VIII. Preserve in a Fresh State, or as nearly so as Possible, the Fruit for which a Market cannot be found immediately.

It is a disastrous error to suppose that fruit which cannot be sold as soon as it is ripe must be suffered to rot or be fed to the swine, or, what is worse, must be turned into wine or brandy. It is entirely practicable, and is not too laborious to so dry or can or otherwise preserve fruits as to do a great deal of good with them, and receive a handsome pecuniary return in addition.

Farmers who live at a great distance from market will find that while their location deprives them of some of the opportunities of securing profit from fruit-growing it cannot deprive them of all, but that by the course here indicated they too can swell their gross receipts.

IX. Transportation Companies can do Much Toward securing the Object which we are speaking.

By arranging convenient places for receiving the fruit of a neighborhood, affording quick transit without re-shipment, returning the empty packages to the owners, and making the schedule of charges as low as their own interests will justify, they will enlerge the income of distant producers, and certainly pay better dividends to their stockholders.

X. There are Related Departments of Labor which may be made to swell one's Receipts.

He who grows fruit extensively, may without inconvenience establish a small nursery, from which he can not only supply trees and plants for his own grounds, but also sell stock for the use of others. This is especially true as to berries and grape vines. In the ordinary course of student instruction in our college vineyards, we laid down within the last year several hundred vines which made most satisfactory growth, and were worth a handsome price.

To a slight extent, horticulture could be pleasantly, appropriately, and profitably carried on with fruit growing. We need ornamental plants and shrubs for our grounds, and such as we can spare can generally be readily sold under the circumstances in which we find a market for our fruit.

So the keeping of bees, facilitated by the culture of fruit, may be advantageously connected therewith. If any one objects that bees will injure the fruit, and render it unsalable, I would reply that I have never had proof of their doing so. As far as my observation extends, their attention is all drawn to such specimens as have been injured or are too ripe to be marketed.

And now, in conclusion, I would say that we cannot safely affirm that all farmers everywhere can make extensive fruit-growing profitable to themselves. The points before stated forbid such an inference. Location, soil, climate, and other material facts must be consulted before the question can be determined.

But much can be done by the diligent and enterprising farmer to overcome existing dificulties. By the careful selection of varieties and the judicious marketing of his products, he can develop and educate the public taste, and make for himself an additional branch of industry which will bring him more nearly into the line of labor which the Creator first assigned to man, and which all experience proves, like charity, blesses both him who gives and him who receives.

At an adjourned meeting of the Board, held Thursday January 24, 1878. Board called to order at half-past nine A. M., by Governor Hartranft in the chair, who announced, as the first business in order, the reading of an essay on

THE BEST BREED OF SHEEP FOR PROFIT.

BY EASTBURN REEDER, Member from Bucks.

The particular branch of sheep husbandry which I have been appointed to discuss is the question, "Which is the best breed of sheep for profit, and why?" This question applies, of course, to the State of Pennsylvania. In expressing my preference of breeds of sheep as best adapted to our State, considering our soil, climate, and markets, I give it unhesitatingly in favor of the Southdown variety and their various crosses. I say this not because I am a breeder of Southdown sheep, but I have chosen to breed this variety of sheep because I think them best adapted to our wants and locality.

The question of the origin of breeds in our domestic animals may be even more remote than the confusion of tongues and the establishment of nations among the human race. The first inhabitants of the earth traveled about from place to place with their flocks and herds, changing their locations as subsistence became scarce or abundant. Perhaps to Jacob, the father of the children of Israel, may be ascribed the first experiment in breeding, and the first recognition of a difference in the races or herds of animals. When he decided to separate from the service of Laban, his father-in-law, and they were about to divide their flocks and herds, Jacob choose for his portion all the speckled and spotted among the cattle, and all the brown among the sheep, and he instituted certain experiments, recorded in history, which had the effect to cause the young of the cattle to come spotted and ring-streaked, and the young lambs with speckled and brown faces and legs, very much to his own aggrandizement, and very much to the dissatisfaction of Laban, his employer and fatherin-law. Jacob's policy demonstrates one important lesson to all breeders. It establishes the supremacy of art, and shows the ease with which both the color and form can be moulded to the will of man. Whether we can fairly claim for the Southdown sheep this ancient origin, I will not assert positively; but the probabilities of the case seem to point that way.

