THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
port, it is said, will not exceed per headj 
cost of transportation to a port in the United 
States, is supposed not to exceed S20 — making 
cost in Charleston or Savannah, S25. To this, 
should be added the expenses of a native shep- 
herd, who should, in all cases, be got to fake 
charge of the animals during the voyage. 
English noblemen and farmers are bestowing 
great attention on the introduction of the Alpaca 
into England and Scotland j and thus far, their 
efforts have met with extraordinary success. 
Why should not our planters be eager to engage 
in an enterprise, that may add so much to the 
resources of our country'? The only serious 
impediment that we can see in the way, dis- 
couraging every thing like enterprise in the 
business of wool growing, or the introduction 
of the .Alpaca, comes from the multitude of 
worthless dogs with which the country is infest- 
ed. Mr. Chiles, of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, 
recently lost seventy select fine wooled breeding 
ewes in one night, by dogs. It can't be too often 
repeated, that before our people undertake rais‘ 
ing either Sheep or Alpacas, with any reasona- 
ble expectation of success, they must besupplied 
with the shepherd’s dog. Of this most faithful 
and most useful animal, we add hereunto an 
account taken from the Salem Register, Ohio> 
into which paper it was copied from a late 
English work: 
THE SHEPHERD’S DOG. 
The shepherd’s dog in his own department is 
a perfect miracle of intelligence. He under- 
stands the sign, the voice, the look of his mas- 
ter. He collects the scattered sheep at the 
slightest signal, separates any one that is indi- 
cated froni the rest of the flock, drives them 
wherever he is told, and keeps them all the while 
under perfect control, less by his active exer- 
tions than by the modulations of his voice, 
which expresses every tone from gentle instruc- 
tion to angry menace. These are his o.rdinary 
performances, visible every day in a thousand 
pastures. But he can do greater wonders. It 
chanced one night that seven hundred lambs, 
committed to the keeping of the Ettrick shepr 
herd, broke loose from his control and scampered 
away in three divisions over hill and plain. 
“Sirrah, my man,” said Hogg mournfully to 
his colly, meaning it for an expression of grief, 
and notfbra direction, “they’re awa.” Silently 
and without his master’s knowledge, for it was 
too dark to see, the dog left his side, while the 
shepherd passed the hours till morning in a 
weary and fruitless search after his wandering 
charge. At the dawn of the day he was about 
to return home with a heart full of despair, when 
he caught a sight of Sirrah guarding at the bot- 
tom of a deep ravine, not, as he at first suppos- 
ed, one division of the lambs, but the whole 
of the vast flock, without a solitary exception. 
“It was,” says James Hogg, “the most extra- 
ordinary circumstance that had ever occurred in 
my pastoral life. Blow he had got all the divis- 
ions collected in the dark, is beyond my com- 
prehension. The charge was left entirely to 
himself, from midnight until the rising of the 
sun, and if all the shepherds in the forest had 
been there to have assisted him, they could not 
have effected it with greater propriety.” On 
another occasion the same famous shepherd saw 
a dog, when it was utterly dark, put upon the 
path of a ewe that had been lost by her owner 
neai a neighbor’s farm, and which was supposed 
to have mingled with her fellows that were feed- 
ing in the surrounding pastures. “Chieftain,” 
said the master of the dog, pointing to the spot 
from which the sheep had gone offi “fetch that, 
I say, sir — bring that back; away.” Andaway 
he went, and back he brought, in halt an hour, 
the identical sheep. A sheep-stealer, who was 
at last discovered and hange *, used to carry on 
his trade by secretly signifying the particular 
sheep that he desired out of a large flock, as he 
viewed them under the pretence of purchasing, 
to his dog, who, returning bv himself a distance 
of several miles at night, drove the selected 
sheep, which was undoubtedly the fattest, to 
his fastidious owner. Both Scott and Hogg re- 
late thispicturesque story more circumstantially 
from the annals of the Justiciary Court, in Scot- 
land. Sir ThomasWilde knew aninstancein 
which three oxen out of some score, had mingled 
with another herd. “Go fetch them,” was all 
the instruction the drover gave his dog, and he 
instantly brought along with him those very 
three. A cattle dealer, accustomed to drive his 
beasts for nine miles to- Alston, in Cumberland, 
once for a w’ager, sent them alone with his dog. 
The animal perlecfcly understood his commis- 
sion. He kept the straight road, ran, when he 
came to a strange drove, to the head ol his own 
to stop their progress, put the beasts that blocked 
the path upon one side, then went back again to 
the rear to hie on his charge, and thus adroitly 
steering his way and keeping his herd together, 
he carried them safely to the destined yard, and 
signified their arrival by barking at the door of 
the dwelling. 
Agricultural Education. 
Even in North Carolina they are going ahead 
of us in the- business of agricultural education. 
An agricultural school has been recently estab- 
lished in Ashe county, in that State, under the 
patronage of Bishop Ives. The establishment 
comprises about five hundred acres ol land, with 
the necessary buildings. The pupils are re- 
quired to labor, only so much as may be neces- 
sary to illustrate practically the principles they 
are taught in the school. In all the branches of 
a liberal education, the course of instruction is 
thoroush. The expenses are one hundred and 
t wenty-five dollars per year, for tuition, board, 
washing and fuel. 
