108 



XEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



six or nine months' work and take out pay for 

 twelve months. One year with another, every in- 

 telligent farmer may depend on receiving a fair 

 per cent, on his capital, together -with reasonable 

 pay for his time actually bestowed. 



Let the hard-working yeoman give himself, and 

 his family, and his cattle plenty of relaxation. 

 "Covetousness bursts the bag," is an old maxim, 

 and constant pull, pull, pull, wears out mind and 

 body both. Yet indolence is not enjoyment ; nor 

 in that way does the body or mind recover tone 

 or strength. Do not, however, grumble to find, 

 at the year's end, that your play has cost money. 

 Make everything as valuable as possible before 

 you sell it. If your dairy produces butter, let it 

 be the very best ; so of your cheese and your ma- 

 ple sugar. Study all these things and your re- 

 ward is certain. Remember this, that the more 

 brain you put into your products the higher price 

 you will get for them. Do not understand, Mr. 

 Editor, that I broadly chai"ge indiiTerence and la- 

 ziness upon all our agriculturists ; by no means. 

 I merely offer these suggestions, hoping that some 

 who aspire to better things, may receive there- 

 from hints which will profit them. D. 



Claremont, X. H., 1863. 



Remarks. — Please forward the articles spoken 

 of. 



htfiiUence of food on the quality 



OF wool. 



The remark is quite common among people who 

 live in the city and who have at some time resid- 

 ed in the country, that they wiU purchase pork 

 only of those who feed it with corn, milk, grass 

 and vegetables, — never of those who use the blood 

 and offal of the slaughter-house. There is good 

 cause for such preference. The flesh of a hog, for 

 instance, that has run in the pastures and woods, 

 and fed mostly upon the roots of grass and bush- 

 es, acorns and nuts, fbr most of his life, will be so 

 strong as to give positive evidence of it, even 

 while it is cooking. This is often the case where 

 the animal may have been fed on grain in his pen 

 for several weeks previous to being slaughtered. 

 • It is generally supposed that the beef of an ox 

 fed in pastures affording an abundance of young 

 and tender clover and other rich grasses would be 

 sweeter and ever)- way better than that of an ox 

 fed in a pasture of coarse and innutritions herb- 

 age, though both attained the same weight. The 

 qvolity of the feed certainly affects the flesh, and 

 we believe it to be pretty well settled that it also 

 affects the hair of the animal. It is finer, softer 

 and more glossy on the weU-fed horse, ox or cow. 

 Why should not the same rule hold good with 

 regard to the sheep ? 



The food of an animal — and of ourselves — is 

 much more rapidly diffused through the system, 

 transformed into chyle and assimilated into blood 

 and nutriment, than most of us are aware of. 

 The case of an ox eating a single onion is in point. 

 A butcher was driving an ox half a mile from his 

 yard to the slaughter-house, where he was imme- 



diately dressed, and the next day carried about to 

 customers. On his next round they all complain- 

 ed that the beef tasted so strong of onions that 

 they could not eat it ! Upon inquiry of the per- 

 son who sold the ox to the butcher, it was ascer- 

 tained that he had been kept in his stall, and that 

 not an onion had been raised upon the farm that 

 year. The fact was clear, however, that the flesh 

 of that animal was strongly impregnated -with the 

 peculiar odor of the onion, and greatly to the dis- 

 comfort of the neat and conscientious butcher. 

 Revolving the matter in his mind as he went his 

 daily rounds, he at length recollected that in driv- 

 ing the ox along the road he picked up some- 

 thing which he supposed at first was a small po- 

 tato, but which he saw was an onion before the 

 ox had got it fairly into his mouth. The flesh of 

 poultry is sometimes sensibly affected by their 

 running under some of the back buildings of the 

 farm, where they never should be allowed to go. 

 If the flesh of animals is thus acted upon by the 

 food they eat, we see no reason why the skin and 

 hair, or wool, should not be, also, in some degree. 



In a work on "Fibrilia," advocating the intro- 

 duction and use of flax in the place of cotton, by 

 Stephen M. Allen, Esq., of Roxbury, Mass., 

 we find an article on wool, which has some inter- 

 esting references to the subject in question. 



In speaking of wool as not being peculiar to 

 sheep, but forming a sort of under-coat beneath 

 the long hair, in the goat and many other animals, 

 it says : "The fleece of the domestic sheep has 

 been greatly improved and modified by circum- 

 stances of climate, pasture, shelter and judicious 

 crossings of breeds, by which many varieties of 

 wool have been grown, chiefly divisible into two 

 great classes of carding and combing wool. The 

 occurrence of hair in the fleece of the domestic 

 sheep is now rare, and is considered as indicative 

 of bad management ; but if sheep are left to them- 

 selves on downs and moors, there is a tendency to 

 the formation of hair among the wool. Change 

 of pasture has a marked infiuenct on the quality of 

 the icool. If sheep that have been fed on chalk 

 downs [this term "downs" is applied in England 

 to a tract of poor, naked, hilly land, used only for 

 pasturing sheep,] be removed to richer pastures, 

 only a month before shearing, a remarkable im- 

 provement will take place in the fleece. So, also, 

 sheep that occupy lands within a few miles of the 

 sea will produce a longer and more pliant wool 

 than that of sheep from more inland districts. 



"Wool varies in quality in the same flock at 

 different times. When the sheep is in good con- 

 dition, the fibre is brilliant ; but in badly fed or 

 diseased sheep the wool is dull and dingy, and 

 when cut from the dead animal it is harsh and 

 weak, and takes the dye badly." 



The effect of innutritious feed upon sheep, as 



