52 
SHEEP, TAtTLAR MERINOS. 
cents for wheat, 3 cents for bacon, 16 cents for 
corn, and the latter two brought from several hun¬ 
dred miles. Can we complain at 5 cents for cot¬ 
ton ? should we despair? We are making abun¬ 
dance of the necessaries of life, and if our farmers 
will but give up the idea of amassing fortunes for 
their children, and learn them to work, instead of 
reading Blackstone, or feeling pulses with kid 
gloves on, I doubt not, in a very few years, even 
with this same mode of culture, we will see grass- 
plots, flowers and shrubbery; hear the sweet mu¬ 
sic of the spinning-wheel, lowing of herds, tinkling 
of bells, and taste of the delights of social life. 
I am done with my preface now, and assure 
you, I have no unkind feeling, being only desirous 
to defend my calling, and as no one seemed willing 
to do so, I have ventured thus far. I am, yours, &c., 
M. W. Philips. 
REMEDY FOR HARD TIMES. 
We have been asked repeatedly to give our 
views at length, upon the present state of the 
country, but we have thought proper, thus far to 
forbear. We fear that we might be accused of a 
political bias, foreign to the object of this paper. 
Still we think it legitimately within the scope of 
an agricultural journal, to give such views from 
time to time of the state of the nation as will tend 
especially to promote the interests of the farmers, 
and if we could depend upon our readers looking 
upon these subjects in the broad national view in 
which it should be our aim to place them, we 
should henceforward feel less hesitation in entering 
upon their discussion. 
From a letter recently received from Thomas B. 
Stevenson, Esq., late editor of the Kentucky Farm¬ 
er, and now of the Commonwealth, we quote a 
paragraph. Here is the best remedy for hard 
times that we know of, and if all states will go 
and do likewise, there will soon be an end of them. 
“ The people of Kentucky are righting up in pecu¬ 
niary matters rapidly. The crisis is past. We 
are buying nothing and selling a good deal, though 
at low rates. Exchange on the east is in our favor. 
Not only have we stopped buying foreign goods, 
but our people are returning to the old time-honor¬ 
ed practice of manufacturing domestics by house¬ 
hold industry. The wheel has lain idle for some 
years, but it is buzzing away now. Hemp, flax, 
linens, jeans, linseys, woollens, &c., the product of 
family looms, are substituted for foreign goods.” 
As the following communication comes from one 
of much personal experience in sheep-breeding, 
after due consideration, the subject seems so im¬ 
portant, we have concluded to admit the article into 
our columns. Our correspondent will perceive 
now, that two numbers of the promised essays on 
fine-woolled “ Sheep Husbandry” have already ap¬ 
peared. Ill health of the intended writer has pre¬ 
vented the promised series on middle-woolled 
flocks. We hope, however, to be favored with 
them soon. 
SHEEP, PAULAR MERINOS. 
To the Editor of the American Agricultur¬ 
ist—Sir : I am a reader of your paper, and always 
much interested by what you have to say about 
lafm stock, more especially sheep, with which I 
have been conversant to a greater or less extent 
for a long time, commencing about thirty years 
since, when I first became a sheep owner. 
It is an admitted fact, that the fine-woolled flocks 
of the United States are sadly deteriorated, indeed, 
nearly “ run out,” so much so as to be far less pro¬ 
fitable as regards weight of fleece, Ac., than former¬ 
ly in the days of the old-fashioned Merino sheep, 
when they were in their glory, before the unfortu¬ 
nate introduction of the delicate Saxon race, the 
cross of which ruined all the best Merino flocks of 
this country. How to regain or restore their lost 
excellence, is the question. A good available 
method of obtaining that important result, would be 
truly a desideratum; and he who should be able to 
point it out and bring it within the reach of the 
farmers and wool-growers of our country, would be 
a public benefactor. 
In your article on 64 Sheep Husbandry,” at page 
159, of Vol. I. of the Agriculturist, you recommend 
where wool is the object, the use of Paular, and of 
I Rambouillet Merino rams. As to Paular bucks, 
it strikes me that you might, for any practical pur¬ 
poses, just as well have advised a cross of the fabu¬ 
lous unicorn, for it would be just as easy to find the 
one as the other at the present time in the United 
States; for depend upon it, there is no such thing 
now existing, as a Paular buck , nor anything de¬ 
serving the name in the whole country. Your rec¬ 
ommendation, however, as to the rams, was cer¬ 
tainly a good one, if such sheep as you named 
could be found in the country; but there lay the 
difficulty, as I had reason to know, for I have for¬ 
merly taken no little trouble to investigate the mat¬ 
ter, and with uniform results. When the wool- 
growers generally had discovered their error, in 
adopting the delicate and light-fleeced Saxons, and 
would have returned to the hardy and more profit¬ 
able old-fashioned Merinos, many persons in vari¬ 
ous parts of the country claimed then, as they do 
now, to have the true sort, “ the real Simon Pure,” 
and some of them doubtless honestly believed they 
had,—but they were mistaken. I have myself 
gone great distances to find the right sort, and 
have been invariably disappointed. Sometimes 
formerly, I have been induced by the strongest 
representations and assurances, to purchase such 
as were said to be pure Merinos beyond any doubt, 
but always found afterward, that it was a mistake 
as to their being pure old Merinos. The experi¬ 
ence of many other persons, some of the best judg¬ 
es in the whole country, will confirm what I say. 
The fact is, that for quite a number of years past, 
there were none of the old Merinos, in the whole 
country, strange as it may seem, not one remain¬ 
ing of unquestionable purity of blood, none that 
could be relied on. The only exception now 
to be found, the public are indebted to you for 
their knowledge of, (and I cheerfully acknowledge 
my own obligation to you for it); I refer to the 
small breeding flock of pure Mermos at Hartford, 
