ANNUAL REPORT—INDUSTRIAL NEEDS. 
21 
But if any one should distrust his own judgment—and the 
appearance is that most farmers have reason to—he may safely 
fall back on the general rule first above suggested—the rule 
of adopting a safe and judicious policy for the average of times 
and seasons, and of persevering in it with slight modifications, 
notwithstanding temporary discouragements. 
During the late low prices of wool, when so many sheep¬ 
men became disgusted and either slaughtered their flocks or 
sold them out of the state at a sacrifice, we noted that one 
large grower persevered, and now, when the dejected wool¬ 
growing interest is looking up a little, he is still in in statu quo 
and ready to take advantage of the rise, while others are 
buying back or looking up new flocks at a second sacrifice. 
This discussion leads us to touch briefly, and yet em¬ 
phatically, upon the great need there is among us of a more 
just 
APPRECIATION OF STOCK-RAISING, 
As being not only essential, as heretofore urged, to the con¬ 
tinued fertility of the soil, but likewise especially profitable in 
and of itself. 
No matter what the fluctuations in the prices of the various 
domestic animals and 'their products, they are always in de¬ 
mand, and usually at prices much more remunerative than 
those of wheat and the other cereals. And then there is 
something in the convenience and economy of having a 
market on one’s own premises for such crops as are chiefly 
grown for the consumption of animals. 
Nor should it be overlooked that the producer of horses, 
beef, pork and mutton has an advantage in that he is not 
obliged to sell at a present sacrifice or hold over at a dead 
loss of interest on the amount thus locked up, as in the case 
of wheat, oats or corn, cribbed and garnered until the return 
of better prices. For the horse, the calf or bullock, the sheep, 
and the hog, besides being always ready, or easily made ready, 
for the market, can be carried over a few months or even a 
