I ~ ». 
j\ wholly inexperienced in this kind of sheep, and 
> gnch men arc very apt to look rather for some 
> imaginary sign of hlood than ftfr that general 
) merit of which they are no judges; and, more¬ 
over, raw experimenters are proverbially fond 
of novelties and extremes . 
Our correspondent asks the cause of wool 
being shed first from the wrinkles. We have 
been half iuclined to conjecture that this, and 
the other concomitants named, are due to a less 
perfect action of those capillary vessels which 
pass from the parts beneath iuto the skfn, owing 
to the skin being detached from the surfaces on 
which it usually rests, and elevated to some dis¬ 
tance above them in the folds or wrinkles. The 
capillary vessels convey nutriment to the skin, 
and the glands which secrete wool undoubtedly 
sympathise with, and to a certain extent depend 
upon the supply of nutrition, because we know 
that a sheep which is high fed and kept in high 
condition produces far more wool than it does if 
poorly fed and kept in poor condition. The short¬ 
ness of the wool, and the diminished supply of 
yolk (after making all necessary allowance for 
increased evaporation,) on the wrinkles, would 
also seem very distinctly to imply a diminished 
supply of nutrition, and with this would 
he expected to follow a less perfect action of 
the functions of the skin generally. That the 
imperfections of fleece which attend the kind of 
wrinkles under consideration — its coarseness, 
want of style and even fairness—do not neces¬ 
sarily accrue from any impurity of hlood (using 
the term in its genealogical sense,) and that it j 
docs accrue as an actual physical result or accom¬ 
paniment of wrinkles, is shown by the faet that 
these imperfections appear when such -wrinkles 
are produced on the purest bred Merino sheep 
in the United States, and on those which gener¬ 
ally possess the evonest fleeces. We have now 
in our mind’s eye a celebrated Merino ram, 
which is covered with high wrinkles, at short 
intervals, from his head to his tail. The wool 
on them has the true “tony ” appearance, and is 
feathered on the edges with “dog-hairs.” The 
dam of this animal is one of the best bred ewes 
in the United States. She is unusually destitute 
of wrinkles, and has none on the body. Her 
fleece is fine and even. She has raised a number 
of lambs, (two or three by the same sire,) and no 
other of them has had high body wrinkles or 
an uneven fleece. His sire has no high body 
wrinkles, and has a fine, even fleece. He is 
celebrated as a stock ram from Maine to Minne¬ 
sota— has got thousands of progeny — and we 
doubt whether any of them, from well bred 
dams, ever to an equal extent exhibited such 
wrinkles, or a fleece so uneven and hairy. The 
wrinkles were, then, what breeders term ‘'•acci¬ 
dental ” characteristics —but with them came 
the usual bad accompaniments! This is but a 
solitary case out of multitudes occurring under 
onr observation, which tend to support the 
same conclusions. But in regard to the mode 
in which wrinkles produce such effects; or, if 
they arc not eauso and effect, why they accom¬ 
pany -each other, we again say the explanation 
we have advanced is purely conjectural. It is 
merely a suggestion thrown out to set sheep 
breeders to thinking, and to set them to looking 
for the true explanation. 
We. do not claim that wrinkles of any descrip¬ 
tion and had wool always accompany each other. 
But we have never yet seen a high bred Merino 
sheep, without wrinkles, which had narrow 
belts or streaks of wool corresponding with the 
spaces usually occupied by wrinkles, and corre¬ 
sponding with that which so often grows on 
wrinkles in shortness, inferior quality, hairiness, 
.comparative absence of yolk, etc. 
