before was a benefactor, so was he 

 who advanced sheep husbandry. He would look 

 at the subject in a moral point of view. Our 

 young men were leaving the towns and rushing 

 into the large cities for business ; yet we have now 

 too many merchants, lawyers and physicians, and 

 need more men who earn their bread by the sweat 

 of their brow. Small places are going down and 

 large ones rising. After the closing of the war, 

 many of our young men may feel like emigrating ; 

 but we must try to retain them by ofi'ering them 

 inducements to remain and cultivate tlie soil. 

 Having some land much neglected, Mr. F. ob- 

 served, he was induced by Daniel Webster to 

 place sheep upon it. Accordingly lie rebuilt his 

 walls, and placing two rails upon them, introduced 

 sheep ; his neighbors did the same. Dogs were 

 troublesome ; yet in Hingham they had clubbed 

 together and fought them out with good results. 

 As to the eff'ect of sheep on the pastures, he 

 thought well of them. He had one of twenty 

 acres, covered with briers and bushes, which he 

 burnt off and put in sheep, where they did well, 

 though his neighbors said they would starve ; the 

 briers have disappeared. He thought sheep prof- 

 itable ; would prefer liills for pastures ; said rain 

 storms injured sheep, and advocated warm barns 

 with good keeping. The South Downs he regard- 

 ed the best breed, and their wool was good. They 

 should be kept in flocks of twenty-five or thirty, 

 and liis own were healthy from good keeping. 

 Lambs for the butcher, about four months old, 

 brought him three dollars apiece — very cheap. 

 The wool from his South Downs ranged from six 

 to ten pounds. Mr. F., also, again alluded to his 

 sheep barn, which was 20 by 40 feet, with ten feet 

 posts, and an alley running through it, with sheep 

 each side, and their feeding arrangements so con- 

 structed that only one could put in his head at 

 once, and they were all fed from the centre. 

 Such a barn could be built for about $250. 



Mr. Andrews, of West Roxbury, said he had 

 had some little experience in keeping sheep, which 

 might, however, be regarded as accidental. Hav- 

 ing planted cow cabbage and rape for thirty cows, 

 it was complained that the cabbage hurt the milk, 

 and this induced him to purchase ninety sheep to 

 feed it off. He spoke well of the profits of sheep 

 — giving some statistics — and concluded that cows 

 could not come up to them. They also improved 

 the pastures where fed, and their manure Avas very 

 valuable, as was shown on his own land. He closed 

 by reading an article upon this subject from the 

 Boston Cultivator, copied from the Genesee Far- 

 mer. 



