1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



535 



and their names had an unfamiliar sound. The 

 visitors appeared to take little interest in them, 

 or at most would admire the patience of the 

 exhibitor, and pass on. Now there are few 

 varieties and many contributors ; well filled 

 plates and baskets, and the crowding throng 

 tarry long to express their praise and discuss 

 the merits of the different specimens. The 

 increased interest and greater familiarity with 

 names and sorts, prove conclusively that fruit 

 culture is extending ; that the multitude now 

 can talk about apples, pears and grapes. In- 

 stead of aiming to produce an endless variety, 

 cultivators are coming down to a few. Be- 

 side the grapes originated by Mr. Rogers, 

 there were a few seedlings produced in the 

 county, which have some local reputation and 

 one or two more exhibited for the first time. 



The vegetable display was smaller than 

 usual. If the drought has affected them, the 

 specimens were generally larger than most 

 house-keepers would prefer to buy. The 

 Eirly Rose predominated among the potatoes, 

 but most of the samples were so large and 

 coarse looking that it was difficult to recog- 

 nize them. 



But I will not follow through the address, 

 dinner, after-dinner speeches, premiums, &c., 

 for I am reminded of your injunction to do up 

 county fairs briefly. Suffice it to say all 

 passed off pleasantly, and if farmers did not 

 derive some pleasure or benefit from this 

 gathering, it was their own fault. N. s. T. 



Lawrence, Mass., Sept. 30, 1870. 



For the New England Farmer. 



COTSWOLD SHEEP AND LAMBS. 



Some time since, I called the attention, 

 (through the columns of your paper,) of my 

 brother farmers to their sad neglect in regard 

 to improving their flocks of sheep, giving them 

 my experience in sheep breeding, and recom- 

 mending the Cotswold as the best kind of 

 sheep to keep. I again beg leave to call their 

 attention to the same subject. 



I have been engaged for the past year in 

 butchering, and I find too many mutton frames, 

 with but a very slight covering of meat and a 

 still lighter covering of wool. Consumers are 

 calling for better meat or for more meat and 

 less bones, but the butcher cannot get it un- 

 less the farmer will grow it for him ; and he 

 cannot much longer afford to pay farmers for 

 bones, because the American people have not 

 yet learned to eat them ; and, therefore, we 

 cannot find a market for them. 



If it will pay to keep sheep, will it not pay 

 to keep good ones? 1 answer, yes. Good 

 lambs were worth from the 15th of June to 

 the first of August of the present year, from 

 five to six dollars per head, for mutton. At 

 those prices no one can deny that sheep pay 

 as large or a larger net profit than any other 

 kind of farm stock ; but farmers are neglecting 

 their sheep and letting their flocks run down, 



because they say the sheep fever is over, and 

 it won't pay to bother with them. But the 

 fault is all with them ; the demand for good, 

 early lambs was larger than the supply the 

 present season, and no one can say that they 

 did not command prices that would pay well 

 for raising them. 



I called the attention of my brother farmers 

 to the Cotswold sheep as the right kind of 

 sheep to keep for mutton and wool combined. 

 I also asked them to try the experiment and 

 report to me this fall. Several have done 

 so, and are well pleased with the result. I 

 visited the flocks of one or two of them, while 

 on a visit to New Hampton, a few weeks ago. 

 One of them, Mr. Wm. R. Dearborn, of New 

 Hampton, (who has been for two or three 

 years past successfully replenishing his flock,) 

 bought last fall a pure bred Cotswold buck, 

 weighing three hundred and seventy-five 

 pounds, and used him with his sheep. I saw 

 his lambs in August ; he had a pen of six buck 

 lambs, selected to keep for breeders, which 

 were the best lambs I have seen this season. 

 I helped him weigh two of them at that time ; 

 one of them weighed 100 pounds, and the 

 other 112 pounds, and a ewe lamb weighed a 

 day or two after, 117 pounds. These lambs 

 would not average over four and a half months 

 old at the time they were weighed, and for 

 beauty of form, quantity and quality of wool, 

 I think it would be hard to find their equal. 

 A neighbor of Mr. D. v/eighed a lamb from a 

 grade Cotswold and South Down ewe, sired 

 by Mr. D.'s buck, at just three months old, 

 and he weighed 102 pounds ; another neighbor 

 of his carried his sheep to Mr. D.'s and paid 

 him $1 per head ; he had six lambs fiom four 

 sheep, and he had sold the six for $52. I 

 have a buck lamb, sired by his buck, that will 

 weigh 125 pounds, and a yearling ewe, sired 

 by the buck I bought of Mr. Hart, that weighs 

 150 pounds, and for beauty of form I never 

 saw her equal. I also keep my ewe that I 

 had of Mr. Hart. I should be happy to have 

 any one who has any doubts about their being 

 a good kind of sheep, call and see them, and 

 I would like to have them call and see Mr. 

 Dearborn's flock and examine them, and get 

 his opinion of the Cotswold sheep. 



I would like to have those interested in 

 sheep breeding, try the Cots wolds. We must 

 have better mutton, or the demand will die 

 out. I believe it will pay to raise mutton, and 

 an improvement in our mutton sheep will be 

 money in the pockets of all concerned, and a 

 source of wealth to the whole country. A 

 word to the wise is sufficient. 



A. L. Sanborn. 



Haverhill, Mass., Oct., 1870. 



—Of Peruvian gnano, the total export last year 

 was over 500,000 tons, of which Belgium took 

 82,000, England 196,000, and North America, 

 25,000 tons. 



