do eo by other parties. If I live and havo the 
sheep nilothfir year I will endeavor to make the 
matter more satisfactory. W, R. Skid moke, one 
of the witnesses present at the time owe No. 1 
was sheared, was then hove on a visit, and I do 
not know whore ho is. You Have made an error, 
&e. [Hum follows the same correction made in 
Mr. Hun T'e affidavit.) The Hunt Brothers gave 
me two samples of wool wbioli 1 will forward 
by express.” 
The samples of scoured wool have been 
received by us. They weigh an ounce each, 
and, as staled in Mr. Hunt’s affidavit are 
respectively marked with cards of the firm 
as samples of wool cleansed for S. P. If red 
and L. Noble, both of Honcoye. 
Neither Mr. Hunt nor Mr. Martin furn¬ 
ishes any explanation why scoured samples 
from other Uuuecs instead of those of Mr. 
Martin arc sent to us, when the ostensible 
object is to furnish ocular proof how cleanly 
the latter were scoured. Mr. Martin's wool 
will best, show for itself. W hile we suspect 
no improper motives in this matter, and 
while we are willing to believe that Mr. 
Hunt acted in entire good faith in the scour¬ 
ing, still the whole account (\vc will not 
enter upon details now) given by him of that 
process leads us, we must confess, to enter¬ 
tain some doubts whether it was performed 
as thoroughly as he supposes. If wo can 
be furnished with a suitable sample from the 
fleece of “ewe No. 1,” we will have the fact 
properly determined by competent and dis¬ 
interested judges. For that purpose, we 
should want, at least a quarter of a pound of 
the fleece, and half a pound would he still 
better. To take away all ground for cavil¬ 
ing, tiic sample should, we think, be accom¬ 
panied by an affidavit that it was taken 
entirely from the fleece of Mr. Martin’s 
“ewe No. 1,” stated in W. R, Hunt’s letter 
of June 2(3tli, published in Rural New- 
YoRKKuof July 31st, 18G0, toliave produced 
seven pounds and one ounce of scoured wool; 
and that the wool Is now in the same con¬ 
dition as when it, was first scoured by Hunt 
Brothers. 
Cornices* 
The cornice, from the conspicuous position 
it occupies, calls for as much, if not more 
consideration than any oilier single feature 
of a house; for a builder can, by a display of 
good taste on the cornice, beautify, or, with 
a mean cornice, degrade an edifice that 
would otherwise look well. It is customary 
to put up for a cornice, a simple, plain gutter 
to receive and cany off the rain falling on 
the roof, with meager if any ornamentation 
to set it olf. By making use of heavy, hold 
mouldings, good, strong projections, well 
formed brackets, or other style of decoration, 
usbanbru 
n. S. RANDALL, LL. D., EDITOR, 
Op Cor.ri.iNU Village, Cobilasb CouNtr, New York. 
PRACTICAL TASTE 
POETRY OF THE FARM 
Beauty—Its Elements. 
It is a mistaken fancy, entertained, it is to 
be hoped, by but few, although advanced by 
a well-known author and lecturer, that in 
“ utility alone is beauty.” According to 
that theory, the head of wheat and homely 
useful potato must surpass in beauty the rose, 
lily and other liko creations of loveliness. 
The article on “ Poetry of the Table ” in 
the Rural of the 11th, by F. G., brought to 
mind a few reflections on the general appear¬ 
ance of firms throughout the country. One 
would suppose, if be would judge from the 
appearance of most of them, that the fann¬ 
ers had devoted themselves entirely to the 
accumulation of money, and had lost all re¬ 
gard for tidiness in the cultivation of their 
fields. And very frequently I hoar the ob¬ 
servation, “ Mr.-must be a terribly Black 
man; just look at his fields I” There are 
many farmers who will raise excellent crop,a, 
but allow the fence boundaries and highway 
to be crowded with foul weeds of every dc- 
scriptiun. Now, it scorn* to me that a man 
should lie as particular about the appearance 
of his farm as about the appearance of his 
person. 
