PROSPECTS OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 253 



Merino wool is very fine but too short. By crossing, we can get 

 just the wool and nautton most in demand. And the sheep are 

 admirably adapted to our climate. Of course we must feed better 

 than we are in habit of feeding common Merino flocks, but that is 

 precisely what the requirements of our agriculture demands. We 

 shall feed higher and make much richer manure. 



Good mutton in England brings a higher price than beef. We 

 are shipping beef quarters to England, we shall ship mutton car- 

 casses also just as soon as the farmers of the United States raise 

 such sheep as I have alluded to. Well fatted mutton will keep 

 longer and better than beef, and I should think there would be no 

 difficulty in transporting it across the Atlantic. And if I can trust 

 my own taste the mutton of these grade Cotswold-Merino sheep, 

 when well fatted, will be found nearly, or quite equal to South 

 Down mutton, especially when kept till nearly two years old. I 

 have just weighed (Aug. 24) one of my two-year old grade ewes 

 that has been running with the rest of the flock, but which did not 

 have a lamb last spring and is consequently almost fat enough to 

 kill. She has two crosses of Cotswold blood in her, she is perfect 

 in shape, except that her legs are a little too long, biit she is a 

 remarkably strong, vigorous sheep, admirably adapted to our 

 climate and mode of farming. She weighed 200| lbs., and would 

 probably dress 28 lbs. to the quarter. I do not wash my own 

 sheep, but I sold some grade lambs to one of my neighbors who 

 washes his sheep. lie told me that one of these grade Cotswold- 

 Merino lambs this spring sheared 12 lbs. of washed wool. 



Now if we can raise such sheep, and I am sure we can, and if 

 we can send the surplus mutton to England after we have supplied 

 our own markets, I see no reason why we cannot adopt a higher 

 and better system of farming — why, in other words, we cannot 

 keep more stock, feed higher, and make more and richer manure. 



There are only two points to be observed: Ist. We must use 

 pure-bred long-iuooled rams, and 2nd. We must feed the ewes and 

 lambs liberally. We have plenty of corn, and clover is easily 

 raised, and bran is usually cheap. I hope to live to see the time 

 when we shall send less corn and more mutton across the Atlantic, 

 and when we can raise nearly all our own combing wool. 



Hitherto we have raised few turnips or other roots for our sheep. 

 Much has been written and said iu their favor, and many farmers 

 have tried them, onlj' to give them up. The English farmers, to a 

 great extent, feed their turnips on the land as they grow. In our 



