96 
THE WANTS AND DISEASES OF POULTItY. 
The facilities for sheep husbandry here are un- 
equalled on the continent. [This was General 
Washington’s opinion. Ed.] The vast mountain 
ridges extending through the centre of the state, 
and the high lands generally, are admirably adapted 
to this branch of husbandry; and the very able 
letters of Col. H. S. Randall, of Cortland county, 
in your state, published in the Farmers’ Library, 
are opening the eyes of hundreds in this region to 
the advantages they possess in this respect. Large 
flocks of sheep are already being introduced into 
many portions of the state, where they have hitherto 
been systematically excluded ; and the unreasona¬ 
ble and pertinacious prejudices of many, handed 
down as heir looms, from generation to generation, 
are rapidly disappearing before the evidence of facts 
and the irresistible array of sound reasoning, 
brought to bear upon the subject by the accomplish¬ 
ed intelligent writer to whom I have alluded. I 
must, however, in this connection, do you the jus¬ 
tice to say, that a series of discussions carried on 
several years since in your paper on this point, first 
directed the attention of some of our ablest agricul¬ 
turists to this department, and elicited an array of 
facts and arguments which have led to practical 
results of the greatest value and importance. 
While at Richmond, I formed some very valuable 
acquaintances, especially among the members of 
the Legislature then in session: and was enabled 
to ascertain their views upon many points of inte¬ 
rest to your northern readers. In conversation with 
several of the most intelligent and influential gentle¬ 
men of that body, I gathered the impression that the 
immigration of northern settlers into different sec¬ 
tions of the state, was regarded with the liveliest 
interest and approbation; that there was great 
anxiety and solicitude on the part of the citizens 
generally, to display to their more enterprising 
northern brethren the varied resources and capabili¬ 
ties of the state, and to enlist their active co-opera¬ 
tion in their development, together with an earnest 
desire to remove every obstacle to their purchase 
and settlement here; that the substitution of free 
for slave labour would be hailed with unfeigned sat¬ 
isfaction ; and that the most effectual and practica¬ 
ble mode of getting eventually rid of the latter, al¬ 
together, would be through the former—a consum¬ 
mation, as I firmly believe most devoutedly desired 
*>y a large majority of the people of the state. I 
was informed by the proprietor of a large manu¬ 
facturing establishment, and a most estimable, en¬ 
lightened, and influential man, that so deeply was 
he impressed with the importance of the agency 
here alluded to, for the improvement and regenera¬ 
tion of the state, in its industrial capacity, that he 
had already given to northern manufacturers the 
use of large portions of his machinery for a series 
of years, with the right of eventual purchase on 
the most liberal terms, accompanied with a stipula¬ 
tion on both parts of the entire prohibition of slave 
labor on the premises—and that he was prepared 
and desirous to extend these privileges to the ut¬ 
most of his ability. He is the part owner and 
agent of a large tract of valuable land near the 
great falls of the Potomac, at South Lowell, where 
there is an extent of water power, unequalled, as I 
believe, in the Union, and which he is desirous of 
disposing of, on these terms. 
I trust the day is not far distant when the north 
and the south will know each other better than 
they now do. I can, at all events, assure our 
northern friends, that they will not only be heartily 
welcomed here, but enabled, by the exercise of or¬ 
dinary industry and a judicious investment of their 
pecuniary means, to realize, in a very brief period 
of time, a handsome fortune. Whatever-prejudices; 
may exist on their part, in reference to southern in¬ 
stitutions and southern modes of labor and of life, 
they may rest assured, no prejudices are entertained 
here against them ; and that a nearer view and a 
closer intimacy with their brethren of the south 
will not fail to dispel their most formidable appre¬ 
hensions and to draw still more firmly the common 
bond of union which encircles the citizens of our 
broad and fair republic. A New-Yorker. 
We especially commend the preceding letter to 
the perusal of our northern readers. We have long 
been convinced that it would be more advantageous 
for our people to emigrate to the southern Atlantic, 
rather than to the western states. The climate is 
milder and healthier in all those sections which are 
sufficiently removed from the miasma of the rich river 
bottoms. Then there are the advantages in a great 
measure of an old-settled country, such as cheap, 
good land, already long under cultivation ; tolerable 
good roads, churches, schools, villages, me¬ 
chanics near by, &c. But we will not anticipate 
our excellent correspondent, who is much more ca¬ 
pable than we are to give all proper information. 
Virginia is a noble state, possessing greater resour¬ 
ces and more natural advantages, than any other in 
the Union; and whenever her name is mentioned, 
it stirs up an ardent desire on our part to see her 
develop those great resources, and take the same pre¬ 
eminent stand in population, wealth, and morals, 
that she ever has in the government and politics of 
the nation. 
THE WANTS AND DISEASES OF POULTRY. 
Having suffered much lately through ignorance 
and inattention in the management of poultry, I am 
now forced to confess that I never knew before the 
practical importance of acquiring information on 
this subject, trifling as it may appear. I maintain, 
that every farmer’s wife, son, and daughter, in the 
land, should study the habits and make themselves 
familiar with the every-day wants of our common 
dung-hill fowls, which will be obvious by reading 
what I am now about to relate. 
Sometime since, I received from New r York, some 
Dorking and Poland fowls, which I immediately un¬ 
boxed and gave their liberty. Being curious to know 
how they would behave when let out, I provided 
them with a quantity of water, corn, fresh meat* 
green grass and cabbage, clam shells broken into 
small peices, and some old mortar of a wall, pound¬ 
ed fine, in order that I might know in future some¬ 
thing of their wants. The first things they sought 
were the pieces of broken clam shells and the pounded 
mortar of the wall. The fresh water they were so 
anxious to obtain, as almost to dive into it, body 
and all. The finely-chopped meat they devoured 
greedily, and did ample justice to the green food. 
Thus we may learn that the wants of barn-door 
