290 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jdnb 



more importance, and thinks the agricultural 

 press should define its position on the ques- 

 tion, and do its utmost to bring the combina- 

 tion rules into discredit and disuse. For our 

 own part, we have considered the idea of es- 

 tablishing any such arbitrary and preposterous 

 rules for buying wool as too absurd for serious 

 protest. 



Suppose that a convention of consumers 

 were to fix a standard of "merchantable cloth," 

 and then adopt a one-third or any other posi- 

 tive rate of shrinkage on which they would 

 buy all other cloths, ond who would feel called 

 upon to define his position on that question, or 

 to attempt to bring such combination rules 

 into discredit and disuse? Or, try it on 

 horses or cattle, houses or lands, sugar or salt, 

 stockings or shoes, and what would be said to 

 a proposition to administer trade on any such 

 principles ? 



Still we very well know that wool growers 

 have long submitted to somewhat similar 

 edicts, and perhaps their emancipation from 

 their unjust operation is more distant than we 

 bad supposed. It may yet be necessary, as 

 suggested by Dr. Randall, for the producers 

 "to fight the devil with fire," by forming a 

 combination of their own to checkmate the 

 combinations of the buyers. But we had 

 hoped that the good sense and best interest of 

 both parties would lead to the adoption of 

 more sensible and more equitable principles 

 of traffic ; that wool, like all other articles of 

 produce and merchandise, would soon be 

 bought and sold for "what it is worth," and 

 that both buyer and seller would see the ne- 

 cessity of being better posted as to the quality 

 and condition of the article and the state of 

 the market. 



TO PBEVENT CATTLE FBOM JUMP- 

 INQ FENCES. 



One of the most trying annoyances to the 

 farmer is to have l)reachy cattle. They not 

 only set a bad example to other cattle, and ae- 

 stroy fences and crops, but they frequently 

 lead to bitterness of feeling between neigh- 

 bors, who have lived in harmony for many 

 years. This sometimes ends in a fierce and 

 protracted litigation, ruinous, perhaps, to some 

 of the parties, and destroys the good feeling 

 and amiability that had previously given the 

 neighborhood a good name. This change of 

 feeling is not confined to those who were at 



first most interested in the matter, but extends 

 to relatives, witnesses and others, until the 

 whole neighborhood is drawn into the gulf, 

 and all are more or less demoralized. In this 

 unhappy manner, feuds are commenced that 

 sometimes pass down through several gener- 

 ations, and all springing from the fact that a 

 breachy cow, ox or horse broke down the 

 fence, or leaped over it and destroyed a few 

 bushels of apples or corn, or fed to repletion 

 in forbidden fields. 



Various devices have been resorted to in or- 

 der to prevent such trespasses, and especially 

 in regard to sheep, but none have succeeded, 

 or only in a limited degree. Now we have a 

 new one, and if it is not cruel or painful, 

 or will not greatly discommode the animal 

 operated upon, and is a remedy, we can see 

 no objection to employing it. It is to "■clip 

 off the eyelashes of the under lids, with a 

 pair of scissors, and the ability or disposi- 

 tion to jump is as effectually destroyed as 

 Sampson^ s potcer was by the loss of his locks. 

 The animal will not attempt a fence again un- 

 til the eyelashes are grown." 



This fact has been promulgated by that dis- 

 tinguished breeder of cattle, Mr. SAjruEL 

 TiiORXE, of Dutchess county, N. Y., who 

 states that he tested it upon a very breachy 

 pair of oxen with entire success. He consid- 

 ers a knowledge of the fact of great value to 

 himself, and hopes it will prove so to others. 



LEICESTERS AND MERINOS FOB 

 MUTTON. 



A few weeks since our cattle market re- 

 porter noticed a fine lot of 263 sheep, averag- 

 ing 144i pounds, fatted by ^Mr. Jurian Win- 

 nie of Albany county, N. Y., and sold to Mr. 

 Henry Goodnough, a Brighton butcher. We 

 now learn that Mr. Winnie fed 901 head the 

 past season, 180 of which were Merinos, and the 

 remainder Canada Leicesters, and tliat they 

 were sold for $12,049.15. To test the com- 

 parative profit of feeding the two kinds of 

 sheep, Mr. Winnie set apart 60 Leicesters 

 and 61 Merinos which were weighed Febru- 

 ary 10. The Country Oentleman says : — 



A careful account was kept of all the food they 

 consumed during the continuance of the experi- 

 ment, forty-six days, to March 2.S, when they were 

 again weighed anil sent to market. These num- 

 bers were thought to represent fairly the whole, 

 and were taken as avoidmg the troiiiile nnd addi- 

 tional risk of error, which would have been in- 



