1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
299 
two years (which I have proved), wheu pro- 
tected from the weather, every wool-shed 
where diseased sheep had heen shorn, would 
remain a nidus for the renewal of the disease 
during the next year's shearing ; and consequent- 
ly, it would be impossible to free a sheep farm 
of the disease when once established. 
It may be asked then, how is the disease 
propagated ? To which I answer that experi- 
ence leads to the view that it is the matter, or 
secretion from diseased sheep, being rubbed on 
the healthy sheep, when in close contact, that 
causes the disease, and the Acarus, like the itch 
insect in man, is bred from dirt, — or more accu- 
rately, the dirty aud unhealthy condition of 
scabbed sheep is favorable to the'developement 
and growth of the insect,— and doubtless keeps 
up an irritation in the skin of the sheep, aud 
thus intensifies the disease; consequently the 
greatest safeguard to the spread of the disease 
is proper quarantine regulations. We never 
find scab in sheep without the presence of the 
insect ; and in Australia, where sheep to the 
number of over one million were slaughtered, 
aud their carcasses and fleeces burned under the 
inspection of government officials, a great por- 
tion ot condemned sheep were not scabbed. I 
allude to this matter, as I find a popular error 
existing of calling all skin diseases of sheep, 
scab, where true scab does not exist at all. 
There is in Australia a common disease of 
sheep, very like -cab, and only to be distinguish- 
ed from it by the use of a magnifying glass ; it 
is caused by the seed of a kind of grass, which 
penetrating the skin, causes irritation and re- 
sulis similar to scab. There are, however, no 
Atari to be found, while the grass seed, in the 
early stages, may be found in the skin ; in the 
more advanced stages, however, the grass seed 
comes away with the suppuration, and the dis- 
ease can only be distinguished by the absence 
of Acari. This disease is not infectious, al- 
though affecting whole flocks, simply because 
exposed to the same cause, and removal to a 
more suitable feeding range cures the disease. 
Of the cure of scab, it is not my object to 
treat ; but I write to lay before your readers the 
results of my investigation, in order that some 
may be induced to take up the question, and by 
varying the conditions, that we may obtain 
valuable information which would be a guide 
for legislative interference should a severe 
epidemic of scab visit this country, as it did 
Australia, in the years mentioned. 
ii i ■ » — i ■ ■ — 
Left-handed Plows. 
The Hon. John }I. Millikin, of Ohio, in a pri- 
vate letter to " Walks and Talks 
writes : 
'•You must permit mc to express my surprise to 
learn that single line horses and left-handed 
plows are not in general use with you. A farm 
horse broken to the single line is worth twenty- 
five per cent more than one of the like quality 
and value in other respects, not so trained. As 
for the right-hand two-horse plows I would not 
accept them as a gift. There are many un- 
questioned advantages in left-handed plows. 
"1st.— You can plow more land per day or hour, 
because the lead-horse walking in the furrow 
aud controlling the off-horse, the width of the 
furrow is more uniform and regular. 
"2nd. — Youths and boys can make much let- 
ter work and do more of it, because the lead- 
horse moves straight ahead and veers neither 
to the right or the left. The boy, also, in con- 
sequence of the steady movement of the lead- 
horse in the furrow is less occupied in watching 
his team and can give more attention to the 
holding and management of his plow. 
" 3d.— For the same reasons an inexperienced 
plowman can do better work and more of it." 
In other words, where horses are trained 
to drive with a single line and the line 
is attached to the left-side bit of the left- 
side horse, left-handed plows are better than 
right-hand plows. This may be all true. But 
we suppose it is just as easy to train the right- 
hand horse to answer the line as the left- 
hand horse, and if this were the case right-hand 
plows would be best. It seems to depend en- 
tirely upon how the horses are trained. If the 
off-horse i3 the "lead-horse" we should have 
right-hand plows ; if the nigh horse is the " lead- 
horse," then we should have left-hand plows. 
And this seems to be all there is to it. The 
whole question turns on whether it is best to 
have the line in the right hand or in the left. 
The farmers of the South aud South-west, in 
driving wagons, etc., adopt the English custom 
of walking or sitting on the left side of the 
wagon, and, we presume, when they meet 
another team on the road they keep to the left 
in passing, and not to the right, as we do in the 
Eastern States. It may be that theirs is the 
better plan. But we do not see how the change 
can be brought about here, unless by an Act of 
Congress declaring that henceforth " all teams 
in passing each other on the road shall keep to 
the left ; and the left horse shall be considered 
aud is hereby constituted the 'lead-horse.'" 
We do not think that this is a favorable time to 
present this matter to Congress. In this section 
we have no " lead-horse" and can use left-hand 
plows or right-hand plows as we see fit. Where 
the left horse is the "lead-horse" it would seem 
desirable to have him in the furrow, and in this 
case left-hand plows should be used. 
