

■■"* 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



273 



manufacture into syrup a"? an entire success. 

 Tiie syrup when well made, is equal to the 

 golden syrup, Most of that we have seen, 

 has been imperfectly made. Experience is 

 necessary in this article of manufacture, to 

 attain superior excellence. We have given 

 the experience of many in this article. It 

 will be of Ecrvice to those who intend to 

 prosecute the cultivation of the cane. The 

 cultivation of the cane and the manufacture 

 of its juice, was aa unkno^'n field of experi- 

 ment. It is a marvel tliat the cultivators of 

 the cane have done as well as the results 

 show — a marvel to others and themselves. 

 All who have thus tested the plant, speak 

 with pleasure and delight of their eucces.^. 



The following will be the results of the 

 experiments the pasi season vrirh the Chirscse 

 sugar cane:— Its cultiTatieu '.vili be greatly 

 extended the coming year in Illinoi:;, the 

 growth of the cane will be better; better 

 apparatus will be provided for expressing Irs 

 jaice, snd converting it into syrup; the 

 syrup will ba far superior in quality, as a 

 general fact, thaa that made the present 

 year. It will be a profitable business; — 

 paying bettor than corn or wheat. The 

 syrup will bo consumed in oar State, and 

 thus keep io. it and in circulation a lar^e 

 amount of money now sent away for the 

 foreign article. We shall dispenes with 

 that vilhunO'US compound, brought to us 

 from a distance, of "green Sies, dead rats, 

 occasional non-dsscript luraps, which some 

 have supposed might be bits of little nig- 

 gers, and which goes under the names of 

 "Sugar House," ''Reboil," and "New Or- 

 loans Molasses." 



We have an abiding conviction that the 

 syrup of the Chinese sugar caQo will yet be 

 converted into the best sugar. 



THE GEAZIER. 



-o»- 



^^^•The "begasse," or stalk? of tlic Chinese 

 Sugar Cane, after the coispressiou of the juice, 

 have beeo convortoJ in Masaaehuseiis, into good 

 wrapping paper, 



*@== A large iraportatien of Llamas from 

 Peru, is expected in JS<sw York. Tljey are of 

 the variety from which the alpaca ^Y00l is ob- 

 tained. 



History of Fine Wool Sheep, 



The following, which we extract from the 

 speech delivered by Hon. J. CoUamer, "on 

 the Tariff and Wool interest," in the U. S. 

 Senate, February 26th, will be found high- 

 ly interesting to all classes of readers, and 

 especially to sheep breeders. It is in reply 

 to the suggestion of Mr. Hunter, of Vir- 

 ginia, that we did not raise fine wool in this 

 country. — [Yt. Watchman and State Jovir. 



There are no fine wools in the world, 

 raised anywhere on this earth, which are 

 not all from the same family of sheep. By 

 fine wool, I meantuch wool as is sometimes 

 called spinning wool, which is spun and wove 

 into broadcloths and kerseymeres, especially 

 those which are required to take a finish; 

 that if», after they are woven and fulled, 

 there is a face raised upon them, by either 

 carding or teaseling, and then they are 

 s.^eared and pressed and calendered, for the 

 purpose of making a finish on them. That 

 can be done only with fulling wool. Now, 

 where do the fulling woels come from? I 

 say they are all from the same family of 

 sheep. 



At the period of our earliest acquaint- 

 ance with Spain, there was found a certain 

 breed of s«eep called merino sheep. We 

 do cot know how early they were Ihere. 

 We have seen inklings that they were there 

 at as early a period as the Romans had con- 

 trol of the country. Where they come from 

 we knew not; but the word "merino" 

 means "over the sea," and it was connected 

 with the idea that these sheep came over the 

 sea, 60 that probably they were not in- 

 diginous to Spain originally. This is the 

 family of sheep out of which all the fine- 

 wool sheep of the world were produced. 

 For a number of centuries these sheep were 

 entirely owned by the nobility and royal 

 family of Spain. They were pastured ani 

 driven north in summer, and south in win- 

 ter, so that they were always kept on green 

 fields. They roamed south into Andalusia, 

 and north into Castile. For many centur- 

 ies meu were prohibited, under the most 

 severe penalties, from carrying any sheep 

 out of the kingdom. A min who exported 

 a sheep was sentenced to the galleys for life. 

 None of these sheep were obtained in tke 

 rest of Europe. In 1784 or 1185 — I will 

 not be exact in the date, but at any rate be- 

 tween 1780 and 1790— the Kiug of Spain 

 gave a flock of these sheep, forty in num- 

 ber, to George the Third. The English 

 King gave him, as a royal present in re- 

 turn, six English coach horses. These 



