The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-03-20

grandfather, my grandfather and my
father were New England sheep rails
nrs and from boyhood to manhood I
was surrounded with the experiences
and traditions of the business
In my earliest recollections every |
farmer had at least 4 few sheep; some |
had 80 to 100; some several hundred. |
and one man, "Sheep Melvin, was re-
ported to have owned or controlled |
over 1900. There were no stringent
dog laws then. Hunting dogs We're
numerous and nearly every farmer had
a dog of his own.
AS the Western wool and Southwest
crn lamb and mutton began to come in
to the market in increasing quantities,
prices began falling off and as they
fell the number of sheep began to
wano until by 1885 nearly or quite %
per cent of the sheep in our district
had disappeared and | never heard I'M
til within the last 10 years that dogs
were in any way responsible
As the price Of wool fell the Ne
riromen rapidly dropped out, but a
few farmers, including my father, built
over their tiocks to make Spring lamb
| their principal source of income from
their flocks Raising little beef and
pork, selling a little milk, few veg
etables, some fruit and 4 little cord
wood in the winter, with few hot
house and early spring lambs, he
managed to get along fairly well work,
| ing all things together.
! But the time came in the COS when
coal spoiled the wool business, the
West spoiled the beef and por1-thc
price of wool and lamb went way down
and everybody was forced into pro
ducing milk and cream.
| remember when we were getting
from 81 TO Sc Il fleece for our wool
and when we dropped out and sold ouI
nucleus we were getting from 30 cents
to - cents fleece Ism this enough
Why charge it TO dogs? No one ae-
cused them then.
These sheep raising enthusiasts OF
today seem very inconsistent or mex
perienced. ! am almost inclined t,
class them with the Belgian hare en-
thusiasts of 20 years ago and fear tina
/, some of them have worthless land o
breeding stock TO sell
The prevailing war prices for mea
and wool makes the proportion TEN
: lporariIy attractive; but the promoter
I overlook or fail to present several Yer.
important aspects of sheep raising.
To begin with, they assume that
: lamb has as many lives as q eat is re
= puted to have, for they kill him for hot
+ house lamb, kill him again for sprin
: lamb, again for fall mutton. again fo
fat yeariing, shear him for six or oigh
!. years and then kill him again for ia
:. mutton.
f You must save a certain proportio
I of your eve lambs for stock and to r.
. place losses and YOU may have a fe'
/ of the older sheep to fat and sell; bu
4 you can't sell your winter and sprin
n lambs and have fat yearlings to sci
n and keep up your flock.
il In New England you must feed an
/ house your sheep five months in IL
= year, especially if YOU wish to raj.
= early lambs and YOU 90 into mark,
a in competition with "all outdoor
d wool from the West and Northwe
ana an OuIUOOF ldLlD from II
y South and Southwest
It Your wild or waste land may suppo
)r your sheep seven months in the yea
e. but YOU must have a proportional
Y. amount of tillage land. and labor
Il, work it, to raise and store forage f
70 those cold. hungry five months. al
. YOU must have barns to protect yo
flock and store your fodder, and son
II one must feed it to them and care f
a the lambs, unless you are willing
~ take the normal prices for lambs DO
= after the grass starts in the spring.
% Laying aside your abnormal w
- prices on wool and figuring YOUR j
a. vestment in tillage land, buIldin.
II fences, etc; consider your taxes, &C
. of help, insurance. etc, and YOU Is
Or see why a regular monthly incoI
from milk or cream is more attract,
Now, if You contemplate putt
in 100000 sheep into Massachusetts Y
all must figure 4 pToportionate increase
ed buildings and tiilagc or YOU must I
ed duet that amount from the milk
of cream possibilities for You must ha
tillage to balance your pasturage
change the New England climate.
. Once more, you cant figure high,
{ prices on both wool and lamb, for tn
,ro don t both come from the same kind
Of sheep. You can raise wool with f
ne lamb as byproduct or the rever
nv but not both.
VS.: | have gone thus far into the she
ar proposition TO show that these PEG
on who are raising bonanza sheep
scrub oak, s-enthusiasm q
ink either don t know or don t sh
. the adverse sides of their propositi
but instead are eamouflaging the VIII
thing by crying dogs SO loudly t
a1e the real facts cannot be presented
hat heard.
un- 1t seems mighty strange that
asst wool growing business had been d,
-, nearly 20 years before the farm
- learned that dogs We're responsible,
ecu | can t quite see myself how the d
an reduced the price of wool from so to
cents a pound and forced the far
to give up his sheep.
n No one familiar with the actual c
= ditions from 1870 to 1900 can ia
H. claim that dogs had anything to