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ROCKY MOUNTAIN WOOL.-A LEAF FROM A FARMER'S JOURNAL. 
ROCKY MOUNTAIN WOOL. 
Enclosed is a sample of wool taken by myself 
twenty or thirty years since, from a pelt which had 
been neglected, and the moths had eaten most of the 
wool from the skin. It was said the sheep was 
killed beyond the Rocky Mountains, by a company 
in the employ of John Jacob Astor, Esq. You will 
perceive jar or hair mixed with the wool, which, if 
I rightly recollect, stood out prominently beyond 
the wool, and might ha-ve been separated. The 
wool you will find very much like cotton. The 
sample sent has been injured by moths. If sheep 
of this description could be obtained and domesti¬ 
cated, it might be an advantage to our manufac¬ 
turers as well as the agriculturists. 
I think the introduction of the Alpaca will add to 
our agricultural amusements at least, and that they 
can be introduced at less risk and less expense by 
driving them from Peru to Panama, or some other 
place in the Pacific, and then across to the Ca¬ 
ribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico. H. Watson. 
East Windsor, Ct., Feb. 23, 1846. 
The wool enclosed by our correspondent is very 
soft, and of a medium quality. We wish some one 
would act upon his hint, and undertake the domes¬ 
tication of the Rocky Mountain sheep. Their 
fleeces and forms might be greatly improved by 
proper care, and the size increased; and there is no 
telling what utility rearing a good flock of them 
might lead to. 
A LEAF FRQmTfARMER’S LEDGER. 
Root Crop. 1845. Dr. 
April 20 . To 70 loads of night soil compost, 
at $1 per cartload.$70 00 
April 20 . To plowing one acre and one-half. 6 00 
May 24. “ plowing do. do..3 00 
“ u 6 hands 3-4 day each, a 75 c. per day *3 37 
May 26. “ 7 do. equal to 4 2-3d’ys work, a 75c.3 50 
June-July “20 days work, a 75 c. per day-.15 00 
“ “ work of haying hands, a $1 25 pr day • 6 25 
Oct-Nov. “ 18 d’ys work harvesting, &c., a 75 c. 
per day.13 50 
“ Seed, marketing, &c.. 6 00 
“ Interest on one and one half acres, 
a $100 per acre, a 6 per cent.9 00 
Dec, 30. Crop account to balance. .88 77 
$224 39 
Cr. 
By one half of manure, as above.$35 00 
a 20,400lbs. carrots, a 40 c. p. cwt.or $8 p. ton-105 60 
27,930 lbs. beets, a 30 c.p. cwt. or $6 p. ton - -83 79 
$224 39 
The night soil compost charged above was made 
of night soil, of which I get in the spring and fall 
10 to 12 cords per day. This, for the upland, is 
composted with muck, adding half a bushel or a 
bushel of ground plaster to each load of 5 or 6 feet. 
1 have charged it at one dollar per two-horse cart 
load, which from my accounts appears to be the 
cost of it on the field. It is carted on to the land in 
the winter, or early in the spring, as opportunity 
offers, taking care to cover the piles in the fall with 
sea . r ed, to prevent their freezing hard. 
On the 20 th of April I plowed in the corn stubble. 
and more than half of the manure, as deep as it 
could be, with Messrs. Ruggles, Nourse & Mason’s 
large size two-horse plow. The balance of ma¬ 
nure was plowed in May 24th, when we raked the 
ground as it was plowed. I seldom harrow root 
ground, preferring to plow deep, if stubble, in the 
fall; if not, plow deep in the spring, as early as cir¬ 
cumstances admit. Then, after corn planting, plow 
again, but not deep, having hands enough to rake 
the ground with common hay rakes, as it is plowed ; 
this is easily done by back furrowing, as you can 
then rake the stones and other obstructions to the 
sowing machine, into the fur 1 ' I this year 
planted later than usual, but pre. earlier planting, 
that the crop may be more out of the way of haying. 
I have charged $6.25 for labor of haying hands, and 
presume the amount covers the cost of their labor. 
Haying, as you are aware, is quite an important 
matter with me ; I then have from fifteen to twenty 
hands, and occasionally they work an hour or two 
weeding or hoeing. 
My carrot crop this year was not equal to that 
of the year before, probably one-fourth less. The 
yield, as you see, is not large; the quantity men¬ 
tioned in the account being the product of an acre. 
The beets came up very badly; but, by transplant¬ 
ing, the yield was about 1,396! bushels per acre : I 
reckon 40 lbs. per bushel. The 1 st day of July I 
found the beets had come up in bunches—not more 
than one-half the ground being seeded. On the 3d, 
it threatened rain, we then transplanted nearly one- 
half of the crop. At harvest, the transplanted roots 
were equal to the others; they bear transplanting 
almost as well as cabbages. The carrots I planted 
in rows 16 inches apart, the beets 20 inches. 
Would it not be better to plant 27 to 30 inches 
apart, and use a cultivator instead of a hoe ? [Yes; or 
36 inches apart is yet better. Ed.] In harvesting car¬ 
rots, I have plowed them out, by letting the land side 
the plow run next to the roots, and crowd then into 
the open furrows; but the best way is to dig them 
with a spade. I generally begin early in October 
to dig them, digging two or three cart loads in the 
morning, and carting them into the barn in the 
afternoon; top them in the evening, and feed the 
tops to the cattle next day. They are very fond of 
them, and what they leave will do for litter ; then 
let them go into the barn cellar for the hogs to work 
over. I fed, the year before last, several hundred 
bushels of carrots to my hogs. They answer very 
well to begin on, as they come in early, when far¬ 
mers are generally short of feed for horses and 
hogs. They may do to fatten other people’s hogs, 
but I shall not try them again, for I experimented 
on them till I came to the conclusion that it was 
like feeding them with sawdust and meal, the more 
meal you mix with the sawdust the better the hogs 
fatten; but for cattle and horses they are excellent 
food. 
My horses are worked as regularly as a dray-team 
in the city. Nothing but bad weather keeps them 
in the stable. If there is no work at home, they go 
to the beach or some other place, for manure ; there 
is always something to pick up, that when seasoned 
under the barn proves good manure. My experience 
has proved to me that it is the most economical to 
have help enough for common farm work, and to 
let the teamster keep the team moving. From 
