18 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



some of them even at a sacrifice. Mr. Miller and 

 other gentlemen in the Connecticut river region 

 have intonned iis, that the same hard labor of both 

 males and female.'* is not requisite in keeping Hocks 

 of sheep as in keeping a dairy and flocks of cattle; 

 and that they, therefore, of choice, would prefer 

 keeping sheep as a main business to almost any 

 other at the same profit. 



It is now reduced to a certaintj* that wool, which 

 is an article hardly less important than cotton for 

 our home consumption, may be produced in the 

 northern States to almost any given amount. The 

 county of Dutchess in New York, situated about 

 midway between the cities of Albany and New 

 York and extending some forty miles on the east 

 shore of the Hudson to the line of Mas.sachusetts, 

 is probably the most wealthy agricultural territory 

 of its site in the United States. Upland farms in 

 the interior of that county are valued and readily 

 sold at from sixty to one hundred dollars the acre 

 for cultivation. This county produces more wool 

 than any other county — it turns out so much of 

 this article that Poughkcepsie, its capital town, has 

 become one of tlie greatest wool markets in the 

 United States. The wealth of the farmers and the 

 high value oi" the farms in Dutchess have proba- 

 bly resulted from the early attention paid to grow- 

 ing sheep and the perseverance in pursuing this 

 calling. 



Success in any kind of business depends not more 

 on the prospect of demand for the article produced 

 than upon the steadiness with which the business is 

 pursuec. A man who frequently changes his pur- 

 poses will fail even tiiough he shall take hold of a 

 profitable pursuit at each change ; more is often 

 wasted in the alteration of plans than the entire 

 profits of the work. 



We do not doubt that those who shall take up 

 the sheep raising, as well as those who have steadily 

 pursued it, will find that as good and as profitable 

 a pursuit hereafter a they can take hold of. Espe- 

 cially farmers who have or can procure hill and 

 mountain pastures on which to summer their sheep 

 where they may be often looked after, and who un- 

 derstand the best methods of keeping the fine 

 wooled sheep, will do well in the sheep raising. 

 The native sheep of New England are more hardy 

 and less liable to disease than the Sa.T.ony and Me- 

 rino ; and we are not quite sure that flocks of the 

 former may not be kept at as good advantage as 

 the latter. 



Two of the most successful wool growers within 

 the knowledge of the writer areSxEPHENSiBLEy and 

 Joseph Barsakd, Esquires, living in the immediate 

 neighborhood of each other in the adjoining town 

 of Hopkinton. These gentlemen, from the choice 

 flocks which they possessed, have been able to sell 

 their wool at their own doors at high prices when 

 the ordinary wool could hardly be disposed of at 

 auy price. Mr. Sibley has a mountain pasture ex- 

 tending over the back of old Kearsarge which he 

 has recently cleared : from ten acres of it the last 

 season he had a fine crop of rye, which he carted 

 fifteen miles in the straw to his own homestead. 



Below is presented a letter from Mr. Sibley, 

 which we find in a Maine agricultural paper pub- 

 lished three years ago, and in which he describes 

 at length his method of feeding sheep on browse in 

 the winter. We have no recollection of before hav- 

 ing seen this letter, although we have had a simi- 

 lar description from the mouth of Mr. Sibley. — 

 This gentleman may be relied on as a safe adviser, 

 because he has had many years successful practice 

 in the rearing and keeping of sheep. His system 

 of browsing, we believe, is continued at the pres- 

 ent time. His letter contains valuable hints to 

 wool growers : 



Hopkinton, A'. H., Oct. 25, 1835. 

 Mt dear Sir, — 



On the return of your uncle I was 

 told you wished to know my method of browsing 

 sheep. ♦ * * ^g soon as the ground 

 is covered with snow I browse ray sheep daily. I 

 go to the woods and make one or more temporary 

 cribs by placing two poles parallel 18 or 24 inches 

 apart upon two handfuls of brush or billets of wood. 

 Between the poles 1 place or set my boughs of hem- 

 lock or hard pine — [probably spruce, fir, or cedar 

 will do as well] — thrusting the but ends into the 

 snow and having them lean the same way. I 

 extend my cribs till they well accommodate the 

 number of sheep I wish to feed. I then tread down 

 the snow about the cribs so that sheep can easily 

 pass by those that have reached the browse and are 

 feeding. I then turn my flock to the cribs, and my 

 work is done. In the latter part of the winter, 

 when the snow is sutficiently hard to bear up the 

 sheep, I thrust the boughs, when cutoff, into the 

 •tiffeaow, in rows without poles, but so close to- 



gether as to prevent the sheep passing through 

 them. 



