58 [Senate 



ability so to improve their flocks, as to clip twice the value in wool 

 from them, according to the quantity of food consumed, that is now 

 obtained from a fair average of the flocks in the country. Indeed, 

 I saw sheep and their fleeces in Oneida, Cortland, Onondaga, 

 Cayuga and Monroe counties , which give a larger money return for 

 their keep than I had supposed was realized by any farmers in New- 

 York. As these flocks are well known in their respective counties, 

 and some of them throughout the State ; and as a particular account 

 of their excellence will reach the State Society, through the reports 

 of the county societies, I need not particularize concerning them, 

 I am confident, however, that the farmer who understands turn- 

 ing his labor into grass, oats, peas, beans, potatoes and turnips, to 

 good advantage, and the art of transforming these vegetables into 

 wool, and mutton in the most economical manner, can be well paid 

 for his skill and industry in almost any town in the State. 



We read in the Bible that "Abel was a keeper of sheep." Of all liv- 

 ing apparatus which produces food and clothing for man, that apparatus 

 which changes grass and briers into wool, tallow and flesh, is doubt- 

 less the most valuable. A knowledge of this machinery, and of the 

 laws that govern its every motion, is of the highest importance. It 

 will enable the v/ool grower to double his profits. Several lectures 

 have been given on this branch of rural industry, by particular 

 request. 



The Dairy Business has been greatly extended, systematized and 

 improved in New-York within the last few years, something of this 

 increase may be inferred, particularly in western New-York, when 

 I state that, according to the late census, in a single town in Erie 

 count}'^, (Collins) there are milked this season, no fewer than 3,799 

 cows ; from whose milk there was made 227,082 pounds of butter, and 

 453,960pounds of cheese. Itis believed that no other town in the State 

 can show so large a number of cows, or an equal product in butter and 

 cheese.* 



Four hundred and fifty-four thousand pounds of cheese to be manu- 

 factured in a single town, and especially in one that makes over two 

 hundred and twenty-seven thousand pounds of butter, is no "com- 

 mon doings." 



*Since the above was written I have seen the returns of Herkimer county, and find 

 that the town of Fairfield, turns out the astonishing quantity of 1,355,967 lbs. of 

 cheese. 



