246 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



PEBRtlARY 13, 1S33. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEB. 13, 1R33. 



FARMER'S WORK. 



Sheep. Your sheep I hope are of the best 

 breed ; but it would not be possible to give direc- 

 tions to a proper choice, in that respect, which will 

 apply in all cases to every cultivator. Mortimer, an 

 English writer, says " the farmershoidd always buy 

 his sheep from a worse land than his own" and it 

 is, no doubt, the case with sheep, as with cattle, 

 if any breed be brought from a rich to au inferior 

 soil it must necessarily decrease in value and con- 

 dition. We shall not specify the numerous breeds 

 of this animal, which are, or have been celebrated, 

 but believe that every judicious farmer may, and 

 ought to have a good breed of his own, by select- 

 ing the best animals to breed from, instead, as is 

 too often the case, killing or selling to the butcher 

 the best, and breeding from the poorest of the 

 flock. 



Among the most valuable breeds of sheep, may 

 be numbered the Bakcwell or Dishley brped; 

 which originated with the celebrated Bakewell, 

 and if every sheep fanner would use similar means 

 he might attain similar results. His practice was 

 as follows: — 



Mr. Bakewell selected from his own flock, [md 

 from the flocks of others, those sheep to brted 

 from, which possessed in the greatest degree tiiat 

 perfection of form which he was desirous to retain 

 and perpetuate. By judiciously crossing them, 

 and selecting the most perfect of their jirogeny, 

 he at length succeeded in forming the breed, 

 which has been distinguished by the naine of the 

 New Leicester, or Dishley breed ; and having at- 

 tained his object, he carefully gnari^eti against 

 any future intermixtures with other brepds. This 

 breed exceeds all others in its propensity to fatten ; 

 jmd by crossing byranis with this breed, a very 

 considerable ])ortion of the long-wooUed sheep 

 in England have been greatly improved in this 

 respect. 



Wintering Sheep. With regard to winter food 

 for sheep, we have some facts, inducing a belief 

 that gpod economy would lead to the. use of other 

 Articles besides hay, more frequently than has 

 been general. Mr. Jedediah Mmg.ui, of Cayuga, 

 New York, in a letter to Jesse Buel, Esq. publish- 

 ed in Memoirs of the Board of Agriculture of the 

 Slate of JVew York," vol iii. p. 118, observes insu b- 

 stance, that in consequence of a severe drought, 

 his mowing'land did not yield more than one third 

 the quantity of hay obtained in ordinary seasons. 

 His flock of sheep consisted of about 500 includ- 

 ing about 120 lambs. 



"About the fifteenth of December," he observes, 

 "I commenced feeding them, at which time I 

 had only about nine tons of fine timothy and clo- 

 ver hay. . I divided my sheep into flocks of about 

 100, and commenced giving thera, say half a gill 



of corn each per day, in the ear, dividing it so as 

 to give half of it in the morning, and the residue 

 in the evening, except that to the lambs I gave 

 nearly the same quantity of oats in the sheaf. I 

 fed in this way, until about the 1st of January fol- 

 lowing, when the quantity of grain was a little in- 

 creased : so that between the 15th of December 

 and the 15th of April following I actually fed to 

 my 380 sheep, 145 bushels of corn ; and to the 

 120 lambs 40 bushels of oats, which would be 

 something less than a gill of corn and oats per 

 head, i)er day, to both sheep and lambs during the 

 winter. The flock had little more than enough of 

 hay to form a cud, except that in extreme cold 

 weather, I directed them to be full fed on hay. 



"In this manner 500 sheep were wintered, 

 with the loss of only three lambs; and at the open- 

 ing of the spring, they were in better health and 

 condition than any flock I ever wintered in any 

 former season since I have been engaged in rear- 

 ing sheep and growing wool. 



