354 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 6 



prove the whole mass of agriculture, much might, 

 be done. Our difficulty is to carry large flocks 

 through our long winters. As things are, I have 

 a better opinion of the cattle business than that of 

 sheep ; and I think the ormer would succeed bet- 

 ter tiian the latter, with ail the management that 

 could be bestowed on it. No one l<novvs, howev- 

 er, what might be done, if the whole capitals 

 and attention of industrious, intelligent, and expe- 

 rienced men were drawn to this point. Our snowy 

 winters would embarrass, if not rum the turnip 

 plants; and the droughts of summer their large 

 flocks. If hiccory be a s erious auxiliary, it is well. 

 It grows as a weed in many parts of this country. 



In the observations upon sheep you were pleas- 

 ed to desire of me, on a Ibrnier occasion, I exhaust- 

 ed my small stock oi' knowledge on that subjecr. 

 If any thing in these observations is applicable 

 now, I beg to refer you to them. 



JVolves are a serious enemy to the sheep plan, 

 in places where there are the largest ranges. Time 

 may, perhaps, subdue them. But we have paid 

 iJ)r ibrty or filtv years past, out of our county-rates, 

 29s. lor a wolf's head ; and though they are chief- 

 ly banished from our plains and older settlements, 

 yet on our montilains ihey are plenty. Where a 

 large ridge runs throutrh a country, in other parts 

 ever so well peopled, they find retreats, and breed 

 prodigiously. Unless we can have the Fyrenean 

 milleriium, in which wolves and sheep, it seems, 

 live together in worshipful society, I know not a 

 speedy remedy. I lay not long ago, at the foot of 

 the South Mountain, in York county, in this state, 

 in acounlry very thickly settled, at the house of a 

 justice of peace. Through the night I was kept 

 awake by what I conceived to be a jubilee of dogs, 

 assembled lo bay tlie moon. But I was told in the 

 morning, that what disturbed me was only the 

 common howling of wolves, which nobody there 

 regarded. When I entered {he Hall of Justice, 

 I found the squire giving judgment fijr the reward 

 on two wolf whelps a countryman had taken from 

 the bitch. The judgment-seat w,\s shaken with 

 the intelliirence, that the she-woll was coming — 

 not to give bail — but to devote herself or rescue her 

 ntispriu!?. The animal was punished for this dar- 

 ing contempt, committed in the fince of the court, 

 and was shot within an hundred yards of the tri- 

 bunal. The storge had prompted' her to go a lit- 

 tle too far. 



Dogs are also formidable — too many beinfj use- 

 lessly kept by the wealthy, and not a li;w by poor 

 people, who do not fi^ed them. The law is exact- 

 ly the same as in England. But it is difficult to 

 prove that the owner had the required scienter of 

 iiis dog beuig accustomed to kill sheep. It is also 

 diflicuU to discover the destroyer. Heofien reigns 

 like an Achilles, but not so open in his feais of des- 

 truction. We suffer, therefore, the devastations 

 committed by this nocturnal marauder, and see our 

 slaughtered sheep, 



"Whose limbs iinburied on the naked shore, 

 Devourin,^ dogs and hungry vultures tore." 



As to the law, our farmers are not fond of it, on 

 such occasions. They think the first loss sufficient, 

 and rather submit to the ravages of the '■'■devouring 

 dogs,'''' than risk their purses being '■'■torn.'''' by 

 those they dread, as much as if they were "/mn- 

 gry vulturef;.'^ In short, they prefer losing the 

 value of their sheep, to being fleeced, as they sup- 



pose, in a firosecution lor damages. If they dis- 

 cover the guilty doii, ihey proceed in a summary 

 way — they shoot him, or otherwise put an end lo 

 his career. To multiply their chances of punish- 

 ing the culprit, they often bring lo the lanterne, or 

 guillotine, a number of victims, as is sometimes 

 done on more important occasions: a practice, 

 however, not very justifiable, even in the case of 

 dogs. It is doing justice as quickly, if not so rep- 

 utably, as was done in England by their old court 

 of Trail-baton, which, as my Lord Coke says, was 

 as rapid in its movements, "as one might draw, or 

 trade, a siali'e, or stycke." 



We must establish such a court here, if the bu- 

 siness of sheep-feeding is largely extended: and 

 perhaps send tor some Pyrenean wolves, to train 

 our mountaineers to a little more civili y. If this 

 fails, we must turn our doifs upon them, and, as 

 artful politicians treat their liillovv bipeds, keep our- 

 selves sate, by stimulating one enemy to root out 

 another, and so ruin both in the contest. Serious- 

 ly, if we had the means of keeping large flocks, 

 so as to employ shepherds, we iniahl manage both 

 wolves and dogs; but, at present, it is not an at- 

 tainable object. 



Philadelphia, September 1, 1793. 



Sir: 



Instead of commencing this lettler with an^ipol- 

 ogy, for suffering your lixvor of the 17ih of last 

 January to remain so long unacknowledged, I will 

 refer you to the bearer, who is perlectly acquaint- 

 ed with my situation, for the reason why it has 

 done so. 



The bearer, sir, is Mr. Jjear, a gentleman who 

 has, been a member of my liiniily seven years, and, 

 until the present moment, my secretary; conse- 

 quently he cannot, as I have observed before, be 

 unknowing to the nature, and pressure of the busi- 

 ness in which I am continually involved. 



As a proof, however, that I have not been alto- 

 gether inattentive to your commands, I inclose the 

 result of Mr. Peters's answer to some inquiries of 

 yours; and the copy also of a letter from Mr. Jef- 

 ferson, to whom I had propounded for solution, 

 other queries contained m your letter of the above 

 date. 



The documents I send, have the signature of 

 these gentlemen annexed to them, but for your 

 satislaciion only. 



Mr. Peters is, as you will perceive by a vein in 

 his letter, a man of humor. He is a theorist, and 

 admitted one of the best practical farmers in this 

 part of the state of Pennsylvania. 



But as it is not so much what the soil of this 

 country actually produces, as what it is capable of 

 producing by skilful management, that I conceive 

 to be the ol)ject of your inquiry ; and to know 

 whether this produce would meet a ready market, 

 and good prices : what the nature of the climate, 

 in general, is ; the temperature thereofj in the dif- 

 ferent states ; the quality, and prices of the lands, 

 with the improvements thereon, in various parts of 

 the urdon ; the prospects which are unfolding in 

 each. &c. &c. I can do no belter than refer you 

 to the oral information of the bearer, who is a per- 

 son of intelligence, and pretty well acquainted with 

 the states, fi'om New Hampshire, ^inclusive) to 

 Virginia ; and one in whom you may, as I do, 

 place entire confidence in all he shall relate of his 



