430 APPENDIX.. 



of 1830 to Messrs. Bullock and Davis, at 75 cents per lb., wliich 

 amounted to 6,400 dollars. I raised that year 900 lambs, and 

 sold 800 sheep for 2,500 dollars. [If Mr. Edington's success has 

 been in proportion to this statement since the period he mentions, 

 is it not highly encouraging to our Southern brethren to under- 

 take his vocation, of growing fine wool ?] 



LETTER FROM SAMUEL GRANT, OF WALPOLE, N. HAMPSHIRE. 



Dear Sir, — Your esteemed favor of the 16th came to hand a 

 few days since. I am gratified to leani that a work of the nature 

 you mention, so much needed by wool-growers, is about to be 

 published. 



My flock at present numbers between 800 and 900, Saxony, 

 Merino, and half-bloods, the Saxons, perhaps, predominating. 

 My Saxons are p?<re-blooded, bred from the flocks imported by 

 Searle and Kratzman, in 1829. For the last three or four years, 

 I have crossed part of my flock with Jarvis Merinos. My fleeces 

 averaged last season 3 lbs. 6 oz. well-washed wool, which, con- 

 sidering the nuinber of Saxony fleeces, is a fair average. My 

 sheep (and this will apply to every lot in town) are closely shel- 

 tered in winter, and all have pure water in abundance at all 

 times. This I consider absolutely necessary. I feed in racks, 

 under the hay -lofts, wdth corresponding openings above, where hay 

 is carefully shaken down, at least three times a day. Hay is the 

 principal article of food. I have sometimes fed straw alone, with 

 a bushel of potatoes, (cut by machine) to 100 ewes, with good 

 success. The smallest, pooreist lambs are selected at the begin- 

 ning of the winter season, and usually fed with the better kinds 

 of hay, rowen, &c., together with perhaps half a pint oats each 

 per day. I feed either potatoes or oats liberally to ewes, four to 

 six weeks before they commence having lambs ; litter the folds 

 well with straw, at all times, to make them comfortable, and to 

 increase the quantity of manure. I fatten generally with coiti 

 — dislike potatoes for this purpose. We are careful to waste no 

 hay, every particle is eaten, when the quality is good ; feeding 

 without racks I consider slovenly and wasteful. We tend our 

 bucks when put to ewes, pennitting them to serve 6 or 8 per day, 

 and are careful to feed their lordships high ; they seldom exceed 

 100 ewes, going but once to the same ewe. We are partial to, 

 and take good care of our bucks throughout the year. I have 

 used this fall a Merino buck which sheared the past season 13^ 

 lbs. washed wool. 



The Saxons are not considered too tender for this region. We 

 are obliged to treat them carefully, but find no difficulty at all in 

 rearing them. Our ewes seldom foal out of doors, except per- 

 haps during the day, at which time they have the limits of the 



