82 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



so far given fruit having produced six new forms, 

 as different from each other as from the parent 

 stock. One of them gave winter fruit not unlike 

 the St. Germain pear. 



A great marvy horticulturists believed, and Van 

 Mons among them, that the seed of good fruit 

 produced wild trees with sour fruit, thus going 

 back, as it is supposed, to original types. I do 

 not hesitate to affirm to the contrary ; and I defy 

 them to cite a single example of a fruit of good 

 quality, fecundated by the pollen of its own flow- 

 er, whose seed has given birth to a wild tree. 

 Should a good variety, artificially or by insect, be 

 fecundated by a wild one with sour fruit, there 

 will certainly come from these seeds new varieties 

 which will mostly, if not all, be inferior to it. It 

 is equally certain that any good variety of the 

 pear tree, or even of all our fruit trees, self fe- 

 cundated, will produce good fruit. They will 

 probably differ in some feature or other from the 

 parent variety, but none will take the type of the 

 wild specie. 



AT HOME AGAIN. 



A journey of a thousand miles or two West, 

 with an observing eye and open ear, gives one 

 some new ideas of tne magnitude of our country, 

 and of its resources and industrial energy. It is 

 really bewildering to stand in some of the freight 

 depots at certain points and see the vast accu- 

 mulation of all sorts of earthly goods, and listen 

 to the Babel tongues that are mixed up with 

 them. One is impressed, also, with the "mag- 

 nificent distances" which one passes over, and 

 the rapidity with which they are accomplished, as 

 well as the great numbers that are travelling, and 

 the hurry and confusion often attendant upon it. 

 One wonders what all this running away from 

 home can be for, forgetting, perhaps, that 



"Tt.eir aims are as various as the roads they take," 

 and that it is this restless energy that peoples our 

 new lands and extends the area of civilization. 



We saw much in our late journey to admire, to 

 increase our love of country and to urge us to 

 new efforts to develop its riches, sustain its free 

 institutions and perpetuate human liberty. We 

 found a patriotic people everywhere ; a people 

 determined that our country shall be an undivid- 

 ed country, and that our laws shall bear alike upon 

 all. Industry and economy were characteristic 

 features everywhere, though the results of these 

 virtues are not all that might be gained under 

 better systems of preparing the young for the 

 special duties of life in which they are to engage. 



It gave us especial gratification to meet several 

 brethren of the "type and quill," who have trav- 

 elled in the harness with us for many long years, 

 and whose labors have scattered blessings over 

 the land. Among these was the excellent friend 

 of our youth, Luther Tucker, Esq., one of the 

 editors of the Country Gentleman, at Albany, and 

 the pioneer of agricultural literature in the coun- 



try. He has labored long and successfully to 

 "improve the soil and the mind," and certainly 

 with much advantage to the public. He has been 

 firm in his opinions, conservative and practical, 

 and has always had the good judgment to call to 

 his aid as writers, persons of ability and of well- 

 established character. Of late years he has been 

 greatly relieved in his labors by the intelligent 

 and earnest efforts of his son, whose ability and 

 zeal promise a life of great usefulness to the world. 

 We also bad the pleasure of taking by the hand, 

 Mr. Harris, the affable editor of the Genesee 

 Farmer, and Mr. D. D. T. Moore, of the Rural New 

 YorJcer, both of Rochester. Col. L. D. Harris, 

 editor of the Ohio Farmer, was the presiding of- 

 ficer of the Convention at Columbus, and we had 

 repeated opportunities of conversation with him 

 there. We also made the acquaintance of Dr. 

 Randall, author of the "Practical Shepherd," 

 and also of many distinguished farmers and man- 

 ufacturers of the Northwestern States. 



Some of the things we heard and saw may yet 

 be transferred from "memory's page" to these col- 

 umns. 



MUTTON AND WOOL-GROWING IN 

 THE UNITED STATES. 



The London Mark Lane Express, the leading 

 English market and agricultural journal, says that 

 the consumption of mutton in North America has 

 rapidly increased. The supply now as rarely ex- 

 ceeds the demand as with any other meat, and the 

 best qualities out-sell beef in the principal markets. 

 No country is better adapted by natural, and on 

 the whole by artificial condition to the production 

 of wool, than the United States. Ausvalia and 

 South America contain the only very extensive re- 

 gions of the earth now capable of competing with 

 equal areas of North America in the production of 

 this great staple. The price of land in Australia 

 is much higher than in the United States. Its 

 distance from the wool market of Europe equals 

 nearly half the circumference of the globe; yet its 

 exports of wool rose between 1810 and 1862, 

 from 167 lbs. to 68,000,000 lbs. South America is 

 also becoming an extensive producer of this sta- 

 ple ; there were imported into Great Britain alone, 

 in 1861, 6,000,000 pounds. Yet South America 

 has no natural condition over North America for 

 sheep farming, while there are political and moral 

 ones which undeniably are hostile to the security 

 and permanence of so exposed a branch of indus- 

 try. Apart from the mere question of the cheap 

 production of wool, the experience of the most ad- 

 vanced agricultural nations — like England, Ger- 

 many and France — goes to show that sheep are a 

 necessity of a good general system of husbandry, 

 on even the highest priced lands and amidst the 

 densest populatton. They afford as much food to 

 man, in proportion to their own consumption, as 

 any other domestic animals. They are believed to 

 return more fertilizing matter to the soil. In ad- 

 dition, they alone furnish wool. England is esti- 

 mated to have about 590 sheep to one square 

 mile, while the United States proper (exclusive 

 of territories) has only 48. 



