46 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 1. 



flocks which partake, as it may happen, more of 

 the characteristics of one parent or the other. — 

 These are a long, coarse wooled sheep, possessing 

 much beauty of lorm, early maturity, and are quick 

 feeders; but they require rich lands lor their pas- 

 ture, and though their constitutions are good, yet 

 their fleece is sufficiently open to admit the penetra- 

 ting rains of our severe storms, and then it is, that 

 their heavy fleeces are seen separated along the 

 ridge of the back, thus admitting the wet directly 

 to the skin, until the animal is chilled through. 

 They are good nurses, and make fine lambs; their 

 meat originally coarse and long in the grain, and 

 white in its color, was much improved by Mr. 

 Bakewell, and under his management, became su- 

 perior to the other large, long wooled sheep. Some 

 of the best flocks of this variety may, I believe, 

 be found in the sheep-tblds of Mr. Dunn, and Mr. 

 Wilkinson, in Albany county, or of Mr. Adcock, 

 Mr. Musson and Mr. Clark, in Ostego county, all 

 of whom have given much attention to this fine 

 variety of sheep. Average produce in wool, I should 

 think, from five to six pounds, though individuals 

 are ibund, carrying fleeces of ten and twelve, 

 pounds! Price of good lambs, I believe, from ten 

 to fifteen dollars. 



The South Downs are as yet but little known in 

 this country, but in my opinion, are decidedly bet- 

 ter calculated than any other, for the domestic pur- 

 poses of our farmers. They are of a medium size, 

 beautiful in their forms, large loined, broad chest- 

 ed, fine in the head, small boned, and fine in the 

 fleece, which averages four pounds in the ewes; 

 the bucks reach to seven pounds; in quality it is 

 equal to half blood Merino, but stronger in its fila- 

 ment, and entirely impenetrable to storms of snow, 

 sleet, or rain; they are regardless of our coldest 

 weather, and possess hardier constitutions than 

 any sheep I know. The wethers attain to about 

 28 lbs. per quarler, and are allowed to be the best 

 mutton sheep in England, the meal being dark in 

 color, short o-rained, mild in flavor, and juicy. They 

 are excellent nurses, and quick feeders. Here 

 again, I beg to be understood as alluding to the 

 ■pare and high bred South Down; such as it is found 

 in the sheep-folds of the great sheep masters in 

 Sussex; not the common, unimproved animal of 

 the Downs, weighing 14 lbs. per quarter, and car- 

 rying but 2^ of wool. 



As to prices — they are best, ascertained from the 

 sources of the respective breeds, and must vary 

 much, according to the established purity of the 

 blood, and the excellence of the individuals; the 

 one a much more difficult point to ascertain than 

 the other. 



For the last three years, preparative to commenc- 

 ing my own flock, I paid much attention to the sheep 

 husbandry of this district; visited those who owned 

 large flocks, and soon discovered that they were 

 all on the decline; 1 corresponded with others, and 

 found the introduction of the Saxony blood was 

 universally followed by a decline of constitution, 

 and all its attendant evils; excepting in one in- 

 stance, where a gentleman wrote me, that he had 

 just purchased a flock of Saxon Merinos. He as- 

 sured me that in Oneida county, they were a har- 

 dy, healthy sheep — shearing on an average about 

 three pounds of wool, and the purer the Saxon 

 blood, the heavier was the fleece ! ! This was 

 so contrary to my own experience, having materi- 

 ally injured a flock of nearly two thousand grade 



Merinos by one single cross of the Saxony, that 

 I still continued my plan of forming a flock from 

 theatre, full bred, large Merino sheep on the one 

 part, and from the high bred sheep of Mr. Ell- 

 man's flock of South "Downs on the other. As- 

 sisted by the indefatigable perseverance, acute dis- 

 crimination, and previous knowledge of a friend 

 (whose lather was concerned with Col. Humphrey 

 in his various importations and sales of such 

 sheep,) I collected, alter 18 months search, about 

 thirty full bred Merino sheep, pure as imported, 

 known to be directly descended from those impor- 

 tations. Their quality of wool is as fine as per- 

 haps any grade Saxony flock around me. The 

 ewes will average four pounds fleeces. My South 

 Downs I imported from the celebrated flocks of 

 Mr. Ellman, in England, whose two year old 

 wether sheep beat all England last Christmas, at 

 Smithfield, and took the first prize. He was 

 judged to weigh 32 lbs. per quarter; and I am hap- 

 py to say, has been presented to me by Mr. Ell- 

 man, as a specimen of excellence, and will proba- 

 bly arrive in this country before long, as he was to 

 be shipped from London the first week in this 

 month, for New York. From Mr. Ellman, I pro- 

 cured six yearling ewes, and a yearling buck; the 

 ewes have wintered in a yard with an open fence, 

 and an open shed, closed only at the back; they 

 lambed there from the 23d to the 28th of Februa- 

 ry, on which day the thermometer was as low as 4°. 

 On the 1st, 2d, 3d. 4th and 5th of March, the 

 thermometer, in the shade, was from zero to as 

 low as 6 degrees below zero, at sunrise! and yet 

 my lambs, young as they were, never suffered in 

 the least from the severity of the cold; they never 

 showed the slightest consciousness of its intensity! 

 and are allowed by all who call to see them, to be 

 the finest lambs they ever saw. I find a rapid de- 

 mand for all I can spare from both my flocks, at 

 liberal prices. The engagements for my South 

 Down buck, for next season, have been "filled for 

 some months past; and two days since Mr. Mus- 

 son, a Leicestershire breeder, called to see him, 

 when I took the opportunity of requesting he 

 would weigh him — he very obligingly did so; and 

 his exact weight was one hundred and fifty-nine 

 pounds and a half. I have ventured on these 

 minutiae in regard to the high bred South Downs, 

 as these sheep are very little known in the United 

 States; and fiicts are more satisfactory than opin- 

 ions: and again I must insist that I do not allude 

 to the unimproved breed; I do not allude to the 

 South Downs of Cully's day, from whose writings 

 I have seen various extracts as descriptive of the 

 breed, nor do I include the Hampshire Downs; I 

 confine myself to the high bred sheep of the pres- 

 ent day; and if any would oppose to them the fast 

 rooted prejudice of high breeding being insepara- 

 ble from delicacy, I would refer them to the facts 

 above stated, and ask of them a personal inspec- 

 tion. I would further add, that it is an acknowl- 

 edged fact, that Mr. Ellman's flock turns out more 

 lambs than ewes! averaging 750 lambs annually, 

 for several years, from 600 ewes. 



A strong advocate myself for purity of blood, 

 and a known line of ancestry, which confers ex- 

 cellence by descent, still, I believe, for this coun- 

 try, the most valuable description of sheep may 

 be raised by judiciously crossing the Merino and 

 South Downs, thus uniting the fine fleece of the 

 one with the beautiful carcass of the other, and 



