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The Sheep Question
To the Planters of Montgomery County:
The keeping of sheep upon our farms
is not only a source of much profit in
itself but of untold value to the farm,
producing with the most valuable of
manures and eradicating the most ob
noxious weeds, for sheep are close feed
ers and many parts of our farms that
are lying idle can be made use of by the
raising and grazing of them. With
care and judgment a flock of sheep in
our county will pay from 100 to 300 per
cent on the capital invested. What
other live stock can show up so well ?
To prove the above assertion I will
say that last year I bought ten ewes for
which I paid $36.00. During the winters
of '81 and '82 one of the ewes died, and
in the spring the 9 ewes averaged 1
lamb each I sold the lambs in Sep
tember and got $6.00 a head making
$54.00. The wool brought $10.00 making
a total of $54.00 clear profit and
leaving me the 9 ewes increased in value
from $3.25 per head From this state
ment it will be seen that I had had luck
in losing 1 ewe and 2 of my ewes not
lambing and still I made at least 200 per
cent on the $36.00 invested. I keep a
larger flock than the above but just
mentioned this lot because I kept a
careful account of the transaction. Now
it is in the power of every farmer in
Montgomery county to increase this enor
mous profit and you can ride from the
Patuxent to the Potomac and how few
sheep you see There are hundreds of
acres which are now lying idle and not
nothing growing to waste and why ?
Because those who we are told make
the Laws of Our Government ignore
and trample under foot the laws that
would tend to benefit most the inhabi
tants of their county whom they are
supposed to represent but unfortunate
ly do not A good law has been passed
by the Senate of Maryland at its last
session and which was concurered in the
desks of our so called representatives in
the Lower House (with divers other im
portant bills for the protection of sheep
it passed would do more to enrich and
develop our county than any other law
that could be passed It would at least
encourage farmers to invest in what
there can be no question is a risky and
uncertain business at present on ac
count of the ravages of the myriads of
worthless mongrels and curs that roam
this county over. And right here let me
say that I have not a word to say about
the dogs who have some regular profession,
(other than sheep killing) on the
contrary, I admire and respect a good
dog of good blood and habit and you
will find that such dogs are of so much
value that they are looked after and
kept the run of, whereas the worthless
sheep killing dogs know nothing and
never know where home is and would
not stay if they did.
Now in conclusion, we tried the last
Legislature and failed. We must prepare
for the next and succeed Farmers of
Montgomery take this question in han
dle it without gloves, keep it agitated
and let us see if we can not accomplish
something this fall.
JUSTICE
Mr Waters on the Sheep Bill.
SPENCERVILLE Feb 9th 1882
MESSRS EDITORS : - As you have been
pleased to give space in your last issue
to the epistle of your correspondent
Justice I ask you in behalf of that be
sign attribute to publish the following
rejoinder :
Your correspondent must know that
I opposed the new law of which he
speaks as it came from the Senate,n
therefore he includes me in the number
of those who say the so called representa
tives of the county
I wish to say that when elected to the
Legislature I considered it my duty to
faithfully represent the county in all
matters of a local character especially
But although the advocates of the par
ticular bill of which he speaks embra
ces some of our leading agriculturalists
and gentlemen for whose opinions and
wishes I have the highest respect yet
they did not constitute the county The
majority of the people failed to see the
wisdom and expediency of the measure
and therefore a great preponderance of
public sentiment was emphatically
against it
Notwithstanding the fact that modes
ty and intelligence are inseparable I
would suggest to your correspondent
that who he proposes to make a perso
nal attack either direct or indirect it
would be much more becoming to give
his real name and when he is willing to
cast aside the mask of a nom de plume
and manifest a desire to be informed as
to the real part I took in the matter and
my reasons for it it will afford me great
pleasure to enlighten him upon a sub
ject which I suspect he knows very lit
tle about but until he has the manli
ness to do so I will not concern myself
about his opinions
Respectfully
THOS WATERS OF S