662 
OCT. 4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MERINO 
“ IF I COULl) BE YOUNG AGAIN.” 
PROF. I. P. ROBERTS. 
Practical farmer, self-made man, Director of the Col¬ 
lege of Agriculture of Cornell University. 
You ask—" What would you do were you young again 
and had the opportunities of the young man of to-day ? ” 
I would visit the school committee to see if they would 
not hire a teacher who would conduct me through the 
arithmetic successfully in two years instead of seven; one 
who had lost the art of spending 15 years in imperfectly 
teaching how to form 26 simple characters. If I were a 
youth just entering my teens I would want a teacher who 
had both inspiration and aspiration ; one, in fact, who 
knew more than I did, so that I might be taught what to 
eat and how to eat; 
how to work and 
when to play; how 
to grow strong and 
beautiful; how to 
become good and 
true, and how and 
to whom to give 
thanks. Then I 
should want ex¬ 
plained to me in 
the most simple 
language, the uses, 
beauty and pleas¬ 
ures of knowledge, 
so that while giving 
thanks for the 
blessings enjoyed, a 
holy zeal, a consum- 
ing desire for 
knowledge would 
possess me. I 
should want a 
teacher who could 
point out the road, 
who knew of the schools of higher training, their specialties, 
their character and quality. Then I should want to know 
how much I must learn in that “ Great American School 
House ”—that dirty unshaded box on the stony, verdure- 
less, pig-tramped four corners—before I could enter the 
high school, the academy or college. “ What would I do 
next ? ” Why, I would master the arithmetic from the 
multiplication table to the last cover, in three terms; no 
more “ stalling ” for three consecutive winters in " vulgar 
fractions.” I would divide my time, first, into two parts ; 
one for rest and sleep and one for activity, and these two 
parts should not exchange beds or bunk together. The 
hours of activity would be devoted to work, to getting 
strong and beautiful, to acquiring knowledge and to 
meditation, As the hardest thing a young person has to 
do is to "keep still” and the easiest is to put forth 
muscular effort, I should be careful not to work too long 
or hard, in order that vitality might be left for the harder 
effort of thinking. 
Having got thus far, a thousand innocent wants and 
desires would spring up and in order to gratify them and 
for the pleasure that knowledge gives, I would study the 
earth and its inhabitants, the secrets of the plants, the 
habiis and the uses of the animals. In order 
to do this I would sacrifice present ease, 
time and money. I would not hasten to be 
rich or great, but learn to wait patiently 
for the precious harvest. " What would I 
do ? ” I would not be satisfied with the 
three R’s with the tails lopped off, that is 
three P’s—Preparation for Permanent 
Poverty. 
If I were young, I would get a better 
“ kit of tools ” to work with before I started 
out; I would have them sharper so that 
they would shape things with less pound¬ 
ing. If I wanted to farm 1 would learn 
how to learn what is in the soil and plant 
and then I would learn how to get it out 
and how to use it. Before I started out in 
business for myself, I would stop some¬ 
where and make an effort to find out how 
to compel obedience to my wishes. When 
the weekly board bill of the cows in my 
employ was not forthcoming I would know 
the reason why, even if I had to commence 
studying the subject from the zodiacal 
signs in the almanac. I would try to get 
such training and understanding that I 
could work for myself profitably; that is, 
I would avoid being so poorly equipped 
that I would be compelled to employ some 
one else to direct my labor, he getting the 
lion’s share, I getting what was left. I would 
get at least two strings to my bow so that if the world had 
no “ long-felt want ” which my theoretical knowledge 
could fill, I could make a wash-board, a shoe, or an apple 
barrel. I would inspect carefully many of the open doors 
which are labeled " Education; ” having found the one 
best suited to my desires, I would enter and not come 
forth till I could do several things well enough to attract 
attention, and I would “ kick ” if anybody thrust me into 
the wrong door. 
Having secured the best equipment of skill and experi¬ 
ence offered by my elders, I would hie me to the fields and 
see if with my added power I could not make two stalks 
of corn bear two good ears, thereby raising the usual yield, 
50 per cent., while increasing the cost of production per 
acre but 10 per cent. I would plow no more acres than 
could be made rich and profitably productive, the re¬ 
mainder I’d let "go to grass,”and employ animals—not 
cheap animals—to do the harvesting cheaply. If they got 
tired and hungry in the long, hot days, I’d invite them to 
take a daily free-lunch at the barn ; afterwards if they did 
not reciprocate, the Darwinian theory would be tried on 
them, that would soon decide whether they or I should 
survive. I would enjoy to the utmost my daily blessings ; 
be proud of my victories, forget my failures, want every¬ 
thing that was worth wanting, and then strong, happy 
and proud, I’d climb. 
TWO AUSTRALIAN MERINOS. 
At Figures 283 and 284 are shown two fine Merino rams 
which were sold at the recent sales of stud rams at Sydney, 
New South Wales. Hero Prince sold for $3,500, the highest 
price ever paid for a ram in that country. He was dropped 
in May, 1887, and was sired by Hero, by Prince of Wales, 
a Cotswold ram on a Hampshire Down ewe, made about 
1830. These sheep have been bred with great care and 
their good points have been carefully developed. They 
excel as mutton sheep, the quality of their flesh being 
the best when they are under two years of age. For 
this reason they are largely used in early lamb breeding. 
They are very hardy and can endure damp climates and 
wet soils better than some other breeds. There are many 
Oxfords in this country, though there has never been a 
"boom” for the breed. 
by Prince 2nd. On the 
dam’s side he traces back 
to the original importation 
of 1820. 
