The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-12-19
WOOL, WOOL, WOOL.

A contemporary says that the reason
why the cotton manufacture in this
country is 90 much more prosperous than
the woolen manufacture is because we
produce all the raw material used in the
first, but not in the last. And we see
our agricultural contemporaries are all
working, with the help Of able corre-
@pondenis, 20 show how profitable the
keeping Of sheep might be made upon
New England farms-especislly those
abandoned" and deserted" ones, about
which the city press, even of New Eng.
and itself, knows so little and talks so
absurdly.
Now we know very well how easy it
to work out AMI prove, on paper, that
his, that or the other branch of farming
can be made to pay profits big enough to
'et the tide of population very rapidly
back TO the farm. But these calculations
are sometimes very much like those
made by young couples who set out to
1uild them a home. They prove to a
demonstration that It can be done for
Sl5OO-aDd when the bills are all in they
dnd it has cost $2500. (And by the way,
Is we have built several houses in our
ime, we will just say in passing, for the
DeDeht ofinexpeTienced readers, that the
otal cost of plain house in New Eng
and is usually very close to four times
he cost OF the lumber to build it. We
have kept the figures in every case, and
ound that the lumber and the carpen-
ter's bills were very nearly equal, and to-
sether amounted to almost exactly half
4 the total cost of the house, finished
md ready for occupatiOn.) ''t
But even admitting that sheep farm
ing in New England can be proved-on
paper, or under exceptional eircumstan-
ces to pay fair profit. we notice that
no allowance is made, in any of these
tigurings, for the depredations of dogs.
Yet the last report of the Connecticut
Board of Agriculture gives demonstra-
tive proves that the sheep industry in
that State is in rapid process of eXter-
minatiOn, solely on account of these de-
predations. Connecticut has stringent
dog law as well enforced as any law is,
or is likely to be. Probably some i'm
provements might be made in it, but if
hey were such as would be likely to be
effective, the dOg-owning class would
find way to defeat it, somehow. The
rich men and women Of the country are,
with the rough element, all on the side
of the dog, as against the sheep farmer.
1t is indeed astonishing how we, in
this country, after exterminating the
bears, wolves and wildcats, and putting
bounties on the head. of foxes. crows
and woodchucks for the benefit of agri-
! culture, allow, almost without restraint,
he breeding of animals fully as destruc-
| tive to sheep as any wild 'varmint"
ever known on this continent. The po-
litical papers are full of the wool ques-
ton, and of the effect of the tariff on the
wool interest, and yet not one word is
said about the resl reason why we do
not produce enough wool to supply our
manufacturers with home produced raw
material .. pa....ga
We know right we'll what we are say
ing. While not sanguine oflarge profits,
even without dog in the State. we are
so situated that sheep would go better
with what we want to do on our farms
than anything else. Our larger farm is
situated from two to six miles from four
villages. We find by inquiry that dogs
from all these villages habitually range
borhood, and defeat every attempt to
keep sheep on them, unless carefully
penned every night. This extra labor
III CARL lOI Iue uOCh Idheo away huOuG
all the profit naturally to be expected
from sheep, and forces all the farmers,
even on the toughest and least-suited
farms, into dairying simply and only
because dogs do not prevent that indus
try. 1t is dogs, and dogs only, which
prevent the increase and cause the de-
crease in sheep -husbandry in New Eng
and-a country otherwise admirably
/ lrs.,s - 4 l.
material tor our factories would be
plentiful here at home, while the pro-
duct of mutton would supply vast
amount of cheap and excellent food to
the operatives. In our opinion the tariff
question, compared with the dog ques-
ton, is mere hy-speck so far as WOOL
growing is concerned. We wish our
readers would sail in and discuss this
matter in these columns. All sides
shall have fair show.-Dr. HoSkins in
Wdtchmdn.