60 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[February, 
[COPYEIGHT SECURED.] 
TRIAL OF SHEPHERD DOGS. 
clearly be nothing lost between the producer 
and the consumer and nothing that can not be 
reasonably accounted for. We understand that 
the cost of these cars is $1,100 each, and a joint- 
stock company of Texan cattle-men own and 
operate those which are now in use. The 
train, by express contract with four connecting 
railroad lines, is sent through without delay, 
and at the rate of thirty miles an hour upon 
part of the route. Wo commend these facts 
to the consideration of Western farmers. 
The Shepherd Dog. 
We are indebted to the London Field for the 
picture of a Scotch shepherd dog at his work. 
It represents a field trial of dogs, for the hand¬ 
some prize of fifty guineas ($260), which was 
held at Bala, in Wales, in October last. The 
Welsh sheep are small, active, and wild, and no 
better animals for testing the skill of the dogs 
could have been selected. The dog whose 
portrait is here given was a pure-bred Scotch 
“colley,” known as Sam, and his exploits cer¬ 
tainly go far to make us believe that a dog by 
training and education can be made to think 
and reason so as to adapt himself to the vagar¬ 
ies of a willful sheep or a whole flock of them 
at once. The duty the dog had to perform 
was to drive three sheep just released from a 
fold, into a pen with an entrance six feet wide 
at about 500 yards distant. The difficult nature 
of the job was increased by the excessive 
wildness of these small, wiry mountain sheep, 
which leads them to go in any direction rather 
than the right one, and each one to scamper off 
in its own chosen direction. Sam, however, 
was equal to the occasion, and surrounding, as 
it were, his three wayward sheep by rapidly 
executed flank movements, had them safely 
penned in eleven minutes and a half. This 
was the first heat, as it might be called. The 
next effort was rendered more difficult of ac¬ 
complishment by sundry unlucky accidents. A 
flock of geese got mixed up with the sheep, or 
the sheep with the geese. But Sam cleverly 
extricated his flock from this dilemma. Then 
two of the sheep jumped over a stone wall, and 
the third bolted into the river. Sam persuaded 
the two to come back again, and then hauled 
the third out of the water by the “ scruff of 
the neck,” and soon had them all in the pen. 
But, by a mistake of his master, Sam lost too 
much time, and although his performances 
were by far the best in other respects he was 
adjudged only the third place. The prize dog, 
named “ Turned,” was better handled by his 
master, and by working around his sheep in 
gradually decreasing circles kept them well to¬ 
gether, and brought them into the pen in four- 
j teen minutes. Unfortunately for poor Sam, 
his master did not know quite as much as he 
did, consequently the fifty guineas went to 
Tweed, while all the honor and credit was 
awarded to Sam, and his portrait is now on 
view in both hemispheres. 
The shepherd dog is not yet an American 
institution, because w'e have not as yet availed 
ourselves of all our excellent facilities for sheep 
culture. But when our mountain districts and 
our vast plains become the homes of flocks, 
then we must of necessity secure the help of 
this intelligent assistant. In the meantime 
there are thousands of places where these dogs 
could be made of great service in protecting 
our flocks from marauders and in assisting the 
shepherds to handle them. But, as is seen by 
the failure of this dog Sam, the shepherd must 
himself know how to command, because the 
dog himself obeys him implicitly, and if he 
does .not understand his business the dog 
fails. Unless the man and the dog understand 
each other, the best trained dog is at fault. 
