AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
989 
1860 .J 
lav and wide at the base, not too short (a very 
short neck being in my opinion a mistake); mod¬ 
erately wide between the top of the shoulders; 
shoulders oblique ; chest wide ; fore-flanks wide¬ 
ly developed ; ribs springing well from the verte¬ 
bra; ; loin wide and well covered ; rumps wide, 
and a little projecting over the tail; thighs large 
and well let down, and with what is provincially 
termed a good “twist”; wool long and thickly 
set, with rather a curly lock; carcass deep and 
round, and with an unmistakable appearance of 
good character. 
THE SOUTHDOWN SHEEP. 
This sheep is now* fully recognized as a first- 
class animal, combining beauty of form, quality 
of wool and flesh, with elegance of movement. 
As such, they are much sought after for grazing 
our English parks, and adorning the seats of the 
aristocracy and country gentlemen. Again, for 
the “home farm ” they are just the thing, com¬ 
bining, as they do, park-like beauty of appearance 
and delicious flesh for the squire or connoisseur. 
No breeders are so tenacious on points of color, 
bone, elegance of shape, beauty of features, and 
quality of wool, as the Southdown breeders. The 
color of his face must be a peculiar brown, neither 
too light nor too dark, either being objectionable ; 
the wool must be close and fine, but in tolerable 
quantity, and, to use a provincial expression in 
the county of Sussex, it should be “ as hard as a 
board”; the head must be well covered with 
wool, particularly between the ears, and carry a 
nice “fore-top” on the forehead. The most 
striking fault in many Southdown flocks is a very 
ill-formed shoulder, light fore-quarter, light in the 
brisket, and narrow between the fore-legs. No 
man has done so much towards remedying this 
defect as Mr. Jonas Webb, his flock being particu¬ 
larly good in this respect. The brown leg and 
foot is another peculiarity of the breed, as also 
the deeply let down “ haunch of mutton,” not 
forgetting the dark rich gravy that “ cures the 
gout.” The setting on of the neck, when nicely 
blended with the shoulder, gives these sheep a 
remarkable elegance of carriage. Thus it is that 
these animals are so prepossessing in appear¬ 
ance. 
COTSWOLD SHEEP. 
The general characteristics of the best Cots- 
wolds are—-their bold and commanding appear¬ 
ance ; their finely arched neck, well run into the 
shoulders, giving them an ease of carriage, when 
walking, which is peculiarly their own. They 
have broad, straight backs, with arched ribs and 
length of quarter, carrying an enormous weight 
of carcass upon clean yet open legs. As a class, 
they possess good legs of mutton. Their should¬ 
ers are rather open, but in line with the back, 
thus giving them a good appearance in the sheep- 
pen ; the chest is broad and deep. There is a 
slight difference of opinion as to the exact sort of 
wool they should produce. A fashion of late has 
sprung up in favor of the open curly coat, while 
the older breeders adhere to the thick-set flaky 
coat. The latter class of wool affords the best 
protection against the vicissitudes of storms upon 
the open hill-lands these sheep have to occupy. 
Be this as it may, they are fully agreed as to the 
animal carrying a “fore-top” on his forehead, 
and of no small dimensions, as witnessed at some 
of the Society’s meetings. These sheep have 
become popular from the fact of their hardiness 
being combined with flesh and wool producing 
properties. They are sought after for exporta¬ 
tion to the colonies, and for crossing the dark¬ 
faced short-wools at home. The Oxfordshire 
uown was originated by a cross between the 
Cotswold ram and Hampshire down ewe. 
Bark Lice killed by Sulphur. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist : 
In the June Agriculturist I saw a conversation 
between an old and young orchardist, in which it 
was recommended to wash the bark of trees with 
water in which a little soap or potash had been 
dissolved, to kill the “scale” or bark louse 
which infests apple trees. Allow me to relate an 
experiment which was tried on an apple tree in 
my father’s orchard. This tree was rather small, 
but evidently of great age. For want of a better 
name, it went by that of “The old Lousy Tree”— 
a very appropriate name, by the way, for it was 
covered from the root to the end of every twig 
with the “ animals,” together with a superstruc¬ 
ture of moss that gave the tree somewhat the 
appearance of an evergreen. It struggled on, 
however, and generally bore a few' inferior apples. 
And now for the grand experiment. A half inch 
hole was bored into the body of the tree, about 
a tea spoonful of flower of sulphur was placed 
therein, and closely stopped with a plug. The 
result is that the lice are entirely gone, and the 
moss nearly so. The shoots which, before the 
application, averaged an inch and a half in length 
for a season’s growth, last year made a growth of 
8 or 10 inches, and, in spite of the frost, bore 
several bushels of as fine fruit as one could wish 
to see. Whether the remedy would prove as ef¬ 
ficacious in every case, can only be determined 
by further experiment. E. S. Gilbert. 
Allegany Co., N. Y. 
