360 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



who endeavor to make agriculturist believe to the 

 contrary are doing that which is detrimental to 

 their interests. James R Nichols. 



150 Congress St., Boston, June 4, 1870. 



■WOOL FROM HALF BLOOD COTSWOLD.— MARKET- 

 ING WASHED AND VNWASHED WOOL. 



Enclosed, you will find a sample of my half 

 blood Cotswoldd. The one from which the sample 

 was taken is an ewe, one year old this spring. She 

 sheared eleven pounds and six ounces. There is 

 some of this description of wool in this vicinity. 

 Where shall we find a market for it, and at^what 

 price ? Will some manufacturer of wool inform 

 us, through the Farmer, why unwashed wool is 

 not worth as much as washed, in proportion to 

 what it will cleanse ? In 18G7 my sheep averaged 

 six pounds washed wool; in 1868 they averaged 

 six .and three-fourths pounds unwashed, that 

 shrunk from forty-seven to fifty per cent, in 

 cleansing. In 1869 the same sheep averaged six 

 pounds washed wool again. I received thirty-two 

 cents per pound for unwashed and forty-two for 

 washed; making $2.16 per head for unwashed, 

 and !^2.52 for washed. M. Dustin. 



West Ciaremont, X. E., May 25, 1870. 



Remarks. — The specimen received measares 

 seven and a half inches, and with such beautiful 

 material it is not strange that manufacturers can 

 make woolen cloth that rivals silk and linen fab- 

 rics in fineness and beauty. Your statement of 

 marketing wool illustrates the injustice of the one- 

 third rule that buyers attempted to establish, and 

 shows very clearly that wool, like butter, flour, 

 beef, or mutton, ought to be sold by its merits or 

 quality, and that dealers in wool, as well as in 

 other commodities, ought to understand their busi 

 ness. Most of the large wool houses in the city 

 buy all kinds of wool, or sell it on commission. 

 We know nothing of the value of such wool as 

 yours, in addition to what you can gather f.om 

 our market reports. The price we suppose is 

 regulated by the cost of the foreign wool, which 

 has been somewhat reduced by the decline in 

 price of gold. 



We see by the last monthy report of the Reve- 

 nue Department, that for the seven months ending 

 Jan. 31, 1870, there were 29,397,098 pounds of 

 wool imported into this country, to compare with 

 17,788,01.5 for the same time last year; the value 

 being stated at $l,2o4,217 for the seven months for 

 1870, and #2,539,036 for 1869. During the same 

 seven months, ending Jan. 31, 1870, the value of 

 woolen cloth imported is stated at .$;21, 174,242. 

 These figures have an ugly look. Over twenty- 

 five million dollars worth of foreign wool and 

 woolens in seven months ! Do these importations 

 put money in owr purse ? Yet these importers de- 

 mand a larger litjerty and are working like good 

 fellows to secure it. 



MVCK— fiPnCI.\L MANURES. 



I am not an indiir^rent reader of your paper. 

 It contains much tliat is valuable upon all sub- 

 j.'cts interesting to farmers, as well as other sub- 

 jects that are now moving the great human mind. 

 Permit me a word upon special manures. We 

 small farmers must have something better adapted 

 to our wants and the soil, something that will cost 



us no more than stable manure does. Much is said 

 the papers about muck. Some praise it; others 

 condemn it as worse than nothing. I believe there 

 is a great deal of ditference in muck. We have 

 muck enough here inMaiiow,— if it had vegetable 

 life in it equal to some of the patent manures, — to 

 manure the whole of New England. Ii is very 

 difi'erent from the muck of the lower towns. 

 What the difference is we want some one that 

 knows to tell us. Is there not some way that this 

 muck can be nvade into a quick manure without so 

 much handling and overhauling ? The man that 

 will answer this for the farmers will be worthy of 

 a monument as high as Mount Washington. Such 

 manure ought not to cost more than $'5 per cord, 

 and it should have all the energy of half a ton of 

 patent manure. Wc have bought twelve hundred 

 pounds of Bradley's Phosphate, for which we 

 have to pay 3.^ cents per pound. Dear stuff at that 

 price. We are using it with green manure, a 

 spoonful to a hill with a shovelful of manure. 

 We are going to try it by putting half a shovelful 

 of muck mixed with lime, ashes and salt in the 

 hill, then drop the corn, and at v/eeding time put 

 on the phosphate. What think you ? 



iPuTNAM Tyler. 

 Marlow, -V. H., May 23, 1870. 



Remarks. — You are just the man to determine 

 the value of the Marlow muck, and to discover 

 the best and easiest way of using it. Try small 

 parcels in all ways you know or can think of, and 

 hold fast to the best. Try it with "dear stuff" 

 and cheap stuff; with much handling and little 

 handling ; dry it and use it to save all liquid ma- 

 nure at house and barn, cattle yard, sink spout 

 and privy, and that monument may be raised to 

 your memory. If your muck is a good absorbent 

 it has at least one very valuable quality. The 

 wise ones have glory enough in books and papers. 

 You can teach them more than they can teach you 

 about the use and value of muck. They "blow 

 bubbles," why may not you ? The portion of your 

 letter which you will see we have omitted shows 

 your ability to do so, though the editors, like men 

 walking among eggs, have to be a little careful 

 where they put their feet. 



OUR GEORGIA LETTER. 



I must acknowledge that I am slow and un- 

 faithful ; promising more than I can perform, ever 

 thinking I will do better in the future ; but always 

 behind. 



I have just been looking in your bound volume 

 of the Monthly Farmer for 1867, at some of the 

 articles on manure, of which I find more than 60 

 in that volume. While reauing some of them I 

 could not help thinking how much the farmers of 

 this county would gain by reading good agricul- 

 tural works, and thinking more on the subject, and 

 making their own manures instead of buying the 

 so called fertilizers. , 



I do not know the precise amount that is paid 

 out for agricultural publications in this county, 

 but I suppo.se from $100 to #150 yearly; while 

 there are paid from $100,000 to $150,000 for fertil- 

 izers. I have no doubt farmers will learn batter 

 before many years, but they are certaiuly payirg 

 dearly for their eciuiation. We have everything 

 that is leally necessary for the impravemcnt of 

 our lands, right around us, if only saved and 

 properly prepared and applied, gypsum excepted; 

 and that we shuuld have if we had everything 

 that is now purcnased. This is the only thing 

 that we do not have, and this it appears, we can 



