34 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



be depended upon ;" in fact, only in extreme cases, not to 

 be depended upon at all. 



Wool-growing in Western Neiv York. — I like this kind 

 of articles. In reviewing it I wish to ask Mr. Peters a 

 few questions, which I am sure he will answer freely, to 

 make his statements more plain to some of us dull-brained 

 city dwellers. You state that we can buy farms at $10 or 

 $12 per acre, that will carry "300 sheep to every 100 acres 

 of cleared land ;" but do you in the cost make allowance 

 for woodland? Would not that be included in the price, 

 and, of course, add to the capital? And, again, you allow 

 no chance whatever for a poor man, or one even with 

 $3,000 or $4,000, to engage in wool-growing in western 

 New York. Must all of that class be driven to the prai- 

 ries of the west? Now, it appears to me, if no man with 

 a less capital than $14,000 can profitably engage in the 

 business, that very few will undertake it without a better 

 show of figures than yours. The truth is, that the capi- 

 talist can make "11 per cent." so much more certain and 

 easy, that he will not engage in the laborious business of 

 a sheep farm, without a prospect of much larger profits. 

 Will twelve tons (and what kind) of hay without grain, 

 winter 100 sheep? Is 20 acres of pasture, on an average, 

 not a small allowance? Do you pasture meadow and 

 grain fall or spring? 



Feeding Large Dogs in Toivn. — If with the first feed 

 described, you will give nineteen twentieths of these dogs, 

 each a sixpence worth of strychnine, it will save much 

 future expense, and add greatly to the comfort of many 

 thousand citizens, and still leave all the dogs that can be 

 of any possible advantage to their owners or anybody 

 else — dogs included! 



Ladies' Department. — Not a word to say. I dare not 

 look under that — what-d'ye-call-it? and I cannot see the 

 beauty of the thing unless I do.^ So I will pass on to the 



^ The article referred to described the construction of a "para- 

 petticoat" from a parasol and a petticoat, to be used to cover a 

 rosebush while green flies were smoked out. American Agricul- 

 turist, 5:289. 



