280 
u 
implements, are not so great, as to make our 
over-production of material wealth entirely 
demoralize the nation ; and finally it is safe 
to say that if no machine had been improved 
within this generation, the necessary food 
for oil the people would have been produced, 
though at a much greater cost of human 
labor, and either that labor would not have 
been as well paid us it is now, or the prices 
of its products would have been much higher 
than they are now. The inventor* and man¬ 
ufacturers of agricultural machinery may 
safely be allowed to go on improving, and 
the policy of endowing agricultural colleges 
mav safely be allowed witiiout fear of ruin 
or demoralization. 
4 lbs. to 5 lbs., which must be considered a 
fair amount in proport ion to the Bize of ani¬ 
mal. Indeed, the old British sheep could not 
have been very short of wool, for Howel 
Dda in the tenth century, in appraising the 
qualities (teithi) of a cow, says :—“ The worth 
of her teat is four pence every year that she 
lives, or a white sheep with a white limb 
that can with her fleece protect her lamb 
between her four feet from a May shower.” 
The Radnors are found on the lulls ol’ Bre¬ 
con, Montgomery, and some parts of Merio¬ 
neth, as well as in the county from which 
they take their distinctive name. The fairs 
held at Kington, Knighton, and Builth, are 
perhaps the most celebrated places where 
they are offered for sale. The ewes arc sold 
in large numbers to graziers. A great many 
go into the adjoining counties in England to 
breed fat Iambaby crossing with Shropshire?, 
Leieesters, or Cotswolds. The ewes are 
prolific, excellent nurses, and produce good 
lambs when crossed with larger improved 
breeds, and they feed quickly after their 
progeny has been disposed of. Having these 
good qualities, it is not to be wondered at 
that they are in considerable repute for the 
special purposes to which they are adapted 
when brought on the more fertile pastures 
of the English grazier. 
The breed is only of local importance, and 
is not likely to extend beyond its present 
limits. Nor ia there any probability of the 
Radnors being superseded on their native 
lulls for some time to come. The gradual 
improvement in their character that has 
been effected of late years will tend still 
more to make them pre-eminent in the dis¬ 
tricts they now occupy. With increased 
attention to breeding and greater care taken 
of them in the winter months they may yet 
attain to a higher average merit, and become 
still more profitable. Both the cosiest and 
most natural way of improving the Radnors, 
if crossing Is resorted to, is by giving them a 
dash of Shropshire Down blood. The Shrop¬ 
shire sheep, now becoming so aristocratic 
hi their new form, blend well with their 
neighbors and poor relations under the con¬ 
trol and skill of the breeder. The Radnors 
cannot, however, be pushed far in the direc¬ 
tion of weight or rapidity to fatten without 
losing the especial qualities for which they 
are so prized, and becoming unsuited to the 
hills. As lowland sheep on fertile pastures 
they can never hope to rival the popular im¬ 
proved breeds already in existence. As 
mountain sheep in their own district, there 
is no reason to wish their displacement by 
any other breed. It wonld be difficult to 
find any sheep so suited to the uplands on 
which they are kept, and the treatment to 
which they are subjected. 
The accompanying illustration by Mr. 
Harrison Wen* represents the prize aged ram 
of the Radnor breed exhibited las'j year at 
the Royal Agricultural Society’s Show held 
at Cardiff, and also one of the prize ewes at 
the same exhibition. The former were shown 
by Mr. J. R. Paramore, of Preswylfa, Neath, 
and the latter by Mr. William Dalton, of 
Cardiff, one of a pen of five ewes bred by Mr. 
William Wilson, of Kington. These two 
exhibitors, along with Air. Edward Farr, of 
Pillctli, Knighton, were the only prize-takers 
in the class for Radnor sheep at the show. 
Some of the rams exhibited had horus, but 
others of improved strains were, like the one 
here represented, hornless. Indeed, what is 
called the improved Radnor has not been 
reduced to a fixed type, the different breed¬ 
ers producing flocks each after his own fash¬ 
ion and ideal. The general rule is to cross 
with the Shropshire Down for quality of 
flesh, and with the Leicesters or other long- 
wooled sheep for weight of fleece—in both 
cases adding to the size and weight of the 
original breed. When, therefore, one uses 
the term “ improved ” Radiions. it cannot be 
said that one invariable type is indicated. 
The Radnor sheep are evidently in a transi¬ 
tion state. 
