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The Alpaca. — Raisivg Poor Land. 



Vol. X. 



The Alpaca. 



The late effort of the Agricultural Asso- 

 ciation in this city to secure the object pro- 

 posed by Mr. Amory Edwards, who has been 

 five years Consul in Peru, to introduce this 

 beautiful animal in our country, promises to 

 be successful. 



Several thousand dollars have been sub 

 scribed for this purpose, and Mr. Edwards 

 has offered his services to go down to Peru 

 and Bolivia and select a flock of about three 

 hundred, and bring them to the United States, 

 as soon as the required amount can be ob- 

 tained. 



In England, the experiment has, it ap 

 pears, proved quite successful. The female 

 in that climate having matured two years 

 earlier, and produced a finer fleece than in 

 its own native districts; the length of staple 

 was also improved, and the fleece increased 

 in a remarkable degree. They are hardy, 

 docile, affected neither by intense cold nor 

 heat. The clip in Peru weighs nine pounds, 

 while that in England is said to weigh se- 

 venteen and a half, which is suited to the 

 finest class of goods, and calculated to com- 

 pete with silk. The flesh is fine, savoury, 

 easily digested, and recommended in Peru, 

 by physicians to invalids, in preference to 

 fowls. The fleece of one alpaca is equal to 

 six merino sheep. The following notice of 

 the alpaca, from the Baltimore American, 

 gives a very graphic description of its na- 

 ture and habits, and may impart a little 

 additional information to our agricultural 

 friends. 



" The alpaca inhabits the slopes, table 

 lands, and mountains of Peru, Bolivia, and 

 Chili, enduring all the vicissitudes of the 

 climate. They are found twelve thousand 

 feet above thei level of the sea, where they 

 derive a subsistence from the moss, &,c., 

 growing upon the rocks, exposed to all the 

 rigors of the elements, and receiving neither 

 food nor care from the hand of man. The 

 shepherd only visits them occasionally ; yet 

 such are their gregarious habits, that they 

 seldom stray away and mix with another 

 flock, being kept in discipline by the older 

 ones who know their grounds, and become 

 attached to the place of their nativity, to 

 which they return at night, evincing an as- 

 tonishing vigilance and sagacity in keeping 

 the young ones together, and free from harm. 

 In the formation of their stomach they re- 

 semble the camel, and can undergo extreme 

 hunger and thirst. These are, however, the 

 secondary qualities of the animal, though 

 stated first. It is for its wool that the alpaca 

 is particularly desirable, and entitled to be 

 regarded, should the proposed experiments 



succeed, as offording a new and valuable 

 staple of commerce. In this point of view 

 the suggestion becomes one of considerable 

 importance, as it is thought that the alpaca 

 will be found a suitable stock for all our 

 western and northern States, where waste 

 and unprofitable pastures would suffice them, 

 and they would browse on wild grasses and 

 herbage that sheep and cattle reject." — 

 Farmer <^ Mechanic. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Raisiug Poor Land. 



Mr. Editor, — I have been a regular sub- 

 scriber and reader of your paper since 1840; 

 and must now say, that if I have been a lit- 

 tle more successful than some of my neigh- 

 bours, it is owing to the very many valuable 

 hints derived from the pages of the Cabinet 

 and other agricultural papers to which I am 

 a subscriber: therefore let me say to young 

 farmers, subscribe at once to some, or all the 

 agricultural papers in your reach; you will 

 be well repaid. 



On the 1st of January, 1840, 1 commenced 

 farming on 200 acres of poor sandy land, 

 for which I gave on a credit, $1,120 at pub- 

 lic sale, which was considered high. The 

 cleared land had been allowed to grow up 

 with bushes and briars, and the farm had 

 never been ditched, and had been cultivated 

 by a good farmer as tenant, from year to 

 year, in two fields. I laid it off in three 

 fields at first, but have it now in four. 

 There are 125 acres of cleared land, 20 of 

 which are branch meadow, which I have got 

 in pretty good order. Five acres are laid off 

 to the house, out-buildings, feed and stack- 

 yards, garden, lawn, &c., &c. ; which leaves 

 me 25 acres to each field. In 1839, one 

 half of the farm, or two fields, raised 380 

 bushels of shelled corn, small grain in pro- 

 portion, and no hay. In 1840, one third 

 raised me but 320 bushels of corn; and 17 of 

 wheat, and 135 of oats, upon the half tilled 

 in 1839. I have given you what was raised 

 the year before I took it, and what I raised 

 the next year. I was of course not able to 

 do much for my corn-field, and nothing for 

 the field of small grain. 



I will now state what I made last year, 

 1845, on 25 acres, or one field, in corn, and 

 the same quantity in small grain. I do not 

 report the result to show what large crops I 

 produced, but merely to show the difference 

 between what the farm would make when I 

 took it, and what it will make at this time. 

 In 1845 I raised on 25 acres, 660 bushels of 

 corn, three cart-loads of pumpkins, 200 bush- 

 els of Irish potatoes, 75 bushels of sv/eet 



