APPENDIX. xlvii 



The introduction of the Spanish Merinos, to a small extent, was made 

 some two or three years since ; but they have not proved satisfactory. 

 The fact of it is, the Spanish Merino sheep is a fancy animal. The 

 sheep, after a few months old, is said to be very hardy, and with the 

 care which they receive I have no doubt but they are ; yet the newly 

 born lamb is exceedingly delicate, and requires more care than a novice 

 in fine-wool sheep can comprehend, in so short a time as they have been 

 on the island. The modus operandi of the Vermont Merino breeder is 

 very nearly as follows : 



Winter Treatment. — Warm stables and warm sheds, with fresh water 

 always at hand ; the best of hay, with roots and corn, or oats every day ; 

 when the early lambing season commences, a warmed room night and 

 day, with a new milch cow, and the flock-master ever at hand. As soon 

 as the lamb is dropped, the mother and lamb are brought into the nursery, 

 and if the mother has no milk at the time, which is often the case, the 

 lamb is fed on warm milk and molasses for a day or two, when the 

 mother will generally have milk, when the lamb is taught to nurse its 

 dam. .In this way, some of the most careful flock-masters succeed in 

 rearing ninety out of one hundred lambs dropped. 



Summer Treatment. — The best of pastures, with wheat bran and 

 oats, generally every day ; a shower, and not even a dew is allowed to 

 fall on them ; in fact, they are handled in this respect, very much as^ 

 lady handles her dress bonnet. In this way they will shear eight pounds 

 of unwashed wool on the average ; and instances are on record of 

 twenty-five pounds of unwashed wool from a sheep weighing only one 

 hundred and twenty-five pounds. This seems fabulous ; but I have Ho 

 doubt of the fact, neither have I a doubt that when this same fleece was 

 fitted for the cards, it would not weigh much over four pounds. But 

 just so long as they can find purchasers at from fifty to three hundred 

 dollars apiece, with now and then one that will bring from one to two 

 thousand dollars, it will pay to bestow all this care and expense on 

 them ; but how long these prices will be sustained remains to be seen. 



The culture of the cranberry is increasing on the island, and with 

 excellent results ; and every piece of ground suitable should be planted 

 with them at once. They do pay now and always wiU. 



I should recommend a more extended cultivation of the grape ; it 

 seems to me that the island is excellently well adapted to grape-culture. 

 I could not learn of but one probable drawback, and that was the pre- 

 vailing south winds of the summer, which I learn, blow with great 

 foi'ce, and might injure the foliage, if not protected by a belt of trees or 

 something of • the kind. But if it should prove that these winds are not 

 a material drawback, it will pay well either to sell the fruit in the mar- 

 ket or to make it into wine. The grape requires but little manure, 



