No. 2, 



Management of Sheep. 



29 



than on poor. A gentleman in this vicinity 

 told us the other day, that he had commenced 

 improving his farm in earnest. He had 

 raised tlie value of his farm, and greatly in- 

 creased the produce by ditcliing. He has a 

 spout at his back door into which his soap 

 suds, &c, are poured, and carried under 

 ground to a pen or yard a few rods from his 

 house. This pen is so constructed that he 

 can drive through it with a cart, and here he 

 deposits turf, muck, damaged hay and straw, 

 which a good yard of porkers manufacture 

 into first rate manure. In this way he has 

 doubled the produce of his farm. Much may 

 be done toward improving land by a rotation 

 of crops. 



The celebrated natualist Mirbel, has lately 

 given the following explanations of the phe- 

 nomena that render rotation of crops advisa- 

 ble. " Plants require other elements for 

 their support, besides the elements of assimi- 

 lation, and cannot thrive without them. For in- 

 stance there is silex in the cane, and there is 

 lime in certain plant;;, (say wheal) whose or- 

 ganization could not be completed without it. 

 The quantity of any such foreign ingredient 

 in a plant is generally small; still the neces- 

 sity for it may be presumed as absolute. 

 Plants cannot be constituted unless all the 

 materials they require be furnished to them ; 

 and indeed the same observations will apply 

 to animals; deprive a hen of lime, her eggs 

 will have no shell ; deprive the earth of its 

 salts, such as form potash, soda, or in com- 

 bination with minerals, lime, gypsum, &c., 

 and you destroy its productive power. The 

 smallest quantity of gypsum will have a re- 

 markable effect on clover; and the elTects of 

 the other combinations are scarcely less visi- 

 ble on other varieties of plants. But the 

 formation of these salts, or materials, excit- 

 ing and sustaining the growth of plants, 

 when spontaneous, is slow, and the result of 

 regular chemical changes which have been 

 at work for centuries; and when the natural 

 and limited supply is exhausted as it soon 

 must be, if the successive crops of the same 

 kind are forced upon the soil, the plants will 

 look yellow and shabby, each year renders it 

 more worthless, until finally not enough will 

 grow to repay cultivation. Let the crop per- 

 ish where it grew, the earth will re-assume 

 the minerals and salts extracted from it dur- 

 ing such growth, and the same plants will 

 flourish indefinitely." 



The most ignorant ought not to be ashamed 

 of seeking for more knowledge, though the 

 most learned might well be ashamed of re- 

 maining willingly ignorant, when there is an 

 'Opportunity to learn. 



From the New Yoik Fanner. 



Mauagemeut of §hcep. 



Messrs. Editors, — In pursuance of the 

 intimation in my last communication, I will 

 now proceed to mention the " sins of omission 

 and commission," relative to washing and 

 shearing of sheep. 



To correct, however, the slovenly mode 

 practised by farmers, in general, in reference 

 to both, is indeed a hopeless task ; — to prove 

 that it is downright dishonesty to sell wool 

 to which is attached from 25 to 50 per cent, 

 of filth and dirt, of which the manufacturer is 

 ignorant until discovered in the process of 

 using, is easy enough. But moralizing in 

 these corrupt days is almost useless. I shall 

 attempt to prove, however, that in these mat- 

 ters, honesty and interest go hand in hand, he 

 that will be honest, will sooner or later find 

 his reward. 



It is common for farmers to prepare a pool 

 by darning some convenient brook, which, 

 doubtless, in many instances atibrds pure 

 water, but nine times in ten is little better 

 than a hog mire. The sheep are then soused 

 in, held for a minute or two, the wool squeezed, 

 and then let go, and pronounced well washed. 

 If a by-stander questions It, or the owner feels 

 some qualms of conscience, both are quieted 

 by stating the fact, "that the fleece will 

 weigh heavier if it is not quite so clean, and 

 the dirt will bring as much as the wool." 

 This is thought a " cunning thing" to shave 

 the speculator or manufacturer. 



When the time of shearing arrives, or ra- 

 ther is proceeding, these same honest good 

 meaning sort of men take special caie, in 

 order that the fleece shall not fall short of 

 weight, to scrape up every thing, consisting 

 of wool not the sixteenth of an inch long, dirt 

 locks, dung locks, bur locks, &c., which is 

 carefully put inside and the fleece rolled in 

 " first rate style." All this trash is of course 

 excluded from the buyer, whoever he is, and 

 from the external appearance, is deemed in 

 good order and condition. But the manufac- 

 turer, at his cost, discovers not only the fair 

 article, but much that is worse than nothing- 

 ness within. 



If these honest good sort of men, who are 

 so cunning as thus to prepare their wool for 

 market, will but take the trouble to cleanse 

 a fleece, as the manufacturer is obliged to do 

 before it is put in a process of manufacture, 

 he will readily ascertain what a gross decep- 

 tion it is — the result will be, that a fleece 

 prepared as above, described with its beauti- 

 ful superjluities, and weighing 4 lbs., would 

 be reduced by the cleansing operation to 2^ 

 to 2| lbs. 



Your readers need not suspect this picture 

 overdrawn — it is true to the letter, and for 



