62 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



and then they put it, by little and little, into a 

 frying pan of boiling suet, where it makes a 

 confused dismall hissing, until at last it is 

 transformed into the forme of a flip jack, 

 cal'd a pancake, which ominous incantation 

 the ignorant people doe devoure very greedi- 

 ly." 



At York, they had a custom for a long time, 

 that all the apprentices, journeymen, and other 

 servants of the town, had the liberty to go 

 into the cathedral and ring the pancake bell 

 on Shrove Tuesday ; and people came, not 

 only from the city, but flocked from the coun- 

 try, to take a part in the fun. They also 

 exercised themselves in running, arching, leap- 

 ing, wrestling, mock-fights, &c. All this was 

 innocent and very well, but they had practices 

 which were cruel and barbarous, and had the 

 blows been upon their own backs, as in the 

 case of the Abyssinian husband, they would 

 have been less censurable. 



One of these practices on Shrove Tuesday, — 

 when they ought to have been confessing their 

 sins, — was to blindfold hens, or tie a cock to a 

 stake, and, standing at a distance, throw cudg- 

 els at it until the poor creature was beaten to 

 a jelly. It was not uncommon for religious ( ?) 

 parishes to manage this cudgelling of the cocks, 

 and apply the money coUe'cted in aid of the 

 poor rates ! 



Hogarth satirized this barbarity in the first 

 of his prints, called the "Four Stages of Cru- 

 elty." 



A custom has long existed among ourselves 

 which is cruel and unworthy of the age. It is 

 called shooting at a mark, — that mark being a 

 fowl, and is a liltle less cruel than cudgelling 

 an animal to death, because life is terminated 

 by ball or shot. Even in this case, the poor 

 birds are terribly frightened, and often se- 

 verely injured without drawing blood. 



Another custom of great cruelty is that of 

 cock-fighting. It has obtained a considerable 

 foothold in some portions of New England, 

 and attracts young men and old into some of 

 the most pestilential dens in the land. 



All these cruel practices are inhuman, de- 

 basing, and unworthy the age in which we live. 

 They have a tendency to make men selfish, 

 unfeehng and cruel everywhere. Our laws 

 punish them, and it is the duty of every good 

 citizen to prevent them, as far as lies in his 

 power. Perhaps the greatest amount of cru- 



elty inflicted is that upon horses ; that is not 

 usually a systematic cruelty, but springs from 

 passionate excitement of the moment. 



We must qualify what the poet has said at 

 the head of this article, a little, so that no 

 custom which we remember with respect shall 

 be cruel, or in any way debasing, or shocking 

 to the best feelings of our natures. 



SIIiESIAlSr AND SAXONY "WOOL. 



The letter from Mr. Tellkampf, which we 

 publish on another page will attract the no- 

 tice of those of our readers who are interested 

 in wool growing. He says that the present 

 tariff operates seriously against a supply of 

 several qualities of wool needed for various 

 descriptions of wooJen goods. But instead of 

 proposing that the duties on these kinds of 

 wool should be reduced, he suggests that the 

 manufacturers invest one hundred thousand 

 dollars in a stock farm for breeding such 

 sheep as will produce the wool they need ; and 

 from which farmers may be supplied with rams 

 of the desired quality. 



While this may certainly be received as evi- 

 dence of the good faith of the manufacturers, 

 and as a very liberal proposition on their part, 

 we must say that we think some simpler plan, 

 and one more in accordance with the usual 

 course of business in this country, may be 

 adopted to stimulate the production of the de- 

 sired staples. It is so obviously for the inter- 

 ests of wool growers to furnish ever}' variety 

 of product required by their customers, the 

 manufacturers, that we believe our farmers 

 will readily make any changes in their flocks 

 necessarj' to enable them to supply the de- 

 mands of the market. Still some union of 

 producer and consumer may be necessary to 

 secure the needed importation. The propo- 

 sition, however, of Mr. Tellkampf has not as 

 yet been acted upon by the manufacturers. 



In this connection we may be pardoned for 



publishing the following extract of a business 



letter recently received by one of the editors 



of this paper from a leading wool merchant in 



Boston : — 



The universal feeling with wool dealers and wool 

 manufacturers is, that tlie fine wool of the country 

 has been materially injured by the introduction, 

 so gcntrally, of the heavy, greasy bucks of Ver- 

 mont. While the supply of wool in the country 

 was less than the deniand, Vermont, by holding 

 back her wool, got as much for it as Ohio and 

 Pennsylvania did for the lighter and cleaner wools 

 grown by them. Consequently, it was vciy nat- 