Three winters ago when I began to browse my 

 sheep, I cut my browse and threw it about at ran- 

 dom, but I soon found my sheep too nice to feed 

 in that slovenly manner. They would run over it 

 and leave it. I took the hint of arranging in the 

 way I liave mentioned from nature, for I have ob- 

 served where boughs pendent from the trees were 

 sufficiently low to be reached by the sheep, they 

 would go directly to them and feed more freely 

 than in any other way. Sheep arc not pleased 

 with having their food touched even by the hand of 

 man. 



The advantage of browsing sheep is no longer 

 doubted here. It gives them exercise, fresh airand 

 green feed during the whole winter. I drive my 

 sheep in flocks of from fifty to one hundred nearly 

 a mile every day, unless the weather is very tem- 

 pestuous, and they heed cold weather as much as 

 the deer or moose that range about the White Moun- 

 tains. 



A farmer in this town wintered about seventy- 

 five sheep wholly on browse and a gill of corn a 

 day to each. His flock were not at the barn dur- 

 ing the winter, and they came out of the woods in 

 the spring in fine order. He was fortunate with 

 his lambs that season, and the following fall sold 

 his wethers to the butcher for four dollars a head. 

 I believe he had a slight covering to protect his 

 sheep from storms. I give no grain of any kind to 

 my sheep, except to my lambs the first winter, or 

 to a few old ones that may be feeble ; to these I 

 give at the rate of a quart daily to twenty -five. To 

 my breeding ewes I give half a gill a day for three 

 or four weeks before they yean. I keep my stalls 

 dry and airy, and daily brush every straw they 

 leave from their cribs. For the last three winters 

 I have wintered 274, 367, and 275, and have lost 

 but two during tlie three winters. Mv breeding 

 ewes last winter numbered 127 — of which seven 

 proved barren. I had two lambs killed bv a fox — 

 two died by taking cold after castration ; one from 

 being trod upon when very young, and one came 

 too feeble to live, and died — loss in all six. I have 

 since disposed of five, and my lambs now number 

 109; and a more plump, healthy and beautiful 

 flock I thialv cannot be found in New England. 



I have lately sold 68 of my old sheep, and my 

 whole flock now numbers 311. I have brought up 

 my flock mostly from merino ewes, and they are 

 now from full blood Saxony to those made nearly 

 so by breeding from the finest Saxony bucks for 

 nine years. My fleeces averaged 2 lbs. 6 oz. and 

 sold at 75 cents. My store sheep sell from 3 to 10 

 dollars ahead. Yours, &c. 



STEPHEN SIBLEY. 



P. S. Since the foregoing article was put in 

 type, Mr. Barnard has exhibited at our office a 

 beautiful silver medal of the New York American 

 Institute with this inscription on one side : 



^^ Awarded to Barnard and Sibley for the best 

 .imcrican IVool. 1836." 



The other side contains the arms of the State of 

 New York, surmounted with the words "Ameri- 

 can Institute." 



It is much to the credit of Messrs. Barnard and 

 Sibley and honorable to the Granite State, that 

 these gentlewicn should have exceeded the wool- 

 growers of any other State in the quality of their 

 wool ; that they should give to our State the name 

 of producing, at the extensive exhibition of the 

 New York American Institute — which has become 

 an Institute for the whole United States — "the 

 BEST American wool.." 



During the year 1837, Mr. Sibley disposed of a- 

 bout one hundred and fifty of his fine wooled sheep 

 for exportation to Buenos Ayres in South Ameri- 

 ca, some of ichich were sold after their arrival as 

 high as serenttj dollars each. .These sheep were a- 

 bout 7-8 Saxony blood crossed on fine wooled Me- 

 rino : they were sold at a time of great depression 

 in tho price of sheep in June, when the prospect 

 for wool was poor indeed. Mr. S. obtained five 

 and a half dollars for the unsheared, and four dol- 

 lars each for the sheared sheep. His finest wool 

 that year was sold at fifty cents the pound. 



Berkshire pigs are getting into as high repute 

 among swine, as the improved short horns have be- 

 come among neat cattle. We had heard, in several 

 cases of individual pigs being sold at fifty to eighty 

 dollJirs. The Franklin Farmer, of the ISth De- 

 cember, informs us of the sale of a pair of Berk- 

 shire hogs, at the extravagant price of $;500 I The 

 purchaser was William P. Curd, Esq. and the sel- 

 ler .lolm R. Bryant, of the society of Shakers, all 

 of Kentucky. 



