INTRODUCTION. 



The traveler in England, Scotland and parts 

 of France and Germany is impressed by the 

 importance of the sheep industry to these lands. 

 Sheep farms are often found close together and 

 of large size with great numbers of sheep there- 

 on. The writer has stood on one hill in Dorset- 

 shire and counted eight shepherds, each with 

 his flock of about 400 ewes and their lambs^ in 

 sight at one time. Nearby, in an adjoining 

 county, flocks of Hampshires exist as large as 

 2,500 on farms of not above 1,400 acres of not 

 extra soil. These flocks are very profitable and 

 they make rich soils that without the sheep 

 would be hardly worth cultivating. They ex- 

 ist in wonderful health and vigor on lands that 

 have been sheeped since civilization peopled the 

 land. In Scotland and the Cheviot hills flocks 

 exist over the entire land and without sheep 

 the land would almost lapse into wilderness. In 

 France on lands worth $250.00 per acre great 

 flocks of mutton sheep are kept. The agricul- 

 ture of these countries leans strongly on the 

 sheep. Long experience in maintaining fertil- 

 ity, in .creating it, has taught the farmers that 

 without the flocks they can not continue profit- 

 able agriculture. Sheep fit in well to an in- 

 tensive system of agriculture. They are docile, 



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