270 
MARKING SHEEP.-PLANTATION TOOLS. 
MARKING SHEEP. 
The German Merino wool growers have various 
modes of marking their sheep. The signs, or 
marks, are either put on by means of color, burnt 
in, tattooed, cut in, or marks hung round the 
neck. 
Sheep, which are destined for the butcher, are 
marked with paint on the back, or side. 
marks, or numbers, are formed of steel points, as 
seen in fig 73. 
Fig. 74, shows two ears, in one of which is tat¬ 
tooed 3,465 ; in the other, the number seven, indi¬ 
cating the year, 1847. 
The same instrument can be used for cutting 
marks in the ears, by placing, instead of numbers 
or signs, a cutting iron in the shape of a lozenge, 
with which a part can be cut out from the 
ear. This method of marking, I practised 
myself very extensively in the flocks of the 
Count Leinsheim, in Bavaria. 
Fig. 75, represents ears marked in that 
way, making the number 2,294, namely :— 
Nippers. —Fig. 72. 
The rams are marked upon the horns with hot 
irons, upon which the numbers, or signs, are en¬ 
graved. 
A very common method, is tattooing. It is done 
on the inside of the ear by means of signs, or fig¬ 
ures, formed of steel points, and forced into the 
skin in the following mannerFirst, a kind of 
thick paint is made of vermilion, indigo, or gun¬ 
powder, and whiskey; when the paint is prepared, 
On the point of the left ear, . . 
. . 25 
below, four times one, 
. . 4 
above, three times five, . . 
. . 15 
On the point of the right ear, . . 
. . 50 
above, 4 times 500, . 
. 2,000 
below, 2 times 100, * . . 
, . 200 
2,294 
Fig. 73. 
the sheep to be marked is bound and placed upon 
a table and held by one person, while another puts 
the paint upon the inside of the ear, and presses 
the signs, or numbers, into the skin, without caus¬ 
ing it to bleed; when the instrument has been 
withdrawn, the paint is rubbed into the marks. In 
about three weeks, the marks become hardened and 
are indelible. 
All sheep of the Count Caroly’s flocks are mark¬ 
ed in this way, corresponding with their register 
and pedigree. The signs and numbers were very 
distinct, even in old sheep, which had been marked 
for several years. 
Fig. 74. 
The instrument used there, is constructed as fol¬ 
lows :—Upon the lower jaw of a pair of nippers, 
as seen in fig. 72, there are grooves, a, b , c, d, into 
which the numbers, or marks, are inserted ; these 
Lambs are marked with small pieces of lead, or 
wood, upon which the number has been stamped, 
and which are suspended around their necks until 
they have arrived at an age when the operation of 
tattooing, or cutting the ear, is done without injuring 
them.— C. L. Fleischmann , in Patent-Office Report. 
PLANTATION TOOLS. 
Under this head, in the June number of the Ag¬ 
riculturist, I have some comments to make upon 
Letter No. 4, of R. L. A., and the letter of Dr. 
Philips. R. L. A. says, “ that much time is lost 
by the neglect to provide good implements upon 
nearly all southern plantations.” This is very 
true. But Dr. P.’s statement shows that good 
tools only need to be seen and known, and they 
will readily be purchased and used. Let me ask, 
how, until within a very few years, could a south¬ 
ern planter obtain a supply of good agricultural 
implements ? Why, first, he writes to his commis¬ 
sion merchant at New Orleans, 300 or 400 miles’ 
distant, who returns an answer that none of the 
articles wanted are for sale in that city, but he will 
write to his friend in New York, to forward the 
things needed. That friend, in New York, hap¬ 
pens to be a cotton merchant who scarcely knows 
a plow from a harrow, and so he sends a boy into 
the street to “ pick up” (that is the term), the as- 
