410 



NEW ENGLAND PARMER, 



JULY 10, 1S33. 



From the FaiTncr's Jourmd. 

 MANAGEMEKT OP SHEEP. 



If my experience in the management of sheep, 

 has qualified me for giving my brother fanners 

 any information which may be of use to them, in 

 this branch of their business, I shall always be 

 pleased to improve any opportunity for favoring 

 t'liem with it. 



My custom is, to give my sheep the earliest op- 

 portunity to pick about my fields in the spring; al- 

 ways being careful to provide them a shelter from 

 storms, or from raw and blusteiing weather. 1 

 take all pains to keep my ewes in the best order 

 during tlie winter, and separate from the rest of 

 the flock, for the purpose of giving them, some 

 ■weeks previous to yeaning, better and diftereut 

 food. 1 think much depends on this. Tlie lambs 

 ■will be more strong and healthy, and the ewes wi 



afford a better and more healthy supply of mill 



my sheep before they get so old as to become en- 

 feebled ; as they are more likely to acquire those 

 diseases which spread though the flock. 



As for the scab and foot-rot, I know of no bet- 

 ter remedies than those in common use among 

 wool-growers. J. 



I 



calculate for my lambs to come about the first of 

 May, and think it the best time. I prefer an ear- 

 lier period however to a later one. At the time 

 of shearing, the lambs are marked and castrated, 

 after which they sliould be turned into a dry and 

 fertile pasture. At this time, also, 1 apply a quan- 

 tity of tar to the nose of each sheep, ami gener- 

 ally, thrust a little into their mouths. I also apply 

 a quantity of tar to the roots of the horns, to 

 keep out the maggot. The use of tar in both the 

 above modes I regard as highly important — but 

 particularly in tlie first, as aflbrdiug the best secur- 

 ity I know of against the maggot in the head. More 

 sheep die of this disorder, during the winter and 

 spring, than of all others combined. I believe the 

 foul nose generally proceeds from the maggot, the 

 operations of which produce the unusual dis- 

 charge of mucus. This 1 have never failed to 

 cure by the injection of a quantity of Scotch snufl' 

 and vinegar, 



The scour is often troublesome at the time of 

 changing from the barn to the pasture. I have 

 tried many remedies for this ; but the best and 

 most simple I believe to be a small quantity of 

 chalk — say a lump about the size of a hen's egg. 

 If one dose does not cure, a second seldom fails. 



1 am careful to have none of my sheep except 

 those I intend for market get very fat during the 

 summer. I have heard it remarked, and I believe 

 it, that afteronce getting vtry fat, asheep will never 

 arrive at the same point again. Sheep which get 

 fat during the summer certainly do not do as well 

 in the fall and winter. About the middle of Sep- 

 timber I give my sheep the best feed I can, and 

 the middle of October begin to feed sparingly 

 ■with turnips, potatoes, or some kind of grain. 

 When the time arrives for yarding, which I do 

 rather late, I separate my flock in the following 

 manner. In one yard I put my rams and weth- 

 ers, except such of the former as have become 

 very poor during the time of running with the 

 ewes. In the second I put my last spring lambs, 

 in the third all my healthy ewes, and in the fourth 

 my old and weak (but not diseased) ewes. A sixth 

 department is a kind of hospital, into which every 

 sheep is removed as soon as discovered to be aftlic- 

 ted with disease. This arrangement I consider 

 very important, as it affords an opportunity for 

 treating every class of sheep in the manner judged 

 Jmost jnoper for their circumstances. I have 

 known instances in which the lot of old and feeble 

 ewes have come out much improved in the spring, 

 and have produced a good fleece, and raised fine 

 IStely lambs. I always iutend, however, to turn 



Froin the TViibaiixriUe {Lti.) Intelligencer. 

 THE SEASON AlVD THE CROPS. 



Thus far, we believe the season has been pecu- 

 liarly favorable to the great staples of this state, 

 cotton and the sugarcane. We have lately visited 

 several plantations in this and the adjoining parish- 

 es, and from our own observation, as well as from 

 the information of others more conversant with 

 the subject of tillage, we have reason to believe 

 that the prospect of abundant crops has not beei 

 better, if so good, sincc,,1828. Experienced cul- 

 tivators of the cane assure us, that it is from foui, 

 to six weeks in advance of the growth it had attnin< 

 ed last year, at this jjeriod. The rolling seasoi 

 will therefore commence much earlici, and thij 

 chances of injury from untimely frosts will be prof 

 portiouably diminished. The only cloud which ol^ 

 scures the prospects of the planters, is, the appret 

 hension that the prevailing epidemic may swee;) 

 oft" the o|)eratives to such an extent, that it will b 

 impossible to secure the rich harvest of whic 

 they have an earnest, in the propitious aspect 

 their cultivated fields. 



IKFLUENCE OF COTTAGE GARDENS IN PRi 

 MOTING INDUSTRV. 



