344 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



For the purpose of carrying out the plan and procuring a sufficient number of these animals, 

 an expedition, under the charge of Lieutenant Porter, U.S.N., and Major Wayne, of the 

 Army, sailed from New York, in June last, for Egypt and the Mediterranean. 



It is the intention of the latter officer to visit Egypt, Nubia, Arabia, and such other coun- 

 tries of the East as produce the camel, where he will examine the different varieties, study their 

 habits, and select such as, in his opinion, are best adapted to the climate and food of the dis- 

 trict where it is proposed to introduce them. The camel is as greatly improved by careful 

 raising, and by the selection of good varieties, as the horse is ; hence it may not be in the coun- 

 tries originally indigenous to these animals tLat those best suited to our wants will be found. 



The camel of Egypt^used to a hot, dry, aud little-varying climate, would not be adapted 

 to the changeable climate and cutting northers of Texas. Yet it might answer well for the 

 region on the Pacific slope of the Rocky Mountain range bordering on Mexico, where the 

 arid deserts occur. The Persian or Bactrian camel, which is used on the steppes of Siberia 

 and the plateaux of Central Asia, will doubtless be found the best adapted for our prairies 

 and the Rocky Mountains. The experiment is a most important one, and, if successful, will 

 revolutionize the present mode of travelling across the prairies ; but more particularly the 

 desert regions, where water and grass are scarce. 



Tartar or Shanghai Sheep. 



MR. E. EMERSON, of Philadelphia, communicates to the Progressive Farmer the following, 

 information relative to the Tartar or Shanghai sheep, recently introduced into this country: 



They are of good size, with ears drooping forward, prominent noses, agreeably expressive 

 faces, covered with a short and very fine glossy silken hair. The fleece is light and best 

 adapted for blankets and similar woollen textures. The value of this breed does not, there- 

 fore, consist in the fleece ; but must be sought for in the remarkable facility it offers to in- 

 crease the supply of this kind of animal food almost at pleasure, for the ewes have lambs 

 twice a year, generally from three to four at a birth, and not unfrequently five at a time. I 

 have a ewe which brought three lambs last February, all of which were raised to maturity. 

 About the middle of November, she had two more, and at the same time her two February 

 ewe lambs each brought a lamb, making her progeny in nine months no less than seven, all 

 living and thriving, save one accidentally killed. 



The quality of the mutton is of the highest order. When in China, several years ago, I 

 was not a little surprised to find the eagerness exhibited by every one for mutton ; and never 

 did I see a leg brought upon the table of which any thing was left but the bone. I attributed 

 this partiality, in a great degree, to the high price of the meat, the cost of which to foreigners 

 was something like fifty cents per pound. But I have since been convinced that while rarity 

 contributed something to the flavor, there was still more due to the intrinsic qualities of the 

 meat, which is entirely free from any woolly or other disagreeable taste, and has a delicacy 

 resembling venison. This characteristic of the mutton of the Tartar sheep, with the capacity 

 they afford of furnishing lambs at any time of the year, must make them of great value to 

 those whose chief object is to breed for the shambles. 



I have crossed the breed with a good stock of country sheep, and have about twenty-five 

 half-bloods, pronounced remarkably fine sheep by all who have seen them, being rather larger 

 than the full-bloods, with much better fleeces. How they are to turn out in the excellence of 

 their mutton and prolific qualities remains to be tested. Probably they will exceed common 

 sheep in the average number of their lambs, but not equal the full-bloods in their astonishing 

 prolific qualities, and this to many persons may constitute an improvement. 



On the Artificial Propagation of Fish in American Waters. 



THE subject of the production and propagation of fish by the artificial methods discovered 

 in France some years ago, and since successfully introduced into that country and Great 

 Britain, has especial claims upon the attention of all interested in the increase and develop- 

 ment of our national resources. "We understand," says a writer in Putnam's Magazine, 