IMPROVED IMPLEMENTS, 
During one of the discussions at the recent 
N. Y. State Fair, Hon. George Geddes 
made the following remarks upon this sub¬ 
ject :—In 1851, the first World’s Fair was 
held in England. At this Fair, American 
harvesting machines and American plows 
took the prizes, and then and there it was 
demonstrated that grain could bo cut by 
machinery better and cheaper than by the 
hands of skilled farm laborers. In IS52, the 
New York State Agricultural Society held 
at Geneva in this State, a trial of all the 
various implements, except plows, that were 
then offered by the manufacturers for the 
use of farmers. The trial was exhaustive, 
and really marks the year from which wo 
mu}* date the rapid march of improvement. 
There were then shown all the important 
reapers and mowers that hod been invented 
up to that time, and though the commit tee 
was verv much astonished at the excellence 
of the machines, and commended them to 
the public in very decided terms that cer¬ 
tainly were fully justified by the trial, yet 
as one of that committee, I now say t hat the 
best reaper and the best mower there shown, 
have since been so much beaten by other 
machines that to-day no good fanner would 
accept as a gift the premium machines of 
1852, any sooner than he would accept on the 
same terms one of the Bull plows that were 
thought to be good tools before Jethro Wood 
invented the cast-iron plow. At. Geneva the 
inventors were brought with their machines, 
face to face, and each saw where and just 
how his machine failed, and where some 
other excelled. The immediate consequences 
were greatly improved machines, and to 
this day improvement has been continued. 
At first the reaper had but little advantage, 
except in doing its work better over hand 
labor. The cost of harvesting an acre of 
wheat was but little less when a reaper was 
used than it was when the aid grain cradle 
was employed, apd it, was not until there was 
connected with the devices for cutting the 
grain, others for delivering it in gavels by 
the power of the horses, that great economy 
as well as more perfect work was secured 
And up to the date of that improvement 
there was a constant effort to produce com¬ 
bined machines, that should both mow and 
reap as occasion might require. But the 
“ Self* Raking Reaper” made the harvesting 
of grain as much less costly in manual labor, 
as had the mower made the business of se¬ 
curing the hay crop. Now the reaper or 
mower will cosily do the work of six men 
who use the tools that were in universal use 
before the year 1852. That is to say, u man 
or even a boy and a pair of horses, now do 
as much work with a machine, and do it 
vast ly better in cutting grain or luiy, than 
did six strong men twenty years ago. These 
cutting machines are followed bv other im¬ 
proved machinery that very much lessen the 
work of securing the hay and grain crops. 
One result of this unproved machinery is a 
demand for more mechanical skill iii the 
management of a farm. The mere laborer, 
perhaps, has less general knowledge now 
than most farm hands Lad a quarter of a 
century ago. An immigrant just from over 
the sea can soon be taught how to bind grain 
and to handle hay tolcrahly well if he tries. 
But lie must have a very well qualified 
teacher. 
While the American plow and our tools for 
mellownig the soil and sowing seed, are the 
best of any in tho world, th« expenditure of 
human labor up to the harvesting of the 
crops, and in the manufacture of butter and 
cheese, is not essentially less than it was be¬ 
fore the great improvements made in some 
of the most, important implements of agri¬ 
culture. Still there are less men now em¬ 
ployed in proportion to the whole population, 
in producing food, than there were before 
the year 1852. 
The census tables give this reduction at, 
about one-third, as stated by a late writer in 
the New York Tunes, Alex. Delmar, While 
the work of haying and harvesting is lessened 
more than this proportion, yet it is not prob¬ 
able the whole of the labor of the farm is 
lessened more than one-third- The question 
arises, who is most benefited by this cheap¬ 
ening of the food and raw materia] for the 
clothing of the people ? The price paid for 
farm labor, when reduced to the gold value 
of the money paid, is quite double the price 
paid for like service thirty years ugo. So 
the til’s! benefit of the improvement of ma¬ 
chinery inures in this case to the laborer 
himself. For the employer pays more extra 
compensation to his men than is saved by the 
improvements in implements. The prices of 
the products of agriculture are larger than 
they were thirty years ago, or the producers 
could not pay the prices now ruling for 
labor. 