It is a fact, the knowledge of which will not Ij 

 unacceptable to those of our readers who take 

 interest in plans for bettering the condition of tile 

 poor, that, in the village of Blackwood, ripe 

 peaches grown in a cottager's garden have this 

 season been sold at the moderate price of SJ. per 

 dozen. I need hardly say tlint tin; land producing 

 this fruit was the grower's own, that is, bed un- 

 der a lease for lives. In the year 1S17 th's spot 

 was a wilderness. Tiie cottager was a roigh or 

 out-door carpenter, employed to put up pojts and 

 rails on a farm, and to do the rough work ibout a 

 colliery. Before he built his house he livsd in a 

 hovel, with his wife and family, without even a 

 garden. Since then, by dint of industry aid good 

 conduct, he has been enabled to build a second 

 and a third house, all of stone, and tiled, and to 

 bring three gardens into cultivation, besido rear- 

 ing his childien decently, and teaching his sons lo 

 tread in his steps. He is now an old man, nearly 

 blind, and has been unable to follow his work for 

 njore than a year past, but he has a comfortable 

 house to live in ; receives the rent of two other 

 houses ; has two industrious sons and a daightcr 

 unmarried, to cultivate his garden, which is larger 

 than usual ; with its produce in fruit and vegeta- 

 bles of various sorts, honey from his hives, and a 

 pig in the stye to kill at Christmas, to console liim 

 under the loss of sight and the infirmities of old 

 age, with the consciousness, that he need be in- 

 debted to no parish for relief, and is in no danger 

 of leaving his children beggars. — Loudoiv's Maga- 

 zine. 



From the Albany Daily Adi-ertiser. 

 AMERICAN IRON. 



It has been a study much attended to of late, to 

 know the character and vaiHe of American and 

 foreign iron compared with each other. 



The consumption of iron in the shape of boiler 

 plates and cast rails, is becoming enormous. The 



tenacity and character of the metal are yet to be 

 thoroughly understood. The Baltimore iron is 

 considered the best in ilie world for sleamboatP. — 

 As yet we do not fabricate wrought iron rails, but 

 probably very soon shall, as machinery will be 

 contrived to equalize the difference between the 

 the prices of American and English' labor. Cast 

 iron rails have been ujade with success at our own 

 furnaces. 



Tiie American iron being mched by the heat of 

 ciarcoal, is allowed to be more tenacious than 

 the English, which is melted with coke. 



To put the matter completely at rest, how- 

 ever, very interesting experiments have been 

 made at the apartments of the Franklin In- 

 stitute, imder the direction of Mr. Johnson, 

 a scientific gentleman. The Secretary of the 

 Treasury was authorized some years since, by an 

 act of Congress, to expend a certain amount in 

 constructing machines to make experiments on the 

 tenacity of iron and other njetals used for steam 

 boilers. It was so constructed as to adndt any de- 

 gree of teniperature, up to 500 degrees Fahr. 



Some interesting results have thus been obtain- 

 ed. The Pennsylvanian, who is our authority for 

 the assertion, says it is ascertained that the ten- 

 acity of good iron is increased by the application 

 of any degree of heat under 450, which is contra- 

 ry to previously entertained opinions. Some Ten- 

 nessee iron, (from the Ciunberland works) was 

 found equal to a resistance of from 59 to 64000 lbs. 

 the square inch ! The Pennsylvania and Connec- 

 ticut iron exhibited the same qualities. No iron 

 from our state was sent on for trial — We hope 

 some of our proprietors of forges will not forget 

 to subnut specimens of their iron to the test of 

 these experiments. 



It was also found that comnion Amercan iron 

 was better than the best British, and the best 

 American equal and generally superior to Swedish 

 and Russian. 



A report is preparing to be exhibited to the 

 next Congress, in which we may expect an ac- 

 curate statement of the facts, a document that must 

 be of uncommon interest and importance. 



From the Farmer^s Chromcle. 

 PEAS. 



As all kinds of seed and grain have a tendency 

 to degenerate, when sown or planted a mnnber of 

 years on the same farm, unless j)articular pains are 

 taken to keep the seed pure and clean, it is the 

 duty of every farmer, to take the utmost pains to 

 clean his seeds of every descrij)tion, so as to coun- 

 teract such tendency to degenerate. There is no 

 seed that I am acquainted with, that will degener- 

 ate more rapidly than peas. The process that I 

 have pursued for two years with my seed peas, 

 is simply sifting them in a sieve that will 

 let through the small peas and the small seeds 

 of every descriiJtion, and leave the largest 

 and best of the peas to sow. By this means 

 my peas have improved at least twenty-five per 

 cent, in quality. I think it answers all the pur- 

 pose of scalding to clean them of the bugs. By 

 sifting them the bug omit is shaken out of the peas 

 and left with the rubbish, which is given to the 

 hogs. I make my sieve by taking the fine sieve 

 of the fanning mill, and making a box of clapboards 

 of such size as just to admit the sieve — then Bailed 

 small cleats on the inside of the bottom of the box 

 so as to hold the sieve in. By this means the sieve 

 can be taken out with pleasure and the box saved 

 for another year. L, Couca» 