Coming down to more modern dates, we find that the Southdown sheep of our times originated in England on a long range of chalky hills called the Southdowns. On these hills a certain breed of sheep has been produced for many centuries, in greater perfection than elsewhere. It is only within the last century that they have been brought to their present high standard of perfection. As far back as 1776 they were of small size, and not superior in form to the common sheep of the country. Since that period a course of judicious breeding, pursued by John Ellman, of Sussex, for a period of fifty-five years, greatly increased the value of this breed, and it was done without any admixture of foreign blood. The Southdown is by nature an upland sheep, and belongs to the middle-wooled class. The average weight of the fleece has been increased since 1776 from two to four and even six pounds of clean wool. The Southdown is raised more particularly for its fine mutton, for which quality it takes precedence of all

others in the English markets. Its early maturity, its extreme aptitude to lay on flesh, render it particularly valuable for this purpose. It is quiet and docile in its habits, and though a good feeder, shows but little disposition to rove. I do not think my sheep would voluntarily go off the place if the gates were left open all summer.

About the year 1800 the Emperor of Russia paid Mr. Ellman $1,500 for two rams, to try the effect of crossing upon the more northern breeds of sheep. Jonas Webb, of Balraham, Cambridgeshire, England was the most successful follower of Ellman, and carried the breed to a still higher degree of perfection. Choice specimens of Ellman's Southdowns were first imported into the United States by John Hare Powell, of Philadelphia, about the year 1830. Samuel Thorne, of New York, imported the ram Archbishop, from Webb's flock, in 1860. The price paid in England was $1,250. J. C. Taylor, of New Jersey, imported the ram "89," bred by Mr. Webb, in 1861. The price paid was $1,300, being the highest price paid for any ram at the Webb sale in 1861. The other principal importers of Southdowns to this country are Lewis G. Morris, of New York, and R. A. Alexander, of Kentucky. Since the death of Webb, Lord Walsingham seems to be taking the lead as a breeder of Southdowns in England, and the specimens from his flock shown at our centennial exhibition certainly shows that the breed is not retrograding.

The Southdowns, though fine in form and symmetrical in appearance, are very hardy, keeping up their condition on modern pastures, and readily adapting themselves to different localities and different systems of farming. Being so docile, they thrive well, even when kept upon the artificial pastures of our cultivated farms. They will sustain themselves upon occasional short keep, and endure hard or heavy stocking equal to any breed, while their early maturity and a disposition to fatten at any age make them at times ready for market. The ewes are good breeders and excellent mothers, frequently rearing one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty lambs to the one hundred ewes. The fleece closely covers the body, and is one of the most valuable of our native wools. It is short in the staple, fine and curling, with spiral ends, and is used for carding purposes.

From the foregoing description of the breed we will now be the better able to judge whether it is best adapted to the soil, climate, and markets of our State. In successful sheep husbandry, at least three conditions are essential:

1. Location and adaption of the farm for the business.

2. Selection of breed to accomplish the objects sought-mutton, wool, or both.

3. Care and skill in the management of the flock.

There are but few farms that cannot be adapted to keeping sheep. If the surface of the ground is not too wet, they will do well almost anywhere. I am willing to admit that there are many farms that will pay a better return for the investment if devoted to dairying or general agriculture. But it is upon these farms which are unsuited to the purposes of grain-raising or dairying that I would urge the claims of sheep husbandry. Steep hill-sides, broken and new land, rocky and stony places, will generally make excellent sheep pastures, and cannot profitably be devoted to anything else. We have much land of this kind which is now producing nothing but weeds and briars, which, if stocked with sheep, would contribute much to the owner's income and the nation's prosperity. The value of sheep as aids to the farmer in subduing weeds and briars is not sufficiently understood or appreciated. While it is true that sheep can be

kept profitably upon land that cannot well be devoted to anything else, it is still equally true that upon good land they will pay as well as other stock or crops, if skillfully managed, and with very much less labor to secure it. As the principal object sought to be produced be mutton or wool, the farmer should be governed accordingly in the selection of his breed of sheep. Where land is high, and hay and grain, beef and mutton bring good prices, it will not pay to keep sheep for the purpose of woolgrowing alone. On such land and in such locations the value of the carcass must be combined with that of the fleece to make the business at all remunerative or compare favorably with other branches of agriculture. Four years ago I wrote for the State Agricultural Society, calling the attention of the farmers of our State to the importance of sheep husbandry as a branch of agriculture, and presented some considerations why it should be more generally engaged in. As my sentiments upon this subject remain the same now as they were then, and as the same necessity still exists for their expression and circulation, I shall, I trust, be pardoned for a statement of a few of the more important among them. Of late years sheep farming has not been considered profitable by the majority of our farmers, and very many of them have entirely abandoned it and taken to grain-raising, dairy-farming, etc., as being more remunerative. It is only the few who have stuck to and pursued the business in the right manner who have found a profit in it, and I shall endeavor to show how this is to be accomplished. Situated as we are geographically, within convenient access to the two largest cities and best markets in the country, if sheep husbandry cannot be made profitable here, it cannot be so in any part of the country. The time when it was profitable for us to keep sheep for the sake of the wool mainly has gone by, and may perhaps never return. We must have an eye to the value of the flesh as an article of food, as well as the wool for clothing, in order to make a profit by sheep husbandry. Much of the land in our State has become too valuable to raise and keep sheep for the value of the wool only at present prices. We cannot even compete with our more northern States in profitable grainraising, and much less in wool-growing, where thousands upon thousands of unenclosed acres, afford abundance of luxuriant pasture which may be had for the mere taking. We must now turn our attention to the more finished products of mutton, beef, milk, butter, etc., which are more perishable in their nature, whose chief excellence consists in their freshness, and that will not bear the effects of transportation equally well with the more durable staples of grain and wool.

