102 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July, 



Selections. 



VERMONT SHEEP. 



In no p.art of the world are merino sheep 

 bred to such wonderful perfection as in Ver- 

 mont, and in no part of Vermont have such 

 excellent results been obtained as in Addison 

 county, of wliich Middlebury is the shire 

 town. Men come all the way from Australia 

 attracted by the fame of these sheep, and buy 

 them at prices which run up into thousands 

 of dollars for a single animal. The Vermont 

 Merino Sheep Breeders' Association is be- 

 lieved to be the largest live stock organization 

 in the world. It has a membership of 1,200 

 from twenty-one different States, and is in- 

 creasing at the rate of 200 a year. There is 

 also the Atwood Association, a smaller body, 

 devoted to one particular pedigree of merino. 



The merino sheep belongs to the aristocracy 

 of sheep, and is so recognized all over the 

 world. For many hundi-eds of years its home 

 has been among the mountains of Spain. The 

 value of these animals was early recognized 

 by the Spanish Government, and they pro- 

 posed to keep the benefit exclusively in their 

 own country. The exportation of merinos 

 was prohibited under .severe penalties, and 

 thus the sheep remained in the mountains, 

 the envy of the world. In 179G the Hon. 

 William Porter contrived to get three merinos 

 out of Spain and brought them to Boston. 

 They came into the possession of Andrew 

 Craigie, of Cambridge, but he realized their 

 value so little that he killed and ate them. At 

 a later day he was glad to buy a single one at 

 the price of S1,000. In 1K02 when Col. David 

 Humphreys, Minister to Spain, was about to 

 return to America, be was offered a present 

 of bars of gold, after the custom of the coun- 

 try, lie declined the gift, and on being asked 

 what he would prefer, chose one hundred 

 merino sheep. The law was strict, ' hut the 

 letter of it was evaded in this case, and after 

 a stormy voyage, seventy were safely lionsed 

 on the Humphreys farm at Derby, Coim. 

 Other importations were made, including the 

 Jarvis lot in ISll, until a good number were 

 thriving in Connecticut and Rhode Island. 



The Vermont merinos are in demand in 

 Meixco, the Western and Middle States, and 

 a market is expected for them in South 

 America and Australia. Not that these conn- 

 tries do not have merinos of their own. In 

 Australia there are flocks of between one and 

 two million head each, and particular merinos 

 in that country have been sold for .S17,000 

 ai)iece. Yet Vermont leads even Australia 

 in quality, and Australians have begun to buy 

 their breeding sheep from the Green Mountain 

 State. I-ast year F. D. Barton, of Waltham, 

 sold forty head for the sum of $10,000, and 

 when the recent interdict on American sheep 

 is removed a regular export to Australia is 

 expected. As it is, Addison county alone 

 sends out from §.50,000 to ^60,000 worth of 

 merinos to various places in the course of a 

 season. Prices asked vary according to their 

 sex and quality of the animal, and have the 

 wide range of from $25 to i|;.5,000 each. 



There is an aristocracy even among pure- 

 blooded merinos. The Atwoods hold their 

 heads above all others on account of pedigree. 

 In 1813 Stephen Atwood, of Connecticut, gave 

 one year of his work to purchasing one ewe 



of the original Humphreys importation. 

 From this is traced the family tree of the At- 

 wood merinos in America, and to preserve 

 this family in is purity is the object of the 

 Atwood Association. The other merinos are 

 equally pure-blooded, but derive their descent 

 from various families. It is as if Atwoods 

 had come out in the Mayflower, and the others, 

 known as Paulars, came out in vessels which 

 followed at various dates. The Atwoods were 

 brought into Addison county in 1841, and in 

 ISSl the entire flock was bought by R. J. 

 Jones, of Cornwall, by whom they have been 

 distributed to the various parties by whom 

 they are now held. Mr. Jones has been forty 

 years in the business, and is one of the best- 

 posted men in the State on the subject, and 

 he is the owner of a very valuable flock. This 

 may be inferred from the fact of his selling a 

 iialf interest in one merino for .^2,500. Albert 

 Chapman, Secretary of the Vermont Breeders' 

 Association, is also an authority and the 

 owner of another valuable flock. 



There is still another association here de- 

 voted to the merino, and that is the Vermont 

 Shearing Association, under the auspices of 

 which the work of to-day is being performed. 

 This work is the shearing of some 300 of the 

 choicest merino sheep. They are brought 

 from various parts of the State, and housed 

 in a large building erected for the purpose. 

 Shearers to the number of twenty or thirty 

 are on hand, and the work is begun without 

 ceremony. 