We come now to our correspondent’s last 
question—what will prevent the shedding of 
wool on wrinkles ? There is, we suspect, but 
one sure cure for that, and all the other results 
or concomitants we have named —and that is 
no't to have wrinkles. > Seriously, we do earnestly 
protest against the vicious extremes to which 
many are carrying them. It is a mania which is 
directly opposed to utility, good taste and com¬ 
mon sense. It is, we have shown, highly dam¬ 
aging to the quality of the wool, nor does it 
increase the quantity of the wool — for what is 
gained by additional surface is lost by the infe¬ 
rior length of the staple. We never yet saw 
one of these excessively wrinkled sheep which 
exhibited the maximum length of wool either 
on or off from its wrinkles, and we never knew 
one of them which ranked in the very first class in 
weight of fieece.. We do not believe they are 
generally as easily kept or as hardy. It takes 
from three to live limes as long to shear them 
closely and smoothly. In short, everything is 
against and nothing for this cultivation of mon¬ 
strosities, except a silly fashion which docs not 
prevail among the best breeders now, and which 
we feel confident will soon pass away among all 
breeders of any pretensions, as certain other 
kindred fashions have already done.* 
We have known rams having an excess of 
wrinkles to be used with very good results on 
smooth, close skluned ewes—on the principle 
that a defect In one direction may counteract a 
defect in the opposite direction; and we have 
known such rams to he used eveu with ewes 
possessing the proper quantity of wrinkles 
without apparent injury— but it. was only because 
they did not transmit their own characteristics in 
this piirtifulnr to their progeny. Even In this 
case, we should fear the characteristics might 
crop out in succeeding generations. A ram 
possessing them to a high degree and vigorously 
transmitting them to his get, we should regard, 
in a flock of choice, high bred ewes, as a nuisance 
which ought to be promptly abated by a bullet 
or butcher knife! 
* For example, the fashion of cultivating an enor¬ 
mous excess of yoik at the expense of the amount, of 
wool. 
Profits of a Fiona,—W illiam H. Taber, Pawling, 
Dutchess Co., 39.y., writes us:—“1 raised from 10 
ewes 29 lambs which I sold for $226.60. They sheared 
78 IbE. of wool, which I sold for 85 cts. per lb., making 
for lambs and wool 1292.80, or $16.41 for each ewe." 
THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN. 
Tile attempt of the editor of the Country 
Gentleman to excuse his wanton attack on the 
veracity and character of American Merino 
breeders on the ground that we, “before” our 
“present engagement” with the RritAi. New- 
Yorker, made “severer charges ” against them, 
we have already pronounced a very unfortunate 
one. Being requested by the Prosident of the 
N. Y. State Agricultural Society to prepare a 
Report on the Sheep of our country, to be read 
at the meeting of the Society, Feb. 12, 1S02, we 
visited Vermont to make a personal examination 
of its Merino flocks. Our Report commended 
in decided terms the great improvements effected 
by the Vermont breeders, but in alluding to the 
modes of treatment practiced by some of them, 
we, in equally decided terms, expressed our dis¬ 
approbation of them. Among the practices so 
condemned, were housing in summer, pamper¬ 
ing, stubble-shearing, and artificial coloring. 
Our Report was published by the State Society, 
and constitutes the work now known as “Fine 
Wool Husbandry.” 
Apprehending that this publication would not 
generally reach the eyes for which our remarks 
on the above subjects were more particularly 
intended, we repeated those remarks in terms 
fully as pointed in an article published in the 
Country Gentleman Jan. 23, 1863. They were 
not leveled directly or by implication at particu¬ 
lar individuals —and therefore they applied only 
to such persons as followed the condemned practices , 
and to such persons only so far as they followed 
them. Artificial coloring we never imputed to 
anybody but “speculators.” Stubble-slicaring 
wc believed was nearly extinct among breeders 
of reputation. Pampering to a greater or lesser 
extent, we supposed to be more common; and 
yet we had every reason to believe it was 
uuknown in some of the best Merino flocks of 
Vermont. Summer-housing alone appeared to 
us to be pretty general. After denouncing, as 
already said, all these practices, and after giving 
in detail wbat we believed to be the had effects 
of summer-housing and pampering, we went on 
to assign numerous reasons for breeders of repu¬ 
tation having been gradually and almost uncon¬ 
sciously drawn into these latter practices. Every 
reason thus assigned tended to free them from 
the imputation of intentional wrong, and we 
closed this branch of the subject with the fol¬ 
lowing words: 
“I personalty know a good Bhare of the leading 
breeders in that State where the practices lam con¬ 
demning most prevail, and who Themselves practice 
them, and therefore I feel that I have a right-to say, 
and that 1 ought to say that in my O] Union more honest 
mm are not to be found among the business men of our 
country; and they are generally as intelligent as they 
are honest.” 
Would it be credited that these words occur 
in the very article which the editor of the 
Country Gentleman was commenting on and 
quoting from, when he deliberately asserted that 
wc “with all the weight of” our “established 
authority as a writer on sheep, accused them [the 
Vermont breeders] pAnt-blunk of every sort of 
jockeying to ‘ ddurb purchasers ” — that we made 
“severer charges” against those breeders than 
his own virtual ones of intentional falsehood 
and fraud! 
