THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



169 



qualities are afterwards assorted by the wool sta- 

 pler." Before the shearing is commenced the 

 sheep should have all the coarse and kempy wool 

 from the hipa, legs, pale and forehead sheared 

 off and kept apart from '.he other wool. Further, 

 great care should be taken in shearing not to give 

 the wool a second cut, as it materially injures and 

 wastes the wool. 



During the whole process of shearing care 

 should be taken that the sheep be not injured by 

 clipping the skin. 



The fleece should then be laid on the side that 

 was next the sheep, the sides and belly part turn- 

 ed in, and beginning behind should be carefully 

 rolled to the shoulders, wlien the wool of the fore- 

 part should be rolled back to meet the roll from 

 behind, and should be secured by tying it with 

 twine. 



Sheep of the long woolled tribes have been shorn 

 twice in the season, but the experiments have not 

 been attended with any advantage. And ehorl 

 woolled sheep of the JVlerino breed (which breed 

 does not shed their wool) have been allowed to 

 wear their fleeces several years. Experiments of 

 this kind were made at the French national farm of 

 Rambouillet, from 1804 lo 1814, which proved that 

 fleeces worn from three to five years were su- 

 perior in staple and produced a larger sum than 

 those that were annually shorn. This was also 

 the case in an experiment lately made by Lord 

 Western, whose Merino wether with a fleece of 

 three years' growth produced thirty-two pounds 

 of wool twelve inches long and of beautiful and 

 fine quality. 



Lord Western proposed to show a (Merino we- 

 ther against any other breed, on condition that size 

 should not pass for merit ; and Mr. Hicks took it 

 up, and produced a Southdown wether supposed 

 to weight 160 lbs., and the judge decided in favor 

 of the Merino. 



The butcher (Mr. Barwell, of Witham) who 

 purchased the Merino, says, (in a letter to Lord 

 Western,) " the carcass of this sheep, inside and 

 out, was as good as I ever had ; and in point ol 

 color the Merinoes carry generally a brighter 

 red and white than any other breed.* 



A writer in the western Farmer and Garden- 

 er over the signature of " Umbra," who writes 

 like a man of sense and observation, (but whose 

 opinions and observations are not entitled to as 

 much weight as if his name had been given,) says 

 that the cross of the Southdown with the Merino 

 and with the Leicesters have each proved lail- 

 ures.t 



A letter from Mr. Twyman, an English gen- 

 tleman, says, that he has completely succeeded 

 in combining the good qualities of the Southdown 

 and Leicester, the wool being as long as the lat- 

 ter but much finer and closer like the former. 

 One hundred which were shorn at thirteen and a 

 half months old, produced, on an average, nine 

 and a half pounds of wool each. The sheep 

 were sold directly after being sheared at three 

 guineas each, and two shillings per lb. was re- 

 fused for the wool. 



The importation of wool into England m 1827, 

 (the only year that I have the entire amount,) 



* Farmer's Cabinet, Vol. 5, p3g«= 377, taken from 

 English Farmer's Magazine. 

 t Page 261^ Vol. 2. 

 Vol. X.— 22 



amounted to 29,122,447 lbs. Since that time the 

 amount imported has increased very much. 



England, that is not twice as large as Ken- 

 tucky, produced in the year 1800, 77,964,760 

 Ibi. of wool, and in 1828, 92,280,480 lbs.» 



What England has done Kentucky can do. 

 S. D. Martiw. 



FARMING AT WKSTOVEU. 



By the Editor. 



In the latter part of March, in company with 

 two very young farmers, I visited Mr. John A. 

 Selden, of Westover, and passed the greater part 

 of the day in walking over that highly improved 

 and beautifully cultivated farm, and conversing 

 with its proprietor. Such a visit, to any one who 

 has either agricultural taste or pursuits, cannot fail 

 to bring both pleasure and profitable instruction. 

 Something of what we saw, and what was said, 

 principally by Mr. Selden in answer to inquiries, 

 will be here stated. 



Notwithstanding its great amount of annual 

 product, Westover is quite a small farm, compar- 

 ed to the lands of most cultivators in eastern 

 Virginia, even in middling circumstances. The 

 original tract gives but four fields of 100 acres 

 each ; and the farm proper now is no larger. — 

 There is some back land since purchased, and as 

 yet unimproved, kept for wood and pasture ; and 

 also 100 acres of arable land on the river, still 

 more lately bought, and then generally poor, and 

 which is yet but partly improved, and has as yet 

 added but little to the general product of the farm. 



* The number of sheep in the United Kingdom of 

 Great Britain in 1828, was 44,100,000. Supposing that 

 each of these sheep produced one dollar's worth ol wool, 

 it woidd be about $75 each for every white man, wo- 

 man and child in Kentuckjs giving to every one in 

 cities their shares. There was exported from England 

 in 1828, $29,898, 505 worth of the single article of 

 spun and wove woollen i^oods, besides many articles in 

 which it formed a constituent part ; for instance hats 

 to the amount of $159,485. 



In 1839, Australia produced 20,128,774 lbs. of wool, 

 where 22 years before there had been produced in that 

 country only 345 lbs. 100 years ago in Ireland there 

 were 1,500,000 persons engaged in manvifacturing wool, 

 and their wages amounted annually to about $58,687, 

 000. About 1830 the number of persons engaged in 

 the manufacture of wool in England was 480,000 to 

 500,000 and their average wages were from $96, to 

 $100 each. The value of the raw material was about 

 $30,000,000, and the manufactured articles $90,000, 

 000. In 1835 there was imported from England into 

 the United States, $13,000,000 worth of woollen goods. 

 If this bad been made at home it would have given 

 employment to 130,000 persons at wages of $100 

 each. 



About 1770 machinery which enabled (in 1800) one 

 man to do as much work as had been done by three be- 

 fore, was first introduced. 



For further information upon sheep, permit me to re- 

 fer to the society's* treatise upon sheep and Blacklock's 

 treatise written in England in 1838, and just published 

 in the United States in 1841. 



♦ The (English) Sociefr for the Diffusion c\f Useful 

 Knowledge. ' S. D. M. 



