GROUP OF SILESIAN MERINO EWES. • 



ing as that of a coarser grade, and my experience for the hist few years has confirmed 

 me in this beHef. I am fully satisfied that one hundred or one thousan'l pounds of fine 

 Merino wool can be grown at a less cost than an equal amount of an inferior quality. 



Our Silesian bucks were used by several of my neighbors, and the cross with our 

 common Merino ewes seems to be of a high nature. Many of the lambs are wrinkled 

 all over their bodies, and are good sized and well shaped, without any hair or jar upon 

 any part of their bodies, and no doubt will add to the weight as well as to the fineness 

 of fleece. The weight of the ewe's fleeces last year was 7 lbs. 10 oz. unwashed, the 

 growth of 10 months. The present season, in order to more thoroughly test their true 

 value, they were well washed, first by well soaking them, then after letting them stand 

 in the sun an hour or more, taking them into the water under a good spout and wash- 

 ing them until the dark outer ends of the wool became white and the water looke<l 

 perfectly clear as it ran from the wool. After suckling lambs from January to May, 

 and cleansing in the above manner, the average weight of the whole flock was 4 lbs. 5^ 

 oz. Our bucks of this breed have not been sheared this year, but last year their fleeces 

 weighed from 7^ to ] 0^ lbs. of ten months growth only. 



There is of late considerable attention given to the subject of wool-growing, and I 

 hope to hear from others engaged in the business through the pages of the Farmer. If 

 farmers can be convinced that they can grow fine, soft wool as cheap as that of a coarse, 

 harsh quality, they will surely enter into the business with a good deal of interest. 



Cutting Oats. — Some of our contemporaries have been recommending farmers to cut 

 their oats when quite green, stating that the straw is much better for fodder, and that 

 the grain fills and yields quite as well as though left till quite ripe. We do not know 

 but this is true to some extent, but are inclined to think that oats are the worst of all 

 our grain *crops to cut early, and we prefer to let them get so ripe that a few of the first 

 formed grains will shell out, obtaining in this way a much heavier and fully matured grain. 



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