HISTORICAL NOTICES OF AGRICULTURE. 21 



in the way of cattle and horses ; Pennsylvania and 

 New- York have given their attention to cattle and 

 swine ; and New- England to all, as pasture has been 

 more an object with her than grain ; and the feeding 

 of animals has long constituted a prominent part of 

 her industry. But perhaps there is no one animal 

 which has exercised a great rr influence on the pro- 

 ductive interests of the country than the fine-wool- 

 ed or Merino sheep, which, within the last twenty 

 years, has spread to such an extent as almost to 

 have superseded the old breeds of coarse-wooled 

 animals in the states. Fifty years since, the Merino 

 was unknown in the country ; at the present time 

 there are not less than ten or twelve millions of 

 these animals, of all grades, in the possession of our 

 farmers, and the growing of fine wool is an impor- 

 tant item in the business of the United States. Great 

 Britain has made many unsuccessful eflTorts to intro- 

 duce these fine-wooled sheep of Spanish origin for 

 the use of her manufactories, but appears to have 

 abandoned the project, and attends to the improve- 

 ment of the hardier, long-wooled sheep, as giving a 

 greater weight of wool and of flesh than the finer 

 varieties. 



In summing up, in few words, the most important 

 points of advantage in the modern agriculture over 

 the old methods, and for many of which we are in- 

 debted to the application of science to tilling the soil, 

 we may mention, 1st. The knowledge and means of 

 analyzing soils, determining their constituents, and 

 what is required to constitute them fertile. 2d. 

 Vastly improved methods of preparing and using 

 mineral, animal, and vegetable manures. 3d. The 

 mtroduction of drill husbandry and horse-hoeing in 

 stead of cultivation by hand. 4th. The field-culti- 

 vation of roots, by which a far greater amount of 

 food can be grown on a given quantity of land than 

 in any other way. 5th. The substitution of root or 

 green crops for a naked fallow ; thus giving roots 



