SSSHpULT 
/GRICULTURe 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-FOR THE WEEKENDING SATURDAY, JANUARY 7. 186-5. 
MOOEE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
AS ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
RURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
FARMER GARRULOUS TALKS 
AT THE CLOSE OF THE OLD AND BEGINNING OF 
THE NEW YEAR. 
will soon rest too. Ju t as be as true as he— 
unselfish as he was, :u L iImj looking back at t 
end of the last year will not give pain, but t 
look ahead will give lit and joy. There, Job 
go to bed and wake in the Happy New' Yeah. 
meet the demand as soon as the war closes, the 
domestic supply of wool would still fall vastly 
short of the demand. It Yvould be verv easy, did 
space permit, to prove this assertion by well 
known statistical facts; and also to prove that 
many years mnst elapse before enough wool can 
be grown in our country for our own use, at any 
rate of increase in sheep which can be reasona¬ 
bly anticipated. 
All this would be of no use to American wool 
growers, were they and were American manuiac- 
tnrers after the close of the war to be exposed 
without, or almost without, any legislative pro¬ 
tection, to the competition of the whole world, 
as they were after the war of 1813, and as they 
have been on various other occasions by sudden 
changes in our tariff laws. But the question of 
high or low tariffs is no longer an' open one. 
For more than the lives of the present genera¬ 
tion, at least, the situation of the public finances 
will render a high tariff absolutely necessary; 
and the incidental protection it will afford to 
wool and woolens will b amply sufficient, if 
they are in this particular put ou a par with 
other important articles of import. That an 
injurious discrimination will be made against 
them, allowing them less than their proportion- 
able share of protection, is not a supposeble 
ease. It would militate against the public inter¬ 
ests by seriously diminishing the revenue. It 
would he an exhibition of partial legislation for- 
which there could be no statesmanlike motive, 
and one which mere politicians would not he 
likely to urge iu the face of a great industrial 
interest which, while it is ever willing to bear its 
full share of the burthens of our country, G vow 
-A.mg enough to :c»vat unjust encroachments 
on its rights and privileges. 
The dowmiaU of wool growing and manufac¬ 
turing after the war of 1813, was aided no doubt 
by the prevailing derangement in the monetary 
affairs if the country — though the cause already 
assigned was amply sufficient to produce the 
result. Many persons anticipate a similar mon¬ 
etary convulsion after the close of the present 
war. Let us, for the sake of argument, concede 
that this expectation is well founded; what 
then? Did our people go naked, or clothe them¬ 
selves in skins, during the terrible disasters which 
overtook them in ISIS ? No. They bought the 
necessary woolens which they could uot manufac¬ 
ture in their households — and the more, because 
cheap cotton fabrics were then unknown. (The 
first successful experiment with the power-loom 
in the United States, was made at Waltham, 
Mass., in 1815.) But the difference is that our 
people in 1815 bought foreign woolens. When 
the present war closes, they will buy their 
woolens of American manufacturers, and Ameri¬ 
can manufacturers will buy the raw material of 
American producers 
CONDUCTED BY D. D. T. MOORE, 
CIIAS. D. BRAGDOX. Associate Editor, 
Well, well, John ! It is quite near the end of 
the year, is’nt it ? Do you know I begin to 
look back “about these days,” as the almanac's 
say ? But it is not because I feel any desire to 
go back, as Lot's wife did. No Sir. I say let 
the dead past put Us dead in the grave. But I 
like to look over the ground I have walked over. 
It may be I may learn to keep out of the holes 
in the year before me. We all of us talk, at some¬ 
time in our lives, as if we wish to live them 
over again. But I do not—not because I have 
not drank deep of life, and often been made to 
feel better l’or the draught, but because I might 
make worse mistakes on another trial than I 
have made. I look back only to gather up the 
good T may have left by the way—simply to re¬ 
call the truth and facts that come to me. For 
instance, do not you remember how I feared that 
the cold in January would spoil the fruit—how r the 
wet spring would stop the seeding until too.late 
to get in full breadth—how the hot, dry time, 
which made the grass dry up, and the "'•r ain grow 
short, made me shake in my shoes? And yet, 
for all tny trouble of mind, came the grand har¬ 
vest time—the substance in the grass, the plump 
seed iu the grain sheath, the rich fruit iu the 
orchards, and big prices lor all we had gathered. 
I wonder if there is any funner who believes 
there is uo God who rules over us, and gives us, 
as each year comes round, seed-time and harvest. 
I confess I feel shame that I have let the 
doubts fill my hi -art at nil,! 1 hope in ?h • N .v 
Year to keep my faith and trust by me—to keep 
a glad, true and stout heart for my work, i tell 
you, John, faith, without works, is dead. You 
and I. and every man who tills a farm ought to 
think of this and not forget it. No matter what 
the weather may be, we ought not to doubt- 
ought not to regard the winds when wo sow the 
seed. I often hear pious men talk of the “ work 
of faith.” I tell you there is no greater work of 
faith than that which is done every spring when 
farmers sow their seed broad-east all over 
the face of the earth. And uow us I look back 
over the past year and see wliat tests our faith 
has been put to, i hope I learn not to doubt any¬ 
more in the coming years 1 may live. 