Afterwards we modified our opinions as to the 
propriety of breeders summer-housing their 
sheep, (if wholly disconnected with pampering) 
to the extent indicated, and for the reasons 
briefly given, in the Practical Shepherd, p. 105. 
But the other practices under consideration are 
as pointedly condemned in that work as in the 
article published over our signature in the 
Country Gentleman, Jan. 22, 1868, or in “ Fine 
Wool Husbandry.” (See Practical Shepherd, pp. 
SI, 172,106,197.) Nor have we changed onr views 
in any of these particulars since our “ present 
engagement” with the Rural New-Yorker. 
If our contemporary, as he would seem to insin¬ 
uate, knows of anything connected with that 
“engagement” calculated to change, or which 
has changed our views or expressions on any 
topic connected with American sheep husbandry, 
we would be very glad to hear him make it 
public. 
CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE, ITEMS, &c. 
Typographical Error. — By an annoying typo¬ 
graphical error we are made in our article headed 
" The Countiy Gentleman," March 4th, to say: “ We 
challenge the Editor of the Country Gentlcmun, and 
we invite every ‘sheepman’ in the country carefully 
to examine our recent and entirety acceptable writings 
ou sheep,” &c. The word in italics was written 
accessable In our manuscript, and should have been bo 
printed. 
New Importation op Siikep.—A n American Gen¬ 
tleman, Dr. Charles J. Ken worthy, who has resided 
for some years in Australia, is now on hie return from 
that country, and is bringing with him specimens of 
Merino Sheep from the throe most celebrated flocks of 
Australia—those of Mr. Learmontu, Mr. Curhie and 
Mr. Shaw— All pure descendants of the Camden flock. 
The Camden flock was established with ehcep pur¬ 
chased by Mr. McArthur from the Negretti flock in¬ 
troduced from Spain, by George 111, King of England. 
The sheep being imported by Dr. K. are, in all instan¬ 
ces, the pick of the flockft, and in several instances the 
same ones which have received the first prizes at Die 
great Intercolonial and other shows. They were ehcep 
which money could not buy. but were generously pre¬ 
sented to their present owner by the distinguished 
breeders named. As soon as wc ascertain their safe 
arrival, we shall give ft full history of the sheep and 
the importation. Wo have received specimens of their 
wool. 1t is essentially dltferent from any we have seen 
grown In the United States. Wc often see that which 
is as line in the diameter of the liber, but for softness 
and style, it is almost incomparable—and then, ut a 
years growth, considerable of It iB four inches long ! 
For delaines of exqusitc quality, and for any other 
fabrics Which require a staple of remarkable quulity 
and length combined, wc have nothing like it. If then 
these Australian Merinos succeed in our country, they 
will render ns, tu tiuie, independent of other countries 
in the production of the materials for fabrics which we 
now must, import and pay for in gold In other coun¬ 
tries. Let us then welcome these strangers to our 
shores. They will compete with nothing which we 
now possess. There is abundance of room for them, 
and for every other breed of stock which meets any 
want of the American people, if we fiud them uncon¬ 
formed to American ideas of Merino breeding, let us 
neither ridicule nor condemn them until we have 
paused for intelligent experiment to decide whether 
they arc useful. We hope they will be here In time 
for exhibiiion at the N. Y. Spring Sheep Show and 
Fair In May next.. 
Ruta Bagas, &e„ for Sheep Feed.— J. F., Riga, 
Lenawee Co., Mich., says the rate bags flourishes fine¬ 
ly in that region, and asks how it should be cultivated. 
It is planted tu drills about 30 inches apart on thor¬ 
oughly pulverized and highly manured soil—the young 
plants thinned out to afoot apart, and the ground kept 
cultivated aud free Horn weeds. The roots are pulled 
the last thing before winter sets in, etored in a turnip 
cellar—or in pits covered with straw, aud sufficient 
earth to keep them horn freezing. When pitted, a 
small hole should be left in the covering for ventila¬ 
tion until decidedly cold weather sots in. 