The object of this association is to encour- 

 age sheep husbandry by making a record 

 which will be of value to the owners of the 

 sheep. The weight of a fleece is but one of 

 the tests, as the quality of wool, length of 

 staple, etc., are also to be considered. Quality 

 rather than quantity is the point aimed at, 

 though when a yearling himb will yield a clip 

 of twenty-five pounds it is considered a supe- 

 rior animal. The idea of shearing at this 

 season is to allow a good fleece to grow by the 

 time the sheep are offered for sale in the fall. 

 Such sheep as are not sold will be sheared 

 again next April, and will have just a year's 

 fleece, and thus the record will show their ex- 

 act qualities. The shearing continues during 

 three days of each year. 



Men from among the Vermont sheep own- 

 ers have traveled through Spain to see if they 

 could find better merinos, but have returned 

 with the report that no better sheep than 

 their own can be found, and that Vermont 

 leads the world in the quality of merinos. 

 The flocks kept by the farmers are not large. 

 Some have 200, but many have not more than 

 half that number. In this way they are en- 

 abled to give every sheep proper attention, 

 and to see that each one has the necessary 

 care. The sheep enjoy life fully, they have 

 the best that the land affords, in the way of 

 feed, the year around, and their winter 

 houses are models of warmth and comfort. 

 The premises of L. I. Botolph, President of 

 the Shearing Association, show itn example 

 of the attention bestowed. 



Among those present to-day is Edward M. 

 Bissell of Shorehem, who returned this morn- 

 ing from a trip to Australia with fifty-three 

 merinos. The lots taken out by the Austra- 

 lian purchasers last year were so well received 

 that William G. Martin of New York had as 



many as 225 shipped. These included sheep 

 from the West and from New York State, 

 and unfortunately, some were affected with 

 disease. On their arrival in Australia they 

 were all confiscated and destroyed. Mr. 

 Bissell left San Francisco with his lot Jan. 24, 

 having no knowledge of the result of Mr. 

 Martin's venture. On arriving in Sydney his 

 sheep were put in quarantine, where they 

 now remain, and it will be some time before 

 the result of the speculation can be known. 

 The authorities have prohibited the import- 

 ation of any American sheep, and so far the 

 present the trade with Australia is suspended. 

 The scab does not exist among the Vermont 

 sheep, and after the panic in Australia has 

 ended they will doubtless be admitted to the 

 island. At present they are better at home, 

 as when Mr. Bissell lefi, Sydney thousands of 

 the Australian sheep were dying on account 

 of the drought. One man lost 150,000 out of 

 a flock of 155,000, and was so affected by his 

 loss that he became a lunatic. On the steamer 

 by which Mr. Bissell returned were a party of 

 Australians, twenty in all, who will visit 

 Vermont to inspect and probably purchese 

 merinos for future shipment.— £osion Globe. 



TOBACCO AS A MEDICINE. 

 , Gen. Clingraan, of North Carolina, in his 

 long article on '-The Tobacco Remedy," in 

 the May number of the Health and Home, 

 announces his belief that the use of wet to- 

 bacco as a poultice will be instrumental in 

 saving many thousands of lives annually in 

 the United States. He gives a long list of the 

 marvellous cures he has witnessed beginning 

 with one-half a century ago, when he saw a 

 man treating inflammation in a horse's eye 

 with tobacco juice. He tells of a signal cure 

 of a sprain in his right ankle in 1874 by the 

 ai)plication of wet tobacco leaves. In August, 

 18()4, the General was shot through the leg 

 below the knee, cutting the muscles and 

 nerves, and making a long and painful wound. 

 He says : 



About that time several of my friends had 

 died of the secondary fever which followed 

 their wounds. In a few days my left leg 

 began to swell and throb with heat. The 

 surgeons said I must keep it wrapped in wet 

 cloths. I told them that I would keep down 

 the inflammation by an application of tobacco. 

 They at once asserted that an application 

 would be ruinous. After they left I sent my 

 servant for some tobacco, enveloped the 

 wounded leg in it, and kept it wet with the 

 cloths over it. The pain in an hour or two 

 diminished, and the heat throbbing ceased, I 

 rested more quietly than I had been doing. 

 On the next day, when the surgeons called to 

 see me, on looking at the wound they expressed 

 much surprise, and said, " You m.ay keep on 

 the tobacco." I remember that Gen. Robert 

 E. Lee called to see me that day, and, after 

 looking at me a moment said. " Oh, General 

 you are not going to die, your eye is too 

 bright. " The tobacco being a powerful nerve 

 tonic, it always greatly excites my intellectual 

 faculties. 



Although several months passed before I 

 could walk without crutches, yet I ,had no 

 fever and little pain from the inflammation. 

 I am satisfied that if tobacco were properly 

 applied, no external wound would ever be- 