Grazing Mntton Sheep. 
As population and the demand for good mut- 
ton increases, we shall pay more attention to 
grazing sheep. As yet, in many parts of the 
country, this subject is very imperfectly under- 
stood. Any one in the habit of reading the 
English agricultural papers will be struck with 
the importance attached to rich grazing land, 
and the efforts made by underdraiuing, top- 
dressing, boning, harrowing, etc., to secure a 
constant supply of nutritious grass. English 
travelers who visit us express surprise at the 
poverty of our pastures, and attribute it to the 
dryness of our climate. We believe that were as 
much attention paid to our grass land as is done 
in England, it would be equally productive. 
One of the readiest and most profitable means 
of enriching our grass lands is to graze them 
wirii sheep and feed oil-cake, or peas, beans or 
bran to the sheep while at pasture. As yet we 
have done scarcely anything in this direction. 
When the country was new, land cheap, aud 
population sparse, it might not have paid to 
adopt this course; but the time has come in 
many sections of the couutry when it can be 
practised with great advantage, aud it is im- 
portant to ascertain what kind of sheep we 
should select for the purpose. An English farm- 
er, in a recent number of the London Farmer's 
Magazine, gives his views on this subject. He 
has " grazed to a considerable extent the fol- 
lowing 'half-breeds.' (1) The produce of the 
Leicester ram and South-Down ewe; (2) the 
produce of the Lincoln ram and South-Down 
ewe; (3) the Cotswold ram and South-Down 
ewe, and (41 the Oxford-Down ram and the 
Lincoln ewe, and ail from equally good sources." 
If we may take the South-Down ewes as repre- 
senting our common class of sheep, his experi- 
ence will be of much interest to the American 
farmer. Iu brief, then, he found that the pro- 
duce of the Lincoln ram was " too varied," 
" denoting," he says, " the cross to have been 
too extreme in affinity." The grazing of them, 
including the weight of wool produced, was 
tolerably satisfactory ; but " they were too long 
in coming to maturity, ' too long on the laud.' " 
The Leicester cross were smaller in frame, 
more compact, and they arrived at maturity 
much sooner ; but their yield of wool and mut- 
ton did not equal the Lincoln cross. 
The Oxford-Down ram and the Lincoln ewe 
cross was from his own breeding ewes. "They 
were grazed last season along with several 
hundred other half-breeds, principally from the 
Cotswold aud South-Down cross; but not with 
equally profitable results, some of them being 
the last to arrive at like maturity, all, however, 
being fatted off withiu the year, as were also 
the Cotswold half-breeds." The Cotswold cross 
he considers the most valuable, and as he is 
evidently a farmer of large experience we will 
quote what he says on this point : 
"The true Cotswold sheep is the largest and 
best formed sheep of the large breeds that we 
possess, and has a great propensity to fatten at 
an earl}' age. He grows rapidly, and produces 
a good fleece of wool, of rather fine character 
for a long-wooled breed. It is for the most part 
of a closer kind than other wools. This, with 
their other characteristics, their noble carriage, 
expansive chests, rotund frames, capital rumps, 
great weight, and handsome looks, admirably 
fits them to become the sires of this extraordi- 
nary class or stock of ' half-breeds.' It is almost 
out of character to witness one of these gigantic 
rams performing his duties amongst a flock of 
beautiful South-Down ewes, but the produce 
is eminently satisfactory. They grow up quick- 
ly aud healthily, and arrive at great weights in 
from twelve to fifteen months. Many thousands 
of these hoggets are annually fattened off iu the 
eastern counties at twelve mouths." 
He thinks this " one of the best breeds for 
summer grazing." But it should be understood 
that they must have either a very rich pasture, 
or be supplied with " cake and corn." In fact, 
we regard this as one of their great merits. A 
flock of sheep to which we can profitably feed 
oil-cake during the grazing season will prove of 
almost inestimable value. The practice would 
soon give us the best of pastures aud in the end 
enrich the whole farm. 
Realizing an Ideal. 
Though the farmer is mainly occupied with 
material things,there is no field of toil where ideas 
are more important, or work greater changes 
than the farm. Every one who has cultivated 
the same acres for a dozen years or more, can 
see pretty clearly what his ideal has been. If 
there have been no improvement iu the soil, no 
trees planted, no barus built, no comforts ad- 
ded to the home, no better style of living, the 
main idea has been animal existence. He has 
raised potatoes, corn aud wheat, beef, butter and 
pork, and clothed and fed his family, and possi- 
bly sent his children out to shift for themselves 
with as poor views of life as his own. The 
soil that 1ms yielded him subsistence is no way 
blessed by his presence. Its capacity to bless 
oihers has probably been greatly diminished, 
and he bequeaths to his successor pastures doub- 