J. F. asks if there is a good gTeen crop for sheep 
feed in the event of tha pustures failing, say from mid¬ 
summer until the middle of September, when the fall 
rains set in. Wc kn<i#vof no one adnpted to keeping 
sheep at this period on a large scale except t he natural 
grasses or clover. The small or June (red) clover, if 
sown on good rich land that is naturally adapted to it, 
and plastered, makes more food during the period 
named than any other of these—whether it has been 
previously pastured or mown. It is obvious that no 
root crop is early enough—and the same is true of 
rape, rye, &c. 
Cukap Merino Ra*s.—T he same writer, in a vein 
of considerable humor, objects to the present price of 
Merino rams, and insists that “ second or third cluss 
ones” ought to be bought for $10, $15or $20 apiece. 
There are many pretty well bred flocks owned by far¬ 
mers in the State of New York, where nil the rain 
lambs of a season might lie contracted for in advance 
for $15 a head, to be delivered at weaning, and they 
are just the same sheep that are now, in a multitude 
of instances bought np, painted, taken to the West 
and sold as Simon Puree 1 
New Metal Ear Mark.— D. G. Wyeth, New Way, 
Licking Co., Ohio, sends ns a tew ear mark. It is 
made of thin brass plate, bent into the same shape 
with Dana’s, and is worn In the ear In the same way. 
The front side of the ling or link, however, has a 
widened portion about the size of one of the cents 
now in circulation, and the ring closes in a different 
way. The advantages claimed for it by its inventor 
are these:—“The numW is large, plain, and on the 
front side as well as the name. On the back is room 
for date of birth, which can be scratched on with any 
sharp Instrument. It is adjusted by straightening the 
front part of the upper bend, thereby drawing the 
lower end into a Bockct." The numbering is more 
conspicuous than on Dana’s marks, and so is the mark 
of ownership if confined to initials. But the widened 
portion of the ring does pot admit of the owner'sfud 
name in addition to tlie number. It requires a larger 
hole punched in the car than Dana’s, and owing to J 
its “ eocket," etc., is not so easily adjusted. It muet 
be more expensive, and if made of the same cheap 
material, would bo bgavicr. Several of these objec¬ 
tions might be obviated, and if so we have no doubt 
that it would form aji ear mark that would please 
many persons. 
<£0mmm*otions, <£tc. 
ECONOMY IN FUEL. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: —Much is said 
about the scarcity and high price of fuel. It is 
important, then, that we should economize in its 
use. One way to do this is to burn well seasoned 
wood instead of green. Dry wood has many ad¬ 
vantages over green. In the first place it helps 
to make the home cheerful and happy. With a 
quick fire, the “ pot w ill boll ” in season, — the 
dishes are well done,—the bread is nicely baked,— 
the dinner is ready punctually at the hour. The 
husband can calculate Ids business systematically. 
The wife docs not have to wait for the men to 
come to their meals: thus all moves harmoni¬ 
ously, and dry wood, properly prepared, is no 
small ingredient In this cup of domestic comfort 
and prosperity. 
It is economy to use seasoned wood because 
one or two sticks will often accomplish, in a 
few moments, what considerable green wood 
would not do in the given time. The tiro must 
he kept up, in the one case, constantly, or it is 
difficult to revive it. 
Is it not etrauge, that many people use un¬ 
seasoned wood nearly the year through ? cutting 
it day by day, as needed. Often the poor labor¬ 
ing man must provide and cut the day’s wood 
before going to his day’s work. This is hard for 
him, and a lo88 to Ms employer. How much 
more refreshing, summer mornings, to hoe in 
the garden, &c., than to cut fire wood! 
Wood-liouscs help to economize in fuel. Sup¬ 
pose that many who are without one at preseut, 
—perhaps some of humble means,—shall resolve 
this year to have one. Would it not he a wise 
resolution ? Building material and mechanic’s 
wages, we. know, are Ugh ; so also is the price of 
daily labor. Cannot many oi us do with less 
tobacco aud sweetmeats, spend less precious 
time at the store and tavern; thus save a few 
dollars to buy shingles and hoards with? A 
wood-house, even of small dimensions, will 
answer quite well, and cost but little. It would 
bold most of the year’s fuel, and leave, some 
space to work in rainy days, store utensils, &c. 
