110 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 2. 



periments and facts in favor of this last opinion 

 than against it? 



What Mr. G. has told us of coal ashes trials, is 

 not sufficiently particular; for Mother manures" 

 having been used after them, we have no proof of 

 the share, (if any,) which the ashes had in fertil- 

 izing the land which was treated as he states. 



Upon the whole, I think your subscribers have 

 much cause to be pleased with both Mr. Gooch's 

 communications, although he has given us some- 

 thing like half a dozen prophecies at the close of 

 the last, which, I fear, can have very little effect 

 in stimulating to more industry the numerous 

 drones of the present generation — since, upon the 

 most moderate computation, they will require 

 some century or two for their fulfilment. This 

 may discourage rather than excite; for if Virginia 

 cannot thrive until then, her case is hopeless. 

 Look at them, I pray you, sir, and then say wheth- 

 er my fears are well or ill grounded. First, the 

 final "improvement of the Roanoke." Second, 

 the same thing accomplished tor "the northern 

 extremity of the great Valley beyond the moun- 

 tains. Third, "the cis and transmontane region 

 nearest Fredericksburg, having easy access to it." 

 Fourth, "the great central improvement of 'the 

 James and Roanoke, with its lateral branches, of- 

 fering the Richmond market to the Ohio country, 

 and East Tennessee." And fifth, though last, 

 not least, "a line of rail roads and steam boats 

 connecting the extreme north with" the extreme 

 south of the Union." 



Mr. Dupuy's inquiries and suggestions relative 

 to ''sheep husbandry," involve questions in politi- 

 cal economy of considerable interest to Virginians 

 generally, but particularly to land-owners in the 

 middle of the state. There are very few subjects 

 connected with agriculture, of which we are more 

 ignorant, although during the prevalence of the 

 Merino mania in our last war, there were more 

 discussions, and more pamphlets — to say nothing 

 of newspaper out-pourings, than enough to elicit 

 all the information on the subject that the United 

 States and Europe put together could possibly 

 furnish. Why it should have evaporated, it is no 

 easy matter to say; especially when matters were 

 then carried so far, that not only men's politics, 

 but their patriotism, were measured and graduated 

 by their zeal and efficiency in raising sheep — par- 

 ticularly if they were Merinos. 



The article which Mr. Dupuy has noticed in 

 the "Cultivator," must be, I suspect, justly attri- 

 butable to some remains of the old "Merino ma- 

 nia" in the writer; for if land worth one hundred 

 dollars per acre, can really be more profitably used 

 in raising sheep, than in providing food for men, it 

 will prove indisputably, that in the arithmetic of 

 such political economists a. sheep is intrinsically 

 worth more than a man. To this, as a universal 

 maxim, I cannot, strain my credulity; although 

 (by the way) had I a right to make the exchange, 

 I would require but little, if any boot, between 

 some men of a certain political creed which shall 

 be nameless, and an equal number of good sheep.* 

 But every thing like badinage apart, (which with 



*Our editorial pen was in hand to mark out this pas- 

 sage, as touching upon the forbidden subject of party 

 politics. But it escaped erasure upon the ground that 



some of your contributors, seems to be deemed a 

 contraband article in so grave a thing as an agri- 

 cultural journal,) I will state, in compliance with 

 Mr. Dupuy's request, notwithstanding it is appa- 

 rently confined 1o "northern friends," some odds 

 and ends of information picked up by myself, on 

 this subject, among the Merino patriots of our last 

 war. One of them who had profited largely from 

 the fever, by selling his Merinos to the infected, 

 at enormous prices, assured me that he had never 

 found, after various and long continued trials, any 

 cheaper or more effectual way to secure the 

 health of sheep, so far as that depended upon me- 

 dicine, than to give them tar with their salt. His 

 method was to pour the former into a long narrow 

 trough, made for the purpose, and then to stir up 

 with it a quantity of fine salt, sufficient nearly to 

 fill the trough. The mixture being inseparable, 

 the tar was always eaten for the sake of the salt, 

 and would last a considerable tune without the 

 trouble of renewing. As to their other treatment, 

 the information which I collected from him, as 

 well as many others, may be summed up in the 

 following particulars. That although sheep will 

 live without any other food than that which they 

 can find for themselves, provided they have suffi- 

 cient range to hunt it out, yet that they cannot be 

 made either very good, or very profitable, without 

 Strict attention to feeding them well during winter, 

 and the month of March, with corn-fodder or 

 hay: to keeping them dry and clean, under a pro- 

 per shelter, during all rainy or snowy weather — 

 to separating the ewe lambs from the ram, until 

 the second season afier they are yeaned — and to 

 regular salting at least twice a week, all the year 

 round. There are numerous well authenticated 

 facts to prove that sheep thus kept will yield, on 

 an average, about seven pounds of wool each; 

 whereas if they are neglected, as usual, the aver- 

 age will rarely exceed one and a half pounds. -In 

 regard to minor points, the majority of good sheep 

 farmers whom I have consulted, recommend that 

 ram lambs should be castrated within a i'ew days 

 after they are yeaned; that they should not be 

 sheared until the second season: that this opera- 

 tion should be performed on them, as well as the 

 older sheep, immediately alter the long season in 

 May; that a mixture of tar and fish oil should be 

 smeared on from the end of the nose along down 

 the spine, to the root of the tail: and that the flock 

 should be kept rather in highland than lowland 

 pasture, but occasionally changed from one field to 

 another, and penned only in dry weather, during 

 the months of May, June, September, and Octo- 

 ber. 



There are some few of Mr. Dupuy's inquiries 

 that I cannot answer, but hope that some other 

 person will. 



Mr. J. Du Val has given your Matthews cor 

 respondent with the queer name, a very proper re- 

 buke for violating, as he seems to have done, his 

 own advice, and in the very letter too, containing 

 that advice. I agree perfectly with Mr. Du Val 



each reader would agree to its truth as to the party to 

 which he is himself opposed — and that thus, by rare 

 hick, an opinion might be expressed in which all par- 

 ties could concur — En. 



