450 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



home and proper business. Nor is it much to be wondered at. For are not our 

 youDg men brought up as if purposely in contempt of the plow, and all that be- 

 longs to it ? Do they hear anything of it at school ? Is it made by their wise 

 farmer-parents to form any part of their education ? Do they hear anything said 

 of Agriculture in any of our halls of Legislation ? Any honors awarded for ex- 

 cellence in killing noxious weeds and insects, or for fat sheep and bullocks, or for 

 killing any other creatures, except — our/e//'oit)-crealures ? No, no! Were a 

 man to discover the means of utterly extirpating the tobacco fly, or the Hessian 

 fly, or the sheep rot, or the potato rot, not a man could be found so poor as to 

 " do hira reverence"! Congress — the Representatives of Farmers — would let 

 him rot in jail. Yes ! the very men who would vote, without scruple, $100,000 

 for a military survey ; or to send officers, year after year, to examine and study 

 in the military schools of the military despots of Europe ! And to all this far- 

 mers make no objection, raise no outcry. Even agricultural committees of the 

 States, where they exist, are most of them too lazy or too timid to probe such 

 barefaced perversions of legislative power ! and the whole press of the country 

 looks in silent acquiescence on such reprehensible disregard of all the legiti- 

 mate ends of good Government. 



Well, to return to the Aipaccas. Seeing as we think we have seen the abor- 

 tive attempts at propagating the Alpacca in Europe, and their prompt apprecia- 

 tion and appropriation of whole islands of guano, we reluctantly conclude that 

 the abortion in the former case did not proceed from any deficiency in the at- 

 tempt, and that, as in this country, it is only in a climate the most similar to 

 England that we could expect the experiment to be well and adequately con- 

 ducted, there is little encouragement to believe that the Alpacca will be suc- 

 cessfully introduced and propagated in the United States. And here it occurs 

 to us to say, that as some of the inquiries that have been made of us may have 

 been prompted by the fact that our name was placed on a Committee to import 

 some from Peru, it is not to be inferred that anything we have said is the result 

 of inquiries or information obtained in that connection .' Not at all. In the fitness 

 of the members of that Committee, in all respects, for any scientific or useful 

 undertaking they would enter upon, we have unbounded confidence ; but we 

 do not know exactly what has been done or what is in contemplation. We 

 have not formally withdrawn, as we might have done, for want of time to 

 attend, because we would not in any way seem to discourage the proposition by 

 the withdrawal even of the little, very little, influence it could borrow from our 

 name ; but for the reasons here assigned, and others that might be given, as 

 we should, if we had time, with more deliberation, we are far from being 

 hopeful of any attempt to add the Alpacca to the wool-bearing animals of this 

 country. We shall sincerely rejoice to find ourselves in error. 



In the last account we have seen of the English " Wool Trade of 1S16," we 

 find the following under the head of " Peruvian and At.facca : " " Here we 

 notice a very large increase. Sheep's wool, with the exception of best qualities, 

 has been diflicult of sale, even at receding rates. Since our last monthly Circu- 

 lar, the market has been nearly cleared of this description, principally taken on 

 speculation. For Alpacca, up to May, the demand was very languid. During 

 that month there was a large business done, induced by low quotations. The 

 inquiry again fell oft' until within the last few weeks, since which time the sales 

 have been extensive at advancing prices. The Customs' Report docs not keep 

 Alpacca distinct from sheep's wool ; we can therefore merely guess at the quan- 



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