It is a right good feeling that comes to us, i 
To Correspondents. — Mr. Randall's address is 
Cortland \ illage, Cortland Co., N. Y. Aft communica¬ 
tions intended for this Department, and all inquiries 
relating to sheep, should be addressed to him as above. 
CUTTING STALKS FOR CATTLE 
HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D., 
Editor of the Department of Sheep Husbandry. 
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS: 
P. BARRY, C. DEWET, LL. D., 
H. T. BROOKS, L. B. LANGWOTUY, 
T. C. PETKHS, EDWARD W’EBSTER. 
SHEEP AND WOOL PROSPECTS IN FUTURE 
The _t ear 1864 bits been an unusually favorable 
one to.the flock-masters of the United States. 
True, it has not been without its serious draw¬ 
backs. It was ushered in with a great loss of 
she.-p in both! the Eastern and Western States, 
owing to opposite climatic extremes and to poor 
or scarce feed. We have already stated in these 
columns, to the best ®f our information, where 
and to what extent these several causes operated, 
and it is not necessary to repeat the facts here. 
Then the product of lambs last spring fell con¬ 
siderably below the average in point of numbers; 
for although it was large in some regions, and in 
a portion of the flocks in nearly all regions, there 
were other sections and flocks in which the mor- 
t ality was ext rein e. This was particula rly the case, 
of course, in the poorly wintered flocks above 
alluded to — but it was by no means confined to 
them. In those in the best condition, in many 
instances, a considerable portion of the lambs 
came in ;tnu feeble and dying state, which, 
whether we regard it as a specific disease or as an 
imperfect development, causes a greater loss in 
out High-' red flocks ilij-n ft oilier adverse agen¬ 
cies combined. 
Nor were the Summer and Autumn of 1S64 
favorable ones for sheep. The first was charac¬ 
terized by excessive drouth, and the last by 
excessive min. Sheep will apparently do better 
on dry parched feed than other domestic animals, 
but it deprives breeding ewes of their milk, and 
consequently lambs of their proper growth; and 
it also seriously cuts short the growth of one and 
two year old sheep. The rainy season did not 
come early enough to supply materials for milk 
for the stunted lambs; and an excessively rainy 
season, when the herbage springs rapidly and 
rankly, is proverbially untavorable to the growth 
of young sheep, or the fattening of older ones. 
But wool has sold at prices never before 
reached by the general clip since the war of 
1813. Many growers have sold for lees than a 
dollar a pound, but none of them whose wool 
was in good order need to have done so. Such 
an advance in price, with a strong popular ex¬ 
pectation that it will be sustained, or approxi¬ 
mately sustained, has naturally produced a great 
advance in the prices of sheep, and particularly of 
those which will produce the most wool at the 
least cast. While the great rise in the price of 
meats, and the greater rise in proportion iu the 
prices of coarse than of fine wools, has rendered 
the actual marketable products of the mutton 
breeds more valuable than ever before—indeed, 
highly remunerative — the principal portion of 
Tub Rural New-Yorker is designed to bo unsur¬ 
passed iu Valdfc, Purity, and Variety of Contents, and 
unique and beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor 
devotes his personal attention to tbc supervision of its 
various departments, and earnestly labors to reader the 
Etrr.At. an etniucntly Reliable Gnldu on all the Important 
Practical, Scientific and other Subjects Intimately 
connected with the business of those whose Interests it 
zealously advocates. As a Family- .ToVkkal it Is emi¬ 
nently Instructive and Entertaining—being so conducted 
that it can bo safely token to the Homes of people of 
intelligence, taste and discrimination. It embraces more 
Horticultural, Scientific, Educational, Literary amt News 
Matter, interspersed with appropriate Engravings, than 
any other Journal,—rendering it far the most complete 
AOPHUtTl' HAL. I.itkuarv and Family Newspaper in 
America. 
For Terms and other particulars, see lust page. 
l'annar. But simply cl ting does not fulfill all 
the conditions necessary for that great gain over 
the ordinary method of feeding' these two articles 
of Winter forage. 
The most complete w ay would be to steam the 
food before it is given 'o the cattle, as is prac¬ 
ticed by many New England farmer* with great 
success, the bloviating ditor of the Boston Cul¬ 
tivator to the contrary - twithstanding. Where 
milk is ot importance, I think no man can 
profitably furnish it who does not thus prepare 
his food. But as steiUL.ng involves considerable 
more expense than simply cutting, aud as the 
food should be given in us moist a state as is pos¬ 
sible by the absorption of water, other means 
can be adopted producing very beneficial results, 
which are within the reach of all who have gone 
to the expense of cutting. 
I ara feeding some o'm- head of team horses 
entirely and exclusive*/ on corn stalks, with a 
Wt.r ft.-! of . % . ..-Log i, u. r .’...i 
on hay *vith the same J ain. I am also feedln*' 
THE RURAL TO ITS READERS. 