The building might he raised a few inches from 
the ground, uudcrplancd with stones, but not 
mortared or poiuted. This would give free cir¬ 
culation of air. Lay on the ground some poles, 
four inches in diameter, three or four feet apart, 
across these lay smaller polos, near together, dis¬ 
tance varying with tngtb of wood. On these 
lay a tier of wood, in which throw the wood 
loosely. Under and through the pile the air 
could move freely. The wood would come out 
dry and durable, if pat up in the spring in a dry 
time. Such a building, made of unplaned boards 
if necessary, would cost a small sum, soon pay 
for itself, and might form a nucleus and begin¬ 
ning ol better and more prosperous days to many 
au humble family. 
Now is a favorable time to draw wood to the 
door; cut and split it during February and 
March, throw it in loose heaps, and in latter part 
ot March or April, in a dry time, carry it under 
cover, as above described. Such wood will be 
excellent for following summer and winter use. 
C. W. Turner. 
Digbton, Mass.,(Feb. 8,1805. 
THB ECONOMY OF BINDERS. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker: —I notice an 
article in your issue of Jan. 7th relating to bind¬ 
ing grain, in which your correspondent II. J. D. 
figures that by using Burson’s Grain Binder 
lie makes a net profit of fifty cents ou each 
acre. Now, your correspondent don’t give the 
whole of the expense of euttiug ten acres, — 
for he docs not say whether he can cut the ten 
acres per day with one or two teams, — simply 
says, viz.: 
“ One binder one day and board. $2 50 
Cost of wire for ten acres. ...... 5'oo 
$7.50" 
I think he should have added the labor of 
one man to pitch the grain to tho binder, and 
the labor of one extra team; for no one team can 
draw a reaper with three men on it, and the 
binder, which, at the least calculation, is equal 
to the fourth man, aud cut ten acres per day. 
Now, I will give my figures with the reaper 
that I use. With my reaper, which is Seymour 
& Morgan’s Self-Raking Reaper, with one team 
I can cut ten acres per day, or an acre per hour, 
with ease, (have done it with one pair of oxen,) 
and four men will bind it and do it much better 
than can he done with any of Burson’s machines. 
My figures are for ten acres, and taking the 
same price for wages as n. J. D. : 
One man and team one day and board.$5.00 
Four men to bind one day and board. s!oo 
And with the binder it would be, 
Two teams one day and board...$5.00 
One man to drive one day. g 50 
Cost of wire for ten acres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00 
One man to work the binder. ", 2 50 
One man to fork the grain to the binder ..'. 2A0 
. . . | .wv 
Whereas the expense with the seif-raker is 
only.$13.00 
Balance in favor of self-raker. .$4.50 
I will further state that I can with the same 
expense cut and put up more grain in one day or 
any number of days, and do it better than can 
be done with any machine to bind. And then 
the wire is very bad to thrash, for they can’t 
take it off out of the way; at least they have 
not here. a. d. v. 
High Forest, Minn., 1865. 
MAPLE SUGAR MAKING. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker:—I saw'an article in 
the Rural of Feb. 11th, about making maple 
sugar, in which your correspondent says, to 
make nice sugar use a 15 gallon kettle not mak¬ 
ing more than 30 pounds at once. I think I can 
tell him of a much better w ? ay, or at least one 
that snits me much better, for I have used a 
kettle a number of years, and now use a pan 
made of galvanized iron for that purpose. It is 
much better for then there Is no scouring of the 
kettle required, nor any danger of tho sugar 
burning by rising and falling. 
Our pan for sugaring off in is make of galvan¬ 
ized iron, just large enough to set on top of the 
stove nicely, with handles on the sides the same 
as on the large pan for boiling the sap in. It is 
aboout 15 by 20 inches square, aud sits on top of 
Uie stove without having to uncover it or lift off 
and on. It does not trouble about running 
over, at all, as a kettle does. When your sugar 
is done, take it out, wash the pan, put in more 
Eirup, and so on every time. I can make nicer 
sugar and in ices time thau in any kettle I ever 
saw. 
I generally sugar off from 25 to 80 pounds at a 
time, and have as many us forty pounds. If your 
correspondent will jH9t try a pan this spring I 
will warrant he will never try his 15 gallon ket¬ 
tle again. It is cheap, ours only costing two 
dollars, three years ago; besides, it is so handy 
for other purposes, such as coloring with mad¬ 
der in, or making cheese from 4 or 5 cows. It 
makes a very good cheese vat. 
We use a pan for boiling the sap in, like his, 
only ours is about 3 by 7 feet Bquarc. 1 hope 
some one will try our plan, for it works so nice 
no one can help thinking it better than a kettle 
after trying it. — Mrs. H. 8 . A. 
