Having our flock to select from, the next important step-and on it much depends-is to pick out the sheep and lambs which promise to stand the pressure of liberal feeding. Here is where constitution stands for success or failure. Other absolutely necessary qualifications are to have animals closely typical of their breed, those that are in form as nearly perfect as possible, which show a tendency to flesh freely and evenly, and which also have good fleeces and skins with all the fancy points possible belonging to the represented breed. The wise breeder will first aim at having utility points packed in as full as possible, and follow that up with all the fancy trimmings in reach.

Another consideration in preparing sheep for exhibition is the keeping in

view, not only the individuals to be shown, but the securing of uniformity, as well for the flock as for competition. Many such premiums have been lost because one animal showed a distinct want of class compared with its mates, thus so lowering the typical uniform average as to send the whole down to a lower standing.

It is well in setting apart the show flock, or flocks, to separate twice the animals required finally. That will allow the later discarding of any which fail to respond to the extra care bestowed. It may be thought by some who are not accustomed to meet in keen competitions, that too critical an outline is given to the preliminary steps. All to be said in reply is this: The one most certain of suc

cess in any line of life is he who starts to build on a solid foundation. The one who is careless or indifferent to the most careful selecting of his show sheep and lambs will meet his rewards in future disappointments. The best are never too good, and even with one's best, the other fellow may have them just a little bit better, and then comes your Waterloo.

The selection for the shearling and older sections should be made not later than mid-winter, and earlier when the whole flock is not kept on full, liberal feeding. Succulent food in abundance, Swede turnips preferred for early months, and mangolds in spring and early summer, with but light feeding of grains-oats two parts, peas one, and bran one, all by weight-say one pound daily of the mixture with alfalfa, clover and a little unthreshed peas, cut while partly ripe, will furnish sufficient variety and nutriment to insure growth without fattening to hurt.

The lambs when dropped should be kept growing daily. The mothers must be so fed as to give milk in abundance. As soon as the youngsters start eating, a creep must be provided for them to run in, where pulped turnips, crushed oats, bran and a small proportion of nutted oil cake mixed in, is placed in easy reach. All sheep and lambs should at all times have clean fresh water and salt at hand.

With the coming of spring, shearing must not be neglected. Too early shearing is not recommended nor is stubble-shearing. Close cutting, moderately early, gives a much easier coat to deal with as the show season approaches. These remarks and others to follow will apply more to the medium-woolled breeds.

Both lambs and yearlings should be so well clipped in May or early June as to destroy all insects. The summer fitting after the clipping, is merely keeping before them a regular supply of good grass, with occasional changes to fresher fields and the mixed grains and bran, with more cake as the season advances. Two daily trough feeds in such quantities as will be eaten up clean in half an hourbut not to exceed two pounds daily for the older ones-should cause vigorous growth, but the mainstay of the feeding should be grass and other succulent foods. Alfalfa is often ready to cut the first of June, and the early cut of rape may be two to three weeks later. Afterwards, turnips, cabbage, and tares or vetches provide necessary changes which add daily to the weight and form if all is going on as we wish. In hot weather it is better to have the day feeding, and especially the noon ration of alfalfa, rape, etc., given inside.

As show time approaches no exposure to heavy rains should be allowed, and more especially so after the coat gets dressed. The preparing of the fleece is getting to be even more of an art than the feeding. Exhibitors realize that first impressions are lasting. Therefore, greater pains have been taken in recent years to have the show flock groomed so as to make it as attractive as possible to the judge's eye. Not that it makes much difference to the close and careful examiner, but all else being equal, the ones with the well-trimmed coats given the preference are heartily endorsed by the onlookers. That fact is so evident that no person will put any into the ring without some attempt to fix the fleece.

Given a well-formed sheep, machine-sheared in early April, not much can be done further than dampening the surface well with warm water, brushing freely to raise all loose fibres, and then cutting down to an even smooth surface. That repeated two or three times will improve the general appearance much the same as grooming a horse adds to its looks.

