SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 79 



only lost two out of five hundred in the course of two years, 

 and the mortality amongst lambs was not much greater. 

 The price of his ewes, when the lambs are weaned, is $3, 

 and that of two-year old wedders, S2 and $2^. Fleeces 

 weigh 3ilb., and his wool at present is worth 60 cents per Ib. 



We examined a large collection of wool belonging to Mr 



R , which was of fine quality. He told us one of his 



yearling wedders, weighing 291b. yielded 21b. 9oz. of wool ; 

 and the small size of this sheep induced him to think an acre 

 of ground would yield as much fine wool as coarse. But the 

 data furnished by this animal are not satisfactory, as its wool 

 and carcass, in all probability, bore a different proportion in 

 the preceding autumn ; since which, the latter may have de 

 creased, and the former increased. The carcass of a live wed- 

 der, weighing 29lb., must have consisted only of bone and 

 sinew ; and the weight of wool, compared with that of the 

 sheep, may be held as evidence of wretched condition, and 

 not of superiority of wool-growing. 



Mr J s cows were beautiful animals, and very fat. For 



some days past a great improvement in the condition of cat 

 tle had been observed, arising, perhaps, from better pastures, 

 and the advance of the season. There was also an obvious 

 change in the inhabitants, having seen more corpulent men 

 since leaving Schenectady than in all our previous \vanderings 

 in America. 



Mr Stuart, in his &quot; Three Years Residence in America,&quot; 

 remarks, there are few lean animals ; but observation leads 

 me to a different conclusion cows, sheep, and pigs, taken col 

 lectively, being apparently the leanest and most neglected 

 creatures I ever saw in any country. The condition of the 

 horse is greatly superior to that of other animals, yet many 

 are met with on the Erie canal equal in wretchedness to the 

 most overwrought animal in Britain. Combining the price 

 of the animal and of food, the daily expense of a horse is 

 much higher in Britain than in the United States, while the 

 wages of his driver are proportionally lower ; hence a poor, 

 weak, lame horse may be an object of profit in the one coun 

 try long after he ceases to be so in the other, and the fatness 



