THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
203 
sou ii ui i;, uie lerui //s/fii’s is approp iated 
to a plant technically called 
entirely distinct from the preceding and of in- 
ferior value. This discrepancy is liable to 
cause annoying mis akes, and has even been the 
occasion of litigation between the seedsmen ol 
Boston and Philadelphia. I can perceive no 
remedy lor the errors and confusion resulting 
from a loose and variable popular nomenclature 
but a resort to the precise scientific names im- 
posed bv systemat.c writers. The use of popu- 
lar names may answer every purpose in collo- 
quial intercourse with our neighbors; but when 
•we wish to be explicitly understood by strin- 
gers, or by persons in trade, it would be better 
to employ the exact language of science, and to 
use tnose names for objects which have a speci- 
fic meaning, recognised by all the world. Nor 
need this be regarded as an onerous task, so 
far as the practical farmer is concerned. To 
attempt to master the nomenclature of the whole 
vegetable kingdom would indeed be a hopeless 
and futile undertaking, but to be able U, desig- 
nate by the appropriate names all those plants 
■which he finds deserving on his grounds is an 
accomplishment which every young tanner, at 
least, .should resolve to acquire. In the middle 
States there are to be met with on our farms 
perhaps one hundred species ot plants which 
claim attention, either lor their valuable or per- 
nicious qualities, or which ought to be expelled 
as worthle.ss occupants to the soil. These ought 
to be well known to every farmer; and surely 
no intelligent man can doubt his ability to learn 
the names and characters of that number, when 
he recollects the lacility with which all the wmrld 
acquired the scientific name of a plant of recent 
notoriety. The classical name of Morns Mul- 
ticaulis has become as familiar as a household 
word in the mouths of the most illiterate rustics 
in the land; and it would be a libel on the in- 
tellect of American farmers to insinuate that 
they could not become equally well acquainted 
with those other plants which are daily belore 
their eyes, either claiming their care or requi- 
ring extirpation. 
In truth, the well-bred agriculturist, whose 
business it eminently is to study and turn to 
good account the products of the soil, ought to 
know the name, the character, and the entire 
historv ol every plant that he meets with on his 
premises, or approaches him from those of his 
neighbors : but all I ask as a commencement is, 
that he should learn to know the limited num- 
ber which it is his immediate interest to know, 
and of which it is disreputable as well as disad- 
vantageous to be ignorant. Many worthy per- 
sons, I am aware, allege as an excuse for their 
deficienev in this kind of knowledge that they 
have no! time to acquire it; but 1 beg leave to 
intimate to such, that they have mistaken the 
nature of their complaint. It is not so much 
the want of time which afflicts them, as the 
want of taste and the neglect of opportunities. 
We all idle away countless hours ot our exis- 
tence, and especially in the morning of life, which 
might be successfully devoted to the attainment 
ot useful knowledge. Taste is a faculty which 
can be cultivated; and opportunities to be impro- 
ved happen to all men. It is impossible for an in- 
telligent observer to ramble amid the works of 
creation without acquiring some knowledge of 
their character; and if he cultivates the habit, 
he will insensibly accumulate an amount of in- 
formation, which, to the careless, seems to be 
the result of long and laborious research. Some 
of the most successful students of nature I have 
ever known prosecuted their inquiries under a 
constant pressure of the every-day cares and 
duties of life, and yet were remarkable for the 
exemplary perlormance of those duties. It will 
not avail, therefore, in this age and nation, to 
plead a want of time as an excuse lor neglect- 
ing those attainments which are due alike to 
the best interests and to the high character of 
our profession. But if the practical farmer 
shall still insist that it is incompatible with his 
turn of mind and habitual employments to in- 
dulge in this kind of research, there is a simple 
and ready method by which he may obtain a suffi- 
cient knowledge of all ihe plants which present 
themselves to his notice, and seem to require 
his attention. Let him collect a fair specimen 
of every such plant, both in flower and fro it; 
let the specimen be carefully pressed and dried 
so as to exhibit the characters; and let each 
species be preserved in a distinct sheet of pa- 
paper, accompanied with a label, designating 
the place of growth, the date of collection, an 1 the 
common name or names by which it may be 
known, together with any remarks that may 
tend to illustrate its history or properties. The 
specimens, thus prepared, will then require 
nothing more than the scientific names to deter- 
mine their identity when spoken of, and to ren- 
der them intelligible to all the world. Those 
names can be readily obtained from botanical 
friends, who always take pleasure in affording 
such information ; and thus, with a very trifling 
labor, (I should laiher call it an instructive 
amusement,) and in the compass of a conveni- 
ent volume, the farmer may have always at 
hand the means of knowing by name, by 
sight and by character all the plants of his vi- 
cinage in which he has the slightest interest. 
When memory fails, or doubts a-ise concerning 
the identity of any particular species, he can 
turn to the standard specimens in his little Her- 
barium, as the scholar does to his dictionary, in 
the full confidence of obtaining asolution of his 
difficulties. His knowledge will be of that au- 
thentic kind which results from ocular demon- 
stration ; and by employing terms which con- 
vey definite ideas, he can communicate what 
he knows with clearness and precision. 
