a period when I expect to cease using it to a 

 considerable extent every year, either on fresh 

 lands, or in increasing the dose on those already 

 marled. It would be leading you into error, 

 however, to leave you to suppose that I rely 

 solely on the mai-1 to improve my lands. Rest, 

 in connection with it, in indispensable, and ma- 

 nure becomes far more beneficial. I have, ac- 

 cordingly, by opening more land, and reducing 

 my planting, enabled m5'self to rest annually 

 one-third of my fields. And I have already 

 hauled out and mixed together, for the coming 

 crop, 96,000 bushels of muck, and 48,000 bush- 

 els of manure from stables and stablciyards, hog 

 and ox-pens, &c., having yet about 20,000 bush- 

 els jnore to carry out before planting. I shall 

 not only endeavor to increase this amount of ma- 

 nure every year hereafter, bat also, by clearing 

 and reducing the land in cultivation, to rest, as 

 nearly as may be requisite, each field every oth- 

 er year. Indeed, the management of land after 

 it is marled is of the utmost consequence to the 

 efficiency and profit of marl. Though lime is it- 

 self a portion of the food of plants, and therefore 

 a manure, this is perhaps the very least of its vir- 

 tues. Its indirect operations are far more im- 

 portant. It is the grand agent that prepares for 

 the crop nearly all the food w-hich the earth fur- 

 nishes. It is the purveyor general — no, the farm- 

 er must fill that office : it is the " chef decui nine" 

 that selects the ingredients, mixes and seasons 

 almost every dish to'suit the delicat^appetite of 

 the growing plant. It is from the materials 

 placed in the soil by Nature, or the industrious 

 husbandman, that this skillful artist draws the 



rich repasts it furnishes; and it could no more 

 furnish them without these materials, than your 

 cook could make your soup without joi.it.s and 

 spices. The larder of the marl must, then, be 

 amply supplied. The means of doing it are rest 

 and manure. The great gain to the farmer is, 

 that having once engaged in his service this 

 powerful, untiring, and almost universal agent, 

 he may safely exert him.^^elf to the utmo.st of his 

 ability to supply it with everything neces.sary to 

 cany on its important operations. Seizing on 

 whatever is valuable, it preserves it from waste 

 — combining with the utmost generosity the wi- 

 sest economy, it not only yields to the plant all 

 it requires, but stimulates it to ask more, while 

 it is inaccessible to demands from all other quar- 

 ters. 



There is no fancy in thi.s — Theory and Exper- 

 iment unite to prove it true. And I trust that 

 no great length of time will elapse before marl 

 shall have written its own eulogy in indelibH 

 characters over all the broad fields of your 

 County. 



Pemiit me to conclude this letter, for the great 

 length of which I owe you an apology, by re- 

 turning my acknowledgments for the honor you 

 have done me in electing me an honorary mem- 

 ber of your Society, and by wishing each mem- 

 ber of it the utmost success in his Agricultural 

 pursuits. 



I am, %'ery respectfully. 



Your ob't serv't. 



J. II. HAMMOND. 



Hamilton Raiford, Esq. 



Conesponding Secretary of the Agricul- 

 tural Society of Jelt'erson Co., Georgia, 



NOTES ON THE MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP : 



FOUNDED UPON REPORTS OF COMPETITORS WHO GAINED PREMIUMS AT THE WOOL 

 COMPETITION HELD AT EDINBURGH IN 1845. 



Cheviot Sheep. — Mr. Anderson, SanJhope. 

 Selkirk. — The flock consists of about 1,000 ewes 

 of ages varj-ing from one to six years, and it 

 was reared exclusively on coarse hill pa.sture. 

 elevated from 1,000 to 2,000 feet above the level 

 of the sea. The stock ewes get no artificial food, 

 except on the occasion of a severe storm, when 

 they are supplied with a little natural hay. To 

 afford such aid, unless urgently required, would 

 tend to lessen the exertion of the sheep to pro- 

 vide for themselves. The tups are bred from 

 selected ewes by the best rams, and put on grass 

 and turnips during winter and spring. The 

 washing takes place about the end of ,Iune in a 

 pond, into which the sheep are made to leap 

 from a platform raised about two feet above the 

 surface of the water, and then caused to swim 

 twice or oftener across, as may be necessary for 

 cleansing them. The clipping is performed 

 about eight days after. The animals are laid on 

 a stool, the operator proceeding lengthways in 

 parallel lines an inch in breadth, and making 

 the cuts as low and smooth as possible. The 

 price obtained for the clip of Cheviot wool in 

 1845 was 28s. 6d. per stone of 24 lbs. ; and for 

 the black-faced clip, 138. per stone. Wethers 

 are not kept ; but barren ewes, sold from the 

 (1265) 



hill pasture at the end of autumn, weigh about 

 13 lbs. per (piarter. The average weight of a 

 Cheviot fleece is 3 lbs. 7 oz. ; and of a black- 

 faced. 4 lbs. 



The black-faced flock, containing COO breed- 

 ing ewes, is similarly managed. 



Mr. Gentle, Dell. Invcr7iess. — The flock, in 

 which there are 500 shearing ewes, is wa.slicd 

 about the 18th of June. The sheep are driven 

 three times through an arm of a fresh-water lake, 

 having to leap into the water from a hrea-srvvork 

 four feet high, and to swim from thirty to forty 

 yards. The clipping follows about the 22d of 

 the same month. It is done longitudinally, with 

 an even and rather bare cut. The clipper is 

 seated on a sraearing-.stool, %vhich is covered 

 with a tough .sod, to prevent the animals being 

 hurt. The pasturage consists of common mount- 

 ain gra.sse9. much intermixed with heather, and 

 its altitude varies from 1.000 to 2.000 feet above 

 the sea. In winter and spriii'.', however, the 

 sheep, when the inclemency of the weather 

 makes it necessary, are brought to lower ground, 

 at an elevation not exceeding 100 feet. The 

 clips of 184 4 and 1845 were sold at 18s. per stone 

 of 24 lbs. Thrceyear-old ewes have been sold 

 for JE25 lOs. per score — a price considered less 



