NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



263 



carcass, and perhaps to have the least tallow on the 



sides. 



The keeping of sheep on most of the upland and 

 hilly farms of this country is, generally speaking, a 

 lucrative business. If selected -with reference to 

 their meat-making or wool-producing properties, and 

 with a well-digested system of breeding and man- 

 agement, these animals are rarely debilitated by dis- 

 ease ; it is principally owing to neglect and careless- 

 ness that they sicken. By most farmers the winter 

 management of the sheep is deemed a matter of 

 trivial importance, whereas the reverse of the propo- 

 sition is true. If sheep are confined in large num- 

 bers, in confined and poorly-ventilated enclosures, 

 with an inadecjuate supply of pure water, and with 

 poorer food, the legitimate consequence is premature 

 debility, disease, and death. At the period of pro- 

 ducing their young, the most assiduous attention 

 should be accorded to the dams. They should be 

 provided with warm quarters, well littered and ven- 

 tilated, and supplied with food of a generous and 

 strengthening description. The young, wlien drojjpcd, 

 should be carefully looked after, and food calculated 

 to invigorate tlie system, and to produce a healthy 

 and vigorous action of the lactescent organs, be lib- 

 erally supplied to the dams. 



In tlie summer, and during those months when 

 tliey are permitted to run at large, they require to be 

 carefully watched, especially when depastured in 

 large Hocks. The free use of salt is highly benefi- 

 cial, or a mLvture of salt and ashes ; and if the forage 

 is shortened by drought, or of an ungenial or innu- 

 tritious order, the deficiency should be supplied by 

 daily feeds of grain, roots, or by soiling. 



As a general rule, however, it is injudicious to 

 crowd them together in largo numbers, even where 

 the pastures or ranges are spacious : it is better to 

 divide the lintory into lesser divisions, and to appro- 

 priate to a certain number an allotted space. By so 

 doing many unpleasant contingencies will be obvi- 

 ated. Shelter, even in summer, is essential, often- 

 times, to the sheep. During this period, showers are 

 often experienced, and exposure to drenching rains, 

 during which the atmospheric temperature suddenly 

 falls to a comparatively low point, often produces 

 disease, and even death. 



One error, and a very essential one, in the practice 

 of farmers, I will here notice. After incurring a 

 heavy expense in purchasing valuable animals, many 

 proceed as if they supposed they had actually ac- 

 complished all that is necessary. Instead of pro- 

 viding good and secure pastures in which the ani- 

 mals may find abundant and nutritious herbage dur- 

 ing their range aixl isolation from other Hocks, they 

 turn them into the highway to be crossed by breeds 

 of inferior traits, and emasculated or half starved 

 from a lack of timely and proper food. The conse- 

 quence of this insane procedure is, that they arc 

 disappointed : the animals, so eagerly sought for 

 and purchased at perhaps an exorbitant price, fail to 

 realize their expectations, and all subsequent efforts, 

 as improvement in that department, are prematurely 

 and forever renounced. This is necessarily an injury 

 to the community ; it tends to induce scepticism 

 and unbelief as to the legitimate merit and fcasil)ility 

 of the enterprise, and thereby to discourage all laud- 

 able efforts on the part of many who would other- 

 wise have embraced an early opportunity to assist, 

 by their own personal example and influence, the 

 advancement of so good a cause. 



A WASHINGTON COUNTY FAIiMEK. 



Sf.vkn Hill Farm, Juhj 3, 1850. 

 — Oermantown Telegraph. 



In Cheshire, Mass., an apple-tree has borne from 

 90 to 110 bushels of apples in a season. 



PROF. ESPY'S THEORY OF STORMS. 



As some interest has been awakened here of late 

 on meteorology, we propose to present our readers a 

 brief view of the " theory of storms," called the 

 " Espy theory " — so designated to distinguish it 

 from another and kindred theory, named the " lled- 

 field theory." The latter theory, presented by W. 

 C. Rcdlield, Escj., of New York, is supported by 

 Lieut. Col. Reid, of the Royal Engineers, and Dr. 

 Dove. 



Mr. Espy, in his theory, professes to explain all the 

 phenomena of rain, hail, snow, waterspouts. Minds, 

 and barometric fluctuations. The following Ls a brief 

 synopsis of his theory : — 



1. Atmospheric air is subject to expansion, — ei- 

 ther by heat or by a diminution of pressure. 



2. Aqueous vapor is specifically lighter than at- 

 mospheric air, — its weight, under given circum- 

 stances, being only about five eighths that of air. 



3. "When a portion of air becomes lighter than the 

 surrounding air, from expansion by heat, from being 

 more highly charged with vapor, or from any other 

 cause, it ascends. 



4. Air, in ascending from a lower to a higher re- 

 gion, is subject to diminished pressure, and conse- 

 quently to expansion. 



5. The atmosphere is capable of containing, and 

 does always contain, a certain quantitj' of water in a 

 state of transparent vapor. 



6. This capacity of the atmosphere for containing 

 water increases much more rapidly than the temper- 

 ature. 



7. The quantity of water actually in solution va- 

 ries greatly at different times and places, independ- 

 ently of the temperature ; the air, at a given tem- 

 perature, sometimes being filled nearly or quite to 

 the extent of its capacity, while at others, it falls far 

 short of it. 



8. If, from any cause, the temperature of a portion 

 of air, containing a given quantity of vapor, be re- 

 duced to a certain point, that is, at all below the 

 dew-point, it must deposit a portion of the water. 



9. Expansion, arising from diminished pressure, is 

 attended by diminished temperature. The actual 

 diminution of temperature, on this account, in as- 

 cending from the surface of the earth, is about a 

 degree and a fourth for every hundred yards ; and 

 consequently air, highly charged with vapor, that is, 

 with a high dew-point, would not have to ascend 

 very high before condensation must commence. 



10. The condensation of vapor is attended w'ith 

 the disengagement of a very large quantity — more 

 than a thousand degrees — of latent caloric. In 

 other words, sufficient caloric is set at liberty, by 

 the condensation of a given quantity of vapor, to 

 raise the temperature of a hundred times that quan- 

 tity of matter (of the same specific caloric) ten de- 

 grees. 



Heat is the life-giving clement in this theory, as 

 of every other storm theory. W. 



— Rural New-Yorker. 



riiYsicAL Influenck 01' IIaiut. — Proficiency in all 

 handicrafts is the legitimate result of the jjliysical in- 

 fluence of habits. The blacksmith makes a nail, for 

 instance, well and tiuickly only after many and often 

 rejieatcd trials. The haiul and eye must be edu.catcd, 

 habituated to the work, and then they cannot fail. 

 It is so with all mechanical professions. The artisan, 

 by a long apprenticeship, becomes acquainted with 

 the use of the proper tools, and at last tlie master of 

 his trade, and the liabits then acquired, whatever 

 may be his after situation, will influence his whole 

 life. 



