THE GENESEE FARMER. 



43 



bad been observed that the sheep which produced 

 3uch wools liked to be on greasy pastures. Now 

 what were greasy pastures? They were fat pas- 

 tures. He would go further, and ask, with regard 

 ;o artificials, whether it were not possible to sup- 

 ply another element which would produce lustre? 

 ?erhaps the nearest approach to the natural ele- 

 iient was oil-cake. They all knew tliat when wool 

 )ecame greasy, it acquired a certain amount of 

 !url and a lustre which was peculiar to high feed- 

 ng. He believed they might very much increase 

 he tendency to lustre by giving the animals corn, 

 le would suppose that after having given some 

 incoln sheep corn he afterward sold them at a fair, 

 le had then done with them, and it did not matter 

 him who had them the next morning. But he 

 rould now suppose that they fell into the hands of 

 man who let them remain in grass without oil- 

 ake or corn. What happened? The woolstapler 

 iid, 'This is capital wool; but there is a little 

 tieck which I don't understand — the wool is jointy, 

 overty-stricken at a certain place.' If he had fed 

 lem with oil-cake or beans the result would have 

 een different, and the wool would have realised 

 le higiiest price. Here, then, was the practical 

 aestion which appeared to him deserving of con- 

 deration. It appears in practice that lustre wool 

 ^peculiar to a certain district, arising from soil, 

 imate and management; if so, what is the near- 

 ■t representative? High feeding of that class of 

 limal when introduced in other parts." 

 "We lay these views before the readers of tke 

 enesee Farmer for their consideration. There 

 ems to be no doubt that the long wool which 

 iicegter, Cotswold and Lincoln sheep afford is 

 :ely to be in increasing demand at good prices ; 

 d when it i« remembered that these breeds of 

 eep fatten more rapidly than any other, it would 

 3m that they must become more popular than 



FRENCH MERINOS. 



Thk Paris Journal d' Agriculture Pratique con- 

 ns two colored plates of Rarabouillet Merinos — 

 the two types of this class. The sketches are 

 :en from animals in the Imperial "sheep-fold'' 

 Rambouillet. The first one has the dewlap 

 -y large, and a fold coming from the top of the 

 id quite down to the breast, which is called in 

 3nch cravate. The other has these peculiarities 

 •y slightly developed. M. Barral s&ys the for- 

 r is very difficult to fatten, but has always bee« 

 )posed to produce the most wool, but that there 

 really little difference in the amount of wool 

 ,ween that and the latter class, which fattens 

 7 readily. Rams from this herd sell at as high 

 ces as those from the herds of the most cele 

 ited English breeders. Tliey are of the purest 

 od, the herd having been formed by Louis XVI, 

 1786, and constantly improved by the most care- 

 management at Rambouillet, where no admix- 

 e of foreign blood is allowed. 



HOPS AT HOME AND ABROAD. 



The October number of the Edinburgh Review 

 has a readable article under the above head. Hops 

 were introduced into England in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, and, like most other new things, met with 

 considerable opposition. The beer was pronounced 

 not only unpalatable, but the hops were conceived 

 to dry up the body and to engender melancholy ! 

 Henry VI is said to have prohibited their culture, 

 and Henry VIII would have none of the "per- 

 nicious weed," and imperatively forbade his brewer 

 to put hops in the royal beer! Twenty-five years 

 later a revulsion of feeling had evidently taken 

 place. A bill was brought into Parliament to 

 "promote and encourage planting and setting," 

 and Bacon wrote: "The planting of hop-yards 

 is profitable for the planters, and consequently for 

 the kingdom." The taste for the " wicked weed " 

 has continued to increase ever since, and in the 

 last century brewers were forbidden, under heavy 

 penalties, to use any other bitter. 



In 1616 half a pound of hops to a barrel of beer 

 was deemed sufficient; now from five to eight 

 pounds are used in making a barrel of "pale ale." 

 Kent and the eastern portion of Sussex have 

 long been the chief seats of the cultivation of 

 hops in England. A traveler in this section wUl 

 find hop-yards and oast-houses to his heart's con- 

 tent. 



" If it be winter time, he will only see sheaves 

 and stacks of poles cumbering the bare earth If 

 It be summer, he will see the infant bine struggling 

 to climb the poles-an attempt in which it fs ma- 

 terially aided and guided by the hands of the tyers 

 in a favorable season the growth is so rapid that 

 the process may almost be said to be discernible by 

 the eye. Indee<l, in one parish, on the borders of 

 Kent and Sussex, it is averred that on a particular 

 bunday, when the rector's sermon was protracted 

 beyond the usual length, the bine in a h..n-garden 

 adjoinmg the church was observed to have grown 

 an inch during the morning service. The travelex 

 should, however, defer his visit till autumn. He 

 will then behold a spectacle more glorious than the 

 vineyards of Burgundy or of the Rhine. Every 

 pole has become a thyrsus wreathed with gracefid 

 foliage. The bine has climbed the poles, and waves 

 Its clustering bells from the summits in token of 

 victory. Round the poles, from the base upward 

 light shoots, laden with flower.<5, droop sleepily in 

 the noontide heat, or dance in the evening air. Nor 

 is the sight the only sense that ia gratified. Aro- 

 matic odors, soothing as opium, are wafted abroad 

 by the breeze, till it seems overcome by their nar- 

 cotic influence, and dies away, leaving an atmos- 

 phere impregnated with fragrant particles, as in the 

 fabled land, 



^''*'1)[owd'^ *"'' '**""** "'^ "'"''^ ***'^' "■" y*"'"' lotus-dust ia 

 Let the stranger, however, if a farmer, beware oi 



