132 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
It is a source of congratulation therefore, to the farming in¬ 
terest of this state, and throughout the country, that the fac¬ 
tory system has put it in our power, by the concentration of 
labor and the application of greater skill and system and meth¬ 
od, not only in the manipulation, the details of manufacture, 
but in the greater knowledge and control of the market to 
meet this growing demand. 
n c-j 
^ He did not mean to imply that sheep husbandry may not be 
made equally profitable, when followed intelligently as a speci¬ 
al object of attention. It bas its ups and downs, like any oth¬ 
er special pumuit, but in the long run it may be made as pro¬ 
fitable as any other branch of farming. And, indeed, where 
grain growing is adopted as a leading pursuit, as it often is at 
the west, it becomes almost necessary to unite sheep husband¬ 
ry with it as another permanent interest. 
Sheep husbandry, intelligently followed, may be made to 
keep up the fertility of a farm, that is constantly liable to ex¬ 
haustion by the continual growth and sale of grain. Sheep, 
also, can be made to work up the surplus straw on the farm, 
which, instead of being burned on the laqd to get rid of it, as 
is too commonly the case among you, should, it seemed to 
him, go into the sheep yard, to be trodden dawn into a rich and 
very valuable manure. 
Nothing had surprised him more, than to be told, that the 
practice of burning straw to get it out of the way, is still very 
common at the west. In England, a country that offers us 
many valuable lessons in progressive agriculture, it is consid¬ 
ered an important and essential element in an improved system 
of farming. Work it up into manure, therefore, and apply it 
to the corn crop, if it is not practicable to use it on your 
wheat land. By means of sheep or well selected cattle, you 
can maintain the fertility of your lands, and indeed, increase 
their productiveness. 
One of the many difficulties the farmer has to contend with 
is the want of good markets. The middle men come in to 
pocket the profits. The farmer does’nt get his fair proportion 
of the money which the consumer has to pay, while the con- 
