PATJLAR merinos.—no. V. 
215 
mens in Orange county, and at Rossie, St. Law¬ 
rence county. 
It is apparent that the gentlemen who made 
these reports were not aware of the great value of 
this mineral for agricultural purposes, as no refer¬ 
ence is made to it in this view. The geological 
discoveries hitherto made in this state, although 
of incalculable value, and as great as could have 
been anticipated from the limited time and means 
devoted to them, are yet very incomplete; and it 
can not be doubted that subsequent investigations 
will develop this important mineral in numerous 
places, and in great abundance. 
In England and elsewhere, it is found associated 
with carbonate of lime, frequently as a distinct 
layer, as it is seen in the lime formation near Clif¬ 
ton, constituting a strata of 6 to 12 inches in thick¬ 
ness, and extending for miles along the banks of the 
Severn. Beds of marl at Lyme Regis, were found 
to yield over 20 per cent, of phosphate of lime. 
Thus it will be seen that our farmers must go 
deeper than the surface, or even subsoil, for the 
maximum of nutrition for their crops, and their 
ultimate profits; and they must use other and ad¬ 
ditional instruments to effect this, besides their 
spades and plows, and the hand work of their la¬ 
borers. They must bring the lights of science, the 
genius and intelligence of geology and chemistry, 
to their aid, if they would reap all the rewards 
that should crown their honest toil. In these beds 
of mineral phosphate of lime are laid up treasures 
of an indefinite amount, securely hoarded in a form, 
which effectually protects them from all destruc¬ 
tion and waste, till science unlocks them for the 
use of succeeding generations. 
R. L. Allen. 
Buffalo, March 25, 1844. 
PAULAR MERINOS.—No. V. 
I closed my last communication, by a choice 
extract from Vol. 2d of the Transactions of the 
New York State Agricultural Society, for 1842, 
descriptive of the counterfeit Paular sheep of 
Messrs. Jewett, Hull, and others. “Large and 
coarse, good for mutton, but inferior for wool” 
“ Not at all similar to the old Paulars that he had 
formerly seen, from the flock of Consul Jarvis.” 
This comprehensive and just description, covers 
the whole ground. It is truly “ multum in parvo .” 
And will you please bear in mind that it was from 
the pen of one who resides in their immediate vi¬ 
cinity, and who knows about them ; one too, whose 
authority in regard to sheep and wool, your read¬ 
ers will not be disposed to question. 
It would seem then, that the Vermont sheep 
advertised and puffed by Messrs. Jewett, Avery, 
Randall, & Company, under the false or fancy 
name of Paular Merino, are not like the original 
and genuine sort of Spanish Paular Merinos, nor 
even at all similar to them; so they can hardly 
with propriety be termed counterfeit, which would 
be a misnomer; but “ spurious Paular” would 
seem to be the right name for them. I may prob¬ 
ably at some time hereafter take occasion to recur 
to this part of the subject. For the present, I take 
leave of it. 
In your last October number, Mr. Jewett com¬ 
mences a laudation of his sheep, by saying (in con¬ 
nexion with some modest hints of the extent of his 
own experience,) that, be they “Paulars, old Me¬ 
rinos, or anything, it matters not” to him. Aye, 
but there’s the rub, my good sir. Though it 
“matters not” to him , yet it does (as things now 
stand,) matter much , to the public. Indeed there 
lies the whole gist of the existing controversy be¬ 
tween him and myself. It is nearly all there was 
between us, to start with; and it is not by any 
means, to be so easily got over; at all events not 
unless Mr. Jewett is willing to acknowledge that 
it is, as I was always well satisfied that it was, 
and would prove to be ; that neither he himself, nor 
anyone else, really knows much, if anything, about 
the blood and breeding, of his sheep, and that 
consequently, no accurate and well-attested ped¬ 
igrees of them, at all entitled to reliance, can by 
any possibility be produced. This, I have no sort 
of doubt, is the real state of the case. 
How indeed, can it be otherwise? We do not 
hear that his father “ purchased pure Spanish Me¬ 
rinos, direct from the importer,” and that they 
have been bred ever since, by his family and him¬ 
self, “ without adulteration or mixture with any 
other sort.” Nothing at all of this. No such'thing 
is claimed. How then came Mr. J. in possession 
of the sheep composing his flock ? Why, no doubt 
fairly and honorably, by purchase ; which certain¬ 
ly gives him a good and indisputable title to them. 
No one disputes it. And very likely they may be 
good sheep. Doubtless some, and perhaps many, 
among them, are so. It is altogether probable that 
they are; and they should be so, for this reason 
alone, if for no other, (and I really do not suppose 
there exists any other,) that Mr. Jewett has, within 
a few years past, as I understand, been in the way of 
picking up good sheep from time to time, as op¬ 
portunity offered, by purchase from his neighbors 
and other Vermont farmers and wool-growers, so 
that his flock, but recently made up somewhat in 
that way, would be likely to present a favorable 
exhibition of the various grade or mixed, mongrel 
flocks now existing among the farmers in that part 
of Vermont: of course better than an average , be¬ 
cause Mr. Jewett would naturally “ pick up” the 
best sheep he could buy, and (so far as in his pow¬ 
er,) from such flocks as might appear to be most 
desirable, though on the other hand it is well 
known that the owners of choice flocks will rarely 
consent to sell, or let buyers pick out , their best 
sheep. This, I presume to be a fair view of the 
matter. It certainly is so, if I have been correctly 
informed, by those who ought to know. Suppose 
it to be so, it would naturally seem likely to put Mr. 
Jewett, indeed in possession of a “ variety ,” in one 
sense of the word ; i. e. a considerable diversity of 
blood. But it would probably leave something of 
a hiatus in the pedigrees, about which some 
awkward questions might arise, in case one was at 
all particular about details, or solicitous to see or 
know something about each and every link in the 
chain, so far at least as to know for a certainty that 
such links had actually existed, of any distinct and 
pure sort of blood. The question, (quite an inter- 
, esting and important one too,) then arises, and re- 
