The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-05-16
S1EEP FOR HILL FARMS
Success of a Novel Experi-
ment in New England.
OFFER INDUCEMENTS
Company Formed 20 Rent Sheep 70
Farmers-May he Solution OF
the Abandoned Farm Problem
The Scheme Worked in Mass
'rhusetts and Vermont.

20. .ough farmers have rented sheep
heir neighbors for ages this is
80 70 be the first company ever
L ,anized for this purpose.
About $3.50 of its sheep were nib
bling brushy pastures in one
season in franklin county, the
most sparsely settled part of Of
Massachusetts, and in southern
Vermont. The cheap lands of
the abandoned farm district and the
intimidation of the farmtr by the
ascendant dog are big factors in
this enterprise.
Up in hilly Hawley, where some of
these flocks are located, 100 acre
pasture, with some good woodland,
recently sold for S175. Buying land
up there is very sporty proposition
In return for your $50 the seller
may unload on your innocent head
100 acres, instead of the so You
thought you were buying.
The western Massachusetts hills
are admirably adapted for sheep and
once fed foCks ten times as big as
now. Mongrel dogs that will kill
score apiece of night, together
with the fall of wool twenty years
ago, put herders out OF business
The country under Massachusetts
law, is supposed to pay for all sheep
killed or bitten by dogs, and Frank
lin county pays yearly thousands OF
dollars TO furnish its pampered purps
with this needed relaxation. The
growers say, however, that they get
little or no compensation for the in
jury done to tiocks that are chased
but not actually bitten.
viii you buy or lease?" asks the
company of each inquirer for sheep.
The terms of the rental require
the lessee to give the company half
the increase of lambs, and one-fourth
the wool.
Five minutes bookkeeping" says
the doubter, Ought to show the
farmer that he would better buy.
He can't give up less than the
equivalent of S75 on the lease basis
Co. flock of fifty. He could buy
same flock for S400 and $40 in
t."
II the farmer Is too cautious for
Often he has no ready cash.
PARTICULARLY likes the lease basis.
the company assumes all risk
cm dogs. And so the company has
leased about $500 sheep, has 700 on
its ranches, and has sold only a
hundred or two.
AS everything depends upon the
care that leased sheep get, the COM
pany confronts at the start certain
typical weaknesses of the Yankee
farmer. For one thing, the patient
study of scientific animal industry
has interested him less than the
more adventurous joys Of the trader
Leased sheep are inspected regularly
by the manager and a certain stand
ard Of good care is exacted.
The land used by these sheep
lessees IL mostly in run down past
ures that were growing up to brush.
The great trouble with the hill town
farmer has been the failure of his
crop Of boys, lacking whom his profit
is eaten up by slow motioned Poles
and Firms at $25 month and found.
Every year moving machine,
plough and cattle leave wider strips
of goldenrod and briars. where an
other summer the little birches gain
foothold. and 1t all becomes wood
land In decade. The sheep are
turned into fields thus slipping back
into the wilderness and soon market
them fertile again.
The company's promoters think
they have two advantages over the
farmer. One Is. 1t should be able to
market its product to better advan-
tage than the average farmer, the
other. that Its sheep are high grade
stock.
Many inquiries from all over New
England indicate that sheep can be
leased for years, perhaps Indefinitely.
But any given customer will become
Independent OF the company in few
years through his share of the fiock
increase.
The ranch system works very
nicely with the lease plan. 1t Is
the purpose of the company to es-
tablish ranch In the centre of any
district where Its sheep are largely
leased. The professional shepherd
in charge will then have general
oversight over leased focks in that
district and give assistance as
needed.
Ranching on these old hills gains
80 greatly over old time farming
largely by the small cost of labor,
utensils and machinery.
The danger from dogs is still a
condition and not theory. Seventy
fve company sheep were killed in one
year. The farmer may consider that
the assumption of the risk by the
company distributes losses, and part
or his return of lambs and wool is
thus in the nature of insurance.