One way by which many of our farmers have found sheep husbandry to be quite profitable, is in raising early lambs for the New York and Philadelphia markets. The manner in which this has been done, I will briefly describe for the benefit of others. Good, strong, common ewes should be procured in July, if possible, and young and vigorous thoroughbred Southdown bucks should be turned with them immediately after harvest, allowing not over twenty-five ewes to one buck, if a lamb, not over fifty ewes to a yearling ram. By this practice the lambs will ordinarily be dropped between the 15th of December and the middle of January. If the ewes are well fed through the winter, and the lambs have a free and separate access to corn meal as soon as they are old enough to eat, they will, by the middle of March, or when they are three months old, weigh from forty to fifty pounds each, and bring twenty-five cents per pound live weight, or ten to twelve dollars apiece. I have known some of our farmers who had their lambs ready to send off by St. Patrick's day, to realize as high as twelve dollars per head for them. Of course this extreme price does not last long,

and is only obtained by a few, but the price does not usually come down below sixteen to eighteen cents per pound, or about eight dollars a head for lambs before the first of June, by which time the crop of lambs should all be marketed. If the price does fall too low to realize a profit by selling to dealers, we still have a remedy, and that is, to sell our own stock direct to the consumers. By retailing his stock in this way, the farmer who lives convenient to a good market, can have all the season to dispose of his stock, killing them as they become fit, and get from eighteen to twenty cents per pound by the quarter, or from eight to ten dollars apiece for his lambs. The profits made by the butchers are entirely too large; I have frequently known them to drive out to a neighboring farm, buy a good, fat lamb that will weigh eighty to one hundred pounds, and sell it out to their customers the next day at twenty cents a pound, thus realizing a profit in two days, equal to what it has taken the farmer five or six months to produce. After the lambs are sold, the ewes will soon fatten, and can be sold for a dollar or so apiece above first cost; and estimating that gain in price, with the value of the fleece and manure to balance the cost and trouble of keeping, the lamb can be reckoned as clear profit. If the ewes are good, it may be best to keep them on; this will depend upon their condition and the rates at which they can be re-placed. If, however, the lambs are dropped later, or kept longer, or sold for less prices than I have named, say five or six dollars each, the profit will be proportionally less, but there will still be a profit equal to the price obtained for the lamb on every ewe that raises one; and it is not strange or unusual for a flock of ewes to average one lamb apiece-some flocks do even better than that. Now, if a profit of from five to ten dollars a head, or averaging seven and a half dollars on each ewe, I think it must be seen that sheep husbandry can be made profitable. The records of my flock of sheep for the past seven years, commencing with 1870, and closing with 1876, shows even better than this. The average number of ewes kept was sixteen. The average amount received from sales of sheep and lambs, was one hundred and seventy dollars, or an average of ten dollars and sixty-two cents per ewe; and this sum is exclusive of amounts received for wool, and for premiums at agricultural fairs. It is true, that I sell the most of my stock to be kept as breeders, but still the prices obtained are not far above what they would command if retailed from the butcher's wagon or stall.

In order to get at the relative profits of sheep husbandry, compared with other branches of agriculture, it will be necessary to consider the subject under different aspects. For this purpose I will next contrast it with dairy farming, as now practiced in many parts of our State. In this inquiry, one of the first questions to be considered and settled, is, how many sheep are equal to one cow, both in amount of capital invested and in amount of provender consumed? So far as first cost is concerned, I shall consider ten sheep as equal to one cow; while in the amount of provender consumed, farmers differ very widely in their estimates-ranging all the way from four to twelve. In regard to this great difference of opinion on this point, I would say that they are all partly right and partly wrong; for a great deal depends, no doubt, upon the kind of sheep kept. I know of no better basis to put this upon than that of live weight. Thus, four sheep, weighing two hundred pounds each, are equal to eight weighing one hundred pounds each; and six sheep weighing one hundred and fifty pounds each, are equal to twelve weighing seventy-five pounds each. And further, four sheep, of two hundred and twenty-five pounds weight, six, of one hundred and fifty pounds, nine, of one hundred pounds, and twelve, of