426 



NEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



Sept. 



We say we are glad to see this war of words 

 go on, because faeh party will learn something 

 of the other, and in the end both will be bene- 

 fited. Tliere have been many hard words 

 said on both sides, and many times utterly 

 without foundation. This is the easiest thing 

 imaginable in all controversies. The weakest 

 man can give hard accusations, and as a gen- 

 eral r'de this element in a man's writing is a 

 test not less of his strength than of honesty. 



Now it is only when we refer all such mat- 

 ters as those above alluded to, to a general 

 princijjle, that we can get a clear understand- 

 ing of facts about which fierce and rancorous 

 disputes are carried on. 



The simple fact in regard to this whole ques- 

 tion of unmerchantable wool is just this and 

 nothing more : — T lie producer has put into the 

 market what would bring him the most money. 



When men found that Ueeces which con- 

 tained 60 per cent, of waste matter would sell 

 for the same price per pound as those that 

 only contained 45 or 50 per cent, they made 

 haste to raise them, — thafs all. Many a 

 man who has taken the utmost care to have his 

 sheep well and thoroughly washed, and then 

 shorn as soon as well dried, has been com- 

 pelled to see his wool sold for the same money 

 as another man who has only half washed his 

 flock, and allowed them to run twenty days in 

 a June sun before shearing, because buyers 

 have exercised no discrimination. 



The buying of wool has been carried on in 

 such a manner as to encourage the production 

 of large fleeces, large in pounds only, till the 

 natural reaction has taken place, and now the 

 buyers turn round and accuse wool-growers of 

 fraud. If the wool-clip of this country had 

 been purchased on the same principle that 

 regulates the sale of butter and cheese and 

 corn and wheat, or any other production of 

 the farm, we never should have had this low 

 snarling about combined injustice on one part, 

 and cheating and fraud on the other. 



If the gi-ain dealers should adopt the prac- 

 tice of paying the same price for wheat that 

 contained 20 per cent, of foul seed that they 

 did for a pure article, the market would soon 

 be filled with that class of dirty grain ; and on 

 whose shoulders would rest the blame ? 



The desired end of all the producer's labor 

 is mone;/, and he will always put into the mar- 

 ket that which will give him the best return. 

 And when he has obtained 10 per cent, more 

 for his products than they are worth, because 

 it was bought "by rule," docs it look like jus- 

 tice, or even common decency, for the buyer 

 to turn round and accuse him of fraud when 

 the purchase was made with open eyes. 



When only wool was salable, that was the 

 only thing the wool-grower put into the mar- 

 ket, that is, wool with its natural and unavoida- 

 ble amount of waste material ; but when it was 

 found that grease and dirt would sell for 45 

 cents per pound, that commodity was oilered 

 iu large quantities, and so it will always be, 



and no conventions or resolutions will ever 

 alter this law of trade. 



If, then, the wool-buyer will buy his wool 

 as the grocer buys his butter and cheese, we 

 shall soon find a rivalry among the farmers to 

 produce the highest priced-wool as fierce and 

 more lasting than has been the big-fleeced 

 mania. No more fleeces will be found in mar- 

 ket containing from two to five pounds of what 

 would be called manure if seen elsewhere, tied 

 up with a quarter of a pound of rope-yarn. 

 There will be no more hard accusations, no 

 more flings about tar and grease. The cloth- 

 maker can have just such wool as he will pay 

 for, and in just the condition he desires. This 

 he may depend upon to the end of time. As 

 soon as he deviates from strict, discrim- 

 inating justice in his purchases, the producer 

 will be certain to follow his example. It is as 

 natural and inevitable as that the seed should 

 produce its fniit, or the tree its shadow. — Dr. 

 Henry Boynton, in Mirror and Farmer. 



MUTTON SHEEP. 



Dr. Miles, Professor of Agriculture in the 

 Michigan Agricultural College has been making 

 some experiments in feeding grade Merino 

 sheep, grade South Downs, and grade Cots- 

 wolds. The Merinos and Cotswolds were 

 lambs, and the South Downs, yearlings. The 

 former two, therefore, give results that are 

 strictly comparative ; the latter, not. These 

 grade lambs were from common Merino ewes 

 crossed in the one case with a thoroughbred Ver- 

 mont Merino ram, and in the other with a thor- 

 oughbred Cotswold. "What do you mean?" I 

 asked Prof. IMiles, "by common Merino ewes ?" 

 "The ordinary kind of sheep in this section, 

 such sheep as could have been bought here last 

 fall for 75c to $1 a head." The lambs were 

 shut up in pens Dec. 13, and were fed corn 

 and clover hay for 23 weeks, or till the 15th 

 of May. At the commencement of the expe- 

 riment the two grade Merino lambs weighed 

 125i pounds, (one 70 pounds, the other 55i 

 pounds). The two grade Cotswolds weighed 

 158 pounds, (one 86 pounds, the other 72 

 pounds. 



The Merinos eat 325 pounds of hay, and 249 

 pounds of corn, and gained 3G-i pounds. The 

 Cotswolds eat 398 pounds of hay, and 369 

 pounds of corn, and gained 67i pounds. A 

 little figuring will show that it took 1,572 

 pounds of hay and corn to produce 100 pounds 

 of increase with the Merinos, and only 1,136 

 pounds with the Cotswolds. 



Professor Miles has figured up the amount 

 of food consumed for each 100 pounds of live 

 weight. In the twenty-two weeks, the grade 

 Merinos, for 100 pounds of live weight, eat 

 231.81 pounds of hay, and 108.13 pounds of 

 corn, and the grade Cotswolds, 212.82 pounds 

 of hay, and 186.43 pounds of corn. The Cots- 

 wolds eat more corn and less hay in proportion 

 to live weight than the Merinos ; but the total 



