202 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



So much attention is now turned to raising sheep 

 in the vest, and on the high lands at the south, 

 where thcj' can be wintered at a small expense, that 

 the producers of wool in New England will, by and 

 by, find more powerful competition from their own 

 countrymen, than from foreign production. 



But the farmers of New England, who can readily 

 adapt themselves to circumstances, will find the 

 raising of fat mutton and ordinary avooI more profit- 

 able than fine wool. The numerous large cities, 

 and the thousands of flourishing towns and villages, 

 that are rapidlj' increasing or suddenly starting into 

 existence, fi'om the enterprise in the three great 

 branches of industry, agriculture, manufactures, and 

 commerce, will create a great demand for fine mutton, 

 especially when people learn its superiority to other 

 meats now used to a greater extent ; and the numer- 

 ous railroad and steamboat communications, and the 

 use of ice, will afford advantages for bringing fresh 

 lamb or mutton from every hill and dale in New 

 England, or the animals may be transported to mar- 

 ket, with economy, and without injury from the 

 journey. There will bo a gradual change. The 

 west will produce fine wool, and the east fine mut- 

 ton. 



The following article from the Ohio Cultivator 

 will interest many of our readers : — 



The Prospects for Sheep axd Wool for 1840. 



Thousands of sheep were killed, both east and 

 west, in 1818, not as the result of an over-stock, but 

 owing to discouragement under the current prices. 

 The close of the last Avintcr has raised the price of 

 wool from seven to ten cents per pound. The con- 

 sequence is, that many wish their dead sheep alive 

 again ; or wish to stock up with a new supply. From 

 present appearances, wool is going to do well for sev- 

 eral years to come. The reasons are these, for such 

 an opinion : — 



1. The tariff", if changed at all, will be so modified 

 as to promote increased protection to our own man- 

 ufactures. AVe shall have at least the protection of 

 the tariff" of 1842, and this is all that manufacturers 

 ask. 



2. The great and constantly increasing influx of 

 foreigners, together with the natural increase of our 

 own population, will call for a greater supply of 

 manufactured goods, and of course create demand. 

 Our population is increasing at the rate of two 

 thousand a day ; of course spindles will be increased 

 to sujDply their wants. Nearlyone million a year is 

 now annually added to o\ir numbers. Our flocks 

 and our herds must be increased in proportion. 



3. We are able to compete more and more success- 

 fully with some portions of the manufacturing dis- 

 tricts of the old world. Wc are pushing our manu- 

 factures abroad and supplanting theirs. 



4. Sheep and wool are successfully raised and 

 improved, and no agricultural investment is found to 

 require less labor or yield greater profits. To prove 

 this, we have only to point to the fact that nearly 

 every fi.mcr, who for a series of years has steadily 

 pursued the cultivation of sheep and wool, has be- 

 come rich and independent — out of debt — houses 

 and land around him, and abounding in comforts and 

 enjoyments. 



5. The grain-grov/ing regions of Ohio are •well 

 adapted to sheep, and farmers are finding out that 

 sheep are good consumers of their straw, chaff, corn 



fodder, &c., much of which now goes to waste. The 

 raising of wheat and wool go well together. What 

 is left of wheat the sheep consume. 



For these and many such reasons we believe that 

 sheep and wool are looking ahead with good pros- 

 pects — prospects never brighter. Sheep husbandry 

 promises to be a healthy pursuit, paying satisfactory 

 and suitably remunerating prices, with no vanishing 

 and exploding inflation. We want nothing that 

 will prove a disappointment. A sound business is 

 the best. The profits of sheep husbandry are good 

 enough. We want nothing better. 



Example. A buys one hundred two-year-old 

 ewes, after shearing, at one hundred dollars. He 

 buys a buck, if he can find one, pure Merino, for 

 twenty dollars. This is his investment. He pastures 

 them on land worth twenty dollars per acre. He 

 needs twenty acres for a year's feeding, summer and 

 winter, and good land well stocked in grass will sup- 

 ply them. Well selected ewes will yield four pounds 

 a head. With good management he may raise ninety 

 lambs. The account will stand thus : — 



Capital Stock. 



20 acres of land, $400 



100 ewes 100 



$500 

 Receip)ts. 



400 pounds wool $100 



9o lambs, ,$1 each, 95 



$195 

 Expetises. 



Interest on capital $30 



Shearing, &c., 10 



Deaths, 2 per cent., 2 



Waste of flock, 10 per cent., 10 



$52 



Which, deducted from above, leaves profits, $143 



This profit will be greatly diminished the second 

 year. These lambs will not produce lambs, but 

 simply wool ; and they will not do it till two j'ears 

 old, and ought not till three years old. The greater 

 the flock, the less the profit. But it will be more 

 than twenty-five per cent, interest, under good man- 

 agement, at present prices of wool. Sheep that will 

 not shear four pounds a head should not be pur- 

 chased, and these should be crossed with the heavy 

 shearing Merino. At the lowest calculation, no busi- 

 ness exceeds that of wool-growing for profit. 



A WESTERN WOOL-GROWER. 



Cleveland, May 10, 1849. 



EXPERIMENTS ON SALMON, SALMON 

 FRY, AND EELS. 



Strange as it seems, it would certainly appear from 

 his [Mr. Young, manager of the duke of Sutherland's 

 fisheries] observations, that a salmon may be kept for 

 any length of time in a river without growing beyond 

 the weight of two to four ounces, and he showed me 

 specimens of salmon which, though of perfect form 

 and condition, did not exceed that size ; whereas, 

 had they been allowed to reach the sea, they would 

 at the same age have weighed from six to ten pounds 

 each. The growth of salmon when in the sea is 

 wonderful, it having been indisputably proved, that 

 a salmon has grown eleven pounds six ounces during 

 the short period of five weeks and two days ; the 

 fish, having been marked on its passage to the sea, was 

 caught again in the same river, when ascending after 

 an interval of that duration. Mr. Young told me 

 also that his young family of salmon fry, which he 

 hatched and kept confined in ponds connected with 



