1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



151 



the sheep were in motion. Ten thousand sheep 

 constituted a flock, over which there were placed 

 one principal and fifty subordinate shepherds and 

 as many dogs. The principal ])asses ahead, and 

 directs the speed and length of the journey, the 

 others following and flanking the flock, collecting 

 the stragglers, &c. Some of the sheep are per- 

 fectly trained to obey the signals of the shepherds, 

 (says Tomlinson,) which follow the leading shep- 

 herd — for there is no driving — and the rest quiet- 

 ly follow them. "The flocks travel through the 

 cultivated country at the rate of eighteen or twen- 

 ty miles a day, but in open country, with good 

 pasture more leisurely. The sheep know as well 

 as the shepherds, when the procession has arrived 

 at the end of the journey." "In April their migra- 

 tory instinct renders them restless, and if not 

 guided they set forth unattended to the cooler 

 hills." "It is during this journey that the sheep 

 are shorn." They are placed in large pens, where 

 they are confined until they perspire freely, which 

 has a tendency to soften the "yolk," and thus the 

 fleece becomes softer and is the more easily cut. 

 At the end of the journey, when the sheep arrive 

 at their summer jiasture, they are salted, and with 

 increased appetites move about in search of grass, 

 upon which they fatten. "They are never fed un- 

 til the dew is dry, nor allowed to drink after liail 

 storms." "In September, the flocks are daubed 

 with a red earth, which is said to conduce to the 

 fineness of the wool." They return from their 

 pasture in October, "when their yeaning time ap- 

 proaches." "Forty or fifty thousand shepherds are 

 said to be employed in tending these sheep. They 

 are a singular race of men, almost as simple as 

 their sheep." 



It may be asked by the theoretician and critic, 

 whether sheep emigration is necessary or applica- 

 ble to New England. The answer is apparent. 

 We have not the uncultivated plains, neither the 

 terraced mountains to feed upon ; therefore, large 

 flocks and nimierous shepherds are not needed. 

 But we have hills, and meadows, and boys in 

 abundance, and a flock of sheep should be under 

 the care of some one, be he man or boy, who can 

 discriminate between the proper times and condi- 

 tions of feed in the meadow or hillside, and when 

 to emigrate from the one to the other, and how to 

 train the sheep. 



It is by analogy that we learn ; therefore, the 

 history of the past, in sheep as well as in man, 

 may be of service to us, if we use our reason and 

 draw conclusions therefrom which are applicable 

 to our condition instead of the condition of the 

 ancients. A careful and persevering policy in the 

 growth of sheep, and a cultivated observation with 

 regard to its influence upon the character of the 

 wool, would, in a few years, bring the New Eng- 

 land former up to the highest standard of sheep 

 and wool growing, while a changeful and vacillat- 

 ing policy, produced by listening to theoretic dis- 

 sertations and discussions on five thousand dollar 

 bucks, would soon place him back again beyond 

 the practical knowledge and experience of our 

 forefathers. s. M. A. 



For the Kew England Parmer. 

 MAPLE SUQAB. 



Mr. Editor : — Maple sap, as it runs from the 

 trees, is clean, and it ought to be the aim of the 

 manufacturer to keep it so through the whole pro- 

 cess of boiling, &:c. The buckets ought to be 

 perfectly clean. I use tin buckets, as they are 

 easily kept clean, and also conveniently distribut- 

 ed through the lot. The great source of impurity 

 in the sap is bark and moss that fall from the 

 trees, and leaves that are blown about during high 

 winds and lodge in the buckets, and which, if not 

 removed before boiling, give the sugar a very red 

 color ; therefore, the sap ought to be strained be- 

 fore boiling, and skimmed during evaporation. I 

 prefer pans to kettles, the bottoms only being ex- 

 posed to the fire, there being no chance for rising, 

 and burning, and coloring the syrup. 



Boil down quite thick, and set the pan from the 

 arch on blocks for the purpose, and dip off and 

 strain through a thick strainer, and then set away 

 to cool and settle. When ready to sugar ofi", pour 

 off" carefully, as there will be a small quantity of 

 sediment at the bottom, which should not be 

 poured in with the syrup, but kept by itself, a 

 quantity of sap put with it, ?nd again settled and 

 poured off", thus saving, ultimately, the whole. 

 Do not add any foreign substance to syrup for the 

 needless process of cleaning, but as it begins to 

 boil, carefully skim, and my word for it, if you 

 do not burn, you will have a nice article. Sooner 

 give your skim milk to the pigs, take your eggs 

 for your own eating, and your saleratus throw 

 away, than to adulterate your syrup with them. 

 ' Gauunkk Herkick. 



Souih Reading, VL, March 19, 1863. 



I^" The amount of lumber annually cut on the 

 Kennebec and Penobscot waters has been about 

 200,000,000 feet. Last season it was only GO.OOO.- 

 OCD feet. The present season there will be cut 

 about 100,000,000 feet. 



For tlie yew England Parmer. 

 LITTLE THINGS, 



Or, a Walk in my Garden. 



After cutting some scions the other day, as I 

 returned to the kitchen to look after the wants of 

 the family, I heard the complaint that the wood 

 did not burn well. This led me to enter a com- 

 plaint against 



COOKING STOVES. 



When wood is abundant in the winter, the farm- 

 er wants a stove with a much larger fire box than 

 any now in use. The village or city mechanic, 

 who pays six or eight dollars a cord for wood, will 

 use the strictc*t economy in the consumption of 

 his fuel ; but when it can be obtained by the farm- 

 er only for the expense of hauling, he can afl'ord 

 to give his family the comfort of a generous Are 

 for all cooking purposes. The stove maker, then, 

 who will iiik-oduce such a stove into the market 

 will be sure to sell it in the country. Large air- 

 tight stoves are much more economical in every 

 respect than small ones. 



One of the best little things a farmer can do, is 

 to split up two or three cords of wood for sum- 

 mer use as fine as the finest kindling wood. Many 

 a farmer's wife is compelled to do her work in hot 

 weather over a heavy fire of coarse wood. She 

 wants a fire that will blaze well to her teakettle, 

 but which will not throw out much heat into the 

 room. Some of the best summer wood I ever had 

 was prepared in this way from second growth hem- 

 locks with the bark left'on ; bifit as this is nut al- 

 ways attainable, any kind of wood is vastly im- 



