1S8 [Senate 



stances contained promises of subsequent contributions on important 

 agricultural topics. Among these, a paper on the agriculture of 

 France, from a highly distinguished source, has been one of the most 

 anxiously looked for. The undersigned has delayed his annual re- 

 port to the latest proper moment, in the hope of being able to for- 

 ward with it, documents of so much value. In this, however, he has 

 been unfortunately disappointed. 



The undersigned has also made an effort through the American 

 Minister to Spain^ to obtain some knowledge of the agriculture of 

 that unfortunate country, as well as of the sister kingdom, Portugal. 

 Desolated by war and ravaged by intestine commotion, as they have 

 been for the last half a century, little is perhaps to be learned from 

 them in relation to improved processes of cultivation; but in one im- 

 portant department of husbandry, and one of essential importance to 

 our own country, i. e. wool growing, both have been for ages con- 

 spicuous. It is a question of importance to some sections of our 

 country whether the hardy fine wooled sheep of Spain are yet to be 

 found in their purity, and can be obtained for importation in their 

 native country. The time should, and it is to be hoped will soon 

 come, when the boundless prairies of our western States, instead of 

 affording subsistence alone to their present wild denizens, will sustain 

 myriads of these useful animals; supplying our own markets and those 

 of the world with their valuable product. The adoption of the shep- 

 herd system will render this perfectly feasible. The Spanish shep- 

 herd, feeding and protecting his charge on the bleak heights, and amid 

 the wild fastnesses of the Pyrenees, the Cantabrians, the Sierra Mo- 

 rena, and the Sierra Nevada, shows that this department of husbandry 

 can be profitably conducted under far more disadvantageous circum- 

 stances. 



The undersigned regrets to say, that owing to the difficulty expe- 

 rienced in obtaining the address of the eminent German agricultu- 

 rists whose fame has reached this country, communications could not 

 be addressed to them in time to obtain answers prior to his present 

 report. It was therefore left for the corresponding officer of the en- 

 suing year. Many portions of Germany, and particularly Belgium, 

 afford fields of agricultural exploration, second in interest only to that 

 of England, our mother country, and while the systems and practi- 

 ces of the latter are daily placed before us in agricultural publica- 

 tions, those of the former are comparatively unheard of and unknown. 



