340 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



a thing is high in price, we rush into it — when a thing 

 Ls low, we sell out. That is the rvle. AVe have 

 known farmers run from wool-growing, when wool 

 was low, in dairying, when butter and cheese were 

 high selling their sheep for a song, and buying cows 

 . at nearly double price. In three years time the ta- 

 bles turned upon them, butter and cheese fell, while 

 wool came up again ; and they, foolish enough to 

 follow in the w^ake, just coming after in time so as to 

 sell low and buy high at every turn of the scale ! 



We do not believe in such a system as this. Wool 

 is a permanent staple of our agriculture, and as im- 

 peratively demanded by the population of the coun- 

 tr\^ as cotton, sugar, rice, beef, pork, or any other 

 commodity. The tables of supply and demand will 

 not always tally with each other. These will, at times, 

 overbalance each other, and the intermediate parties 

 who make the interchanges between the wool-grower 

 and the manufacturer — that is, the wool dealers — 

 gain and loose, as the case may be, in the fluctuations 

 of price. In the long run they make, at least they 

 ought to make, a profit for the use of their capital, 

 and for the time and knowledge they devote to it. 

 These men are a benefit to the wool-grower and the 

 manufacturer both, taking his production from the 

 door of the one, and delivering it at the warehouse 

 of the other. It is his interest to pay all he can af- 

 ford to the farmer, to secure his successive clips. It 

 is also his interest to sell at fair prices to the manu- 

 facturer to maintain his custom. Occasionally there 

 may be combinations among manufacturers and dea- 

 lers to cerapel the grower lo sell his wool at a low 

 price ; but these combinations are seldom got up, 

 and they are always very hazardous ; for, after all, 

 the consumption of the manufactured cloth regulates 

 the price of the raw material. Thus the farmer 

 stands on an equal footing with the dealer and manu- 

 facturer. 



Last year the farmer had the advantage, decidedly, 

 The wool-dealers and the manufacturers lost money. 

 This year they intend not to repeat the operation, 

 but to make a profit if possible. This they are enti- 

 tled to, and the farmer should be willing. It is not 

 for the farming interest that the purchasers of agri- 

 cultural staples should become poor. They are, in 

 reality, the brokers between the producer and consu- 

 mer ; and without the existence of such a class as 

 this to bring the producer and consumer together, 

 agricultural products would instantly fall twenty per 

 cent, in value. Therefore, unsatisfactoiy as the pre- 

 sent price of wool may be, it is probably all that it 

 is worth to the purchaser. 



We do not thus write to influence the judgment of 

 any man in the sale of his wool AVool-dealing is 

 not our business ; on the other hand, we have our 

 last clip of a thousand pounds, safely stored away, 

 for which we intend to take the first favorable offer 

 we can get, believing that it will not, within the next 

 two years, be above the present price, and the inter- 

 est on the money. Others may think differently, and 

 if they can hold it without inconvenience, and too 

 much risk, they may be wise in doing so. 



AVhat we intend mainly, when commencing this ar- 

 ticle, was to enter our protest, in view of the present 

 depressed wool market, atrainst the farmer's sacrific- 

 ing his flock, and abandoning the business for any 



other branch of husbandry equally liable in its turn 

 to fluctuation. Uncjuestionably the high price of 

 wool last year induced many of our flock-masters to 

 keep over many unprofitable sheep, those which were 

 old, poor breeders, and badly wooled. These may 

 now lie very properly drawn out, led off, and sold to 

 the butcher. Eveiy flock should be well selected; 

 none but substantial, healthy sheep, and among tho 

 females, good, promising breedere, with good fleeces, 

 should be retained. Even in flocks devoted solely 

 for nmtton, a good fleece is an important item, as 

 well as a good carcase ; for at the season wheu mut- 

 ton bears the best price, the pelt is at the highest 

 value. A thorough culling of the flocks of the 

 countiy the ensuing fall and winter, will very much 

 reduce the uumbei-s of their sheep; and the preserva- 

 tion of none but good ones in place of the bad, will 

 add greatly to their future revenues, even at tlie same 

 cost of keeping. 



We sincerely wish that the American people would 

 substitute mutton for beef and pork to a much great- 

 er extent than they have been in the habit of doing. 

 Mutton is more nutritious and wholesome than beef 

 even, and va.-tly more so than pork. In fact the lat- 

 ter ought not to be eaten at all, and especially the 

 fat parts. Where on earth are there so healthy and 

 robust-looking people as the English, of all classes ? 

 It is not simply the fogs and humidity of their climato 

 which gives them their robust appearance and good 

 looks; for people near them, with a climate almost 

 like theirs,' look very diflerentlj'. So far as meats are 

 concerned, they are mutton-caters; probably more 

 than half the animal food consumed in England be- 

 ing mutton. But it is not Merino, nor Saxony mut- 

 ton — nor of the ragged, fence jumping creatures com- 

 monly kept over large districts of the United States. 

 English, Scotch, Welsh and Irish mutton is mainly of 

 improved breeds, well bred, and thoroughly cared 

 for. These we may have in as high perfection as 

 they, by obtaining the breeds, and bestowing little 

 pains in their propagation an;^ feeding. AVe are glad 

 to know that the attention of many of our farmers 

 is turning to that branch of stock, and we trust that 

 the good taste and discrimination of consumers of 

 meats, will give a substantial encouragement to their 

 endeavors. — American Agriculturist. 



THE WAR AND THE LINEN TRADE. 



Out of a total import of foreign flax, averaging 

 80,000 tons per annum, Russia furnishes the United 

 Kingdom with G0,000 tons, or two-thirds of the en- 

 tire ({uantity ; and of the 28,000 tons imported an- 

 nually into France, about 13,000, or nearlj- one-half, 

 is derived from the same source. It is not surpris- 

 ing, therefore, that the curtailment and prospective 

 cessation of imports from Russia has materially 

 checked the onward course of the linen trade of the 

 aflied nations. Dundee is certainly the most to be 

 pitied, for its manufacture is chiefly of those coarse 

 flaxen fabrics whose low prices will not admit of the 

 substitution of a superior quality of fibre. Of 31,000 

 tons of flax imported into Dundee in 1854, 2."),000 

 came from Russia, while of 8,400 tons landed in Bel- 

 fast, but 4,100 were the produce of the czar's domin- 

 ions; and, further, Belfast had 40,000 tons of Irish 



