78 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



for sale in the Philadelphia market. We have yet to learn 

 that mutton, like poultry, should be eaten (so says John Bull) 

 before it is dead cold, and while it has the tenderness of life, 

 or it should be kept "until the fibre begins to give way in 

 the incipient stage of decay." " In summer," John continues, 

 "mutton should be kept in ice a week, and in winter should 

 not be cooked under two or three weeks." 



No evidence is now required to satisfy the most sceptical, 

 that our country is capable of producing animals equal in size 

 to anything in the old world. And in this connection, it may 

 be stated that Mr. P. A. Brown, of Philadelphia, by a most 

 ingenious instrument of his own contrivance, has demonstrated 

 that as fine wool has been grown in five different States of our 

 country, as the finest ever brought from Saxony by Mr. Fleich- 

 man, except a single one, and he has one American specimen 

 finer even than that. It may also be stated, on the same 

 authority (Mr. Brown's), for the encouragement of those who 

 wish to be successful in sheep husbandry, that '■'■fine ivool and 

 fine mutton go together.^'' "Sheep," he continues, "which 

 produce fine wool, are finer and better in the meat, than those 

 of coarse fleeces." I do not, however, conceive this circum- 

 stance to be material to the Essex county wool-grower. The 

 largest sheep, and those calculated for the meat market, should 

 be sought chiefly. At the same time, it is an undisputed fact 

 that coarse, long wool, for carpeting, is in greater demand at 

 the mills than fine wool, and more of it is imported than of 

 fine, and this accordingly affords an additional reason for 

 preferring the Leicester breed. 



Old and Sickly Sheep need Care. 



When sheep, which arc peculiarly valuable and expensive, 

 grow sick, they must have an apartment by themselves ;. so, 

 also, should those that are very old, when they are too valua- 

 ble to lose. They want better feed, warmer shelter, and close 

 attention. There should be such a hospital in every establish- 

 ment of fifty sheep, or even thirty. The well and strong sheep 

 will overcome and kill them, if left together. 



Large flocks should be divided in the sheds. The fewer 

 that huddle together, the better, even on account of the atmos- 



