The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-02-11

Mistakes of Sheep Farmers.

Mistakes of Sheep Farmers.
A large class of sheep farmers
have made two or three mistakes,
and threaten no make another. They
had not frmness enough to go through
a pinching time in the wool business
without becoming discouraged, and
to a greater or less degree sacrificing
their hocks. Sheep that would have
before long been in good demand, and
brought good price to those dispose
ed 10 sell, have been .recklessly crow
ded off at less than the value OF
single fleece, to be killed for their
pelts, with less than half a years
growth on them. Secondly, many
that have retained their hocks, have
abandoned improvements on them;
Bred them, the past fall, to rams Of
inferior quality, or made the most IL
rational crosses. Third, not a few
farmers, we are told, in certain por-
tons of the country, are preparing
to make another egregious mistake,
namely, to give their sheep an exces-
sively poor wintering, feeding them
very scantily and compelling them in
great measure to shift for them
selvs.
The folly of this last procedure is
fully equal to either of the others;
and is barbarous as we'll as foolish.
If sheep are worth wintering, it is
certainly more profitable to give them
full supply of food and thus pre-
serve their lives and obtain their full
amount Of wool and lambs next
spring, than it is to go to half the
cost for keep and half or more Of the
sheep perish in March-lose half the
value of the wool and nearly the en-
tire drop of lambs. We question
the moral right of any man thus
purposeIy and without actual neces-
sity, to subject to slow starvation
and long protracted suffering, any
animal, and especially any domestic
animal. And what shall we say of
it's humanity? Whoever has seen a
flock perishing in March, from starv-
ed wintering, can bear witness to the
utter misery Of the spectacle. HUI
man beings seem to suffer no more.
Does the prayer "Ihat mercy | to
others show, that mercy show to me, -
include nothing in its scope but men
and women? Even civil law con-
dennis gratuitious cruelty to domes-
tic animals. The person who un
mercifully beats his horse, for exam
pie, liable to punishment. Many
persons have been punished for that
offence within the past year in the
city Of New York. Is beating worse
than starving? Is slow starvation
less heinous than rapid starvation :?
And if mans laws condemn such
brutalities, what does the whole spi-
rit of the Gospel teach us in such
matters?
Think Of man we'll sheltered in
his comfortable. house-well fed
we'll clothed-his granaries and barns
filled with ample supplies Of provi-
sion for his stock-money in the
bank, perhaps-cooly determining to
turn out one kind Of stock to slow
starvation amid the storms of winter
determining this purely as a ques-
ton of dollars and cents-s starving
because he foolishly judges it little
more profitable; and then think OF
this man prating about his humanity
and religion.
The beasts of the earth are given
to man for his use, but not for his
abuse. He has right to kill them
when his actual interests require it.
But he has no right to put them to
any unnecessary fortunes. These are
not sentimental views. They are
the teachings Of every conscience
which has not been hardened by
habit, or smothered by brutality and
avarice. The adage that the merci
full man is merciful to his beast, is
true. We trust to no mans Nercy
who is not merciful to all created In
octious animals. He who will tram
pie out of life or inhict any unneces
sary pain, on poor, gentle, harmless
utterly dependent, and wonderfully
useful brute like a sheep, would re