1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



51 



the cases alluded to, bleeding appears to have 

 been attended with beneficial results. And 

 our remarks are designed to call out the expe- 

 ence of others, rather than to express a posi- 

 tive opinion of our own. We may, perhaps, 

 remark ibat Mr. Allen, in his new work on 

 "American Cattle," disapproves of bleeding, 

 and that the late Dr. Dadd cried out with 

 great energy, "No more blood-letting !" The 

 amount of capital invested in stock growing in 

 this country gives great interest to all ques- 

 tions involving its management, both In health 

 and in sickness. What is the practice of 

 farmers in relation to bleeding their animals ? 



For the New England Farmer. 

 BECIPHOCITY— MUTTON. 



The American farmer takes his ideas of 

 sheep from the Merino, which is a wool sheep 

 and nothing else, and as a consequence when- 

 ever anything is said about sheep, we always 

 hear the cry of wool, wool ! This is the cry 

 with Dr. Randall in reference to the Recipro- 

 city treaty. But there is something more 

 than wool in the long wooled sheep. There is 

 mutton, and why do we not hear, in the connec- 

 tion with the renewal of the Reciprocity treaty, 

 the cry of mutton? Why do not our farmers 

 ask to be protected against Canadian mutton ? 

 And why not against Canadian beef? Be- 

 cause our farmers can produce beef as cheap 

 and as good as the Canadians. They can also 

 produce as good mutton as the Canadians, 

 and without considering wool at all, they can 

 produce mutton as cheap as beef ; that is, if 

 they obtain mutton sheep. 



The leading object with the merino sheep is 

 ■wool, but with the long wooled or mutton 

 sheep the leading object is mutton, not wool, 

 although the wool brings such a high price. 



The English farmer labors to produce mut- 

 ton. He selects his sheep for early maturity ; 

 he wants to fat his wethers at two years old. 

 This is what is aimed at by all the new ijnd 

 improved breeds. It has not been either finer 

 or longer wool, as the Staple has been short- 

 ened ; but in obtaining sheep that matured 

 earl^ they kept them all the time improving, 

 and thus produced wool which was less liable 

 to break, — that is, the staple was uniform, 

 having no weak places in it, and there was less 

 cotted wool in it, and as a consequence, it was 

 more valuable. Let the farmer forget all 

 about wool, but labor to produce the best of 

 mutton from the youngest sheep, and he will 

 produce the best wool, — he cannot do any- 

 thing else, — that is, the best of its kind. A 

 better breed might produce better wool. An- 

 other thing he must remember, that long 

 wooled sheep mature earlier than the merino, 

 and decay sooner. He never ought to breed 

 from his own ewes after they are five years 



old. Fat them at that age, and he will have 

 good mutton from his ewes, and wool not 

 mueh deteriorated ; but wool from old ewes is 

 liable to be weak and cotted, loose and dry, 

 or what J. Walworth designates "brastry," a 

 term we believe unknown in the English lan- 

 guage, but very expressive. But unless sheep 

 are kept in good thriving condition, we cannot 

 have good wool. Then again, must be con- 

 sidered the value of the lambs from long 

 wooled sheep. Here is another source of 

 wealth. For the butcher, merino lambs are 

 of little value, but from the long wools, their 

 large size and early maturity are objects for 

 the farmer near or where access is easy to the 

 market. 



AVe want this subject looked at from every 

 stand point, — and we have another considera- 

 tion in the fact that it costs little more to fence 

 against long wooled sheep than against other 

 cattle ; but they require good pastures, and 

 here is a point where our farmers fail. They 

 want to keep the long wool sheep on pastures 

 where the merino can only obtain a bare ex- 

 istence, and they become poor and their wool 

 worthless almost, and the farmers abandon 

 long wooled sheep because, they say, they are 

 not adapted to our system of farming. They 

 also crowd them during winter into close quar- 

 ters, and feed them on the poorest of hay, and 

 when they come out in the spring poor, and 

 wool worth little, they say this will not do, — 

 we must go back to the merino. But they 

 gave the best of hay, meal and oil cake and 

 roots to the stall-fed ox, and he comes out 

 fat and worth a pile for beef. Had they fed 

 their sheep the same, they would have had as 

 much weight of mutton as of beef, and would 

 sell for as much, and sixty pounds of wool be- 

 sides ; but they fed the sheep with what the 

 oxen would not eat, and then found fault be- 

 cause they do not come out as well. 



Mentor. 



Boston, Nov. 27, 1868. 



Remarks. — We believe that our farmers do 

 ask to be protected against Canada beef and 

 mutton, as well as wool. We were recently 

 informed by one of the buyers of Canada stock 

 for Brighton market that an intelligent farmer 

 in the Provinces told him that after paying the 

 duty on stock he could successfully compete 

 with the farmers In the States. 



— Orrin Hager, of Wallingford, Vt., writes to the 

 Farmer that while at work in the barn with his 

 father recently, they found a raccoon snugly curled 

 up in a barrel that stood on the floor. On taking 

 him to the house he was rather bashful at first, 

 but now he eats maple molasses and other delica- 

 cies, and appears to be quite well satisfied with 

 his winter quarters. 



