1869. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



57 



are now sold in our Eastern markets at one to 

 two dollars each, and at the West we read 

 of their being pelted and boiled up for the 

 tallow and pig-feed their carcases afford ! And 

 now everybody is going into the dairy busi- 

 ness, stock raising, or growing coarse wool. 



We. fully believe, as Mr. J. Harris of 

 Rochester, N. Y., says in the American Ag- 

 riculturist, that "farmers are making a great 

 mistake in slaughtering their sheep. But 

 nothing will stop them. It is a pity we cannot 

 have more stability and fixedness of purpose 

 in our agriculture. What we do we should do 

 ■well — and stick to it. A farmer should think 

 for himself, and not be influenced too much 

 by outside opinion. 'You cannot make any- 

 thing by raising common crops,' said a friend 

 a year ago; 'you should set out a hop-yard.' 

 What would he say now ? There has been 

 more money lost in hops the last year than 

 would richly endow an agricultural college. 

 And if people were educated to think they 

 would have foreseen such a result; The fact 

 is that common crops pay better now than 

 anything else, provided you can only raise 

 enough of them per acre. Stick to what you 

 understand, and let those who have a fancy 

 for novelties try them. There are enough 

 farmers, so called, who wish to make ihoney 

 easly and rapidly, Tvithout you and me adding 

 to the number." 



In presenting the above cut of Mr. George 

 Campbell's French Buck ' 'Matchless," as a type 

 of the Merino sheep, our object is to enforce 

 the remark of Prof. Harris that "a farmer 

 should think for himself and not be influenced 

 too much by outside opinion." It is an old 

 proverb that all changes are not improvements, 

 and it would be well if more of us would heed 

 the admonition to "stick to what you under- 

 stand." New England farmers understand 

 the management of Merino sheep much better 

 than they do that of the larger coarse wooled 

 sheep of England, which attained its perfection 

 with the introduction of turnip husbandry into 

 that country. These breeds ft is true succeed 

 in Canada, but there they are in the hands of 

 those who were brought up in the old country, 

 of men who "stick to what they understand." 



If American breeders of the Merino sheep 

 have made mistakes, — if they have produced 

 too much oil or too many wrinkles — it is their 

 own fault and not that of this invaluable ani- 



mal. These mistakes should be corrected. 

 Such is the wonderful plasucity of sheep in 

 the hands of the skilful farmer that Lord Som- 

 erville, an English writer, once said that a 

 breeder "may chalk out upon a wall a form per- 

 fect in itself, and then give it existence." 

 Our breeders "chalked out" a heavy fleece, 

 and they have succeeded in "giving it exist- 

 ence" — heavy not only in "grease," but 

 heavy in cleansed wool, as has been shown by 

 repeated experiments — the unprecedented 

 amount of nme pounds and three ounces of 

 cleansed wool having been reported as sheared 

 from a single sheep in New York, the growth 

 of eleven months and twenty-one days. They 

 may chalk out other excellencies and expect 

 to realize them with equal success. 



While, therefore, we are making the ac- 

 quaintance of new breeds of sheep, and learn- 

 ing the art and mystery of their management, 

 let us proceed cautiously, and without permit- 

 ting familiarity to breed contempt for our tried 

 friends, the Merinos, which have added so 

 largely to our individual and national wealth 

 and comfort. In one word, if we must have a 

 coarse-wool fever let us tone It down to a mild 



type- 



For the New England Farmer. 

 "SMALL-POTATO" PEEMIDMS, 



Agricultural exhibitions are designed to be 

 a mutual benefit, — consequently each class, or 

 article should receive cncouragtmcnt in pro- 

 portion to its importance to the community. 



At the close of our Vermont Agricultural 

 Fair I remarked to some of the directors that 

 a single premium of only one dollar was a 

 poor inducement for five or six growers of 

 choice seed potatoes to bring in their samples, 

 have some of them pocketed, and the rest 

 badly bruised, or guard them for three long 

 days. I was met by the leply that I was do- 

 ing well enough ; that men who sold potatoes 

 for 50 cents or $1 per pound had no right to 

 complain. 



A glance at our premium list shows that $2o 

 in premiums are paid lor the three best traces 

 of seed corn; $r2 on sugar; $22 on butter; 

 $25 on swine; $157 on sheep; $40 on flow- 

 ers and house plants, and $500 on horses, 

 exclusive of "purses." According to the gov- 

 ernment valuation in 1804, all the horses in 

 this State, over two years old, were worth 

 $2,895,533 ; according to the estimate, the 

 crop of potatoes raised the same year, was 

 worth $3,195,237, or $299,704 more than all 

 the horses in the State, although the horses 

 were the crop of at least three years. 



It seems, then, that an interest consid- 



