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The meat of the Merino, -when well fattened and properly 

 treated, is juicy, short-grained, high-colored and well flavored. 

 In these particulars American taste adjuges it superior to the 

 meat of the English long-wooled sheep. Though the scarcity 

 and value of full blood Merinos have prevented many of them 

 from appearing in our markets, the grades have always been 

 favorites with the butcher and consumer. The former finds 

 that they weigh well for their apparent size, and get to market 

 in excellent condition. There is not a drove that sweeps from 

 the plains of the North-west that does not exhibit a sprinkling 

 of this blood, and if they are merely grass-fed, the twenty 

 fattest, and least travel-worn sheep in the drove will usually be 

 found those which by a little darker tinge of their wool, and 

 its greater thickness, and •' squareness on the ends," betray 

 more Merino blood. 



Those people who pay such prices in our cities for South 

 Down lambs in February and March, are not perhaps aware 

 they are paying for grade Merinos." 



These facts are being more universally recognized ; and 

 some farmers who have, for years, devoted themselves to 

 breeding coarse-wooled sheep, on account of the weight of the 

 carcass, are now substituting the more compact form, and hardy 

 constitution, and heavy fleece, and finer grained mutton of the 

 Merino. 



MANURES. 



Probably no section of the State supplies itself with manures 

 from so many sources, as do the farmers of Essex county. — 

 The accumulated refuse of our cities, the contents of sand 

 heaps and muck beds, the collections in the farm yard, the 

 marine plants which storms cast upon our shore, and the va- 

 rious concentrated fertilizers are all liberally used. In those 

 towns where the heaviest crops of roots are raised a diligence 

 and care which would astonish even the Japanese farmer, are 

 displayed in collecting fertilizing materials. Notwithstanding 

 all this, there is room for improvement in the methods by 