But the effect of this doubling of the com¬ 
pensation of agricultux’al labor and liberating 
one-third of the persons formerly employed, 
and giving them to other industries, is fe'lt, in 
all branches of business. The laborer now 
lias money to provide his family with com¬ 
forts unknown in his mode of life thirty 
years ago. The immediate consequences of 
this plenty of money with people who will 
work, are better education, and more inde¬ 
pendence and elevation of character. Sav¬ 
ings Banks have larger deposits, merchants 
sell more goods, and all branches of business 
are quickened. But a very serious objection 
HOG CHOLERA 
A correspondent of the Southern Agri¬ 
culturist writes I have made this subjects 
specialty for the last fourteen years, and in 
that time have visited the pens of cholera 
hogs in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tenes- 
see whore I have treated them for that dis¬ 
ease, and have had t he assistance of physi¬ 
cians in making pant mortem examinations 
wherever I have been. In this time I have 
become familiar with both the internal and 
external appearances of hogs affected with 
“ cholera” in its various forms, and in pre¬ 
senting this article to yonr readers 1 feel that 
I cannot do this subject justice without occu¬ 
pying too much space in your columns. 
THE OUTBREAK OF HOG CHOLERA. 
This arch enemy of the hog family made 
its first, appearance in the form of a fatal 
epizootic in the fall of 1854, at the distilleries 
in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky bordering on 
the Ohio river, "When its fatal results were 
made known through tho press, many 
thought it was caused by poisonous drugs 
being used at the distilleries, but this delusion 
was of abort duration. It soon spread to the 
farms, and from one farm to another, with 
such fatal results as to ruin, some men finan¬ 
cially and deter others from raising hogs 
altogether. 
By the fail of 1858 it had spread over all the 
country. It is unlike the “ Asiatic cholera” 
in tho human subject, or the horse epizootic 
of last fall, spending their force for a time 
and then disappearing ; but has continued to 
play and havoc among the hogs since 1854, 
sometimes in one locality and then in an¬ 
other, sometimes it exists in the same local¬ 
ity, or on the same farms for several years in 
succession, and then disappears for a time, 
and then again breaks out at a time when 
least expected. To be brief on this subject, 
hog cholera is produced by a poisoned blood, 
the blood is poisoned from several causes. 
1. Indigestion. The stomach doe3 not di¬ 
gest the food as it, should do and an inferior 
article of blood is produced. 
2. Tin liver becomes torpid and fails to 
separate the bile from the blood. 
3. The kidneys become diseased and fail to 
separate the urine from the blood. 
4. The pores of the skin are obstructed and 
prevent the eseupc of impurities. 
5. The quality of the food and the sur¬ 
roundings of course have something to do in 
the premises. 
The above we have found to be the princi¬ 
pal causes that produce cholera, and hogs 
often have disease lurking in their system for 
months before it is noticed by their owners, 
and the different symptoms observed in hogs 
having cholera are'produced by the disease 
on the different organs, und the advanced 
stage of the disease when seen. 
We will have to omit the post-mortem ap- 
E ranees altogether as we have already 
en ii]) too much space, but will give the 
EXTERNAL APPEARANCES. 
In almost every case of hog cholera one or 
more of the three following signs may be 
observed for weeks or months before the 
more fatal symptoms set in, 
1, A hacking cough when they get out of 
their beds in the morning. 
2. The excrements pass in hard lumps. 
3. The urine is. scant and has a red or yellow 
color. 
As these symptoms advance, one or more 
of the following appear, sick stomaefi, vomit¬ 
ing, diarrhea, flux, extreme constipation, 
with high fever, and great thirst, redness of 
the skin if the hog is white (tills cannot be so 
easily seen in colored hogs], rough hair, lame¬ 
ness, stiffness of the limbs, bails or abscesses, 
sometimes on the body, but most common 
on the feet or legs, breathing short and quick, 
cough or wheezing, thumps, swelled ears, 
bleeding at the nose, sore eyes, gets shy, 
stand with his nose to the' ground, ears 
fallen, hind feet drawn under, buck curved 
up, weak staggering gait, frothing at the 
nose or mouth, refusal of food, indisposition 
to move. No une hog presents all of the 
above symptoms, but they are all common 
features in hogs having tlie cholera, and at 
times one hog presents several of them at 
the same time. 
To prevent hogs having the cholera it is 
uecessaiy to keep up a healthy action of the 
digestive organs. 
SHEEP IN ORCHARDS 
J. Higgins stated at a late meeting of the 
Alton Horticultural Society, that he hud 
long been in the practice of turning sheep 
into his apple orchards, and as long as they 
have green pasture they will not touch the 
bark of the trees, but they are carefully 
watched. He has one old sheep only that 
knows how good apple bark is. When there 
is snow on the ground, the sheep will of 
eonrse eat the 1 bark. But the only time 
when the presence of the sheep is needed is 
in summer when the wormy fruit is drop¬ 
ping. We know a farmer in Western New 
York who turns his sheep in his orchard dur¬ 
ing the day and into another field at night; 
they never touch the trees, and he finds the 
codling moth growing scarcer each year. 