The getting of a good finish to the fleece for the show-ring is something which experience alone will teach. There is a knack about it which cannot be fully explained. It requires persistent plodding and wide-awake eyes, with a steady hand,

and more than all that, the true ideal of perfection aimed at firmly and clearly fixed in the mind's eye. This is not stated to discourage the novice, but to lead him from the outset to master all by patient study, close observation and the long practice which is absolutely necessary to put his flock into that form which will make it noticeable in the pens even before shown in the ring.

ALFRED TAYLOR: I have been very much pleased and instructed with Mr. Campbell's address. The fear of dogs prevents many of us from keeping sheep, and I want to tell you of a plan I adopted some fifteen years ago. I taught them to be self lockers. They lock themselves in at night and let themselves out in the morning. One training did it all. I had cut into their house two light doors with weights attached to ropes, and I taught them to push them in with their noses. Their house is about half a mile from home. I lost about twelve fifteen years ago, but now I can sleep sound knowing that my sheep are safe.

J. CAMPBELL: I want to warn the Honourable Minister of Agriculture that a deputation from the Ontario Sheep Breeders' Association is going to wait upon the Government to discuss this dog business. We realize that if you give it your closest and best consideration it will not be long before all these rascally curs are put out of business.

C. O'REILLY: At the meeting of the Farmers' Institute in 1906, they requested the Government to repeal section No. 2 of the Act regarding sheep killed by dogs. The Sheep Breeders' Association brought it up, and as Mr. Campbell has called the Minister's attention to it, they should act.

days.

J. CAMPBELL: I am sure that that will be attended to within the next few

R. HONEY: Is oil cake at $40 a ton good value?

JNO. CAMPBELL: Far better than bran at $22 or $24 a ton.

Mr. Campbell's address was much appreciated by the meeting.

THE PRESIDENT: Before I call upon the Honourable Minister, I wish to say, as President of this Association, that we are very grateful for the assistance we have received from his Department in the past.

We are also pleased with the grand Report, with the beautiful cuts in the Report of last year. The book is educational, and we thank you for producing an article of that kind, and ask you to render our Superintendent all the assistance. you can in his work. Every delegate is pleased with the Report he got last year. I have much pleasure in calling upon the Honourable Mr. Duff to address you.

ADDRESS.

HON. J. S. DUFF, MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, TORONTO.

Permit me in starting out to thank you heartily for the very complimentary remarks you have seen fit to make with reference to the work of the Department over which for the time being I have the honor to preside.

I am very pleased indeed to hear what you have to say with reference to the Report gotten out under the supervision of the Superintendent of Fairs, Mr. J. Lockie Wilson. I may say that there is a decided improvement in the Reports of the different branches of our work; and I do not claim, and I do not wish to be understood as claiming, any credit for it. It is largely due to the fact of the earnest work being done by the gentlemen in charge of the sub-divisions of our Department. It is worth while to make these reports not only attractive but

educative, and I am sure that the last Report, with the President's photograph and the new Minister of Agriculture's photograph on the first page, made everyone want to read it. It is well to have them attractive and interesting, because unless they are so and of some benefit we are only wasting the money expended upon them.

This is equally true of the whole of our work. This afternoon I told the deputation that was so good as to wait upon me and others of the Government that unless the money used brought some results, unless the Province is gaining something, it is not being expended as it should be.

I was pleased to hear Mr. Raynor and Mr. Campbell. Both addresses were full of instruction.

I have been watching the increased interest in the Field Competitions in this Province, and it seems to me, as far as grain is concerned, that there is no work so

important to the farmers of Ontario. If we could get the people imbued with the idea of only sowing the best grain, and eliminating the weeds and other things referred to by Mr. Raynor, no doubt the wealth of the Province would be wonderfully increased; and, after all, those of us who are engaged in practical crops, those of us who know good and bad crops, dirty and clean crops, know that it is just as easy to take care of the clean ones as those filled with noxious weeds.

There is one thing to which I wish to draw your attention, and if you see fit to take it up or appoint a committee to look into it, well and good. That point is this: In some way or other to bring about a greater consolidation of the fairs in the Province of Ontario. In the State of New York, there are only 92 fairs, and there are 8,000,000 people. We in Ontario have 2,500,000 people and 250 fairs. Surely the thought strikes everyone present that either we are wrong or they are.