Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-11-27
Sheep Raising.

the time when wool-growing and sheen
husbandry in the older states reached
their highest point" says Thomas
Scott in an interesting article on the
decline of sheep-growing in the East in
the New York Tribune Farmer. From
that time down to the present-with
various fluctuations, but all temporary
the growing of sheep had declined
throughout the eastern and middle
states, particularly in the New Eng.
land states, which now support only
one-eighth of the number of sheen
once grown there.
The result has not been quite so
severe in New York, PENNSYLVANIA and
New Jersey, but even in some sections,
such as the state of New Jersey and
in the Hudson river valley, sheep have
practically disappeared. Of all this
change there has been one sad result
the poor farm lands have been aban-
doned, in some cases partially and in
many entirely. There are thousands
of farms today tenantless, where once
large families were reared in peace
and comfort, and, as they considered
it, in great happiness and abundance:
for the times were times of content
ment without show. 'NheIa are hun
dreds Of townships in New England
where the population is less now than
in 1900. Families have removed.
often to the west, but those that re-
mained have gone into the mill towns
to work in the mills, and it may be
said that many of this generation of
New Englanders will not return to the
farm. What can be done in instruct
ing those who have remained and the
element of foreign immigration, which
may replace with greater economy and
energy the old native stock gone be-
for? There is not a township, county,
or state of the east which has not a.
vital interest in this, for English farm.
ers living on farms thousand years
old, perhaps, make the farm to bios
som and yield sufficient for comfort
to the tenant, and pay in rent to the
landlord a sum often more than farm
land will sell for in fee simple here in
the United States.
Mr.. Scott has, during recent years,
covered a good portion of New Eng
land, and can say from pedestrian
experience that large part of the
country is growing up a worthless
growth of forest, or at present seem
ingly so. What development will
come to restore prosperity and occu-
patton to this great breadth of land
which now seems worthless one cannot
say. There was time when, with c
menace of wolves even, sheep throve
here. 1t seems, then, that it is a
mere business proposition when CAPT
talists may be able, by broad measures
against dogs, especially-again to
restore comfort and happiness to the
waste places, and this with a profit
to themselves and others. 1t was
cnce a question of wolves 1t is now
one of dogs.
The bette noire of eastern sheep
husbandry is the heresy SO widespread
that sheep poison the land One might
say, however, that in many cases for
a generation no sheep have been on
many Of these farms, and the poison
Of absence has done more harm than
any other. But there is no contend
ing one point, and that is that dogs
have done more than any other evil
to destroy this industry everywhere
east OF the Mississippi; and so the curse
of worthless dogs may be said to be
more destructive to sheep husbandry
than any one other thing 1t might
well be said that with dogs taxed out
OF existence farms now worthless
might again become of value.
That is the way it is done in Eng
land-a dog tax of such a nature as to
get away with dogs that are destruc-
tive of sheep. Some dogs are the
mainstay of the sheep farmer;
but such dogs are of a breed
that live kindly with sheep
are their friends as well as keepers.
In America no benefit whatever rsults
from dogs. The hunting, owing to
lax enforcement everywhere Of game
laws, is next to worthless, and dogs
have no possible place of usefulness,
save to bay at the MOON" and per-
haps cause a counter irritation to the
sorrows of everyday life.
Were our laws executed as written
it would solve the problem of dogs
and of game In England the dog
laws and the game laws are made to
be executed, and they are executed,
too, so rigidly that sheep are not mo-
Tested by dogs, and game is plentiful
everywhere, from John O. Greats to
Lands End; everywhere plenty of
game of many kinds, so that game in
England is very cheap. The same may
be said of the continent of Europe,
where in all the large cities game in
the market is cheap and abundant. In
eastern parts of the United States
there is practically none; so with game
gone and sheep gone, meat must come
from somewhere else, and all must
suffer because dog laws and game laws
are made not to be enforced.
For that matter, one might say OF
more laws than these the same things,
that this is the land of written laws