1868. 



NEW ENGLAND .FARIMER. 



291 



curred by larger numbers. The experiment began 

 after both lots had been got in good progress— the 

 previous and subsequent treatment of both having 

 been precisely alike. The Merinos were an extra 

 good lot, the 180 having been selected out of 600— 

 and no complaint could exist against them, as we 

 know by personal examination, on the ground of 

 being below the best merits of their kind 



The following are the figures as regards weight, 

 &c. :— 



Feb. 10— 60 Coarse WoolBweiged, 8,870 fcs. 



March ^tS— do. do 9,878 lbs. 



Gain in 46 days, 1,008 lbs 



Total cost of feed, (hay, grain, oil-meal, roots, 



&c., for 46 days,) $174.43 



Peb. 10— 61 fine Wools weighed 6,909 lbs. 



March 28— do. do 7,3S9 flbs. 



Gain in 46 days, 480 lbs. 



Total cost of feed as above, $144.78 



When both lots were sold, March 31st, the for- 

 mer realized 10| cents per pound, and the latter 

 10^ cents. 



A calculation in simple proportion will show 

 that if the course wools gained 1008 pounds at a 

 cost of $174 43 for feed, the gain of the fine wools 

 at the same ratio upon an expense of $144.78, 

 should have been 836 pounds, w4iereas it was only 

 480 pounds, or a little more than one-half a pro- 

 portionate amount as compared with cost. As 

 compared with live weight, Feb. 10th, the coarse 

 wools gciined 11 J per cent, in the forty-six days — 

 the fine wools not quite 7 per cent. 



In this connection it should be remarked 

 that Mr. Winnie is a careful, but we hope not 

 prejudiced, breeder of pureLeicesters, as well 

 as a noted and most successful feeder. 

 Among the last year's lambs of his Leicester 

 flock of forty head, some weighed 175 pounds 

 on the 17th of March last. 



> 



KENOVATINa V70BN LANDS. 



There is much complaint that lands are ex- 

 hausted. That they will not yield remunera- 

 tive crops, and there is a constant inquiry 

 how they may be restored to a fertile condi- 

 tion. We have long been convinced that 

 clover for this purpose is not estimated at its 

 true value. Clover for many purposes, is one 

 of the best kinds of food. For sheep, milch 

 cows, and horses that are not worked much, 

 there is no better hay. And while a crop of 

 clover that pays the expense is obtained, the 

 land is improving. The Rural New Yorker 

 gives the following experience of one of its 

 correspondents : — 



The lot of which I write is dark gravel and sand, 

 with a little yellow sand. It had been pretty well 

 summer fallowed when I bought it, and there was 

 nothing better to do than to sow it with wheat, no 

 manure on hand to top dress with. I sowed it to 

 wheat, and the next spring with clover. Harvested 

 11 bushels of wheat to the acre. Some time previous 

 to cutting the wheat, it had been very dry, and the 

 clover was much dried up, — it seemed as if would 

 die. Immediately after cutting the wheat, I sowed 



a hundred pounds of plaster to the acre, hoping 

 that this, with the dews, might save the clover. 

 The clover lived and grew finely. The next season 

 mowed once and pastured moderately. Mowed 

 again the next season. In August ploughed eight 

 inches, turning under but little but the roots, and 

 after cultivating the surface with drag and cultiva- 

 tor, sowed wheat again. From this, harvested sev- 

 enteen bushels of wheat to the acre. Went through 

 the same process again for the next two seasons, 

 and harvested twenty-two bushels of wheat to the 

 acre, thus doul)ling the yield of the wheat by the 

 clover roots, and the plaster. What has been done 

 is the best guide to what can be done. 



In this case, in six years, at a cost only of 



three hundred pounds of plaster to the acre, 



the land had been brought into a good condition ; 



the crops in the meanwhile paying well for 



the labor. There is much land in this State, 



that by a similar process might be brought 



into a good condition. No doubt manure 



would do the work quicker, but when this is 



wanting, why not resort to clover and plaster. 



Twenty-two bushels of good wheat is as much 



as we can expect from well manured lands. 



Weight of Fleeces A^rD Prices of Wool 

 IN Old Times. — The Rural New Yorker has 

 discovered in one of Shakespeare's plays a 

 price current of wool two hundred and sixty- 

 four years old. In the Winter's Tale, Act iv.. 

 Scene 2,. the clown making preparation for the 

 "sheep-shearing feast" thus counts up the 

 funds at his disposal : — 



"Let me see : — Every 'leven wether — ^tods ; eve- 

 ry tod yields — pound and odd shilling; fifteen 

 hundred shorn, — what comes the wool to ?" 



This is explained by the commentators to 

 mean that the wool of eleven sheep would weigh 

 a tod or 28 lbs. Each fleece would, there- 

 fore, be 2 lbs. 8 oz. 11 dr., and the whole 

 produce of fifteen hundred shorn, 136 tod, 1 

 clove, 2 lbs. 6 oz. 2 dr., which at a pound and 

 odd shilling per tod would yield £143, 3s. 



THE COTTAGE SYSTEM. 

 In his recent address on retiring from the 

 Presidency of the New York State Agricultu- 

 ral Society, Gen. M. R. Patrick, after allud- 

 ing to the difSculty of obtaining skilled labor 

 on the farm, made the following remarks, 

 which are well worthy the attention of New 

 England, as well as New York farmers, and 

 are corroborative of the views expressed by 

 our correspondent "N. S. T." in an article 

 published last August. On every farm where 

 hired labor is required through the year, 

 this system might' be adopted, and would be 



