The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-12-23
PLEA FOR SHEEP INDUSTRY
ME. HINTAN BEFORE THE BOARD
 OF AGRTCULTURE.
What the Farmers Noed-Trouble is With the DOgs-Ihe Damages and HindranCes to be some Good Advice.


 the DOgs-The Damages and Hindrances to be Encountered-So Good Advice.
 At the meeting of the state board of agriculture in Wilimantic on Tuesday "The Sheep Industry" was treated by R. S. Hinman, chief clerk in the office of the secretary of state. He spoke as follows:
 q almost feel that I ought to apolo- gize for taking up your time in discuss ing the sheep question, and I was forci- bly, reminded of this by reading, in a daily newspaper that had received MT. Colds circular, an editorial ridiCuling the spending of time to discuss the sheep industry in Connecticut. I de- sire, however, to present certain facts and aspects of the case.
 q noticed in the Rural New Yorker few days since that sheep were worth 50 per cent. more now than they were a year or two ago, and wool is worth 60 1 per cent. more. While it may be true that the value of property has appreci- ated of late all along the line, I know of no other farm stock that has in | creased in value in anything like this l proportion, and such an increase is en- | COuraging.
 Tn the same paper a writer con- l plained of the difficulty of getting de- | cent mutton or lamb chop at restaur- ant, and little home experience em- l phasized this. The good lady that sees | that we have something to eat at our l house wanted some lamb last summer and the accommodating butcher said he would find a lamb and butcher it if she would take the whole of it. He ex- 1 plained that the price would be so high that she would probably be the only customer on his route.
 If we lived in city we could get from the market what they call lamb, l but surrounded as We are by thou sands of acres of the best natural 1 sheep pastures in the world, neglected, growing up to brush and becoming val ueless as taxable property, We have to do without lamb As Connecticut far mers l ask you if we are not Adding a | take pride in the progress made in the dairy interests. We have practically stopped the sale of oleomargarine as 1 butter. and our creameries are turn | ing out vast amount of the genuine 1 article.
 HIS FARM EXPERIENCE.
 q am forcibly reminded of this in my own farm experience. When city GUS toners were afraid of buying oleomar- | garina they made a sure thing by pay | ing me forty cents per pound for but ter. Coincident with the assurance that they could buy butter at the gro cery stores if they called for it, I had to reduce my price to thirty-five cents and coincident with the boom in the dairy business that we are so proud of I found it necessary to reduce the price to thirty cents.
 q find no fault with this condition as I have always held that meetings like this, and such as the Dairymen' association hold benefit the consumer more than the producer. The man who tells how he grows nice vegetables, oi makes nice butter, is a public benefac tor, but this is not helping himself. | occasionally hear slurs from halfWit' | ted people about the expense to thF | state of meetings like this Why, gen temen, there is not buyer of farm ] products in Connecticut that has no | benefited by these conventions ter times what they cost him, and if somt | of us could grow sheep, while there would be less competition in certain lines. the buyer of mutton would profit l equally rith the wool grower.
 "We are all interested in these mat ters. whether producers. consumers o1 only taxpayers. Connecticut has thou sands of acres of land growing up tt brush that ought to be pasturing thou sands of sheep and contributing to the general welfare. The daily paper tha I mentioned as ridiculng the sheep in dustry correctly stated that the mos of the sheep in Conuecticutcut Wert tucked away in New London county and in Iitchield county while New Haven county has less than four thou sand. This is not because litchfialt and New London counties have tn best sheep pastures in the state, bu there are localities in those counties lit tie freuuented by tramp dogs.
 NOT SAFE TO PASTURE.
 "There are few localities in New Ha ven county where it is safe to pastur sheep out of sight of the flock master house. I know one farmer whose sheel pasture is so situated that it extend almost to his door, and when visitin! dog starts in to have fun with his sheel they run for the house and he runs fo his gun That sheep pasture is q yer itable dog trap. Very few of us are g situated, and unless we can be protect ed from dogs we cannot keep sheep.
 "There are other things than charit. that should begin at home. l read il the Connecticut Farmer a few week since a lugubrious article telling hoy many more dogs were exhibited a some of our fairs than sheep. N doubt the writer was correct, as i some cases the dog men pay for tn privilege of running the dog exhibitio l as a side show. If he intended to giv the impression that these dogs are re sponsible for our lack of sheep he wa wide of the mark.
 Great Danes, Italian greyhound and the whole lot of exhibition dog are valuable enough to be housed an | cared for. It is the dog not wort housing that does the mischief, and is the owners of dogs not worth houS ing or too lazy to house them, tha | aEA +,