PIPES FOR UNDERDRAINING.—SALT MUCK. 
347 
miles, daily, by seven o’clock in the morning, some 
2,000 quarts of milk, including a great proportion 
of cream. One quart of cream is taken from about 
six quarts of milk. He-has a splendid store milk 
house, erected for this purpose, about eighteen by 
forty-five feet, through which runs a pure stream 
of cold spring water. 
I venture to say, this place numbers as great a 
proportion of wealthy farmers, as any other of the 
size in our county, in which enterprise developes 
itself in large and handsome houses and barns, the 
farms generally averaging about three hundred 
acres, correspondingly neat in appearance. 
One word on their method of collecting manures. 
It is deemed good policy to collect, by fall, large 
heaps of compost, of ditch scrapings and meadow 
muck, which are carted to the barn yard, covered 
with coarse hay, and trodden upon by the cattle until 
spring, when it is applied to corn. In this way, 
the land is kept good, uniformly producing re¬ 
munerating crops. 
I am now availing myself of the extraordinary 
dry weather, and having removed from a low place, 
at the head of a mill pond, on my grounds, some two 
hundred loads of earth, that has apparently been, 
say twenty years in accumulating. I wish to inquire 
the most economical manner of applying it to land, 
whether lime or ashes mixed with it would be the 
most likely to be the most beneficial. It seems to 
me to be a species of bog earth and vegetable mat¬ 
ter, that has never known what cropping was, ex¬ 
cept to grow black alders. 
W. D. 
Troy , Morns Co., N. Aug. 2 6th, 1848. 
PIPES FOR UNDERDRAINING.—SALT MUCK. 
In your last number, you invite communications 
in a plain w T ay, from plain men, and I avail myself 
of the invitation, coming as I do under this denomi¬ 
nation of persons. 
You have an article—“Pipes forUnderdraining” 
—by w T hich I learn of the intended importation of a 
machine from England, for making drain pipes. 1 
desire to say to you, that this summer, I drained 
1,864 feet, and procured the pipes and flats made by 
Mr. A. Price, of Middletown Point, Monmouth 
county, New Jersey, at $16 per 1,000 feet at his 
works. They are the half pipe, such as you see 
represented in Stephen’s Book of the Farm, each 
pipe about one foot long, and three inches in di¬ 
ameter, inside, of burnt clay. If any of your 
friends should not be disposed to wait for the ma¬ 
chine, this may be to them acceptable intelligence. 
I have used a great deal of salt muck to good ad¬ 
vantage. I hope to haul up 1,000 loads, this win¬ 
ter, into my barn yard. My first experiment was 
with a Siberian crab-apple tree, which I transplant¬ 
ed from a place where it did not appear to thrive. 
The salt muck had laid over one winter, mixed in 
alternate layers with lime. A hole, about three 
feet by four and two spades deep, w r as dug, and 
filled with this mixture, and the tree planted in the 
centre. It grew very luxuriantly, full two feet for 
one, compared with another apple tree (a russet), 
within the distance of thirty feet, and I have ever 
since been an advocate for salt muck. T. J. 
October 10th, 1848. 
THE MOST PROFITABLE BREED OF SHEEP. 
Which is the most profitable breed of sheep, is $ 
question often proposed—never solved. Many are 
the reasons given for preference of certain breeds in 
behalf of different localities, and many experiments 
have been tried to test relative merits. These have 
been principally tried on equality of terms, the 
natural habits of the animals being left out of sight, 
so that the results have been pretty equally varied 
and unsatisfactory; no sound conclusion having 
as yet been arrived at. It is a subject of great in¬ 
terest in itself, and certainly of vast importance to a 
country so thickly populated as our own happy 
land. The attention of most of our enterprising 
and energetic agriculturists have been turned to the 
increased productions of our arable fields; this is 
perfectly right, and no one appreciates more highly 
the great advances made than myself. I am also 
well aware of the intimate connection between the 
two, from the increase of animal food on these ara¬ 
ble lands; they must go hand-in-hand to a great 
extent; but if it can be shown that certain animals 
—-a particular breed of sheep, for instance—will 
produce a more abundant supply of food for man, 
or clothing for his use, then that is the very breed 
deserving most encouragement, despite of favored 
prejudices. I presume not to direct; my object is 
to promote inquiry. I farm in a district altogether 
enclosed, and our fields are for the most part of 
convenient size. Our sheep graze undisturbed; 
where they feed, there they lie down, and rest in 
quiet. It is not so with the open field or down 
farmer; his sheep travel from field to down, from 
down to field daily. This requires activity; he 
requires an animal with light, elastic tread. I say 
nothing of this mode of farming. 
Query. What is the loss sustained in fat and 
muscle by this weary travel ? The mountain range 
appears to require an agile, hardy animal; but 
have the little animals generally found on these 
summits undergone all improvement of which they 
are capable % The bleak and elevated parts of the 
High Peak of Derbyshire are grazed by sheep of 
fair size and proportions; and the Cotswold Hills, 
which are about 700 feet above “ sea level,” boast 
the largest sheep in the world. I by no means 
question the propriety of suiting the animal to the 
locality or purpose required ; but I do seriously ob¬ 
ject to grazing inferior animals on any pasture, 
country, or place where a superior can be introduc¬ 
ed ; to this I desire to direct particular attention, as 
a subject of no minor importance. I hesitate to 
give an opinion, but as I occasionally see sheep of 
every variety, from the little mountain sheep to 
the gigantic Cotswold, fattening on our best pas¬ 
tures, I will say that, so far as my observation and 
experince go, they fatten in about the same time; 
indeed, with animals of the same age, the larger one 
generally improves the faster. He is more indis¬ 
posed to exertion, resting more quietly; and in the 
consumption of food, the balance is not much in fa¬ 
vor of the smaller animal; his active habits cause 
him to eat more, and his restless feet destroy much. 
I need not stay to prove that an active, lively ani¬ 
mal will consume more food than a quiet, docile 
one; it is an axiom. My impression further is, 
that the little active one will consume and waste 
(by treading), as much or even more food than the 