Remark.— That certainly looks like proving the 
sulphur remedy efficacious. We must still doubt, 
however—not that the facts are as represented 
by our correspondent—but whether the improve¬ 
ment in the tree was due to the application de¬ 
scribed. We have known trees take just such a 
start from no apparent cause, yet something un¬ 
observed must have produced the change. So 
many have tried the sulphur remedy, and found 
no benefit, that it is generally regarded, by the 
best authorities, as an exploded “ notion.” See 
article, “A Humbug or Two.”— Ed. 
A Humbug or Two. 
About once in four years, we meet a para¬ 
graph on its winding way through the papers, to 
the effect that sulphur, inserted in the body of a 
tree, by means of an augur-hole—said hole to be 
afterwards plugged up—will be absorbed by the 
sap and diffused through branches and leaves, 
so that caterpillars, borers and the whole tribe of 
aphides will be routed and forever repelled from 
the tree. 
Why are we not also told that the essence of 
Heliotrope may be diffused through the stalk of 
the Dahlia, so as to make that imperial but scent¬ 
less flower hereafter abound in fragrance 1 Or 
again, and better still, that ipecac and tartar- 
emetic may be sent flowing through vines or 
tempting fruit trees, for the special benefit of 
thieving boys'! We surmise that if this were 
known, it would intimidate certain young gentle¬ 
men more than bull dogs, spring-guns, or man- 
traps. Why, then, keep it a secret 1 
But while protesting against gullibility, we 
must add a story or two to promote it. A gen¬ 
tleman of great integrity informs us, that he once 
had a peach tree in his back yard where the slops 
of his kitchen were often thrown. One year, at 
the time of the swelling of its fruit, it so happen¬ 
ed that a half-barrel of fish-brine was emptied on 
the ground near the roots of the tree. When the 
fruit ripened, it was found so impregnated with 
a fishy-salt flavor as to be hardly eatable. In oth¬ 
er respects, the fruit was unchanged. 
Story the second :—In the travels of Anar- 
charsis, it is recorded,—“To obtain grapes with¬ 
out stones, you must take a vine shoot and cut 
it lightly in the part which is to be set in the 
ground; take out the pith from this part, unite 
the two sides separated by the incision, cover 
them with wet paper, and plant them. The ex¬ 
periment is most likely to succeed, if the lower 
part is put in a sea-onion before planting it. * * 
Would you wish to have on the same vine both 
black and white grapes, or clusters, the berries 
of which shall be some black and others white, 
take a shoot of each kind, bruise them in the up¬ 
per part so that they may closely unite and in¬ 
corporate their sap, tie them together, and plant 
them in the ground.” 
We hope our readers believe these things! 
Old humbugs are as good as new. * 
Hen Manure. 
Guano, and stable manure, and ground bones, 
and some of the honestly-made fertilizers are 
valuable, and should be used whenever they can 
be obtained, but none of them are better than 
the droppings of the poultry-house. Farmers 
have been known to sell this article to tanners 
for twelve and a half cents a bushel, while it is 
worth nearer a dollar. It has been estimated to 
be worth $30 a tun, or H cents per pound, which 
is probably not far out of the way, as compared 
with other standard fertilizers. As our domestic 
fowls are commonly fed on a large proportion ot 
vegetable food, their manure is not as powerful 
as Peruvian guano. If they lived chiefly on 
meat or fish and similar concentrated food, their 
droppings would be as valuable, pound for pound, 
as the best guano. 
To save this manure in the best way, the floor 
beneath the roosts should be sprinkled every few 
days with plaster, and then swept clean once a 
fortnight, gathering up the mixture in barrels, 
and covering it until wanted for use. Just be¬ 
fore planting and hoeing time comes, mix this 
manure with an equal quantity of leached ashes, 
and add half as much more of plaster ; then let 
the whole mass lie several days in a heap cov¬ 
ered with muck or earth to ferment. When 
ready to plant, drop half a gill in each hill, draw 
on a little dirt, then plant the corn. It may also 
be used with potatoes, pumpkins, melons, cucum¬ 
bers—in short with all crops. 
And here, we ape reminded of an experiment 
which occurred within our knowledge; A farm¬ 
er, whose stock of barn-manure was not quite 
large enough for his wheat-field, as a last resort, 
went to his poultry-house, swept it clean (and 
it had not been cleaned for six months,) mixed 
the droppings with mucky soil, and sowed 
it broadcast over the unmanured patch. In 
Spring, the effect was plainly visible. As soon as 
mild weather set in, the patch took the lead of 
the field: its bright green color and vigorous 
growth was noticeable a mile away. 
The hen-house is no hobby of ours, but we 
think it is generally undervalued. We see every 
year, in corn-fields, kitchen gardens and orna¬ 
mental grounds, enough to convince us that this 
is one of our best fertilizers, Let us not send 
our money abroad for manures, .until we have 
used all that we have at home. If any one does 
not wish the trouble of saving and applying this 
manure as we have just recommended, let him 
by all means gather it up at frequent intervals, 
and mix it with the dung heap in the barn yard 
This will add much to its value. * 
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A thorn in the bush is worth two in the hand. 
