12 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY.—CITY MANURES. 
ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY.—No. 2 . 
Where is the best sheep country ?—In my last 
communication, I alluded to the national charac¬ 
ter of your publication, as being one of its dis¬ 
tinguishing merits. It has, to me, another very 
attractive recommendation, its promise of becom¬ 
ing the leading work of the United States on the 
subject of stock. I do not mean bank or rail-road 
stock, but a kind which is far more interesting and 
profitable to farmers —live stock. If you do not 
make it the best periodical on that subject in the 
whole world, it will be your own fault. 
Now for the promised topics, “ the best kind of 
sheep,” and “the region of country best adapted 
for them,” within the limits of the United States. 
First, for the district of country naturally best 
adapted for profitable sheep farming —where is it ? 
And on this point I would myself be an inquirer. 
Surely some of your many intelligent friends and 
correspondents in every section of our wide coun¬ 
try, can afford us light on this important subject. 
In my former contribution to your columns, I 
threw out the suggestion that it was somewhere 
out of New England; and, if we may trust an 
opinion from a distinguished source, it is not in 
Vermont, that region which was formerly regarded 
as being, par excellence , the best sheep district of 
the whole United States. It is, no doubt, a pretty 
good sheep country, as is proved by the fact of 
wool-growing having been extensively successful 
and profitable there; that state having sometimes 
produced about ten per cent, of the whole quantity 
raised in the United States. But hear what the 
Governor of Vermont says, in his recent Message 
to the Legislature of that state: “ The rich and 
almost boundless plains of the great west are be¬ 
coming covered with flocks of sheep, which will 
soon furnish supplies of wool, in such abundance, 
as I fear, may seriously affect the sale of our 
own.” This does not look as if Vermont, or New 
England, or even the old northern states were the 
only or the best sheep country. The Governor of 
Vermont is, without doubt, correct in his anticipa¬ 
tions, that the prairies of the west will, ere long, 
produce a great quantity of wool. They can, no 
doubt, raise it at less cost than in the old northern 
states, and of quite as good quality; while, on so 
valuable an article as wool, their distance from 
market, and the cost of transportation, is an item 
of but small relative consequence. But, so far as 
I can learn, they will, at the west, throughout all 
the prairie country, have to incur the expense and 
trouble of feeding their flocks for about five months 
of every year. This is almost as bad as in New 
England, where it is the great bane of profit, and 
the most serious obstacle to success in that pur¬ 
suit. I have long fancied that there must be, 
somewhere within the United States, a region, 
where, while it is cool enough in summer to be a 
grass-growing country, the winters are so short 
and mildl, that sheep would not require much if 
any feeding, at all events not for any great length 
of time. If there is such a region, that is the 
country for sheep, and there is the place where 
wool can be grown at least cost, especially if land 
is cheap. If the country is hilly or mountainous, 
so much the better; or if dry, sandy or rocky, 
none the worse. Only, not let it be sunken and wet 
land, for such will not answer for sheep pasturage, 
though it may do better for horned cattle than for 
sheep. 
Where is such a country as I have described ? 
I ask for information, and hope to receive it ere 
long through your columns. Will not some of 
your readers at the south and southwest inform 
us? In so doing they might be also “doing their 
country some service.” We know that fine wooled 
sheep will thrive and do well in the southern parts 
of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and in the hilly and 
mountainous parts of Maryland and Virginia, and 
also in Kentucky and Tennessee, and in the upper 
parts of the Carolinas and Georgia. In the upper 
part of the latter state, which is a grass-growing 
country, though perhaps at present almost too 
new, I should not be surprised if the “Eldorado” 
of wool as well as of gold , the “Elysian Fields” 
of sheep, should ultimately be found. The “ prairie 
country” of the west, will, for a time, have one 
very important advantage, which is, that land is 
not only cheap, but they do not have to incur the 
expense of clearing it, which, in some heavily- 
timbered districts of country is a great tax. There 
is one view of the subject of sheep-farming, which 
is consolatory and encouraging to the wool-growers 
of the older states. It is, that where the climate 
compels them to feed their sheep through a long 
winter, they save by that means the manure, no 
trifling consideration, as, if well husbanded and 
applied, their next season’s crops will testify; and, 
in addition, the manure so saved will be far more 
valuable in the old states, where it is needed, and 
where the crops it produces will always be worth 
the most money. 
But I have already consumed as much of your 
space as is allowable for one time, and I must 
consequently defer to another opportunity, the 
promised discussion as to the best and most prof¬ 
itable kind of sheep, which topic will of itself 
furnish abundance of interesting matter for my 
next epistle. Till then adieu. 
Americus. 
March, 1S43. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
CITY MANURES. 
In my two former articles, I gave our farmers 
an account of eight fertilizing materials thrown 
away in the cities of New-York and Brooklyn, 
I shall now proceed to point out others equally 
valuable to the agriculturist; and shall first bring 
to their notice, the broken glass of our cities, 
heretofore carted away to fill up our docks. 
Glass is a silicate of potash or soda, which enters 
into the composition of all grasses, straw, grain, 
and com, forming a fraction of the solid portion of 
probably all vegetation. Silicate of potash and 
of soda, is siiicious sand chemically combined 
with those alkalies; that is, such sand as is com¬ 
monly found on our sea beach. Wheat contains 
