393 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
Skunks Destroy Honey Bees, 
• — 
Mr. M. S. Snow, Forestville, Chautauqua Co., 
N. Y., reports to the American AgrieuUurist an 
original observation in regard to tlie fact stated 
in the heading of this article. He writes : 
" It is a well-known fact that Skunks dig out 
the nests of the Bumble bee, taking the bees, but 
leaving the honey undisturbed. There is hard- 
ly a fiirnier, or farmer's son, but has met with 
their woi^c while going about the pastures and 
meadows. But it will surprise people to know 
that they will attack bees in their hives and eat 
them readily, as though they were harm- 
less as flies. This occurs when the hives are 
near the ground, or within tlieir reach. Tliey 
carry on the work de.Ktrously. If no bees are 
outside, and the pickets are withdrawn, they 
will actually stick their noses into the hives and 
snuff, to bring them to a sense of their duty ; 
and when they come out, they take them riglit 
and left. At other times they scratch upon the 
hive to accomplish the desired effect. Those 
who keep hives near the earth, and find the 
alighting boards considerably soiled, and the 
grass or earth scratched over, may be sure that 
skunks have been at the bees. This is a matter 
of my own original observation." 
A Talk on Sheep Breedui§f. 
■ 
Mutton and wool being the products of the 
Domestic Sheep, the one, or the other, or both 
equally, are the especial aim of the slieep keep- 
er. Improvements in the carcasses of sheep 
of particular breeds have been attempted, and 
resulted in distinguished success. Efforts to 
cause flocks of sheep to yield finer wool and 
heavier fleeces, have also been eminently happy 
in their results. It seems as if slieep breeders liad, 
at least until lately, regarded good mutton with 
a well shaped carcass as incompatilile, or unde- 
sirable, in the fine-wool producing breeds. That 
mutton is a less than secondary consideration 
with fine-wool growers is natural enough, for 
while mutton sheep live but a few years ordi- 
narily, and are best kept in rather small flocks 
and conveniently near to market, fine-wool 
sheep are allowed to live, and are fattened and 
killed, often, only when their teeth give out. 
Tliey may be kept too in large flocks at a great 
distance from market, their product of wool be- 
ing easily packed and safely transported. Hence 
hardiness, and vigor of constitution, are of much 
more importance than fitness of the carcass for 
the tabic. No small portion of the mutton rais- 
er's profits arises from the wool, hence to him the 
latter is of more importance than is mutton to 
the wool raiser. The kinds of wool too, which 
are yielded by the mutton breeds of sheep, meet 
an active and constant demand in the market. 
The r.tteution of farmers has within a few 
years past been called especially to improve- 
ments in the Spanish Merino sheep. The 
sheep are larger, yield heavier fleeces (and 
more wool), and being thoroughly acclimated, 
are probably hardier than when first intro- 
duced. Spanish sheep were taken not only 
to America, but into France and Saxony, and 
from Saxony into this country, Silesia and Rus- 
sia, and in each of these countries were subject 
to peculiar treatment in accordance witli the 
views of the sheep breeders in whose hands 
they were ; hence we have several quite distinct 
breeds of Merino sheep, all departing more or 
less from the original type of the best Spanish 
flocks, which varied also among themselves. 
In all the great advances that have been made 
in the breeding of cattle, sheep, or other ani- 
mals, it has been the object of breeders to 
dhect the vital strength of the animal to the de- 
velopment of the most valuable portions, and to 
do away with the useless or less valuable por- 
tions, — to "breed in" good points, and to 
" breed out" bad ones. In the short-horn cattle, 
for instance, big heads and horns, coarse fleshy 
tails and legs, and skinny necks, are bred out ; 
and fine bony heads, thin tails, small bones, sin- 
ewy legs and thin necks, free from dewlaps, are 
bred in. A similar course was followed by 
Bakewell, in improving the long-wool sheep. 
It becomes fine-wool sheep breeders to in- 
quire candidly whether the system hitherto 
practiced by them is founded upon as correct 
principles. We have been painfully impressed 
with the fact that many lireeders of American 
Merinos, at least in their conversation about their 
sheep, and in indicating their good points, talk 
more about the color and abundance of the 
yolk, and the number and position of the 
wrinkles, than about the quantity, strength, 
and fineness of their wool, their well-shaped 
bodies and hardy constitutions. 
There is a tendency in the Merinos to 
wrinkle — that is for the skins to be veiy loose 
and lie in folds or wrinkles over the body. Now 
as no more wool grows on a wrinkley sheep than 
on a smooth one, and as wrinkles make a fleece 
harder to shear, and as the wool is not bo uni- 
form and good on the wrinkles and between 
them as upon smooth parts of tlie body, we say 
wrinkles are useless, a nuisance, a deformity, and 
should be bred out if possible. Yet some of 
these breeders seem to pride themselves in 
wrinkles, and show them off as if tliey were 
one of the greatest merits their sheep possessed. 
