vol.. xni. NO. 47. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



371 



Bake them in an oven moderately heated; let tlie 

 oven be as warm as it commonly is when bread 

 is done baUing, and let them be in the oven an 

 hour, then taken o(it and dried. 

 • Spiders, ants, mice, cats, fowls, &c. must be 

 kept from tlie worms. Wet leaves must not be 

 given thcuj. When the worms are shedding their 

 coats which they do four tijiies they should not be 

 disturbed by feeding. At other times they 

 should have as much as they will eat. The sun 

 should not shine on them. 



The reeling is performed by putting tlie balls 

 into hot water, gathering the fibres and runniui;- 



them off on the reel. 



J. H. Cobb. 



[From the New Vork Farmer.] 

 HINTS ON SHEEP HUSBANDRT. 



It is obvious that housing sheep at night, and 

 providing them, during the day, a shelter from 

 the rain and sun, must jjreserve and improve the 

 wool ; and also essentially conduce to the health, 

 comfort, and preservation of the animal. 



I would have sheep winter fed, to the degree of 

 commencing the grass season in good store order 

 and without having sustained any check, in car- 

 cass or wool ; and winter sheltered in yards or 

 sheds, as much as the sheep may themselves af- 

 fect, throughout even the mildest climates of 

 Britain, for neither merino, nor half breed merino 

 lambs, nor indeed those of any other breed, ought 

 to be exjjosed without some kind of shelter, to 

 the rigors of the winter and early spring ; and 

 the sheep, when arrived at their maturity or full 

 strength, will still require the same, with regular 

 and good feeding, if it be intended to force the 

 growth of their fleece, to its utmost weight, and 

 to preserve the quality in its highest degree of 

 condition and fineness. — Lawrence. 



One of the completest sheep yards I have seen 

 is that which Mr Thurlow has made at Gosfield, 

 partly by means of stubble stalks, but the space 

 well enclosed ; a large flock may be under cover 

 or exposed, at their pleasure. In the centre is a 

 thick stubble stack, which forms a double shed. 

 He finds it of incomparable use, inasmuch as he 

 intends to convert all the straw of his large farm 

 into dung, and to leave off buying bullocks for 

 that purpose. — Arthur Young. 



The late Gen. Murray's standing folds were 

 equally well contrived, enclosing an area of 57 

 yards in length, and 20 broad, containing 1,140 

 square yards. Above 700 ewes were folded in it 

 at night, andfurtliat number it is more than a yard 

 and a half for each sheep. All around it was a shed 

 nine or ten feet wide, and also across the middle 

 which latter was open on both sides. A rack for 

 hay, placed against tlic wall, which was boarded, 

 surrounded the whole ; and another, which was 

 double, to be eaten out of on both sides, stood 

 along the central shed ; under the rack was a 

 small manger, iii which the food was given. — lb. 

 A cool moderate temperature is more favorable 

 to the production of fine wool, than excessive 

 heat ; and were the sheep of Spain, like those of 

 England, unprotected against the effects of climate, 

 I should have no hesitation in saying, that the sit- 

 uation of that country would be, in some respects, 

 worse than that of our own island, and more un- 

 friendly to the growth of a fine even staple. But 

 to the other qualities, the soundness and softness 

 of the fibres, our frequent rains are very ];rejudic- 

 ial, unless the sheep be sheltered and protected 

 iro/n their effects. — Bakewell. 



To preserve all the best qualities of wool in the 

 Spanish breed of sheep, it will be necessary to 

 attend to the three following objects : The first in 

 importance, is the purity of the breed. The ni,v\t, 

 that the fleece be covered by nature with a copious 

 yolk, or being deficient that it be supplied 

 by art ; nor should the unctuous covering of the 

 wool be absorbed by a mixture with the soil on 

 fallows, or washed away by the rain. Lastly, that 

 the sheep be kept dry, sheltered from the ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold, and their quantity of 

 nourishment regulated. — lb. 



The bad effects of water upon the pile, while 

 growing, may be owing to the readiness with 

 which it mingles with the yolk, and carries off a 

 quantity of that animal soap, which is so neces- 

 sary to the good quality and even existence of the 

 fleece ; for if care be taken to prevent this, by the 

 skilful ajjplication of tar mingled with butter, 

 which act as repellants to the water, the wool ] art 

 of the sta])le which grew afler the mixture vvas 

 ajiplied, contains a sufficient supply of rich and 

 nutritious yolk, and is a much sujierior sort of 

 wool to those parts of the pile which have been 

 exposed without protection, to the dripping wet- 

 ness of the wintry season. — Luecock. 



