262 [Senate 



for sheds, &c.; but in this climate it should be considered an indis- 

 pensable requisite to provide some kind of artificial shelter j before en- 

 gaging in sheep-farming. 



The favorable effect which the keeping of sheep has on the fertility 

 of the soil had been alluded to. Mr. H. wished that every farmer 

 could see this part of the subject in its true light. Yet from some 

 unaccountable reason, some men had got the notion into their heads,- 

 that sheep poison ground — and that on this account they should never 

 be turned on mowing or meadow lands. He was perfectly satisfied 

 from his own experience and observation, that sheep grazing was be- 

 neficial to grass land ; and if in this respect sheep did not actually 

 constitute an exception to the effect produced by other animals, it 

 was certain that no other animal improved the land so much. 



Mr. SoTHAM said he had kept his sheep through the winter on cut 

 corn-fodder with a few brewer's grains. They had done well — had 

 produced 90 lambs already from the same number of ewes. He 

 thought the sowing of corn broadcast, on rich ground, a very profit- 

 able crop for winter feeding. He sowed six acres last year, and 

 thought he got at least six tons to the acre. It had been the princi- 

 pal fodder of a large portion of his' cattle and sheep the past winter. 

 His sheep are the Cotswolds, and yielded last year eight pounds of 

 wool per head, which sold at 30 cents per pound. 



The President remarked in connection with the discussion of the 

 evening, that Henry D. Grove, one of the most efficient members of 

 the State Society, who lately died in Rensselaer county, (and to whose 

 memory the meeting paid a tribute of respect,) was the individual 

 who, in connection with the Messrs. Searle, merchants, of Boston, 

 brought over from his native Germany in 1824, the first flock of that 

 celebrated stock of sheep, known as the " Pure Electoral SaxonSj'' 

 ever exposed to sale in this country. These sheep were sold at auc- 

 tion in Brookline, near Boston, and were scattered over various parts 

 of the country, but mostly in the New-England States and the State 

 of New-York. It was while remaining at Brookline, attending to the 

 sale of these sheep, says a brief memoir of the deceased, " that Mr. 

 Grove, though then but 22 years of age, contributed to the New-Eng- 

 land Farmer a most valuable article en sheep husbandry, evincing an 

 intimate acquaintance with the subject in all its details ; and although 

 the author at that time must have been very imperfectly acquainted 

 with our language, the style of this communication exhibits not only 

 a mind well instructed in the science to which it was directed, but 

 one that had been early disciplined to habits of, correct observation. 

 Each of the two succeeding years, Mr. Grove made voyages to this 

 country in the same connexion, and returned to Europe. In June, 

 1827, he landed in New-York with a flock of a hundred and five sheep, 

 selected during the preceding winter, from the purest Saxon blood — 

 to which he added by importation the next season, sixty yearlings 

 and ten lambs, selected with equal care, and from which have sprung 

 the present valuable and pure blooded flocks, belonging to his estate." 

 " From these flocks, which have now been almost seventeen years in 

 our midst," says Doctor Cook, of Rensselaer county, in his 



