46 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan 



wolds and their crosses, the Teeswater or the 

 Lincolnshires, the Leicester and Southdown 

 crosses. The brighter the wool the more val- 

 uable it is, being so much the better adapted 

 to produce imitation Alpaccas and Mohair 

 braids. 



"It will be in vain that we plead as an ex- 

 cuse that soil and climate are not favorable 

 for the production of such sheep. What ad- 

 vantage has Canada, in either soil or climate, 

 over this country ? We know of none, and 

 yet Canada succeeds. The British farmer, 

 upon high-priced lands, succeeds because he 

 has a market for mutton and Iambs, and he 

 makes every effort to supply that market. 

 And in his effort to supply it with good mut- 

 ton he furnishes the best of wool. This is 

 produced from the hoggets and wethers, when 

 well fed. The object of the English farmer is 

 to get these ready for the butcher at as early 

 an age as possible, and as the best of food 

 produces this result, so also the best feed pro- 

 duces the most and best of wool. 



"The farmers of Worcester County, and al- 

 most every other location in Massachusetts, 

 have as good a market for mutton as the Eng- 

 lish farmer has, and can raise as good wool as 

 they choose. It is not the pastures which are 

 deficient, as some maintain, which causes the 

 farmer to fail in the treatment of this class of 

 sheep, but it is the want of proper care and 

 feed in winter. Whenever a sheep is allowed 

 to lose condition there is a serious defect in 

 the wool ; hence the reason why sheep, when 

 once fat, should never be allowed to grow 

 poor, but whether ewes or wethers when once 

 fat should be sold to the butcher. 



"The increase in our woollen manufactories 

 requires an increased production of the pure- 

 bred Merino, and when there is no market for 

 mutton it is the wool-producing sheep, and 

 our vast prairies should be pastured by the 

 sheep in place of the deer and buffalo. 



"The unwashed Merino fleece will shrink in 

 cleansing and preparing for the cards from G5 

 to 80 per cent., the Cotswold from 18 to 30 

 per cent. ; and though we do not claim that 

 the mutton breeds will produce a greater 

 weight of wool in proportion to weight of car- 

 case, we do claim that the mutton breeds will 

 produce a greater weight of mutton and wool 

 in proportion to the quantity of food con- 

 sumed than the Merino." 



Stock Sale ix Canada. — We learn by 

 the Canada Farmer that at the sale by John 

 Snell, of Edmanton, October 28, Short-horn 

 bulls brought from $90 to 147, cows $71 to 

 150 ; young cattle, five months old and up- 

 ward, $G0 to $159, the latter price for "Mod- 

 esty," a yearling. Leicester ewes brought 

 from $12 to $36 a pair ; ewe lambs, from $11: 

 to $32 a pair. Cotswold ewes, from $21 to 

 $52 a pair ; ewe lambs, from $26 to $17 a 

 pair; rams, from $20 to $60 each. South 

 Down ev/es, $10 a pair ; rams, from $8 to 

 $24 each. These prices, of course, were for 

 gold. The animals offered were only the sur- 

 plus of the herd, and the sale realized $3261. 



Lime. — Lime enters into the composition of 

 all our crops. Prof. Johnson gives the amount 

 carried off in various crops as follows : — 



In addition to this, lime decomposes organic 

 matter in the soil, and prepares it for plant 

 food. 



Among the Calves. — Jim Smith was a 

 noted auctioneer. One day he was selling 

 farm stock. Among the articles to be sold 

 was a heifer, very attractive in her appear- 

 ance, and consequently "Jim" dwelt quite ex- 

 tensively on her many excellencies, winding 

 up with the elegant flourish that she was as 

 "gentle as a dove." Thereupon a long, slab- 

 sided countryman, whose legs were some 

 twelve inches longer than his pants, approach- 

 ing the heifer and stooping down commenced 

 handling her teat. Bossy, not relishing such 

 familiarity, lifted her hoofs and laid "Greeny" 

 sprawling some ten feet off. 



"There," said "Jim," "that shows one of 

 her best traits ; she'll never allow a strange 

 calf to come near her !" 



"Greeny" meanwhile picked himself up, 

 and gi\ ing his bushy pate a harrowing scratch, 

 exclaimed: "No wonder, when her own calf 

 has been bleating around her all day !" 



— A correspondent of the Mirror and Farmer, 

 writing at Orleans, Mass., a town on Cape Cod, 

 where much attention is given to poultry raising, 

 says that the crows during the past season have 

 destroyed a large number of chickens. One wo- 

 man has lost some eighty, mostly by crows. They 

 do not eat the chicken, like the hawk, but bore a 

 hole with the bill, against where the heart lies, 

 take out the heart, and leave the rest. 



