552 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Fleischmann (himself a German,) falls into a very common error among 

 writers, in apparently not btaiing sufiiciently in mind that what may be proper 

 and economical in one country, may be precisely the reverse of all this, in an- 

 other. In Germany, land is dear, and is economized to an extent of which an 

 American would form little conception : labor, on the other hand, is plenty and 

 cheap. The German system of managing sheep, given by Mr. Fleischmann, 

 would cost more, here, than the wool would sell for. Expensive stabling in 

 winter, conducted with a degree of attention which requires the temperature of 

 the stables, even, to be constantly regulated by a thermometer — regulations for 

 summer pasturage involving the same constant care — more than many of our 

 hardy pioneers bestow on their children — will never do in this country. Mr. 

 Fleischmann gives /oj^rfecn rules ior pasturing s\it:e^, everyone requiring the 

 constant attendance of men— in the aggregate of a good many men— if ihe flock 

 be large ! This will never do in the United States. It is contrary to all the 

 habits of our people. And, as our New-England brethren expressively say, " it 

 won't pay." An American farmer will smile to be told, for example, that at 

 some seasons of the year, the sheep should be driven about their pastures, when 

 they first enter them, to cause the spiders to "fly to their retreats " to prevent 

 their being eaten by the sheep, which (the eating of spiders) " causes a slight 

 purgation !" They are to be driven about stubble and grass lands in the fall to 

 " take off the cobivebs with their legs," which when eaten by the sheep " seem 

 to have injurious effects !" These are from Mr. Fleischmann's 6th rule for 

 pasturing. 



And the American farmer will be likely to be still more struck at the 9th rule, 

 which we give verbatim, the italicizing, however, being our own : 



" Nothing is so injurious to sheep and wool as a sudden fright. In the night, when they are 

 penned, in the opcii field, when there is a storm approaching with heavy thunder, the shepherd 

 must walk around the pen and talk to them in order to ginet them. When they get much fright- 

 ened, tiiey rush to one side of the hurdles, upset it, and break loose." 



Many of Mr. Fleischmann's general propositions in relation to the comparative 

 adaptation of different countries, and different parts of our own country, to wool 

 culture, the future demand and supply, markets, &c., correspond with those pre- 

 viously published in this Journal, in the very comprehensive series of Letters on 

 Sheep Husbandry, by Colonel Henry S. Randall. Mr. Fleisch mann's views, 

 however, have nothing of the fullness, detail, and array of corroborating facts 

 possessed by Col. Randall's. 



In one point they differ, however, and we entirely agree with the latter gen- 

 tleman in the premises: Mr. Fleischmann quotes the statements of a German 

 writer by the name of Eisner, that " highly improved sheep do not last well in 

 this country," meaning thereby, as we judge by the context, that the high quali- 

 ty of wool of highly improved sheep cannot be kept up in this country. Mr. 

 Fleischmann remarks on the low quality of our wools, but excuses it as 

 follows : 



" The fact ia we have as yet imported very few highly improved sheep, and the few that were 

 brought here irere Jieglccted in consequence of the want of knowledge, or that indefatigable atten- 

 Hon which the Merino (Saxon) sheep requires." 



Had Mr. Fleischmann seen the Saxon wool of the best American flocks, when 

 he expresses this impression? When he speaks of the ignorance and neglect 

 of American growers of fine wool, did he know anything of the Groves, the 

 Swifts, the Beekmans, the Tildens, and the Morrcls of New- York— the Smiths of 



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