648 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 



Does it not prove the necessity of our endeavoring I 

 to do so likewise? There is a practice prevailing I 

 with UP, which, howevercongenial wiih the best so- 

 cial leelings, is nevertheless utterly at war with the 

 prospect of reformation — 1 mean that of selecting 

 the very finest of our lambs for our tables — a mo- 

 derate forbearance, in ihe use of the second best 

 for a time, or until our floclis are more unilbrm, 

 would enable us to have them very fine, and still 

 leave the best — the practice also of permitting the 

 butchers to pick the fine fat ewes out of our flocks 

 is extremely injurious, as in getting the best mut- 

 ton they will also get many of the best breeders.* 

 Therefore be particular in marking your breeders. 

 To all such as will not find it convenient to intro- 

 duce crosses into (heir flock, let me recommend 

 the value and importance ol' using their best judg- 

 ment in selecting not only from their own flocks, 

 but as the celebrated Bakewell did in the com- 

 mencement of his improvement, pick them up 

 from the highway — perseverance will do for them 

 what it has already done lor him. 



To the society I would now most respectfully 

 and particularly appeal, as to a body of liberal 

 and intelligent farmers, associating themselves not 

 merely for individual benefit, whether in the ex- 

 pectation of rewards, honorary or otherwise, im- 

 mediate; or relying on future advantages accruing 

 from a mass of practical information which should 

 naturally arise out of such an institution, but as 

 having from principle and conviction taken on 

 themselves (so far as the case will admit) the re- 

 eponsibility of a reform in the cultivation of the 

 soil, and the improvement of our domestic ani- 

 mals, as essential to the more comfortable exist- 

 ence of a very large class of our farmers, whose 

 situation, moderate settlements, and most indus- 

 trious lives, preclude from advantages, to be de- 

 rived only through the intervention of superior 

 wealth and intelligence. I would take the liberty 

 of suggesting, whether the most uselijl and eco- 

 nomical way of diffusing information on the sub- 

 ject of husbandry (together with that respectabili- 

 ty which would be added to our institution) would 

 not be in acquiring a email, but well selected libra- 

 ry, for the use of the society, and afford the presses 

 of Winchester an opportunity of a weekly supply 

 of agricultural matter lor the benefit of their sub- 

 scribers; is it not reasonable to suppose that a 

 work of such apparent usefulness would have the 

 efiect of rewarding them tlnouirh an increase ol 

 patronage for any trouble they might meet with in 

 assisting the cause"? The materials for the speedy 

 amelioration of our live slock, arc certauily to be 

 found in the middle and eastern states, and are to 

 be had on terms entirely within the capacity ol 

 this society, and such perhaps must be (he course 

 of our improvement, if at all — as their wealth has 

 enabled ihem to import and improve both by 

 breeding in and in, and by crosses on our home 

 stock, some of the best stock in Europe. 



Out of the numerous kinds of sheep in Great 

 Britain, which they appear to have nicely dis- 

 criminated and allotted to their various soils and 



* Mr. Barney, of Delaware, always selects his breed- 

 ers first, and never permits the butcher or the pur- 

 chaser of breeding stock, even to look at his best 

 sheep with a view to the purchase of them. This, af- 

 ter all, is the way for the farmer to get the highest 

 prices, because it gives hirn the best stock sheep. — Ed. 

 Am. Farm. 



situations, we have selected the Leicester or Dish- 

 Icy (alias celebrated Bakewell sheep) and South 

 Down, which are to be had in admirable quality 

 in Jersey and Delaware, and are by far the most 

 valuable sheep for all those who do not intend 

 rai.=:infr wool on a large scale for the manufacturer 

 — the latter of these breeds may be formed in our 

 own country by a cross of any short close vvoolled 

 ram on well modelled ewes. I know not whether 

 they have <he lull blooded Teeswater to the East- 

 ward, the heaviest breed of sheep in England; it 

 would be well for us to possess so large a race — 

 but I am of opinion we are mainly deficient only 

 in the form of the animal, which enables them to 

 carry much more flesh and fat with a greater 

 economy of keep. I beg leave to refer you to the 

 engravitigs of the Bakewell or Dishley, and South 

 Down, a.« not a descriptive, or highly wrought, 

 but a faithful picture of such sheep, if they main- 

 tain the same form now. as when viewed by me 

 some years past in the state of New Jersey. The 

 form of these sheep must strike the eye of every 

 beholder, and will, I hope, make an impression of 

 the great necessity of reform. 'Tis easy to raise 

 sheep of great apparent size, a considerable body, 

 on long legs* covered by loose long wool, may 

 cut a conspicuous figure — but in real value take a 

 flock throughout the short legged, long bodied, 

 straight backed, &c. &c. carrying a close fleece of 

 a fineness to suit the purposes of the breeder, the 

 longer the better, for in that is to be shown the 

 great skill of the shepherd, extending the fibre 

 without injury to its other qualities. They are 

 two to one in value. 



March 4th, 1824. It had been my intention to 

 have made this communication last summer, had 

 not circumstances prevented — with some addition 

 and amendment, which I am not able to do now — 

 since that lime we have learned, through the 

 Farmer, that the Teeswater sheep are to be had 

 to the eastward. Permit me to call your attention 

 to the subject of cattle, as contained in the accom- 

 panying letter from the ex-secretary of the Phila- 

 delphia Society. 



Richard K. Meade. 



From tlie Edinburgli Farmers' Magazine. 

 DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING COMPOST DUNG- 

 niI>I.S or PEAT-MOSS, BY l.,ORD MEADOW- 

 BANK. 



[The following directions and observations, 

 though relating to peat, a soil found rarely in Vir- 

 ginia, (if any where but in the Dismal Swamp,) 

 would probably be valuable if applied to the more 

 decomposed and already fertile vegetable soils, 

 which our tide-marshes and alluvial swamps pre- 

 sent. — Ed. Fab. Reg.] 



Presuming that the directions for making com- 

 post dunghills of peat-turf, in a judicious manner, 

 as ascertained in a pamphlet lately written by 



* Such was the character, in a considerable degree, 

 of tlie wether weighing 185 lbs. and shearing 8 lbs. 

 wool, mentioned at the close of the list. This sheep 

 had height and length enough to have weighed with a 

 proper form and close fleece 250, and have shorn at 

 least filtv per cent. more. 