Mr Bakewell is so fully convinced of the utility 

 of greasing, that he advises it immediately after 

 shearing, and again in October. In his ojiuion, 

 the trouble and expense of it, twice a year, will be 

 well repaid by its beneficial effects U])on both the 

 carcass and fleece of the sheep, in every part of 

 Britain. He observes, by the first greasing, the 

 wool will be covered and defended from the 

 action of the soil, when the ] articles are niost 

 pulverized and active, and it will be kept soft and 

 moist during the parching heat of July and 

 August; and that he has reason to believe, that 

 the toj) of the stajile of a greased fleece would not 

 become harsh and discolored, which is frequently 

 the case with English wool. Additional and very 

 powerful inducements to spring anil summer 

 greasing, are the following: The ointment de- 

 stroys the sheep tick, and has a tendency Xo pre- 

 vent cutaneous distenq-ers, and to preserve sheej) 

 from the stroke of tlie fly. Farther, a considera- 

 ble quantity of wool will be saved, which is torn 

 oft' by sheep when rubbing themselves, in order to 

 allay the irritation of the skin, occasioned by those 

 causes. The ointment resists the action of the 

 moisture more powerfully than could the natural 

 yolk of the wool ; and Mr Bakewell gives an ex- 

 ample of the superior warmness and dryness aji- 

 ]:arently enjoyed by greased sheep, on the moun- 

 tain sides, where greased and ungreased browsed 

 together. 



The following is given as the Northumberland 

 preparation : From 16 to 20 pounds butter are 

 placed over the fire and melted ; a gallon of tar 

 is then added, and the mixture is stirred until the 

 two substances are well incorporated, and form a 

 sofl tenacious ointment. The care always nec- 

 essary in the application of ointments to the 

 sheep, is es|iecially so in this case; for, says Mr 

 Bakewell, if the ointment be merely rubbed on the 

 wool, it collects on the top of the staple, attracts and 

 mixes with the soil, and is rather injurious than 

 beneficial to the fleece. The staples ol' the fleece 

 are to be divided with one hand, and the ointment 

 applied to the skin with the finger of the other 

 hand, by which means the ointment is soflened 

 by the warmth of the skin, and equa'ly diffused 

 throughout the fleece. The quantity required will 



in course vary with the size of the shee]>, but gen- 

 erally, and in the lighter mode of greasing, one 

 gal on of tar and 20 ] ounds of butter will be suf- 

 ficient for forty or fifty sheej\ — Lawrence. 



An unfavorable change takes place on shorn 

 wool, kept long in a very warm and dry tem])era- 

 tnre; the fibres become indurated, rigid and elas- 

 tic, and acquire the properties of the hard wools. 

 The greater the degree of warmth, the more 

 speedily will the effect be produced. Wool which 

 has been shorn three or four years, will not spin 

 or fill so well as when kept only one year. A dry 

 situation is necessary for the preservation of wool, 

 which however at length loses its natural mois- 

 ture, and becomes hard, like wool of limestone 

 districts. — Bakewell, 



Sheared sheep turned into a newly mown pas- 

 ture, their coats attract the short ends of grass 

 left by the scythe, and remain sticking in the bot- 

 tom of the fleece, until in the end they are rolled 

 up with it. These, with any dried vegetable par- 

 ticles, such as hay seeds or chaflf, falling from the 

 rack into the coat of the sheep, occasion much 

 extra trouble and expense in the manufacture of 

 the wool, since, if left, they would be wrought in- 

 to the substance of the cloth, whence they may 

 be extracted by holes made, to be aftersvards repair- 

 ed at the fulling mill, or by the fine drawer. Hay 

 in racks should be upon the level with the heads 

 of the sheep, and the staves by no means too wide 

 apart, since some sheep, particularly the Spanish, 

 are the n)ost wasteful animals in the world of 

 their j)rovisions. — Luecock. 



The wool grower is counselled to place no de- 

 pendence upon accidental and external circum- 

 stances, for the production of good fleeces, but to 

 rely entirely and with confidence upon the prop- 

 erties with which nature has endowed his sheep, 

 the perpetuity of animal properties being scarcely 

 anywhere more strikingly exhibited, than in the 

 certainty and regularit)' with which the parent 

 sheep convey to their offspring their own distin- 

 guished characteristics. Breed is of the utmost 

 consequence. It is the basis upon which all 

 the improvements of the flock must be founded ; 

 the only source bf hope, that attempts to produce 

 fine wool will be followed with success. The 

 kind of wool depends entirely on the species of 

 sheep which bears it ; and the soil and its pro- 

 ducts, or other external circumstances, have no 

 other effect than to vary the quality of the samjde, 

 the wool itself still remaining true to its species, 

 long, short or mixed. Long ,ind universal expe- 

 rience has established the fitness of heavy, coarse 

 woolcd sheep for rich grazing grounds and marsh- 

 es, confining the light and short wooled stock to 

 the hills and higher pasture. Nevertheless, fit- 

 ness and ];ropriety, not absolute necessity, have 

 given birth to such arrangement ; since short and 

 tine wool might be grown in the low grounds, and 

 long wool in the upper, with an additional expense 

 of winter- keeping. — Lawrence. 



Poison. — We stated a few days since, that 

 there had been some cases of sickness which 

 wore supposed to have been occasioned by pois- 

 oned food of some kind. We have since learned 

 that Dr Dickinson has traced the disorder to its 

 origin, and found that it was caused by the milk 

 of some cows which had been feeding upon de- 

 cayed vegetables. — Bangor Ifhig. 