There are but few farms blit what, have 
some low, wot spots on them, covered with 
water the greater part of the season, and 
which greatly disfigure the beauty of many 
an otherwise fine field. 'With a little exer¬ 
tion and judicious draining, most ol‘ these 
“ plague-spots” can he entirely removed, not 
only improving the appearance of the field, 
but adding greatly to tlio value of the whole 
farm. And, also, farmers, clear up tit,it 
long, dirty ruffle of weeds which stretches 
around your fields, and between them, and 
which is as ornamental as a dirty collar 
around your own neck. Clean it out thor¬ 
oughly, and keep it clean, and you will not 
only win the admiration and respect of your 
neighbors, but that also of strangers. Ouo 
is hardly conscious of the effect it has upon 
the appearance of the country until ho 
travels from one town to another. Then it 
is that lie sees the different methods of cul¬ 
tivation; and if he has traveled for miles 
through neglected farms to chance upon one 
kept clean and tidy, It seems as refreshing 
as an oasis on the desert. “ Now,” ho will 
say to his companion, “ that man i3 a man 
of some pride and energy.” Certainly he is, 
and he has an eye for beauty, and for clean , 
waving fields of grain, and has a wholesome 
regard for tho appearance of his form, out¬ 
side of its mere money value. 
Now, fellow farmers, let’s clear up some 
of the old rubbish on our tons, and give 
them a cheerful look; and hear in mind the 
fact that a hundred acres well kept are far 
preferable to a thousand half cultivated. 
Marcollua Falls, N. Y. Frank Graves. 
MR. MARTIN'S SCOURED WOOL, 
In our issue of July 31st was published a 
statement of the gross and scoured weights 
of certain fleeces from Merino sheep belong¬ 
ing to Mr. Peter Martin of Rush, N. Y. 
As the reported weights were very large, and 
the scoured weight, of one ewe’s fleece en¬ 
tirely unprecedented—as the narrative of the 
facts exhibited important omissions and was 
not propfcrly sustained by proofs—we felt, it 
our duty to present Mr. Martin the alterna¬ 
tive of furnishing us with the omitted facts 
ami proofs, or else of losing any benefit 
which might accrue to him from our publi¬ 
cation of his statements. He has answered 
these requirements by sending us documents 
of which the following Is the substance: 
1. His own affidavit, subscribed and sworn 
to before Matthew Stull, Esq, J. P., 
August 13th, that he is the owner of “ the 
sheep the weight of whose fleeces were given 
in Moore’s Rural New-Yorker of June 
5th,” [and also July 31st f| that they were 
shorn on the loth day of May, 1808; that 
ihcy were subsequently fed and treated as 
heretofore stated in Rural New-Yorker; 
that they were sheared the present year on 
the 10t.h of May, at his barn in Rush ; that 
ewe “ No. 1 was sheared and weighed, both 
tlecce and carcass, in presence of Charles 
Ivueler and W. R. Skidmore, the remain¬ 
der in the presence of Mr. Keeler, and the 
weight and fleeces were” as heretofore pub¬ 
lished ; that he took the fleeces to Messrs. 
Hunts’ factory in company with J. J. and 
0, F. Martin ; that “ the fleeces were done 
up singly as they came from tho sheep, and 
there was no addition made to them.” 
2. A certificate signed by Matthew 
Stull, David Siday, and Geo. M. Houck, 
that they “ were present on 10th day of May, 
1858, at the shearing of Peter Martin’s 
five ewes specified in his affidavit.” 
3. The affidavit of Charles Keeler of 
Rush, sworn to before Wm. J. Kimball, Esq., 
J. P., August 16th, that he was at the resi¬ 
dence of Peter Martin, May 15th, 1809, 
and then and there saw him shear his Me¬ 
rino ewes; t hat “ ewe No. 1 sheared nineteen 
and one-quarter pounds of unwashed wool 
in good condition, without any other wool 
or substance whateverthat, lie saw him 
(Martin) weigli the fleece, and weighed it 
himself; that the ewe weighed eighty-one 
pounds after shearing; that "those sheep 
and fleeces in the Rural of June is correct, 
so far as weight of sheep and fleeces are 
concerned.” 
4. A Certificate signed by Thomas J. Jef¬ 
fords, Richard Peck, Matthew Stull, 
Socrates Smith, F. J. Sherman, Hallock 
Brothers, R. C. Pierce, and George II. 