Upon this simple and feasible plan maybe 
obtained a fund of accurate information, which 
would serve as a basis, or starting point, for 
more extended a"d important attainments. The 
intercourse between agriculturists would be- 
come more interesting and profitable, because 
they would better understand each other. In 
discussing ihe merits or demerits ot any given 
plant, they would know exactly what they were 
talking about; and not waste their arguments, 
as they sometimes do, under ah utter miscon- 
ception of the object in dispute. A Kentuckian 
and a Pennsylvanian, for example, are liable 
to exchange opinions concerning the value of 
‘'Blue Grass,'’ in their pastures, without being 
aware that they have reference to entirely dis- 
tinct species. Similar mistakes often occur in 
relation to noxious w'eeds. I have seen an ex- 
cellent farmer waging war with the common 
loild chamomile, t^Anthemis Cotula, L.) in the be- 
lief that he was contending wnth the Ox-eye 
Daisy, ( Chrysanthemum Lucanthemum, L) a 
vile nuisance, w'hich has been permitted, partly 
by ignorance, but more by a culpable negligence, 
to overrun a large portion of our country: and 
in one ol our gazettes, a few years since, a se- 
ries of vigorous essays appeared, calling the at- 
tention of farmers to the wild Teasel, {Dipsacus 
syvlestris, L.) a comparatively harmless bienni- 
al, and denouncing it under the full persuasion 
of its being that formidable pest, the Canada 
Thistle, {Circuim arvense, Seep;) while the real 
Canada Thistle was extending itself, in the im- 
mediate vicinity of the essayist, unnoticed and 
unknown ! 
Such errors are not only prejudicial to the 
farming interest, but absolutely disreputable to 
the profession : and I have so much of the esprit 
de corps about me, that 1 am ambitious to see a 
correct knowledge of those objects which imme- 
diately concern me diffused throughout the 
whole agricultural community. I certainly be- 
lieve it to be entirely practicable, in the mode 
I have indicated, otherwise I should not have 
ventured to trespass upon your time and pa- 
tience in urging its attainment. 
I have insisted upon the necessity of studying 
the character of weeds, as well as of useful plants, 
because it will be found that the pernicious and 
worthless species amount to more than three- 
fourths of all those which occur on our farms, 
in this latitude : and, I may add, that nine-tenths 
of the most pestilent intruders have been intro- 
duced from abroad. Hence it is indispensable 
to neat farming to possess a knowledge of all 
that ought to be excluded from our premises, as 
well as of those deserving culture. We should 
not onlj' have this knowledge, but it must bs 
accompanied by unceasing vigilance. The ut- 
most care should be observed in the selection 
of seeds 5 and whenever a plant of strange or 
suspicious character makes its appearance it 
should be promptly attended to. Many w'eeds 
are disseminated in a single season, so as to 
cause much labor and f rouble in getting rid of 
them; and a few years of slovenly neglect will 
often render their thorough extirpation an al- 
most hopeless task. There should be a cordial 
co-operation among the whole fraternity in re- 
si'ting noxious invadeis; lor the carelessness 
ol one individual may be a source ol grievous 
annoyance to a whole neighborhood. The s’o- 
ven should be shamed out of his negligence, 
and the ignorant induced to seek knowledge by 
the successful e.TC7?iyiZe ot his brethren ; forex- 
ample will ever be found contagious — as well 
for good as for evil. 
From the American Agriculturist. 
MERINO (SHEEP. 
Raving of late taken much interest in the 
growth ot wool, and incidemly in the best breed 
of sheep forthat purpose, I have concluded from 
all that 1 can learn of the present flock-masters 
of the country, the prices ol wool, and the con- 
dition of our American lands lor the wool-grow’- 
ing, that the original Spanish sheep, of the im- 
portation from lS02 to 1815, are the best for the 
general farmer, and particularly lor my own 
purposes. Many years since, I was interested 
in the sheep of some ol those importations, and 
1 well recollect their fine, substantial forms; 
their well-covered bodies; and the beautiluland 
unilorm fleeces which they annually yielded. 
But, so far as 1 can understand, those animals 
have many years ago passed away in the droop- 
ing interest that our people have suffered in the 
production of the valuable wools; and more 
than that, in the impatient, fidgety, and uneasy 
propensity of the American character to change 
and cross everything of the animal kind which 
they possess, and the proverbial disposition we 
have of not “ letting well enough aloiic.” 
The upshot of all this is, that the ancient 
flocks ot our Merinos, (by ancient, I mean from. 
25 to 40 years ago.) have been Saxonized by the 
numerous flocks imported in the years 1825, ’6, 
and ’7, principally in speculation. Indeed, 
these animals, vastly inferior, in my estimation, 
for the interest of the American wool-grower, to’ 
the Spanish sheep, were greedily, and without 
due deliberation, seized upon by the breeders to 
improve them. The result has been, an abso- 
lute deterioration of their flocks, in constitution, 
size and weight ol fleece, and as I too much 
lear, the almost extinction of the true descend- 
ants of the old Spanish sheep from our country. 
At all events, I have examined several flocks 
the past season, and among them all I seldom 
recognised anything that came up to the splen- 
did old originals of the early Spanish sheep im- 
ported by Livingston and Humphrey in the ear- 
ly days, and afterward in many select flocks, by 
several other distinguished sheep fanciers and 
breeders of that day. There was a character of 
nobility in their look; a cavalier measure in 
their tread ; and the dignity of an old Spanish 
don in their presence, which outmeasured any- 
thing now seen, except occasionally, among the 
so-styled Merino flocks ofthe country. This de- 
terioration is admitted by all with whom I con- 
versed, to be caused by the promiscuous breed- 
ing in of the Saxons with the Merinos. In cor- 
roboration of this sentiment, I have also the 
opinions of some of the largest wool merchants 
ot the northern, and eastern cities, who unequi- 
vocally declare, that the qualities of our wool 
have gradually been changing from the fine, 
close, yellow fleece ofthe Spanish Merino, into 
the texture ofthe less hardy, yet finer and whi- 
ter, Saxon. 
I have for some months been much interested 
in a sort of controversy which has been carried 
on in your paper regarding the merits of some 
sheep, described as being bred in Vermont, and 
