n 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
top. This will effectually stop this annoyance, 
even in the most gusty weather. When the wind 
enters the top of the chimney, it passes through 
the openings and can never overcome the upward 
draft.’ REMARK. 
We do not see the “philosophy ” of this reme¬ 
dy, since the pressure of the air produced by a gust 
of wind would operate quite as forcibly upon the 
side openings, as upon the top. 
-«->-—0^0----■ 
Introduction of Merino Sheep into the 
United States. 
We have little taste tor discussions of historic 
dates, &c.; the present value of this or that ani¬ 
mal or plant, is with us the important question. 
Still, as many sheep-raisers have indicated an in¬ 
terest in the topic named above, we give place to 
the following communication : 
To the E'Htor of the America Agriculturist. 
S. G. Goodrich, (Peter Parley,) in “ his Recollections of 
a life time," quotes from the Cyclopedia of American 
Literature, a statement with regard to the introduction of 
Merino sheep into this country, which he should have 
known was not in accordance with facts. Thus : Vol. 1. 
p. 404, he says : “ The first Merino sheep brought into 
the United‘States, were imported by Chancellor Robert 
R. Livingston—a pair of each sex in 1802. Mr. Delessert 
sent a few others soon after. Little attention however, 
was paid to the subject, and it seems that about 1805, half 
Greeds were sold at a price below that of common sheep. 
Afterwards, a larger importation was made by Col. Hum. 
phreys, who had been our Minister to Spain, and our Con¬ 
sul Jarvis. These were three hundred in number, and ar¬ 
rived in 1810.” 
Why if Goodrich's “ Recollections” had given out, and 
he must needs make a book, did he not give us some re¬ 
liable statement from Livingston, showing the year, month, 
and day, when his “ pair of each sex," where introduced ; 
Why did he not refer to Humphrey’s works, 4th edition, 
published in New-York in 1804, and which are in all our 
Libraries, and give us the true state of the case ? There 
he w ould have seen in a dissertation on the Merino sheep, 
dated Boston, August 25th, 1802, the following, which 1 
extract from page 349. “Convinced that this race of sheep, 
of which, / believe not one, (surely Gen. Humphreys had 
an opportunity of knowing,) had been brought to the 
United Slates until the importation by myself, might be 
introduced with great benefit to our country. I contract, 
ed with a person of the most reputable character, to de¬ 
liver to me, at Lisbon, one hundred, composed of twenty- 
five rams, and seventy-five ewes, from one to two years 
old. They w ere conducted, with proper passports, across 
the country of Portugal, by three Spanish Shepherds, and 
escorted by a small guard of Portuguese soldiers. On the 
10th of April last, they were embarked on the Tagus, on 
board the ship Perseverance, of 250 tons, Capt. Caleb 
Coggeshall, master. In about fifty days, twenty-one rams 
and seventy-five ewes were landed at Derby, in Connecti¬ 
cut ; they having been shifted at New-York on board a 
sloop destined to that river.” And on the 365th page is 
sn engraved copy of a gold medal inscribed : “ Present¬ 
ed by the Masaehusetts Society for promoting Agriculture, 
to the lion. David Humphreys, Esq , late Minister to the 
Courtof Madrid, as a testimonyof respect for his patriotic 
exertions in importing into New-England lOOof the Merino 
■>reed of sheep from Spain, to improve the breed of that 
useful animal in his own country, 1802.” 
Here, then, we have reliable proof that Humphreysland- 
ed ninety-one sheep in Derby, his native place, on the 
first of June, 1802. 
And now, as to the three hundred which Col. Hum¬ 
phreys and our Consul Jarvis are said to have introduced. 
Mr. Jarvis writes me under date of January 11th, 1658, 
that he “ shipped to this country in 1809 and 10, about 3650 
of the purest blooded Merinoes of Spain, and that the 
same years there were shipped, principally from Lisbon, 
about 3000, now making 6650" (instead of 300.) “ These 
numbers may be relied on, he says, as he was Consul at 
the time in Lisbon, and all the American ves?els from 
Lisbon to the U. S. took a clearance from the Consular 
office specifying the quantity and quality of their car¬ 
goes-” G. 
- 
Price of Peruvian Guano Reduced. —An im¬ 
portant Official Announcement of the Peruvian 
Government, to this effect, will be found in out¬ 
advertising columns, page 95. This reduction 
ertli most orobaoiv De lasting. The retail prices 
will probably be about 3 cents per pound for less 
than a tun, and not far from 2i cents per pound 
for a tun or more. 
-« a a - 
Keeping House in the Country. 
“ HELP.” 
My series had very nearly come to a premature 
end, on account of what we call here a “ scarcity 
of help” by which we do not mean literary help. 
Impelled by my feelings, I had written two 
pages on the subject, but threw them in the fire, 
because they cast rather a dark shade on what I 
would fain make a pleasant picture of life in the 
country. One ought not, however, to conceal the 
truth, and as this is unquestionably the one great 
difficulty, it ought to be looked fairly in the face. 
“ How,” asks the conscientious young house¬ 
keeper, “ must I train and treat my servants'! 
Some people have a happy faculty of inspiring af¬ 
fection and respect, but I have not succeeded. 
