St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-03-07
Sheep Raising.

Frank P. Bennett. OF the American
Cotton and Wool Reporter, has beer
urging sheep raising as means OF bring
ing back to usefulness the abandoned
farms of New England, and has himself
bought some hundreds of acres and
stocked them with sheep. Others who
have been making the same experiment
are pleased and will extend their opera
tions. The sheep raising industry has
been started in New Hampshire on quite
large scale. The most. extensive ranch
is in the town of Dorchester, where a
number of adjoining farms were pur-
chased and stocked with sheep. An ex-
perienced shepherd is employed to look
after the focks, and the men concerned
regard their investment as paying one.
One of the men interested in the venture
says:
Land is just as cheap in New Hamp.
shire as Montana; that is, the cost is
nominal. Farms can be purchased in
punches for the value of the wood and
timber which can be cut from them.
Then the number of sheep to be sup
ported upon given area is governed by
the amount of forage on the ranch.
Montana is 1000 miles from the wood
market and the cost of handling and
transportation is heavy. Here we are
close to Boston, the greatest wool center
in the world. The market for lamb car
cases is close at hand and lambs may be
slaughtered to meet any sudden rise in
price and got to market while the de-
mand maintains. We contend that the
fieeces will pay for all the expenses of a
sheep farm, and the lambs will represent
profit, practically doubling the invest
ment every year. W started on a small
scale, but calculate to have, in four years
time, $50, 900 worth of sheep and farms.
We are on the southern foothills of the
White Mountains, where the grass is
green from May to November, where
rains are plenty and where snow holds
off as late as it does in the city OF Lowell.
If these experiments succeed as those
who have engaged in them are certain
they will it may mean complete econo-
mic revolution in New England. Farm
ing here has generally been conducted on
diversified plan. The farmer has
raised dozen or more different crops,
and has bred sheep, cattle, horses, and
hogs to some extent, as we'll as maintain
ing small poultry yard. This method
OF farming is now declared to be behind
the times and the sheep raisers, as well
as other men, say to make success the
New England farmer must devote him.
self to one line exclusively. That is what
the farmers in the great corn, cotton,
wheat, and cattle districts do. They
raise one crop or breed one kind OF stock
and find to do that successfully requires
all their time. The men who are engag-
ing in sheep raising say that farms in
New England can be made successful, if
farmers devote their whole attention to
it.
Such a change would be complete
revolution of agricultural methods in
this section, and would lead to the con-
solidation of many small farms. The |
growth of the sheep industry, however
successful it may be made by those who |
have engaged in it, will be slow. The
New Highlander does not take readily to |
and the farmers will not
change their methods until the matter
has been so thoroughly tested as to make
its success certain.