THE FARMERS' CABINET, 

 AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



" Tlic Productions of the Earth will always be in proportion to the culture bestowed upon it." 



Vol. VII.— No. 4.1 



11th mo. (November,) 15th, 1842. 



[Whole No. 94. 



JOSIAH TATUM, 



PROPRIETOR AND PUBLISHER, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Edited by the Proprietor and James Pedder. 

 Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Fine Wool. 



The present tariff law will render ne- 

 cessary a greater regard to rearing a race 

 of sheep that shall yield a larger quantity, 

 as well as a superior quality of fine wool, 

 especially for combing purposes. This end 

 might be accomplished without in the least 

 reducing the quantity of mutton, by crossing 

 the pure Leicester, or Dishley ewe, with the 

 Merino buck; and in this cross, it appears to 

 me that we should unite all that is desirable, 

 without incurring any of the difficulties and 

 objections that have arisen in the attempt to 

 obtain fine wool by a mixture of long and 

 short — as between the Southdown and Lei- 

 cester. And my opinion has been materially 

 strengthened, by a conversation on the sub- 

 ject with one of the most influential of our 

 wool merchants, whom I lately met on his 

 return from a tour of observation through 

 the Western territory, with the view of as- 

 certaining what was the quantity of fine 

 wool on hand, on the eve of the expected 

 passage of the tariff bill. He fully agreed 

 with me, that the cross of the long wool on 

 the short, or vice versa, had not been found 

 to answer expectation, the produce being 

 neither long nor short, and by no means suit- 

 able, either for combing or clothing wool. 

 This gentleman is also a breeder of sheep 

 to a considerable extent, and was very sensi- 

 bly interested by my observing, that the plan 

 for improving any breed of animals, was to 

 begin with dam the best, and which, for the 

 purpose here contemplated, would prove of 

 the highest importance, as the object should 

 also be, to improve the size of the sheep and 

 the quality of the meat; for it is evident 

 that mutton is beginning to command regard 

 in our markets, and will become a staple ar- 

 ticle in the consumption of flesh meats. 



Cab.— Vol. VIL— No. 4. 



With this view it was, that I advocated the 

 cross of the largest and best bred Leicester 

 ewes with the Merino buck; remarking, 

 that the progeny would be large and well 

 formed, owing to the large capacity of the 

 dam, as well as the power of supporting 

 its young after parturition ; and prove a. se- 

 curity from danger at that particular time, 

 when accidents are continually occurring 

 from a reversal of this rule, namely: that of 

 crossing a small female with a large male ; 

 in all which he fully concurred, and men- 

 tioned, as corroborative of the fact, instances 

 that had lately come to his knowledge, where 

 the produce between a large heavy horse and 

 half-bred mares, had turned out the most ill- 

 formed objects; the want of capacity in the 

 dam, compelling the fetus to extend itself in 

 the length of the legs, &c, so that when it 

 came into the world, which it always did at 

 the imminent peril of the life of its parent, 

 and often with its sacrifice, it was found to 

 be any thing but what had been expected 

 from such an union. And this observation 

 reminded me of a stable of large Flemish 

 mares, which I had known kept on an ex- 

 tensive estate in France, mainly for the pur- 

 pose of rearing carriage horses of superla- 

 tive strength and beauty, by a cross with the 

 stoutest thorough bred horse that could be 

 obtained ; by which means the finest animals 

 of 16 or 17 hands in height, had been ob- 

 tained ; perfect models for the painter, and 

 commanding almost any price in the market. 

 In No. 2, Vol. VII. of the Cabinet, I ob- 

 serve the portrait of the Cheviot ewe, from 

 "Low's Illustrations." Having myself form- 

 erly been much concerned with this particu- 

 lar breed of sheep, I am free to confess that 

 the likeness is not good ; the head, although 

 not fine and small in the Cheviot, is not so 

 large as is there depicted, neither are the 

 legs and feet naturally so large as those of 

 a calf, as they there appear; but this is not 

 the fault of the engraver; the animal is 

 faithfully done from Low's work, but the 

 drawings, in many instances, are faulty in 

 this particular, although most beautifully 

 engraved and ornamented. But I would say 

 of this variety of sheep, they are valuable, 

 only in peculiar situations, where finer breeds 



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