In connection herewith, we copy from the 
Southern Planter a letter from Bishop Ives to 
the Editor : 
Raleigh, March 12, 184-5. 
My De.\r Sir— Many thanks for your very 
interesting and useful publication, which I have 
received; also, for the straw cutter, which I- 
hope soon to receive. The progress in agricul- 
tural knowledge and improvement, is most gra- 
tilying. The evidence.? of increased interest in 
the subject here, are striking. The book mer- 
chants, Turner & Hughes, inform me, that du- 
ring the late sitting of our Legislature, more 
books on agriculture were disposed of than had 
been for ihe previous seventeen years, the length 
of time in which they had done business in this 
place. This is encouraging, not only to the 
worldly economist, but to the Christian minis- 
ter, for I regard the cultivation ol the soil as 
intimately connected with the religion and mo- 
rality of a country. My own observation has 
led to this conviction, and hence, in an attempt 
to do something for the spiritual interests of our 
roving mountaineers, I have felt it my duty to 
endeavor, firs,t of all, to break up their habits of 
idleness and hunting, and infuse among them a 
spirit for the improvement of their rich, but 
neglected lands. Indeed, I look to the change 
of feeling now going on in favor o( agriculture 
in this State, as one of the most promising signs 
of the tinges, both in regard to ihe ph3'sical and 
moral advancement ol the people. 
E.'ccuse these quite unintentional remarks. 
At a luture time, 1 may take up this subject in 
earnest, with a view to aid in ihe impression 
which your deserving periodical is slowly, but 
surely producing in favor of agriculture. 
With the truest regard, your friend and ser- 
vant, L. S. Ives. 
We cannot close this article more appropri- 
ately, than by making an extract or two from 
an address delivered in October last, by Ralph 
R. Phelps, before the Hartford County (Con- 
necticut) Agricultural Society ; by the way, one 
of the very best of the very many good essays 
on domestic economy and home education, 
which we are indebted to the Yankees for. 
Speaking of the disposition of young men “to 
leave the farm for a profession, a clerkship, a 
trade, or even a pedlar’s trunk or cart,” he as- 
signs, among the causes of the prevalence of 
this spirit, “false ideas of honor and respecta- 
bility, surly, morose and scolding habits of pa- 
rents,” and “ the rough, uncouth and comfor,- 
less appearance of many farmers’ houses and 
out-buildings.” Mr. P. then proceeds to point 
out a remedy, as follows : 
“ Let no farmer’s wife think her children (oo. 
good to labor; but on the contrary, let her strive 
early to fix habits of industry. Let every mo- 
ther teach her sons, that while labor on the farm 
is honorable, idleness, ignorance and vice alone 
bring reproach.. And when this lesson is tho- 
roughly impressed on the mind of her son, and 
corresponding habits are formed, that son will 
be likely to make an efficient man and a useful 
citizen, whether he be following a profession, or 
be engaged in the more sate and more pleasant 
pursuit of agriculture. But when the mother, 
without this lesson, and without these habits, 
undertakes to make her son a gentleman, she is 
lar more likely to make him a loafer. 
“ Let parents labor to give all their children a 
good education. Let the absurd notion, that a 
farmer needs no education, be banished from 
every dwelling. There is no pursuit where in- 
telligence and a well cultivated and a well dis- 
ciplined mind ‘is more necessary, than in the 
proper management of the farm. Let the mind 
be enlarged by a knowledge of history, political 
economy, and especially the sciences connected 
with agriculture. Let the young farmer enrich 
his mind by general reading. Let him tho- 
roughly understand our political institutions ; 
and be able to judge ol his political rights and 
duties, without the aid ol some demagogue, who 
had rather devote his time to watching over the 
public interests, than to the pursuit of honest 
industry. In short, let the farmer be able to 
reason, to examine and to judge lor himself, and 
he will soon take the elevated rank in society to 
which his calling entitles him, and he will no 
longer have ihe opportunity of complaining that 
professional men have too much influence. 
This will have a great tendency to attach far= 
mers’ sons to their homes and to their farms.” 
For the /Southern Cultivator. 
Deep Plowing. 
Mr. Camas— B y your request, Igive you the 
result of a trial made by myself the last year 
in deep plowing. Having received, late in Feb- 
ruary, several varieties of wheat, distributed 
from the Patent o^ce, I immediately prepared 
a small piece of ground in the following man- 
ner: first, 1 ran a good turning plow and follow- 
ed in the same lurraw with a long scooter. I 
attended to it in person, and am certain that the 
ground was thoroughly broken, to the depth oi 
both ploivs. The wheat, as I feared, was too 
late, and was destroyed by the rust. A thick 
coat of crab grass came up and was suffered to 
grow until August, when it was cut and cured — 
making, on about a quarter of an acre, three cart 
loads of most excellent hay of unusual length, 
measuring three feet and upwards. Indeed, it 
was the thiekest and most luxuriant plat of 
grass I ever saw. 
The land was without manure ; the season was 
unusually dry, so much so, that 1 made but lit- 
tle over "half a crop of corn, 1 had another 
piece of land left for the purpose of making hay, 
which 1 know to be a great deal richer, having 
had the drainings ol the horse-lot for years. 
