The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1891-04-03
Sheep or Cattle? Both.

We are afraid that Neighbor Cham
bers is throwing sleeps eyes at US. One
of Shakespeare's characters said, "The
greatest of my pride is to see my ewes
Craze and my lambs suck" But Neigh
Dor Chambers is prevented from seeing
much of this by dogs and this is why
his large tract of Great Quarter land is
left to run up to brush, as we'll as thou
sands of acres in New England, is it? The
big dogs that tear US in the East stand
in the West and all along the railroads,
protecting the carcasses of sheep, lambs,
cattle and hogs, so that we puny farm
ers of New England jump at specula
ton, work in factories and cities, or, if
we would raise grain, the dogs of the
West usually raise it so cheap that far
mers East raise most of their grain in
the cities and villages. If,as Farmer Gil
bert says, the law compelled the West to
send live cattle, lambs and sheep, we
would compete with them successfully
insofar as our poorer land would admit.
In view of the tuberculosis and the half
rotten beef prepared for transportation
by chemicals as the Farm journal has
it, people may yet demand more Eastern
meat and then Lawrence county calves
and sheep will both pay well to raise
here. But it pays better to raise cattle
and sheep, than to let our fences run
down and have only briars, brush and
weeds to pay taxes upon; $l5 an acre is
about the average tax rate of such land
in Newtown. Now, if farmers will in
sist that the taxes shall be no more upon
such land than it is worth, So per acre,
and demand no discrimination in any
taxation, this question of cattle or sheep
will be answered by raising more of both.
What we took exception to in Mr. Cham
bers' first article was, "We must grow
sheep, for raising and fatting cattle is
out of the question: We notice that
many farmers in this neighborhood, in
practice, don't agree with Mr. Chambers
and they have gone for those calves,
calves that could not trespass if they
would, perhaps. My IA would not 60 a
mile, like sheep, to jump over somebody's
wall, just for fun. Mr. Pierce did well
and we cannot see why Mr. Chambers
does not do likewise. Mr. Pierce took
his chances on dogs. He got, if we re-
member rightly, $6 per head for our
sheep killed by dogs. The remainder of
the flock lay quietly in the same field af-
ter the slaughter; but this is not usually
the case. We could not get 81 per head
for such sheep as the dogs killed deliver
ed in New Haven. liz the towns should
do better for us, it would pay to raise
sheep for the dogs. AS to the warp and
filling, Mr. Gilbert says that IA head OF
grown cattle in fair order would have
fatted well from April Is to August on
the same pasture that his sheep had
Sheep do require COOP deal of filling.
Judge Bicycle in the Farm Journal says
they do and that they ate the grass roots
out of his meadows. They do not come
up like the dragon teeth Cadmus sowed
full grown from the earth. Sheer
are falling off by the hundreds OF
thousands, every year, in this country
Why? Because cattle pay better. We re-
greet the outgoing of sheep and cannot
lay it all to our dogs, Though when We
read Of the many horrible deaths from
hydrophobia, children torn to pieces by
savage dogs and their destruction Of
sheep, we often wish at least 9s
dogs to the 100 killed.-[G. w. Bradley