17S 
Electricity and. Vegetation—Fauiar Merinos* 
ficiently well established, that people may 
prepare their plan of operations for the 
coming season. Hundreds of dollars are 
frequently lost or saved to the farmer, by 
a lucky or unlucky hit in their crops, timber, 
and other operations. The converse of our 
proposition was true of last year, the sum¬ 
mer being very dry, by which there was 
little evaporation and consequently little ab¬ 
straction of heat, and the winter was of a 
peculiarly mild character. 
Effect of electricity on growing plants. 
*—We have had a season of unusual thunder 
storms, and a season, too, of unusual pro¬ 
ductiveness, notwithstanding the cold and 
unpropitious character of the early part of 
it. Some would ascribe the cause of it to 
frequent and abundant showers, and with 
considerable show of reason, but the excess 
of rain which we have had this season 
throughout, isnotthe most favorable condition 
for the greatest development of vegetable 
life, Can that very reputable personage, 
“ the oldest inhabitant,” give us a series of 
well authenticated observations on this sub¬ 
ject 1 We know that the electric spark con¬ 
veyed through air enclosed in a jar, will pro¬ 
duce nitric acid, and we know that no 
greater stimulant to vegetation exists, than 
nitric acid sufficiently diluted, when applied 
to its roots. Although we are not aware of 
any direct advantage that would result at 
present from establishing the above sugges¬ 
tion, yet it would afford a philosophical 
principle, that may hereafter be of immense 
benefit in its application. 
ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
For the American Agriculturalist. 
Wey bridge, Vt., July 15, 1842. 
Gent.—I have been very much amazed to 
see so many portraits of fine animals of the 
long and middling woolled breeds, got up to 
ornament our agricultural journals, and at 
the same time the non-appearance of the 
finer woolled varieties, which are the only 
indispensable breeds of our country. 
1 am satisfied that the Paular Merinos are 
the most profitable and most hardy breed of 
merinos that have ever been introduced into 
the United States. 
I have enclosed a drawing of one of mv 
stock bucks, which represents him in his 
wool at about one years’ growth. At the age 
of four years he weighed just 150 lbs., the 
fleece was taken off about eight days after it 
was washed, and weighed 14 lbs. This 
Paular buck has tupped each year, on an 
average, one hundred and twenty-three ewes. 
1 shall keep him with extra care, intending 
to give him a run among two hundred this 
fall. His stock, instead of being hollow or 
cat-hamed, as most fine woolled sheep are, 
are round and well filled down behind, re- 
rembling the improved breeds of cattle. 
You may see some of my bucks at the fair at 
Albany in Sept. next. 
1 would like to see the contrast exhibited 
between this breed and some of the crack 
animals of the long woolled breeds, or bread 
and butter sheep, kept in fields side by side 
on trial of six months, (say one hundred or 
more,) in short pasture ; and by the expira¬ 
tion of the time, I imagine the points , espe¬ 
cially of the long woolled variety, would be 
strikingly developed. 
I allow my ewes to drop their first lambs 
at the age of three years. My ewes bear 
the best lambs at the age of five and six. I 
generally dispose of them at this age, while 
they are yet in prime and will sell for a fair 
price. I always dispose of my smallest lambs 
also. This variety are the longest lived 
sheep of the merino family ; they will live 
and propagate until the age of twelve and 
fifteen years. 
As to protection on our wools, the admit¬ 
ting the cheap wools imported from foreign 
and warmer latitudes with little or no duty, 
is, in my opinion, reducing the value of our 
home productions to a lower ebb than it 
would be if the coarse wools paid an in¬ 
creased duty, and the tariff on fine wools 
were sensibly reduced. It is estimated that 
something over 17,000,000 lbs. have been 
imported within the last year, under the for¬ 
eign cost of eight cents per pound. 
Our mechanics have so much improved 
machinery, and have arrived to such perfec¬ 
tion, that the manufacturer can now make as 
handsome cloth from these cheap wools to¬ 
day, as he could from full-blood merino 
twelve years ago. These cheap wools can 
now be raised in those foreign climates 
where sheep cut their own fodder the year 
round, and thence be imported into the Uni¬ 
ted States and sold by the bale at from seven 
to twenty cents per pound, and give the pro¬ 
ducer and importer a handsome profit. Now 
mark the contrast. Here our lands have 
cost us from twenty-five to thirty dollars per 
acre, and we fodder sheep five months at 
least in the year. Our farms will keep two 
sheep to the acre through the year, include 
