^VrRY 
Vol. XLII. No. 17 GO. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 20, 1883. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS 
*2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by the Rural New-Yorker in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
$l\)t l)cr'Dsman. 
A RURAL SCENE. 
Our first-page engraving this week is a 
companion picture to those which embellished 
the first pages of the Rural in the issues of 
July 31 and August 25. Is there any necessity 
for pointing out the calm beauty of the scene? 
Is uot too much explanation often given in 
agricultural and other papers, just as if the 
writers supposed the readers were children or 
dullards without imagination, understanding 
or intuitive appreciation? We entertain too 
ity of substituting sheep for cows on the farms 
of its members, has been going the rounds of 
the press for several weeks, and has elicited 
various comments. It appears that several of 
the members were quite sanguine in the belief 
that, for the same investment in feed and la¬ 
bor, sheep would give much larger returns than 
cows, but they see an insurmountable difficulty 
iu their inability to protect their flocks from 
the ravages of dogs, and on that account they 
hesitate about making the change. They , 
charge the greater part of the mischief to the 
city dogs, and complain that the city officials 
never enforce the collection of the dog tax. 
The evils complaiued of are not confined to 
People are constantly learning to appreciate 
mutton as the most wholesome of meats, and 
the demand for the choicer grades is evidently 
destined to outrun the supply—for the imme¬ 
diate future at least. But the class of sheep 
adapted to the production of the best mutton, 
and especially of the best lambs, must be kept 
in small flocks upon farmsiu the very sections 
where dogs most abound. The dog pest may 
therefore be said to affect, not only the inter¬ 
est of those who desire to keep sheep for 
profit, but those of every person in the com¬ 
munity. The appreciation of the importance 
of protecting the small mutton flocks of the 
country t is not so general as it ought to be, and 
support, and in those States which have a 
thoroughly effective dog law it is doubtful if it 
is thoroughly executed in any single instance. 
Sometimes when there has been an aggra¬ 
vating slaughter of sheep a little local splurge 
is made, but the effect is temporary and local, 
and does not amount to anything in its general 
influence. To evade the law is not looked up¬ 
on as discreditable at all by many men who 
claim to he respectable, law-abiding citizens, 
especially such as are accustomed to seek petty 
local offices. The penalties for the violation 
of the law are rarely if ever enforced. An 
officer whose duty it is to enforce them, rarely 
makes an effort in that direction at all till he 
L 
A PICTURESQUE RURAL SCENE.—Re-engraved from an old German Periodical.—Fig. 658. 
high a sense of our readers’ ready discern¬ 
ment to be guilty of this fault. 
Sheep Ijusbanhnj. 
DOGS, DOG-LAWS AND SHEEP. 
o. s. BLISS. 
An item to the effect that the Elmira Far¬ 
mers’ Club has been discussing the advisabil- 
thoneighborhood of Elmira; but they extend 
to every settled portion of the country. Of 
course the evil does not so largely affect those 
sections of the country remote from settle¬ 
ments, whore sheep-raising is the principal bus¬ 
iness of the people. But theonly sheep which are 
j adapted to the large flocks there and t he nmu- 
] ner of keeping them, are the more exclusively 
I wool-producing varieties,which arc wholly uu- 
adapted to the production of the finer qualities 
of mutton and lamb, for which there is a con¬ 
stantly increasing demand at fuirly remuner¬ 
ative prices in all the markets of the world* 
the arousing of a healthy public sentiment on 
the subject is a necessary preliminary to a 
healthy development of the business of mutton 
production, and should enlist the earnest co¬ 
operation of all classes. In most of the States 
there is ample provision on the statute books 
for the restraining of the dog nuisance within 
endurable limits, or the suppression of it alto 
gether, if the public seutiment iu regal'd to the 
enforcement of the laws was equal to the occa¬ 
sion. But the enforcing of an obnoxious law 
is generally shirked by officers who are depend¬ 
ent upon the votes of the masses for politica 
is compelled to, and then he patches up a com¬ 
promise. accepting an unseasonable compli¬ 
ance with the provisions of the law', which is a 
direct violation of it in its letter and spirit, 
both on his own part and that of the owner or 
keeper of the dog. 
A sound public sentiment in regard to the 
matter would at once "correct the whole diffi¬ 
culty, and for all time. Tf it was once under¬ 
stood that every officer who did not do his 
whole duty iu enforcing all the provisions of 
the dog law. would be promptly and surely 
brought before the grand-jury for indictment, 
