1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



63 



Cliflf sold a lot of half blood two-year old 

 •wethers in February 1839, which weighed 139 

 pounds to the carcass. 



In the winter of 1867, Mr. Winthrop W. 

 Chenery, Highland Stock Farm, Belmont, 

 Mass., imported some of these sheep from 

 Canwick, Lincolnshire County, England. In 

 an article published in the Monthly Farmer 

 for 1868, page 516, written by our correspon- 

 dent "Mentor," — a gentleman of great expe- 

 rience in the wool business, — the leading 

 characteristics of the English lustre-wooled 

 sheep are given. Speaking of the Lincoln or 

 Lincolnshire sheep, he says they are larger 

 framed animals, their fleeces are heavier and 

 the staple longer than either the Leicester or 

 the Cots wold. The wool measures from ten 

 to eighteen inches in length, and the lleece 

 weighs from eight to fourteen pounds. The 

 sheep is hardy and prolific, but matures slowly, 

 and as fourteen pounds of the best lustre wool 

 cannot be grown on one sheep without good 

 food and plenty of it, the Lincolns require a 

 very rich pasture. 



In the Agricultural Report of the Ohio 

 Board of Agriculture for 1866, a long article 

 on the various kinds of wool was published. 

 It was a translation of a work by a Mr. Eis- 

 ner, of Silesia. It is there stated that the 

 best representation of nice combing wool is 

 the Lincolnshire sheep, and it is one of the 

 largest sheep in England The next in rank 

 for combing wool is the Leicester, and the 

 third is the Cots wold. 



In an address before the Royal Agricultural 

 Society, at Cirencester, Mr. J. A. Clark said, 

 "Lincoln wool is in great request from its pe- 

 culiar properties of length, strength and lus- 

 tre." 



The above cuts represent the Lincoln ram 

 "Lord Canwick," and the Lincoln ewe, "Lady 

 Bassingbourne," imported by Mr. Winthrop 

 W. Chenery, The ram's lleece, which was 

 sheared in 1868, of about sixteen months' 

 growth, weighed twenty-three pounds. This 

 animal has been lately sold to a gentleman in 

 California, and we understand that Mr. Chen- 

 ery has none of this breed for sale at present 



— Many of the most valuable islands off the 

 Carolina coast will next season bo devoted to the 

 growth of the finer kinds of cotton. The planters 

 expect to make more money to the acre than by 

 continuing the growth of the Sea Island cotton. 



EXTBACTS AND REPLIES. 



COTSWOLD SHEEP. 



A notice of some Cotswold sheep that I pur- 

 chased of T. L. Hart of West Cornwall, Conn., 

 was published in the Farmer. Perhaps some of 

 yonr readers who arc engaged in sheep raising 

 will like to know how I like them. I have no hesi- 

 tation in saying that they have far exceeded my 

 expectations in all rcspectir, and please me better 

 than any other breed I ever raised. I have just 

 weighed a twin ewe lamb from a grade ewe, sired 

 by the buck lamb I had of Mr. Hart, that weighed 

 113 pounds, and the mate, which I sold two months 

 ago, I am told will ^\eigh more. My yearling 

 ewe sheared 14 pounds of wool, and will weigh 175 

 pounds now, and has had no extra keeping. 



Having been engaged in butchering and selling 

 meat, I have found the Cotswold to dress heavier 

 in proportion to the live weight of carcass than 

 any kind of sheep that I have dressed, and are 

 much fatter on the same keeping. If more of 

 them could be had, it would be money in the 

 butcher's pocket and gain to the consumer, while 

 the farmer would receive a third more for his 

 sheep. Thousands of the sheep now kept by far- 

 mers and sent to market are worth little more 

 than the skins on their backs. While farmers are 

 grumbling bitterly at the low price of mutton, 

 consumers are complaining of its unprofitableness, 

 even at prices so low that dealers are losing money 

 on them, the best they can do. How can this 

 be otherwise ? What amount of meat is there 

 on a quarter of mutton weighing from five to ten 

 pounds ? And the common sheep of New Hamp- 

 shire will average little more. Common sense will 

 teach a man the difference in profit to all con- 

 cerned between a carcass of mutton that will weigh 

 eighty to a hundred, and one that will weigh thirty 

 to forty-five pounds. The consumer says to the 

 butchers, give us better mutton and we will pay 

 your price, but we don't want mere bones any 

 way ; and the butcher says to the farmers, give us 

 mutton ; we can't sell mere frames ; and un- 

 less you furnish a better article the people will 

 buy beef and pork, and the use of mutton will de- 

 crease. I would advise farmers whose flocks are 

 run down and need improving, to try the Cots- 

 wolds this year, and next fall give me the result 

 of the experiment. A. L. Sanborn. 



New Hampton, N. H., Nov. 19, 1869. 



TO PICKLE AND SMOKE BACON. 



At this season of the year farmers are slaugh- 

 tering their hogs, and are ready to make hams and 

 bacon. All have not a smoke house, and are forced 

 to depend upon their neighbors. It requires some 

 skill and experience to smoke them just right. 

 Our hams have been spoiled for our taste more 

 than once — the smoky flavor being too intense. 

 Now we have found a way which makes them just 

 right; so of course we must impart it toothers. 

 First, we smoke the barrel or tirkin, by placing ic 

 over a small fire of corn or the cobs which are put 

 in an old tin pan. We have tried cobs, saw dust 

 and maple chips, and think that burning corn and 

 cob together gives the sweetest smoke. Four good 

 sized ears of yellow corn will smoke a fifty pound 

 firkin which will hold two lar^c hams, two pieces 

 of beef and two or three tongues. The meat is 

 rubbed with two quarts of fine salt, one pint of 

 molasses and three ounces of saltpetre, for three 

 days before putting into the firkin ; turning and 

 rubbing it twice each day ; but if this is fjo much 

 trouble, a pickle can be made of six pounds of 

 coarse salt, one qiuut of molasses, and three ounces 

 of saltpetre, dissolved in two gallons of water, 

 and after the meat is closely packctl in the firkin 

 this mixture is turned over it. In three or four 