Houck, “ that they are well acquainted with 
Peter Martin of Rush, and believe any 
statement made by him, cither verbally or 
under oath, to be entitled to full credence.” 
5. The affidavit of W. R. Hunt, which we 
prefer to give entire, is as follows: 
North BloomfieldCustom Woolen Mill, I 
North Bloomfield. N. Y. f 
Mr. H.S. Randall:— Our nttontlon Is called 
to j our article in issue of July 31, and it seems 
duo to Mr. .Martin tluit wo make tho following 
vevtilfid statement: 
BMP 
SM& 
cotton yarn and wick factory, 
The love of the beautiful is universal, and the hoi 
we may say of practical value, too, and and sn 
much enjoyment is created by one who con- i- 
structs anything which satisfies that craving. 
The person who constructs any proper ob¬ 
ject delighting the eye is a. benefactor to his 
race, for "a thing of beauty is a Joy for¬ 
ever.” The constructor, too, enjoys the re¬ 
sult of his taste and liberality 
There are various elements of beauty en¬ 
tering into the composition of works of de¬ 
sign, each having some bearing on the im¬ 
pression produced on tho beholder, such as 
form, (single and combined,) proportion, t —— 
symmetry, variety, color, &c. In many 
cases some of these are entirely overlooked, 
where they are important in the general Ond 
effect, so that there is something wanting to buildin 
the cultivated or critical eye. 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY, 
i he gooct tune coming lor wool growers 
seems indefinitely postponed. Fanners with 
a docile, and, we will hope, with a Christian 
spirit, have washed their sheep pretty well, 
dried them, sheared them, and sold their wool 
at whatever price buyers thought best to 
pay. Forty cents takes about, all the wool. 
Compared with wages, and with what farm¬ 
ers buy, forty cent3 is ruinously low. It 
comports neither with tho price of land, 
with the taxes that must be paid, nor with the 
general range of prices for produce. 
It is hinted very often by our best, sheep 
men that we must abandon sheep altogether, 
or grow the large mutton variety. 
Every branch of business lias its seasons 
of depression, and it is had policy to go out of 
a thing when it is low. That is the time 
when good calculators go in, for then they 
get their supplies cheap, and have raised 
something to sell by the time the market has 
advanced. 
But we must not forget that every man 
and every locality is especially fitted to some 
particular branch of indust ry. Raising wool 
is not th a forte of our best Genesee farms, or 
our best Genesee farmers. A shiftless, semi- 
barbarous tribe can tend sheep in a country 
without snow, and beat us in getting up 
cheap wool, which costs them little to trans¬ 
port. 
Tills don’t mean that we should butcher 
our dear “American Merinos." It does moan 
that raising wool here must ho an incidental 
and not a leading pursuit. It means that we 
must keep our sheep well, and have our sur¬ 
plus ready for the butcher. It means that m 
should carry our improvements to the highest 
attainable standard, to meet competition suc¬ 
cessfully. 
Wo should keep right on with our best 
Merinos, but the inferior ones might be cross¬ 
ed with large rams to raise early lambs for 
market. Meat is certainly, and must be, an 
important consideration with those who keep 
sheep. But, in spite of Australia, South 
America, the tropics, and the Nomads, a 
ewe that raises a lamb and gives six or eight 
pounds of merchantable wool (washed) in a 
year, is a choice legacy, and will pay her 
way well where land is worth less than $250 
Let us thank heaven for her, and 
ABOUT HOES 
The best hoe for all purposes — the one I 
should select if I could have but one, is the 
ordinary steel hoe, with blu.de and shank 
forged in a single piece. Probably this form 
and material will never be improved on for 
a hoe designed for general use. But of lute 
years, inventors have given us hoes shaped 
for special purposes, and having used several 
kinds, I will note my impressions. 
The scuffle hoes, those whose blades lay 
nearly flat on the soil, and are alternately 
pushed and pulled in use, I deem of very 
little value. They are worthless, except In 
soil that is very mellow, free from stone and 
large weeds or grass. They can only he used 
to advantage among certain garden crops, as 
onions, at particular stages of culture, and 
then other forms of hoes, which arc adopted 
to more general use, are just as good. I do 
not deem the whole lot of scuttle hoes valu¬ 
able enough to pay a farmer or gardener for 
storing and keeping clean. There are sev¬ 
eral kinds, but all work on the plan of sliding 
along just under the surface. 
