210 
FARMING IN MAINE. 
saw more thrifty animals than those sheep which 
have been raised in this territory. 
The climate, as to temperature, in this part of 
Iowa, resembles very much that of New Jersey. 
But little snow falls during the winter months, and 
scarcely any rain. The dry, rolling 1 , silicious soil, 
and uniform dry climate, seem to constitute this 
country as eminently a wool-growing region, and 
as such, it is appreciated by many of its inhabitants 
already. Large flocks of sheep are constantly 
coming into this territory from Ohio and Indiana ; 
but they consist principally of the common, coarse- 
woolled sheep of the unimproved sort, with a slight 
sprinkling here and there of the Merino and Saxon. 
The prices of these droves vary from $1.25 per head- 
to $2.00. 
If a flock of sheep is enclosed in afield of prairie 
grass, they soon eat out and destroy the grass; 
when by sowing on blue grass or timothy, the 
field is soon covered by the imported grass, and 
thus a farm is stocked down in tame grass with¬ 
out the expense of breaking up the prairie sod. 
That this climate is very favorable to sheep-hus¬ 
bandry, is proved by the 'extraordinary improve¬ 
ment of constitution which takes place among 
those sheep brought into the territory from the 
east. Disease is unknown among their flocks 
here, although the farmers as yet have very im¬ 
perfect fixings for their sheep. Indeed, as yet all 
the sheep here are kept during the winter without 
any shelter, and live during the season on the 
prairies, with occasionally a little corn or oats. 
Let me add a few words generally on the agricul¬ 
tural facilities and character of this youngest 
daughter of the republic. There is not in the 
United States anywhere west, an unbounded tract 
of fertile territory uninterspersed by broken, wet, 
or inferior land, like that which lies in this territory 
between the Mississippi and the Missouri. The 
whole expanse of land is adapted to cultivation. 
There is really no inferior land to be found here. 
Wheat, corn, oats, hemp, flax, and tobacco., and 
all our northern grasses, grow luxuriantly. Spring 
wheat is likewise a sure crop. I never saw such 
heads of spring wheat as I have seen here. They 
averaged, in a field I examined a few days since, 
not less than five inches in length—the berry plump 
and large, the straw bright, and that field will 
yield, I think, at least 35 bushels to the acre. 
The territory is filling up very rapidly. The 
population in 1840 was 43,000. It is now estima¬ 
ted at 100,000, and is rapidly increasing. Indiana, 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, furnish us princi¬ 
pally with our immigrants. Occasionally a New 
Yorker comes in, though Wisconsin arrests the im¬ 
migration of the empire state chieffy. Good wa¬ 
ter is obtained by digging from ten to twenty feet. 
Limestone for building, and stone coal abound. 
The lead region is confined to the northern portion 
of the territory. 
It is surprising how soon your industrious settler 
makes himself a home and a farm here. He 
plants himself down, say on a lot of 160 acres, a 
half or a quarter of which is timber, and the rest 
prairie. If he hires his work clone, he can get his 
fence, nine rails with stake and rider, made for $1 
or 75 cents per rod. His prairie, he can get broken 
up for $1 or $1.25 per acre, and thus for little 
more than a hundred dollars, he may have fifty 
acres in cultivation, two months after his settle¬ 
ment. The peach, the plum, and apple, thrive 
most luxuriantly here. The walnut, the hickory, 
and hazle-nut, abound. So do deer, wild turkeys, 
prairie hens, and partridges. 
One advantage Iowa possesses over all other 
new sections of land in the United States, is that 
it is perfectly healthy. The dry lands, and climate, 
and great altitude, afford no food for bilious fever 
to generate. The farmer pursues his avocations 
free from the prostrating and debilitating effects- 
of those scourges of most new,settlements. 
To return to wool-growing. I should be much 
pleased to see a comparative estimate of the ’ pro? 
ductive value of the fine and coarse-woolied sheep 
in your monthly. Will the quantity of wool ob¬ 
tained from a Cotsw.old or new Leicester ‘ sheep 
compensate for its reduced price ? If Merinos -will 
only average-4 lbs. per fleece at 30 cents, they can 
not be so profitable here as a new Leicester, 
which will average 8 lbs. of wool at 18 cents per. 
lb. The Merino may indeed consume less food, 
but that, here, with our boundless prairie meadows 
and hills, is not a primary consideration. 
I apprehend that you can not at the east on 
your lands worth $40 to $50 per acre,-compete in 
wool-growing with the west, where the lands cost 
but $1.25. But for all purposes of wool-growing, 
millions of sheep might be kept moving overjhe 
government prairie-lands, without any cost to the 
owner but that of a shepherd to guard them, and 
a small expenditure in the summer for putting up 
prairie hay. I can get any quantity of prairie hay 
delivered to me cured and stacked, for $2 per top/ 
But by driving our flocks two or three degrees 
further south into Missouri, they may be kept all 
winter on the prairies at a Very small cost. 
What would be the cost of importing from Eng¬ 
land via New Orleans, into this territory, South- 
Down sheep, Cotswold, or New Leicesters? 
What is the price in Englandmf such sheep ? 
Berkshire hogs, and Durhams are quite numer¬ 
ous here, considering the age of the territory, and 
afford some indication of the intelligence and en¬ 
terprise of -the immigrants who have introduced 
them. I am much pleased with thb country ; its 
climate, the fertility of the lands, the character of 
its population, the rapidity of its settlement, will 
enable Iowa to tread rapidly on the advancing 
steps of her western sisters. I have seen the best 
lands and most highly-cultivated farming districts 
of the United States, and I do not hesitate to say, 
that Iowa' surpasses them all in everything which 
makes a country desirable for human occupation. 
Samuel J. Bayabd. 
For the Americati Agriculturist* 
FARMING IN MAINE. 
Augusta , Maine , September 9, 1843. 
Dear Sib : I have just returned from a week’s 
journey through the counties of Kennebec, Frank¬ 
lin, and Somerset, in this state, and propose to 
give your readers a short chapter on “down east” 
farming, if you deem it of sufficient interest to oc« 