FREEZING FLAX FIBER. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorker I take the liberty 
to enclose a sample of a crop of flux raised in 
1863 which I think is finer aud stronger than any 
I have seen lately. I attribute its excellence to 
the wetting or rather freezing process t hrough 
which it passed, it involves an idea new to me 
but perhaps not to others. I will give it in short; 
As onr flax was not rotted quite enough, wc ven¬ 
tured to spread in a rain which turned into snow 
and froze hard. It lay nearly covered for ten 
days when it was raised and placed in the cheese 
house, on racks made of boards, where a good 
fire relieved it lrom enow and ice. It was then 
taken to the milk-shed and spread on board racks 
and left to freeze dry. 
As a relic of the past I scud a specimen of flax 
40 years old raised in Watertown. Tills llax I am 
told was caught under the snow, but 1 think from 
its harshness was dried without freezing. 
Copenhagen, N. Y. Mas. N. R. L. 
Remarks. —The samples of flax, yarn and wick- 
iug, accompanying the above are very fine. The 
sample of flax grown In 1808 is excellent. 
Jiclative Value of Manures. —To the Young 
Farmer who asks the question, “ What general 
rale is there for determining the relative value 
of the excrements of different animals?” wc 
reply in brief, promising to pay more attention 
to the subject, that the richer the food the ani¬ 
mal cats the richer the manure — the more 
concentrated the food, the more valuable the 
excrement. 
Rural Notes ani) (Queries. 
American Cattle Breeders’ Association.— The 
annual meeting of this Association was held in Wor¬ 
cester, Mass., March 1. The attendance was small. 
The following oflieers were elected for the ensuing 
year: President— E. II. Hyde Of Stafford,(Ot, Vice 
Presidents— John G. Wood, Millbnry, Mass.; George 
Campbell, Westminster, Vt.; E. M. Jameson, Antrim, 
N. 11.. J.F. Anderson, Windham, Me.; Burdelt Loom¬ 
is, Windsor Locks, Ct,; O. D. Fierce, Providence, R. I. 
Secretary and Treasurer—J. S Allen, East Windsor, 
Ct. Committees — On Short-Horns, >8. W. Buffnm, 
Winchester, N. II.; 8. W. Bartlett, East Windsor. Ct.; 
P. Stfcdman, Chicopee, Mass. On Devons, U, M. Ses¬ 
sions, South Wilbraham, Maas.; B. 11. Andrews, Wat¬ 
erbary, Ct.J E. H. Hyde, Stafford, Cl. On Ayrshires, 
George B. Loving, Salem, Mass.; IT. H. Peters, South- 
boro, Mass.; William rfirnie, Bpiiiigfleld, MasB. On 
Jerseys, John Brooks, Princeton, Mass.; (Jonathan 
For bush, Bolton, Mass.; W. Lincoln, Worcester, Mass. 
The objects of this Society arc the protection of 
breeders by the registry of pure-blooded animals. 
Any man can have bis pedigrees examined by forward¬ 
ing llfty cents each, but none will be registered in the. 
herd-book till it lms the sanctiou of tho( committee 
above named. Durham, Devon and Ayrshire (herd- 
books have already been published by the Society. 
The Ayrshire aud Bovou breeders have thus far re¬ 
ceived the most benefit. The operations of the Socie¬ 
ty are not confined to New England, but pedigrees 
have been received from tbo West, California and 
Canada. The Association adjourned to meet with the 
New York State Agricultural Society at the time and 
place of its next Annual Meeting. 
-»♦» 
“ War’s Miserere."— Tho Editors of the Ohio Far¬ 
mer and Ulrai. New-Yorker are informed that “the 
poem which nppearod in the Rural of Feb. 4th, with 
the above title," was an original article of which I am 
the author. According to the statement made by the 
Editor of the Farmer, in a late issue of his paper, the 
poem has had the honor of a previous publication. If 
published in the Fanner i t was without my knowledge. 
I have never sent it to tho Farmer, or to any other 
papor whatever, except the Rural New-Yorker. I 
sent the poem to a correspondent in Cleveland some 
time previous to the date of its alleged appearance in 
the Farmer, hut as a private communication, and with 
no view to its publication. Through this channel it 
may have reached the office of the Farmer. In this 
case, the Editor might have provided against future 
annoyanco to himself or any other member of the 
fraternity, by sending me a copy of the Farmer con¬ 
taining the poem, which it seems he failed to do. 
