104 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



item, -will be no more on a bai-rel that will sell more 

 readily for five dollars, than one that will bring only- 

 two dollars. Many of the apples I see here cried up 

 as " nice American apples, " " beautiful American 

 apples," &c., would scarcely sell at all in our mar- 

 ket; yet they are sold here at three to si.K cents 

 each. 



The English people have fairly given up gromng 

 apples for market, unless it be Codlins, &c., that 

 come in early for cooking, and Beauilns, &c., for 

 drying. Thoy sec it will bo impossible for them to 

 compt-tc with American orchardists. Yesterday I 

 examined two or three hundred varieties in the fruit 

 rooms of the London Horticultural Society ; and 

 among them all, there was not a single large, clear- 

 oolored, tine-looking specimen. One would suppose, 

 at first siglit, that they wore all wind-falls, gathered 

 from under the trees last August. The lloxbury 

 liussct, Fall Pippin, and llhodc Island Greening, 

 were among the best specimens ; and they were not 

 half the size we grow them. The most esteemed 

 varieties pointed out to me by Mr. Thomson, such as 

 Pearson's Plate, Warmsley Pippin, Pomme Royal, 

 (not our Pomme lloyal,) Golden Harvey, Sturmer 

 Pippin, Sec, are small, inferior looking things, — ^ in 

 size fi'om that of a small Pomme Gris to that of a 

 Siberian Crab ; but they arc generally harder and 

 richer than ours. The Newtown Pippin and llox- 

 bury Ilusset come nearer the English taste than any 

 other varieties Ave cultivate. I had some Northern 

 Spy and Melon v.ith me, that I have here now in 

 London in line condition. They have elicited the 

 admiration of all who have seen them. There are, 

 indeed, no such apples to-day in England. The 

 Northern Spy may bo sent to Covent Garden mar- 

 ket, just as well as to Fulton or Washington mar- 

 kets, New York. The pears in the markets here 

 now are from France or the Island of Jersey. They 

 come in half-bushel baskets, containing fifty to one 

 hundred, according to the size of the -fruit. They 

 are packed in very dry, soft meadow hay : a layer 

 of this hay, two or three inches deep, is laid on the 

 bottom, then a layer of fruit, then another of hay, 

 and so on to the top : tlic fruits are not allowed to 

 touch, and in this way they go any distance with en- 

 tire safety. I saw at Liverpool little baskets of Glout 

 Ivlorcoa\i and Chaumontel, litty in each, sold for three 

 to four dollars each, to the confectioners and market 

 "women to retail. 



In Covent Garden market, which is head-quarters 

 for all rare and fine garden commodities, I see fine 

 St. Germains, (the old one,) Marie Louise, Passe 

 Colmar, Winter Nelis, Beurre Ranee, Easter Beurre, 

 ike, sold at twelve and a half to eighteen and three 

 fourth cents each. If we ever succeed in raising 

 pears beyond what may be required for home con- 

 Kumption, they will find market and good prices 

 here. Not one person in a thousand — I might say 

 five thousand — ever tastes a fine pear. 



THE SHEEP IN ITS VARIOUS FORMS. 



Wise men regard with suspicious eye the asser- 

 tions of thoKC who profess to accomplish a variety of 

 dissimilar effects by a single cause. It is custom- 

 ary to bo jealous of the pretensions of " Universal 

 Restorative," "Ileal All," or any other panacea 

 warranted to cure diseases of all symptoms or all 

 origins. And the proposal to adapt one breed of sheep 

 to all circiimstaiu'cs of food, climate, and situation, 

 making it answer all the purposes for which sheep 

 are usually employed, seems justly to meet with 

 similar distrust and suspicion. 



From the varied habits of sheep, the widely diflfer- 

 ent circumstances in which they are placed, and the 

 opposite results which the several kinds are intended 



to produce, we are at once led to doubt the practica- 

 bility and value of the scheme. We are induced 

 still further to view the proposition as contrarj- to 

 the order of nature, when we consider tlie fact that 

 there is scarcely any animal which appears under so 

 many forms as the sheep. In Persia and other parts 

 of the east, it is found with a tail of twenty pounds 

 weight ; at the Cape of Good Hope, the tail is worth 

 as much as all the rest of the carcass ; there and in 

 other parts of Africa, the sheep have clusters of 

 horns, to the number of five or six. In Madagascar, 

 the same horns and tails are to be seen, the ears hang- 

 ing down lilie those of a hound. About Aurenga- 

 bad, between Agra and Bengal, they are found with- 

 out any horns at all, but so strong that, being bridled 

 and saddled, they will carry children of ten or twelve 

 years of age. The (so called) sheep of Chili some- 

 what resemble camels, being hare-mouthed and 

 hunchbacked, and they are used for carriage and 

 field labor. Those of China are small, -witii short 

 tails, which, however, are a lump of fat. Tercen, in 

 his Voyage to Surat, mentions sheejj with bent snouts 

 and pendent ears, with wool more coarse and stiff 

 than goat's haii\ In Africa, to the north of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, they never eat grass, only succulent 

 plants and shrubs. In Thibet, the sheep have large, 

 bi-oad tails. In Natolia, these tails are laid in carts on 

 wheels. In Anspach, in Germany, a small sort exist, 

 that are shorn twice a year, and also lamb every 

 spring and autumn. In Julicrs and Cleves, also, they 

 are said to lamb twice a j'ear, and bring two or three 

 at a tiine — five sheep have brought twenty-five 

 lambs in a year. On the slave coast of Africa, the 

 sheep have no wool; "but," says the old Dutch 

 traveller Bosnian, " the Avant is suijplied with hair, 

 so that here the world seems inverted, for the sheep 

 are hairy and the men ai"e woolly." This hair forms 

 a sort of mane, like that of the lion, on the neck, and 

 the same on the rump, with a bunch at the end of 

 the tail. The Javanese sheep have tails weighing 

 occasionally forty or fifty pounds, having a coat of 

 red and Avhitc hair. Four-horned sheep are numer- 

 ous in several parts of Tartary, and a few have six 

 horns, with wattles under the throat. — Agricultural 

 Gazette. 



ADVICE IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



The principles upon which I rely for success in 

 keeping hens, are, 1. To have two breeds — a few to 

 hatch and rear the chickens, and twice the number 

 of everlasting layers, as eggs are more profitable than 

 chickens ; 2. To get a hatch as early as possible in 

 spring, and to keep them well — these never cast 

 their feathers like the old birds, and if they begin to 

 lay in autmun, lay more or less all Avinter; 3. Never 

 to keep old fowls, (none but favorite foAvls ought to be 

 kept more than two years ;) old birds l.iy larger eggs 

 than pullets, but not nearly so many ; 4. To give 

 them the best barley I could get, and as much as they 

 could pick up once a day in summer, and twice in 

 Avinter ; they are not only more profitable, Avell kept, 

 but the eggs are better. The two breeds I like best 

 are the spotted Dorkings for sitting, and the Phca'S- 

 ant breed for laying. — Ajricultural Gazette. 



SAGACITY OF THE HORSE. 



It is stated that if ahorse be shut up in a pasture 

 A\'here there is no Avater, he Avill, at certain times of 

 the day, make it a practice to stand in those situa- 

 tions Avhere Avatcr is nearest the surface, and thus 

 indicate the best place for digging for it. Those Avho 

 allege this to be the fact, say that horses have the 

 f;iculty of smelling the water, like the camels of the 

 African desert, or the cxttlc of the South American 

 " p£unpas." 



