DISEASES OF SHEEP. 175 



millions nine hundred and forty-four thousand six hundred and sixty- 

 bushels, while Vermont produces of hay eight hundred and thirty- 

 six thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine tons, and eight millions 

 eight hundred and sixy-nine thousand seven hundred and fifty-one 

 busiiels of potatoes ; and somewhat in correspondence with these 

 crops, and to indicate the connection of sheep-rearing in some mea- 

 sure with them, Virginia, where the sun shines and the grass grows 

 on the fl\ce of the earth almost every day in the year, carries, as will 

 hereafter be seen, hut one sheep to every thirty-three acres within her 

 borders, while her frost-bitten, snow-clad sister in the north, carries 

 one for every two or three acres, and feeds them during five months 

 in winter, being content to drive them from one to two hundred miles 

 to market, or to get for the wool an average price for the last twenty- 

 two years varying from forty-four up to eighty cents per pound, ex- 

 cept this year, when it is put down at thirty cents. 



It may as well be noted here in reference to the general manage- 

 ment of sheep — indeed of all domestic animals — that in nothing is 

 there more gross neglect than in omitting to salt them regularly and 

 abundantly. In Spain, where fine wool has been for ages one of 

 their chief staples, one hundred and twelve pounds of salt is given 

 in five months to one thousand sheep. The late celebrated English 

 farmer and writer on agriculture allowed his sheep daily each from 

 two to four ounces of salt when on dry pasture, and when fed on 

 turnips they were not stinted at all in the use of salt. It is asserted 

 as a fact in the Cyclopedia before referred to, that in all cases they 

 should have access to common salt; and many are the authorities to 

 prove that a free use of salt is a preventive of rot and other diseases. 



We proceed now in fulfilment of an intimation, and for the reason 

 already given, to submit a brief sketch of the characteristics of the 

 few races from which the farmer, having recourse to those now ac- 

 cessible to him in our country, must make his selection, repeating 

 the warning that by no skill, in combination, or any artificial mixture 

 of bloods, need he expect to get united the fine fleece of tire Saxony 

 merino, the early maturity and obesity of the new Leicester, the 

 weight of the Lincolnshire, or yet larger Cottswold, and the hard- 

 ness and fine mutton that give eminence to the South-down. There 

 may yet be room to improve any particular breed of cattle or sheep 

 by that skill in the choice of breeding stock and perfection in man- 

 agement, which care and experience only can beget, but we much 

 doubt whether any new breed can be firmly established that shall 

 represent the excellencies without the defects of different natural 

 races, and one that will, at the same time, endure! All such made-up 

 breeds, upon the least relaxation of attention, or the least mistake in 

 sorting with a view to breeding stock, will fly to pieces and exhibit 

 .he del'ects with which nature is sure to reward the inapertinent at- 

 tempts of ignorance and presumption to interfere with her fundamental 

 laws and purposes. A wayward dame is she, to be consulted, not 

 thwarted ; she will accept and repay all efforts of art to carry out her 