I estimate the expense of keeping my flock of 



500 sheep through the winter, as follows: — 



Nine tons of hay at $7.00, . . .$63.00 



145 bushels of corn at .*0.31, . . 44.95 



40 do. oats at .$0.19, . . . 7. GO 



S:dt with the hay, &o 5.00 



Attendance of sluphord . , , . , 20.00 



$140.55 

 Salt for Slieep, fyc. Various opinions have been 

 expressed relative to the use of salt for sheep, but 

 most writers have recommended giving sheep ac- 

 cess to it at all times. Of late, however, it has 

 been suspected that a too free use of salt has been 

 the unsuspected cause of disorders, which have 

 often proved fatal to the animals. John Prince, 

 Esq. in a paper, published in the N. E. Farmer, 

 vol. X. p. 268, has stated facts and circumstances, 

 which lead to the conclusion that his sheep had 

 suffered greatly by having unrestrained access to 

 salt. . Perhaps, however, salt in proper quantities 

 may prove useful. Dr. Cooper, in the last Ameri 

 can edition of Willich's Domestic Encyclopcdii 

 says, " A quarter of an ounce of salt per day to 

 sheep, and one ounce per day to cows and oxen, 

 is an allowance ample enough." A judicious 

 (iructical cultivator assured us that in giving salt to 

 his cattle and sheep he always mixed it with un- 

 liached wood ashes, at the rateof one quart of fine 

 salt to one half bushel of ashes. To this compo- 

 sition his cattle and sheep have alwaVs access: and 

 lie believes that the mixture preserves the health 

 and promotes the tliriving of the animals. 



Cow houses and Stables should be well ventilated. 

 Mr. Lawrence says "a stable should never be 

 completely closed up, however cold the weather 

 may be, although it is desirable that strong 

 Iraughts of cold or damp air should be guarded 

 against, especially in winter. It may be heUl as a 

 general rule that the stable is too close, when on en- 



tering, the breath is aftccted, or any smell of urine 

 can be perceived. 



"If it be important to keep cow-houses or cattle 

 stables well ventilated, it is no less so to keep them 

 clean. Dung if kft therem soon renders the air 

 unwholesome, and engenders a train of putrid 

 disorders. — Cows in a stable should not be kept 

 too close — a square space of six feet each way 

 should be allowed to each cow." 



For the Neio England Farmer. * 

 CAtJIjIPI.OWER. 



Mr. Editor, — Your Cambridge correspondent 

 must have been particularly unfortunate or un- 

 wise in t)ie disposition he made of his eaidiflowers 

 last year, if he got hut fourpence a \nece for them. 

 I wish I could advise him to a more jirofitable 

 course jn the year to coinc, but I can only state 

 facts, and he may perhaps turn them to his advan- 

 tage. 



Dufing the season for this delicious vegetable, 

 I have usually had it on my table two or three, 

 and smictimes four times a week. I always ])ur- 

 chasfl at the Qnincy market, but at different stalls. 

 Durilig the last season, with au experience as ex- 

 tensile as before mentioned, I have never been 

 able ;o procure a single flower, of moderate size, 

 for less than 25 cents, and generally have paid 

 niucli more for them. Once, not finding any at 

 the Ciiincy nuirket, I went to the IJoylston market: 

 there were none there, but I found a brocolti for 

 which I paid a few cents only — five or six. — I 

 will (Illy add my regret that I was not so fortu- 

 nate a^ fall in with the cauliflowers of " Quantum 

 Siifficil^^ Epicukus. 



Bosbn, Feb. 6, 1833. 



ITEMS OP 1NTEI.L,IGE1VCB. 



Th"; last accounts from South Carolina are al- 

 most dtogether notices of nullification and union 

 uieeti)gs" arguments, arnuuncnts and wars of words 

 preluling or threatening weapons and missiles of 

 a Icssharmless ch;iracter. It is thought, however, 

 that tie storm will blow over with more thunder 

 than ightning. 



TIr, Tariff. The Washington correspondent of 

 the U S. Gazette, in a letter, dated Feb. 2, says 

 there has been nothing done to day towardsbring- 

 ing th) Tariff discussion to a close, and the fate of 

 the bill may be considered as decided." There 

 are it seems two modes of despatching Mr. Ver- 

 planck's bill under consideration ; one is to smoth- 

 er it with amendments, and the other is to talk it 

 into non-entity. 



Sonthem Anti-XuUificniion. The Charleston 

 Courier has commenced the publication of "«oJ- 

 emn truths" timon^ which are numbered the follow- 

 ing: — "The tariff' laws have an equal operation 

 upon every State in this frta and happy Union. 

 Washington believed the tariflf constitutional, 

 and he was as wise and good a man as ' Uayna 

 or Hamilton, McDuflie or Dr. Cooper." 



GIGANTIC OX AMERICUS. 



The largest Ox, it is believed, that was ever 

 reared in this or any other country, may now ba 

 seen for a few days in a temporary »hed, erected 



