124 ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



would probably be necessary than for some other plants. Sheep 

 will destroy it, if pastured thereon, in the same manner they do 

 woodwaxen. 



The keeping of sheep, for the purpose, in part, of keeping 

 pastures free from blackberry vine, and other bushes, weeds, 

 (fee, is not attentively enough considered by the farmers of this 

 county. Asa T. Newhall, Esq., remarks, that "as many sheep 

 as horned cattle may be kept in the same pastures, and both 

 will thrive equally as well as they would, were one kind of 

 stock only kept therein, and the increase of briars and other 

 bushes at the same time prevented." Pastures, in which Lamb- 

 kill (Kalmia,) grows, ought, perhaps, to be excepted. Sheep, 

 also, will destroy all seedling pines and other young forest trees, 

 and, of course, wherever it is desirable to convert pasture lands 

 into woodlands, they should not be kept therein. But wherever 

 clean unshaded grazing lands are coveted, keep sheep in the 

 same pastures with horses and horned cattle. But fences are 

 not generally sufficient for this purpose, it may be said. Yan- 

 kees are seldom at loss for expedients. Might not the sheep be 

 so cosseted with cows, that they would not leave them? And, 

 in many cases, improving the fences so as to make them sheep- 

 proof, would be good husbandry. And if the worst method 

 must be resorted to, fetter them, rather than not keep them at 

 all. 



Huckleberry bushes, lamb-kill, (Kalmia Angustifolia,) bay- 

 berry, and other small shrubs, which so frequently get posses- 

 sion of the most fertile, but rocky portions of pasture lands, can- 

 not be economically destroyed, outright, unless they also can be 

 smothered. To kill these bushes, and, at the same time, make 

 these rocky places productive and valuable, the best method is to 

 plant them thickly with trees. The locust, willow, and white birch, 

 and larch, would, in a few years, amply compensate the owner 

 for the rent of the land, and outlay upon it, by its increased value. 

 The locust and birch are best on dry lands — the willow and 

 larch for springy and low ravines. Other forest trees, such as 

 the red maple, swamp white oak, and black birch, would do 

 well, mixed with trees of a more rapid growth and earlier ma- 

 turity. Whenever the trees become sufficiently large, and 