For onions and the like, the best hoc Is 
made of a piece of thin, good steel, as a saw 
blade, from one to two inches wide, and of 
any desirable length. This is riveted to a 
pronged standard and set at about the anglo 
of ordinary hoes. 
IIexamer’s prong hoe is an excellent tool 
for pulverizing a clean soil among garden 
crops. It is also convenient for many pur¬ 
poses on the farm, such as digging potatoes, 
hauling manure from wagons, &c. 
Warren’s Excelsior hoc, recently adver¬ 
tised in the Rural, I have found excellent 
for weeding among small crops, and well 
adapted to moving dirt, loosening the soil, 
and destroying weeds. Perrin Tone. 
Fig. 3. 
ing about the least attention of any. Fig. 1 
shows it as commonly built—a plain month 
Fig. 4. 
mental box, and Figures 2, 3, 4, 5 how, with 
the same material and a trifling extra labor, 
afar more pleasing result is obtained, adding 
Fig. 5. 
to the attractiveness of a house instead of 
disfiguring iL, as the mean, stiff affair usually 
stuck on does. 
Roofs. 
We have good reason to congratulate the 
public on the growing inclination for the 
styles of roofs erected during the past few 
years,—the hipped French and other irregu¬ 
lar forms. They are so much more pleasing 
than tho old-fashioned single slope, with its 
high-reaching stretch of shingling, besides 
the cutting short, as it were, of a house run¬ 
ning so far up into the sky. Then, too, tho 
airy, graceful crest railing adds so much to 
the beauty. 
A Cupola 
is perhaps, by the most of owners, looked 
upon as a luxury, and too expensive to be 
indulged in, yet if managed with simplicity 
may be comparatively inexpensive, and adds 
not a little to the dignity of a house, no less 
than to enjoyment of its use for prospect and 
may be of practical use in ventilation, w. h. 
per acre. ( 
help her to multiply her kind 
II. T. Brooks, 
gallons water, one quart 
soup, one pint salt; ami when starting a new 
w?»!£ r ii V o, ma ii t6 l t uboi , lt ono -foui th urine, and 
grr>* '§ oue hundred and twenty do- 
.??? that ? have known Mr. 
Sample* amt Weights of Fleeces.— Major H. T. 
Brooks of Pearl Crook, N. Y., writes us :-My 
neighbor, Mr. Joel Clark of Covington, Wy¬ 
oming Co., has ft flock of Merinos which, I think, 
Is worth reporting. He has seventy-eight owes 
descended from G. Cutting’s flock, Vermont, 
and five rams sired by a ram raised by Messrs. 
Parks of this town from Vermont stock. Tho 
eighty-three sheep sheared eight hundred and 
ninety pounds of wool, purchased by Mr. Burt 
of Perry, who informed mo that it, was I n excel 
lent condition for unwashed wool, and that he 
deducted only one-fourth for shrinkage. The 
sheep had good care, but no grain till March. 
The rains sheared us follows : 
No. 1—25 lbs. t oz.—Weight of Carcass, 100 lbs. 
The Largest English Farm.—The largest farm, 
in England consists of throe thousand acres, and 
belong* to a man with the Yankee nnmo of 
Samuel Jones. In Its cultivation tie follows 
•he ** four Course” system, the whole extent of 
the farm being divided into four great crops— 
750 acres of wheat, AsO to barley atul oats, 750 ro 
seeds, beans, peas &c., and V50 to roots. His 
live stock Is valued as follow*;—Sheep, $35,000; 
horses, $ 15,000; bullocks, 812,000; pigs, $2,000. 
The oil-cuke and corn purchased annually 
amount to 3:10,000, and artificial fertilizers about 
$8,000. The entire cost of manure, in various 
forms used, is annually about $15,000. Sheep 
are claimed as the most profitable stock ho 
keeps, from which are realized about $20,000 a 
year. Hia income from the whole farm, though 
not stated, can be little les>3 Uam $50,000 per a n¬ 
num. 
The Ohio Farmer regrets that so few “ wool 
men” attended the Woolen Show at Cincinnati. 