ON ENTERING UPON A NEW YEAR AND VOLUME, 
interests ol the Rur.il Population, and other 
producing classes — extended prefatory remarks 
are considered unnecessary. Those who have 
known this Journal for years need not be 
informed as to its Character or Objects, and 
the thousands whom wc now address for the 
first time will ere long learn whatever interest 
or value it possesses. Yet a custom, whereof 
our practice runneth not to the contrary, 
enjoins upon us the doty of inditing an intro¬ 
ductory article. This shall be brief and explicit: 
for, having neither time nor space for either 
palaver or circumlocution, our exordium shall 
he condensed and comprehensive. 
The thousands of Rural ists whom we have 
addressed lbr years, and whose acquaintance we 
now renew, are so well acquainted with our 
for the good and sufficient 
reason, in both cases, that it will be eheap-r to do 
so than to go to other countries for them. This 
is the fruit of a tariff which protects American 
industry. And the consumers who are thus 
compelled to pay more for a great necessary of 
life, by reason of that tariff, bear no more than 
their just and equal share of the public bur¬ 
thens — for other industry is equally protected. 
We were never in tavor ot high tariffs before 
they became necessary, nor in favor of protec¬ 
tion except so far as it could be incidentally and 
reasonable obtained under tariffs adjusted to the 
I 
basis of necessary revenue. Now, as already 
[ said, these scruples arc no longer applicable. 
Necessity is “tin- master of the position.” 
That wool, after the war and after the compe¬ 
tition of eottoh Li re-established, will bear less 
nominal prices than it now does, is to be ex¬ 
pected. But that it w ill lose as little by the change 
as any other great staple of industry', and vastly 
less than some of these staples — that it will 
coutlnue abundantly remunerative — is a fact as 
susceptible of demonstration as any analogous 
one can be. The American sheep breeders and 
wool growers then have as much right to look 
forward with confidence to the future us any 
other class of producers in our country. 
als and community. What the Rut At. has been 
iu this regard hitherto it will be Iu future. It 
will sustain the Right and condemn the Wrong, 
in all matters appropriate for discussion winch 
involve the pecuniary interests and welfare of 
Individuals, Communities and the Country. 
For the information of the host of readers 
"whom wo now have the pleasure of addressing 
(as subscribers) for the first time, wc will hero 
again state that “ Our object from thceommeuce- 
ment of the Ri it At. New Yorker has not been to 
furnish either an Agricultural, Horticultural, Sci¬ 
entific, Mechanical, Educational, Literary, or 
News Journal,— but rather to combine all these, 
and thus present a paper rtnequoled in Value, 
Variety and l sc fulness of Contents. Our earnest 
desire has been to make it an houest, inde¬ 
pendent, reliable and eminently useful Rural, 
LirERARt and Family Newseafeu— correct in 
its teachings ou Practical Subjects, instructive 
and entertuiulng to members of the Family Cir¬ 
cle, ol high moral tone, and entirely free from 
I deception and quackery, oven in its advertising 
department.’ Sneh was, is, and will continue to 
towards the American Merino. Ordinary grade 
flocks command prices never before heard of for 
such sheep, while really choice ones, with good 
and well authenticated pedigrees, have beeu sold 
aud are now selling for sums which almost set 
credulity at defiance! Tills is r -t 
enter iuto details on this subject 
list of sales: we are now only en tr r * •• u- 
eral causes and effects. The high ’'rices o. .* 1 
and sln ep have necessarily ai • n great profits to 
flock ■ masters, during the past year, notwith¬ 
standing the losses and drawbacks already men¬ 
tioned. 
Mill wool command equally high price* 
through another year? Unless the war should 
dose, or unless some decided chance should 
inese contingencies, mu whether they occur or 
not, the demand for actual consumption most 
continue, The restoration of cotton culture 
alter tha war, wilt of course diminish the de¬ 
mand lbr wool, but that restoration will be 
gradual umler any circumstances. If slavery 
continues, the actual diminution of it, and the 
breaking up and confusion introduced into its 
arrangements by the war, will greatly lesson the 
effective agricultural labor of the South, appli¬ 
cable to the production of cotton. If slavery is 
destroyed, it will take considerable time to 
organize a new basis for cotton production by 
free labor. But wore the supply of that staple to 
STOCK RAM u KEARSARGE.” 
The accompanying excellent engraving, from 
a drawing by J. R. Page, is considered a good 
representation of II. W. Hammond’s Iufantado 
stock ram Keak-sar-ge, as he appeared when 
a teg between ten and eleven months old. 
He was dropped in March, 1563, aud w r as got by 
Sweepstakes, dam “Choice of Old Ewes” by 
Long Wool. When a division was made between 
Henry W. aud his uncle, Edwin Hammond, of 
the flock which the latter had owned conjointly 
with Henry's father, the nephew had the first 
e 
\m\ 
llttsltiimlm 
(O «©■ 
’ EDITED BY HENRY S. RANDALL, LL. D. 