Will he correct the statement lie has made, that the 
article was “communicated to him by the author'?" 
Annie E. Hubbart. 
-- 
Season Notes prom Champaion Co., III., Feb. 24. 
—Weather fine, frost coming out, wild geese, ducks 
and sand hill cranes going north in large numbers; 
farmers are preparing to sow spring wheat and barley, 
and if no change of weather occurs, will be generally 
sowing by Monday, 27th. The season is about one 
week in advance of the usual time of opening, and 
two weeks ahead of last year. The winter has been 
mild, at no time being more than two degrees below 
zero daring the winter. A more mixed husbandry is 
being adopted, and the great staple, coru, is giving 
place in part to spring wheat,outs, sorgo, flax, barley, 
etc.—JJ. 
Premium on Mowini; Machine.—N. 1’., Hamilton; 
We tliink no award was made on mowing machines 
at the State Fair last fall—certainly there ought not to 
have beeu any made. We would not give a copper for 
an award on any implement made without adequate 
test, and no other inau ought to place any reliance, 
nor base any action upon any other kind of an award. 
Deferred.— In consoqueuce of the extraordinary 
rush of advertisements, several articles intended for 
this number of the Rural are necessarily deferred, 
and among them a report of tho interesting discus¬ 
sions at tho anuual meeting of the N. Y. Sheep 
Brooders’ and Wool Growers’ Association. 
Cheese Making on the Sabbath.— Religious de¬ 
nominations in various parts of the country are giving 
decided expression against the practice of Christians 
who carry their milk to the Cheese Factories on the 
Sabbath, characterizing it ns neither a work of neces¬ 
sity nor of mercy. 
-- 
The Best Breed op IIkns por Layers.—M. E. C„ 
Elkhart, Ind.: The best breed of hens for layers with 
which we are acquainted is the Black Spanish. You 
can probably gel them pure of non. Joun Went¬ 
worth, Chicago, Ill. 
Brinkeriiopf Churn.—P lease ask the readers of 
the Rural that have tested fairly and thoroughly the 
Ilri acker huff Churn, how they like ii. Two years ago 
it was recommended very highly. Has it proved a 
failure like many other now notions, or does it come 
up to the scratch?—B. J. Ca mi-hell, (Hen Jtavm, 
N. Y. f 
Oiled Silk.— W. M.: Oiled silk is made by coating 
it with some quick drying boiled oil, and drying it in 
a warm room. Two or three successive coats are 
BOinetimes put on, each being throughly dried in suc¬ 
cession. 
-•-*-<- 
Fenian.—E. H. Cocklin, Shepardjdown, Pa., will 
find on page 177, last Vol. Rural (issue, May 28th,) a 
full explanation of the derivation of this word, which 
we have not space to repeat. 
-— 
Making Sugar prom Sorghum.— Can any of your 
readers inform me of any process by which I can 
cause sorghum sirup to grain ? I have made It when 
sugar would become candy, bin never thoroughly 
gruin.— Mrs. Sarah Dav, Polk Co., Iowa. 
-- 
Drill por Small Seeds.—Wm. Stephens, Grant, 
Co. Wis„ You can got such a Drill as you want by ad¬ 
dressing I’. S. Meserole, 204 Lake St. Chicago, 111. 
■ - 
Drilling Spring Wheat.—I f any of your readers 
have had experience In drilling in spring wheat early, 
on fall-plowed land, i should be glad to near about re¬ 
sults aw compared with that sown broad-cast. Also 
wbat drill was used.- A Farmer, Jeff. Co., N. Y. 
WniTK vs, Yellow Corn. — What is tho relative 
value oi Yellow and White Corn tor grinding? Wifi 
some one who has grown both soi ls give his experi¬ 
ence as to value as a crop for grinding.- Richard 
Weeks, North Indiana , 1SC5. 
»♦ » 
Broom Corn —Will not some practical broom-corn 
cultivator give your readers some Information about 
the best varieties (ocultivate; also something about 
culture?— Charles Johnson, Central Ohio , Neb, 1865. 
-►-♦-- 
Potato Digger —J. H. Morey is informed that ho 
can get Hickok’s Potato Digger by addressing Geo. 
M. Baker, Buffalo, N. Y. 