Moreover there is also a natural tendency in 
all sheep, and especially in fine-wool sheep, to 
secrete an oily soap in the wool, which is called 
grease or yolk. This prevents the felling of the 
wool, and its getting dry and breaking ; it pre- 
vents also the moth attacking the fleece, and may 
have other uses, but a maximum good effect is 
attained with a comparatively small portion of 
yolk. It seems to us tliat the greatest quan- 
tity really needed, cannot be more thai^twice 
the weight of the wool. Yet many wiUwring 
locks of fleece, and exhibit witli great glee tlie 
drops of oil which exude from tliem, and actu- 
ally claim it as a great merit. The production of 
10, 15, or 20 pounds of this greasy soap, (which 
is not uncommon), containing as it does about 
83 per cent of potash, is a serious tax upon the 
vital powers of the sheep; it is moreover use- 
less, a tax upon the land, and an unnecessary 
weight to transport to market. Hence we con- 
demn excessively greasy fleeces. The weight of 
the fleece is no criterion of the actual weight of 
wool it contains. Manufacturers know this, and 
avoid the jiurchase of this greasy wool, or pay 
for it only very safe prices. 
The mutton sheep of the improved breeds are 
hornless, both ewes and rams. The rams of 
fine wool breeds all carry heavy horns as a gen- 
eral rule. These are ornamental, it is true, and 
a wrinkled head with its ponderouscircumvolut- 
ed and gnarly horns, is very picturesque upon a 
flock leader ; but horns are useless, a great tax 
upon the vital powers to produce, dangerous 
weapons besides. Why not then breed out the 
horns ? It may be easily done. Years ago an 
American sheep fancier ably advocated smooth, 
no-horned Merinos, and actually bred them. 
And we must record our hope and anticipation 
that before long we shall have a breed of har- 
dy, good-bodied, short-legged, smooth, fino- 
wool sheep, peculiarly American in common- 
sense fitness for their iises. 
We were ver}' much gratified to observe that 
the judges at the late New York State Fair at 
Saratoga awarded a first prize to a Vermont 
Merino ram nearly hornless — having a single 
horn not bigger than one's finger. A Vermont 
breeder of fame, not less than Mr. Hammond's, 
shook his head and said : " That never could 
have happened in Addison Count}-." — We hope 
it may some day. 
Mr. Hammond and the other sheep breeders 
of Vermont, who have made sucli improvements 
upon the original Spanish sheep, have certainly 
gained a much better form for their sheep. They 
are less leggy, their bodies are more compact 
and deeper, they are heavier fleeced, and there 
is more wool in the fleece. The wool besides 
grows all over the slieep, covering the legs and 
the bare spots whicli used to be on the bellies, 
and, though not so fine, it is of greater length. 
We give a fine portrait of one of these sheep, 
winner of one of the first prizes at the New 
England and Vermont Fair, on our first page. 
It exhibits well the striking peculiarities of the 
breed. It is claimed by the breeders, wlio ap- 
pear to set a high value on wrinkles and grease, 
that these are marks of vigor of constitution 
and ability to transmit their good qu.alities to 
the progeny. This we are not inclined to dis- 
pute, but would like to have the proof. 
Chicken Ailments. 
Gapes. — Our discussion of this subject in 
former numbers has been tolerably full, but es- 
pecially bearing upon a cure — which is effected 
by removing by a feather-tip the worms in the 
windpipes of the chickens, which are the cause. 
The prevention of the ailment is thus treated 
of in a communication to the American Agri- 
culturist by N. B. Worthington, Esq., Editor 
of the American Farmer, of Baltimore, which 
journal, though suspended during the war, is 
now a welcome monthly visitor. 
"I have a word to say to the 'wide, wide 
world ' of Chickendom, and ask your permis- 
sion to say it through the Agriculturist. Here, 
in Maryland, I have insisted over and again, 
tliat chickens must not have ' Gapes,' and our 
well bred chickens will no more gape in your 
presence, than the well bred boys and girls will 
yawn before folks. Elsewhere, I find that 
chickens are gaping still, and scarcely an agri- 
cultural Journal, but a remedy is asked or giv- 
en. A favorite one is to throttle the poor in- 
nocent, and, with a feather or hair, twist a bunch 
of worms out of its throat. This may cure, when 
it does not kill, but it reminds me too much of 
an attempt I made in my young days to un- 
choke an ox, that had an apple in his throat. 
My bungling attempts killed him. I let the next 
one alone, and he managed the apple himself. 
The chickens may not be so successful, but hav- 
ing tried this and many otlier remedies, I would, 
if my chickens had gapes, which they have not, 
diligently let them alone. So much for remedies. 
" For preventives, the New England Farmer 
says : ' This disease is caused by colds and sore 
throat, which the chickens get by wandering in 
the wet grass,' and the preventive is to keep 
them dr}-. A Bucks Co. coi'respondeiit of tlie 
Germantown Telegraph, replies: 'How is it 
that they never get that complaint when fed on 
wheat screenings, and allowed to run when and 
where they please ? ' This writer adds : ' Years 
ago, we fed exclusively on Indian meal, and in- 
variably had the ' gapes ' to contend with.' 
