1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



189 



lage the year afore, and I guessed the two gentle- 

 men were doctors and knew what they were talk- 

 ing about." 



"I dare say they did ; but flowers and vines 

 don't have the cholera, do they ?" 



"No, my lord, but they have complaints of their 

 own ; and one of the gentlemen went on to say 

 that charcoal had a special good efl'ect upon all 

 vegetable life, and told a story of a vine-dresser in 

 Germany, I think, who had" made a very poor, 

 sickly vineyard one of the best in all those narts, 

 simply by charcoal-dressings. So I naturally 

 pricked up my ears at that, for our vines were in 

 so bad a way, that master thought of doing away 

 with them altogether. 'Aye,' said the other gen- 

 tleman, 'and see how a little sprinkling of charcoal 

 will brighten up a flower bed.' 



"The rain was now over, and the gentlemen left 

 the mews ; and 1 thought, 'Well, but before I try 

 the charcoal on my plants, I'd best make some in- 

 quiry of them as aren't doctors, but gardeners. 

 So I went to our nursery man who has a deal o' 

 book learning, and I asked him if he'd ever heard 

 of charcoal-dressing being good for vines, and he 

 said he'd read in a book that it was so, but had 

 never tried it. He kindly lent me the book, which 

 was translated from some forren one. And after 

 I had picked out of it all I could, I tried ttie char- 

 coal in the way the book told me to try it ; and 

 that's how the flowers and the grapes came to 

 please you, my lord. It was a lucky chance that 

 I ever heard those gentlemen talking in the mews, 

 please your lordship." 



"Chance happens to all" said the peer, senten- 

 tiously, "but to turn chance to account is the gift 

 of few." 



His lordship returning home gazed gloomily on 

 the hues of his vast parterres ; he visited his vine- 

 ries and scowled at the clusters ; he summoned 

 his head gardener, a gentleman of the highest re- 

 pute for science, and who never spoke of a cow- 

 slip but by its latin name. To this learned per- 

 sonage his lordship communicated what he had 

 heard and seen of the benignant efl"ects of char- 

 coal, and produced in proof, a magnificent bunch 

 of grapes, which he had brought from the squire's. 

 "My lord," said the gardener, scarcely glancing at 



the grapes, "Squire 's gardener must be a 



poor ignorant creature to fancy he had discovered 

 a secret which is so very well known to every pro- 

 fessed horticulturist. Professor Liebig has treat- 

 ed of the good efi'ects of charcoal-dressing to vines 

 especially, and it is to be explained upon these 

 principles" — therewith the learned man entered 

 into a profound dissertation, of which his lordship 

 did not understand a word. 



"Well, then," said the peer, cutting short the 

 harrangue, "since you know so well, that charcoal- 

 dressing is good for vines and flowers, have you 

 ever tried it on mine ?" 



"I can't say that I have," my lord; "it did not 

 come into my head." 



"Nay," replied the peer, "chance put it into 

 your head, but thought never took it out of vour 

 head." 



My lord, who, if he did not know much about 

 horticulture, was a good judge of mankind, dis- 

 missed the man of learning, and with many apol- 

 ogies for seeking to' rob his neighbor of such a 

 treasure, asked the squire to transfer to hia ser- 

 vice the man of genius. 



The squire, who thought that now the charcoal 

 had been once discovered, any new gardener could 

 apply it just as well as the o"ld one, was too hap- 

 py to oblige my lord, and advance the fortune of 

 an honest fellow, born in the village. His lord- 

 ship knew very well that a man who makes good 

 use of the ideas received by chance, will make a 

 still better use of ideas received through study. 

 He took some kind, but not altogether unselfish 

 pains with the training and education of the man 

 of genius, whom he had gained to his service. 

 The man is now my lord's head forester and bailiS". 

 The woods thrive under him, the farm pays large- 

 ly. He and my lord are both the richer for the 

 connection between them. He is not the less 

 practically pains-taking, though he no lon'^er as- 

 cribes a successful experiment to chance. R. 



For the Sew England Farmer. 

 . SHEEP HUSBANDRY-No. 1. 



Dear Sir : — It is a somewhat strange anoma- 

 ly that while rapid progress has been made in 

 every department of agriculture in this State, that 

 of sheep husbandry has fallen ofi' to a very great 

 extent. And when we consider the important re- 

 lation which this branch of agriculture bears to 

 manufactures and commerce, it appears still stran- 

 ger that the political economist, who we should 

 expect would be ever directing his attention to 

 the developing of the resources of the country, 

 should have allowed the important subject to pass 

 unnoticed. We think that had there been as o-reat 

 efi"orts made to make wool king as there have'been 

 to make cotton a sovereign power, the latter could 

 not have reigned without a rival. 



An idea of the importance of the subject may 

 be gathered from the following figures. In our 

 manufactories in the United States we are annu- 

 ally consuming about 1:22,000,000 pounds of wool; 

 that we only produce about half that quantity \ 

 that we shall import this year worsted goods and 

 mixed worsted and cottons to the^mount of $17,- 

 o67,672 ; that nearly every yard of broadcloth 

 consumed in the country is imported, and a laroe 

 portion of our fine fancy cassimeres, and a lar^e 

 amount of our coarser woolens, blankets and ca'r- 

 pets are also imported. I am not sure that if we 

 consider every article imported, into the composi- 

 tion of which wool enters, we should find that we 

 import as much in a manufactured state as we 

 manufacture. If this is correct, then, in order to 

 supply ourselves with the raw material of what 

 we ought to manufacture, we should require, in 

 addition to what we now raise, about 190.000,- 

 000 pounds— making a total of about 2b0,0m\- 

 000 pounds — and this, while many of our West- 

 ern farmers are without a market "for their corn, 

 because it will not pi.y for their transportation^ 

 whereas wool is fetching a high price and sheep 

 would consume their corn— and what could be 

 raised with more ease than roots, which are ex- 

 cellent for sheep ? They are better than corn, and 

 should either be dispensed with it should be the 

 latter. 



The cost of transportion is quite an item in the 

 profits arising from the products of the soiL 

 Wheat and corn are among the heaviest products 

 that seek a distant market. From Central Illi- 

 nois it costs over fifty cents to deliver a bushel of 

 corn in New York, while less than two cents will 

 deliver a pound of wool in the same place. What 



