384 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec, 



EXTKACTS AND KEPLIES. 



A COMPLIMENT. 



Permit me to remark, that not having received the 

 September number of the .V. E. Farmer by due course 

 of mail, I had it sent to me from the office, and on 

 readinj; it, I came to the conclusion that there were 

 about half a dozen articles in it, each of which, to 

 those who were disposed "to marl?, learn and inward- 

 ly digest," was worth the subscription price of the 

 v-olume. J. B. Hill. 



Mason, N. H., Xov. 1863. 



HIGH PKIC«. »■ 



We learn that Mr. Edavakd Douglass, of Chelsea, 

 Vt., recently purchased a buck lamb of Mr. Edwin 

 Hammond, of Middlebury, Vt., for which he paid five 

 hundred dollars ! 



NE-W BOOKS. 



The Practical SnEPnERn: A Complete Treatise on the Breed- 

 ing, Management and Diseases of Sheep. By Henrv S. Ran- 

 dall, L.L. D. Willi lUustra ions. Pliiladelphia: J. B. Lip- 

 pincott & Co. Rochester, N. Y.: D. D. T. Moore. 1863. 



This is a work that has long been needed bj' 

 our people. It has been well ascertained that va- 

 rious localities in our country are admirably adapt- 

 ed to the culture of sheep, both for wool and mut- 

 ton. This fact, together with the knowledge that 

 vast sums have been annually expended for for- 

 eign wool, and the unusual demand created for it 

 by the existing war, have aroused our people to a 

 sense of the importance of producing more mut- 

 ton and wool at home. This importance was par- 

 tially appreciated, indeed, long before the war 

 broke out, and the progress made was of the most 

 encouraging character. Some thirty or forty years 

 ago, it was rare to find mutton that would weigh 

 a dozen pounds to the quarter, while now it is 

 produced so as to give fifty and sixty pounds per 

 quarter. We have a friend who informs us that 

 he expects soon to slaughter a sheep that Avill 

 ■weigh three hundred j^ounds when handsomely 

 dressed ! At the former period, also, a six pound 

 fleece was accounted extraordinary, while now 

 they are sheared that will weigh tweniy odd pounds, 

 and the wool of a highly superior quality. 



Under a course of systematic instruction, all 

 these advantages may probably be more econom- 

 ically gained, and the beginner in sheep culture 

 be enabled to compete on something like equal 

 terms with those of more experience. Dr. Ran- 

 dall's work will afford this instruction, and be 

 the means of greatly increasing effort in a busi- 

 ness which is yet to have an important bearing 

 upon our national interests. 



It is now fifteen years since the author publish- 

 ed a work entitled "Sheep Husbandry." "In the 

 meantime," he says, "a great change — almost an 

 entire revolution — taken place in the character of 

 American sheep husbandry. 



The fine-wool families which existed here in 

 1845 have, under a train of circumstances which 

 will be found recorded in this volume, mostly 

 passed away ; and they have beeii succeeded by a 



new family, developed in our own country, which 

 calls for essentially different standards of breed- 

 ing and modes of practical treatment. 



Our improved English, or, as they .are often 

 termed, mutton breeds of sheep, instead of being 

 now confined to a few small, scattering flocks, 

 have spread into every portion of our country, 

 represent a large amount of agricultural capital, 

 and throughout regions of considerable extent are 

 more profitable than sheep kept specially for wool- 

 growing purposes. 



Some of the most valuable families of them are 

 wholly unknown in this country — indeed, had 

 scarcely been brought into general notice in Eng- 

 gland — fifteen years ago. And, finally, our ad- 

 vanced agricultural circumstances and interests 

 which materially affect, and, in turn, are material- 

 ly affected by, sheep husbandry, so that their re- 

 ciprocal relations must be understood to lead to 

 the highest measure of success in almost any de- 

 partment of farming." 



The book is well printed and illustrated, and 

 seems to us to afford every needful instruction in 

 all desirable points, such as breeds, breeding, man- 

 agement — shelter, adaptation to climate, diseases, 

 wounds, medicine and dogs. It should be in the 

 hand and head of every person owning sh^ep. 



Sorgo, or the Northern Sugar Plant. By Isaac. A. Hedges, 

 the Pioneer Investigator in the Northern Enterprise. With 

 an Introduction by William Clocgh, President Ohio State 

 Board, Cincinnati. Applegate & Co., 43 Main Street. For 

 sale by A. Williams & Co., Boston. 



Some six or eight years ago, our people became 

 much interested in the cultivation of the Chinese 

 Sugar Cane, as it was then called. Experiments 

 were numerous all over New England, with vari- 

 ous results. Our friend and correspondent of the 

 New England Farmer, J. F. C. Hyde, Esq., of New- 

 ton, put up machinery for grinding the cane and 

 extracting its juices, and wrote and published anin- 

 telligent and highly interesting work upon the cul- 

 ture of the cane and manufacture of syrup and su- 

 gar. This, we believe, was the first work pub- 

 lished in this country upon the subject. It arrest- 

 ed attention, and was the means of more minute 

 inquiry and experiment. 



After all this, however^ the cultivation of the 

 cane was mainly abandoned, as public opinion 

 gradually came to the conclusion that no advan- 

 tage could be derived from its culture, unless the 

 price of molasses should advance to $1 per gal- 

 lon. It was found, however, that our climate 

 would produce the cane, and that there was no in- 

 superable difficulty in transforming its juices into 

 good syrup and sugar. But the universal deci- 

 sion was, that it could not be done at a projit. 



The conclusion seems to have been reversed by 

 our Western friends. They have entered upon 

 it with their usual energy, and from the tone of 

 the volume before us, with undoubted success. 



