248 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



The Spanish government made the first importation of them. In 1765, 

 they disappeared, and in 1787, the president de la Tour d'Aignes intro- 

 duced several hundred of them, from the lower Alps, upon the Leberon 

 chain. These flourished under the guardianship of their Turkish masters, 

 \fho came to Spain with them, in order to teach the methods of spinning 

 and weaving their wool. The unfortunate Louis XVI, about the close of 

 last century, imported them to Eambouillet. Ferdinand VII, had a hun- 

 dred of them at his El Retiro pai-k, in 1830. In 1849, Dr. J. B. Davis, 

 of South Carolina, imported there six females, and two rams; in 1855, he 

 had fifty of pure blood. These goats prefer hay to grass. 



PEACH WOOD FOR FUEL. 



The " Prairie Farmer," Chicago, Illinois, Feb. 3, 1859. S. M. G. says 

 his fine peach orchard was killed by the cold of 1855-1856. He left the 

 trees standing till the following winter. The wood was then thoroughly 

 seasoned, and he used it as fuel, and heard no scolding in the house all 

 that winter, about wood. It is excellent fuel, and soon raised. We have 

 forest trees near us, but we prefer the peach. For fuel, I would grow the 

 peach trees as near as corn. 



Mr. Lawton. — The farmer who may have devoted his life to the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil, following in the footsteps of intelligent progenitors, with 

 satisfactory results, may undervalue science in connection with his business, 

 and, to a superficial observer, with some propriety; but the case is pre- 

 cisely similar to the mechanic arts, in which many unlearned men have 

 acquired great proficiency. The scientific farmer avails himself quietly 

 and promptly of all the improvements of the age ; the merely practical one 

 walks in the beaten track of his forefathers, and, by physical labor, pro- 

 duces satisfactory results, without a proper knowledge of the cause of this 

 success. The practical and theoretical farmer should be constantly associ- 

 ated, and the mental and physical energies of both thus advance. 



Nearly all the results in agricultural labors, have their foundation in 

 certain facts and principles connected with chemistry, and vegetable phyt^i- 

 ology, which afford the sure means of advancing agriculture almost to 

 perfection. W^e would not deny that without a knowledge of principles, 

 much has been done, but rather regret that science had not shortened the 

 method and labor. The subject under discusoion this day, is deeply interest- 

 ing to a large class of persons, who, in their yearnings for a rural life, 

 have their little farms, which must be made productive to enable them to 

 retain their homes in the country, while a large portion of their time is 

 passed in the business walks in life of our towns and cities. Let us, then, 

 take into consideration a proper preparation of the soil for all croj)S, the 

 adaptation of crops for the nearest market, and our wants ; and this brings 

 us at once to drainage, which, on a bottom of loamy soil, is almost as 

 indispensable to the health of the farmer, as to his success in cultivation. 

 We cannot expect that the whole of even a small farm will be immciliately 

 drained by two inch tiles, in the approved method now adopted. Where 