Deficiencies in Bnilding I 



There is no knowledge so valuable as that which 

 is gained by experience ; and if man had a right to 

 complain of his condition, this would seem to be a 

 most prominent item, that he can only effectually 

 learn what is the better way by encountering the 

 evils of some other way ivhich is not right. 



Much of our business in life is of a kind that we 

 do not expect to perform it but once. When a man 

 gets married, he at least hopes that no untoward 

 event may occur which shall render it expedient to 

 repeat the ceremony. And when a man builds a 

 house where he calculates to spend his days, he 

 hopes not to be obliged to build again. As he "builda 

 for himself only once, his own knowledge with the 

 utmost vigilance is unable to detect in every case 

 what is wrong. He would not be likely to know 

 how deep in the earth the foundation should be 

 laid — what width of stone or brick, or what strength 

 of mortar would be necessary for the walls — what 

 should be the size of the timbers — what should be 

 the composition of sand, lime and hair for the plas- 

 tering — how thick it should be laid on — how great 

 the space between the lathing, &c. &.c. 



If it cannot be expected the inexperienced owner 

 of a house or other building should know precise- 

 ly what is required ; how much greater the neces- 

 sity that the professed mechanic to whom the con- 

 struction of a building is left, should be a perfect 

 master of his business. If the legislature had any 

 right to regulate the transactions between man and 

 man, it ought to provide against the evil of suffer- 

 ing mechanics who were ignorant of the art or 

 trade which they profess to abuse the confi- 

 dence of their employers, by compelling them to 

 make good the damage which had resulted from 

 bad work which could be attributed either to care- 

 lessness or want of knowledge. 



Our own experience has reluctantly led us to the 

 conclusion that many of the mechanics of our 

 country who consider themselves masters of their 

 trades are too deficient in knowledge of their trade. 

 We say this not by way of reproach for their ig- 

 norance, but with the view of inducing them to 

 take more pains to inform themselves of what their 

 business requires. 



Let us suppose a farmer has a wish to build 

 him a brick house, which, as it will be more expen- 

 sive, he hopes will be more comfortable and lasting 

 than a house built with wood. He employs, in the 

 first place, a stone mason to lay the foundation. 

 How miserably will he be disappointed, after he 

 has laid out a large sum of money to complete his 

 house, to find that the foundation has been upheav- 

 ed and the house rjiit from top to bottom, because 

 the mechanic he employed was so ignorant, or stupid 

 or careless, as not to know or consider that the bot- 

 tom stone should be laid below the frost .' 



There are two cases connected with brick build- 

 ings which have been mentioned to us — and we 

 will afterwards mention a third — where lives have 

 been in great danger from the simple failure of the 

 mechanic to do his duty. An industrious farmer 

 of an adjoining town w'as an.xious to have a very 

 good brick house. For this purpose he procured 

 the best of materials, and sent a considerable dis- 

 tance to obtain the man who had been considered 

 the best bricklayer in the county to do his work. 

 His house had progressed, but was not completely 

 finished, when in a high wind a few weeks ago the 

 entire of one gable end fell inward, taking every 

 thing with it till it reached the floor directly above 

 the cellar. There happened to be nobody at that 

 time in that end of the house, so no one was killed. 

 On examining the real condition of the building it 

 w.as found, eitiier as the fault of the bricklayer or 

 carpenter, or both, that the wood and brick parts 

 were not bound at all to each other, so that a slight 

 wind or slight touch would prostrate the end of the 

 building in either direction. The owner had no 

 suspicion of the condition of the building, nor ought 

 he to be accountable for it: his loss in this case 

 was at least two hundred dollars, beside the pain 

 and mortification he encountered of seeing work 

 which had cost him so dear so badly and so care- 

 lessly done. Another similar case was, where a 

 snug two story brick building had been erected for 



the C bank. The directors had just left their 



table at one end of the building and retired to the 

 cashier's room at the other end,when the irable end 

 in like manner was precipitated through two floors 

 and fell directly on the spot where they had been 

 sitting ! The fault in this case was the same as 

 that we have before described — the wall running 

 up the width of onlj' a single brick was not bound 

 to the roof of the building. 



The third case comes a little nearer to ourselves. 

 Twenty -tour hours ago, we were writing in the 

 precise spot where we now sit; and if anyone had 

 then told us that without the aid of fire, or water. 