How can it be acquired 1” Alas ! all receipts 
must begin like the famous one for fish-boiling: 
•“ First catch your fish.” I have never heard that 
trout, though proverbially hard to catch, ever took 
any airs in consequence, when fairly on the grid¬ 
iron. The domestic long-angled-after, certainly 
does, and thereby complicates an operation all 
ready difficult enough. I don’t think any writer 
in the numerous books of advice to young ladies, 
young wives and young housekeepers, treats of 
the relation of domestic service as it exists in 
many parts of this country. We are charged to 
be considerate and firm, gentle, and decided, &c, 
&e, all of which supposes that we possess some 
degree of power, influence, and authority ; where¬ 
as, we have often not even the shadow thereof. 
What does it matter to Jemima that Mrs. B- 
insists on her making good bread, when Mrs. 
C-, who lives across the street will let her 
make it as sour as she chooses, if she will only 
come and do the washing for her eight boys ! 
But Mrs. B-- has also a large washing, and 
so she will do well to give up the bread point, 
and appease the insulted Jemima if she can. 
In Europe, the custom of giving characters to 
domestics, while often useful as a protection, is 
still a means of control. In this country, we have 
not even that. “ I cannct give you a good char¬ 
acter,” I heard a lady say to a girl who had been 
detected in dishonesty. “Bless ye mum 1 1 don’t 
want it. I never needed a character yet /” She was 
right—in less than a week she had a good place. 
What then is the remedy 1 It is true, as we 
are constantly assured in the papers, that, while 
this system of domestic help exists in so many 
places, our cities are overflowing with women 
needing employment. “ Needing," I say, not want¬ 
ing —for it is an undeniable fact that thousands 
prefer beggary and privation in the city, to com¬ 
fortable homes elsewhere. Benevolent societies 
are in operation to supply the destitution of some 
places by the superfluity of others, and thousands 
are yearly sent to the West, over the great lines 
of travel. Hmv they prosper there, and whether 
they satisfy their employers, I have no extended 
means of knowing. In our neighborhood, the ex¬ 
periment has been tried, and proved a failure. 
About twenty women and nearly seventy children 
were sent to this county two years ago, and 
were welcomed into respectable families—many 
of them sanguine and anxious for the success of 
a scheme which promised to lighten the labors of 
our over-worked housekeepers, while it afforded 
the best of relief to our suffering fellow creatures- 
With the orphan children it prospered well. Most 
of these are still here, doing well, and they may 
grow up useful members of society. But the 
children whose parents could claim them, and a. 
the women, with a very few exceptions, have re¬ 
turned to New-York, to the great delight of the 
families they again left helpless. 
I haye not space, nor would it profit, to detail 
the reasons of this failure. Difference of reli¬ 
gious belief, the disappointment of exaggerated 
expectations, and a dislike to the dullness of the 
country were the chief. Had they come here di¬ 
rectly from the emigrant ships, they might have 
been more manageable, but as it is, the result 
of the experiment has closed to us all hope of 
relief from abroad for a long time to come. It 
will take us nearly twenty years to recover from 
the effects of our recent trial. 
Consequently, if there is any place where the 
three questions: Howto do without servants! 
How to do with few ? and how to manage those 
we have? are carefully and earnestly canvassed, 
it is here. I shall consider them further in my 
next. Emii.y. 
Windholme, Pa., Jan. 15th 1858. 
—. -**> «-— a * ■ ■ 
Household and Barn Cats. 
Did anybody ever have an honest house cat 1 That 
is to say; a cat that would not steal cream when 
she could get into the milk-room, or buttery ; or 
the moment the meat-closet door was open, 
would not slip in and plunder the dishes! 
If so, we never yet heard of it. We have 
had sundry cals in our lifetime, for mouse- 
catching about the house. They did catch mice, 
to be sure, but where they caught one mouse, 
they caught half-a-dozen little singing birds, 
or chickens ; plundered and committed their 
nuisances all over the house, meantime, and let 
the rats—alone. A trap, or two, or a few doses 
of poison would do up the mouse business better, 
and more promptly than all the cats we could get, 
put together, and therefore, we long ago put them 
out of the house, and got rid of their annoyance. 
Still women, especially young girls, and mischie¬ 
vous children who want something to pull and 
and haul about, must have a cat or two, and their 
indispensable appendages, a lot of scorched- 
backed, dirty, soot-stained kittens. We are not 
about to dispute with them on the subject of taste, 
in such companionship of pets, but to enter 
our protest, with all good housekeepers and moth¬ 
ers, against cultivating a liking for such treacher¬ 
ous and unreliable house protectors. 
A barn cat—at the stock and grain barn—a 
stout, undeniable ten-pound grimalkin, however, 
is quite another matter. We like him or her, or 
both, as the case may be. These will usually catch 
rats—mice always—and will follow them over the 
beams into the mows, and hunt them constantly. 
Old Sam, as the boys call him, during the Winter 
season is always “ on hand,” At milking time he 
follows the herdsman round the stable, and when 
he has had his breakfast of milk, which is always 
served in a little dish, at one end of the cow stalls, 
he goes about his business. Biddy, too—for be 
has a wife most of the time—shares his meals, 
hunts mice regularly, and now and then bears a 
litter of responsibilities, which go—somewhere— 
we don’t ask about them—and our barn cat slock 
increases no further. When Spring comes, and 
the stock are turned out, they go inlo the fields, 
or woods, and are seldom seen, till cold drives 
them in, or the return of barn vermin invites them 
They have no taste for the house, won’t go there, 
and woe be to the woman or child who puts a hand 
on them ; scarred fingers and scratched faces are 
sure to follow. The only reai trouble we have 
with them is, when they come within reach of the 
.terriers, and then is a muss at once. Sam and 