The other ram, Pilgrim 
HI., sold for $2,150. He 
was sired by Pilgrim II., 
by Pilgrim, by Commo¬ 
tion, by Young Billy. Both 
rams were bred- in the celebrated Wool-growing province 
of Tasmania. These pictures were originally engraved 
for the Sydney Mail. Speaking of the Australian 
sheep breeding business, the Mark Lane Express says: 
" The trade in stud sheep in Australasia has this year been 
particularly good—the demand has been active, and the 
prices show an advance on those of last year. In 18S9, at 
the Sydney sales, there was a depressed tone ruling from 
the start to the end, and the cause could not well be defined, 
there being a prospect of an excellent season and a rising 
wool market. Some breeders thought there were too many 
sheep for sale, as they numbered 3,016, about 600 more than 
had come to any previous fair. The highest price paid was 
300 guineas, the total sum realized was £23,653, and the 
THE NEEDS OF AMERICAN SHEEP-HUSBANDRY. 
R. M. BELL. 
The natural growth and development of American sheep- 
husbandry have been commensurate with the growth and 
development of a great agricultural, manufacturing and 
commercial country. With this marvelous growth of in¬ 
dustries, the raising of sheep was for the immediate 
supply of the pioneers with clothing, and for the wants of 
their tables only to a very limited extent. Mutton was by 
them considered a luxury too expensive and effeminate 
for the builders of a new nation on this continent. The 
sturdy pioneers of the New World were a rugged, indepen¬ 
dent, self-reliant people, as ready to work and endure as 
they were to deny themselves the luxuries of food and 
habiliments. As colonies have extended to newer regions 
the same spirit of 
self denial and in- 
dependence has 
been a leading char¬ 
acteristic. In every 
case the hog and- 
hominy civilization 
has been repeated 
with unvarying 
regularity and re¬ 
sults. Hardy, vigor¬ 
ous, persistent, 
labor and economy 
in due time afforded 
them not only a 
home for their 
families, but the 
luxuries and com¬ 
forts of life. 
By degrees the 
farms and flocks 
afforded greater 
MERINO RAM PILGRIM. Fig. 284. 
"... vimJ:': ..... . ... 
• r >///. >>+ ! 
OXFORD DOWN RAM "PROGRESS.” Fig. 285. 
average only £7 16s, lOd. per head, which was on 
with the very bad market in 1886. 
This year quite a different tale has to be told. There 
was an extraordinary difference in the tone of the market, 
and its improvement is illustrated by the fact that 2,889 
sheep were sold for £39,169 14s. 6d., an average of -13 lls. 
2d. Taking in, however, the German and American rams, 
the total is £52,190 for 3,034 sheep, an average of £17 4s. 
This bears comparison with the sensational year 1883, when 
2,400 sheep brought £47,578.” 
level be 
OXFORD DOWN RAM "PROGRESS.” 
Continuing its series of pictures of good specimens of the 
mutton breeds of sheep, The R. N.-Y. shows at hig. 285, 
an animal which won the first prize in the two-year-old 
class at the late Royal Agricultural Show at Plymouth, 
England. Tne authorities tell us that the Oxford Downs 
are a comparatively new breed, the result of a cross of 
supplies than the home and village market required, and 
there were food and clothing for such as needed them be¬ 
yond the limits of the immediate neighborhood. The 
supply of wool, however, has never been above the do¬ 
mestic wants of the nation. In this other countries have 
been less fortunate. Their home supply has been driven 
to seek the markets of other and more fortunate nations 
whose expansion of population has consumed their do¬ 
mestic demand of wool: in other words, whose home 
market—the best market a farmer or nation has ever had— 
invited the superabundance of other nations. 
This led other nations to develop a commercial sheep- 
husbandry, while we still pursued a more domestic, con¬ 
servative system of sheep and wool husbandry. The 
nations who had to rely upon the world's 
markets carefully studied the wants of 
others and their own abilities and capaci¬ 
ties to raise wool. They learned, too, the 
situation and disadvantages of those they 
had to compete with. Not until 1830 did 
American wools become of any commer¬ 
cial importance and then only in our 
own markets. The pressure of foreign 
wools on the markets of the United 
States has been severely felt by the 
wool-growers of the country. Our markets 
are no longer our own: we have complained, 
protested and resolved—asked for and de¬ 
manded abetter price for wool by National 
law. The results have been unsatisfac¬ 
tory, unreliable and precarious, until It 
needs no political economist to see that a 
more practical and business-like view of 
the situation has to be taken of American 
sheep and wool growing than heretofore. 
Not that American wool growing has been 
a failure, for it has been a most signal suc¬ 
cess. We are to-day the third, if not the 
second, wool-growing nation of the globe 
and the industry is easily capable of indefi¬ 
nite, almost unlimited expansion when we 
shall decide to attempt it. 
Owing to the dictatorial demand that 
we shall be left alone to use our 
own markets, and that foreigners shall 
excluded by law from competing with us, and the 
fickle spirit of speculation instead of business determin¬ 
ation to avail ourselves of all the opportunities that lie 
withia our reach, developing to the fullest extent the 
grandest resources for sheep raising and wool-growing that 
any nation ever had, we swing from prosperity to despon¬ 
dency like a vessel drifting upon the ocean. This state¬ 
ment is not so unjust or premature as might be thought at 
first. The student who has studied these depressions and 
booms for the last 30 years will find that the law of supply 
and demand has governed the wool markets of the world , 
and our market has been no exception. There have been 
disturbing causes, and there have been prophetic distur¬ 
bances, which have been the most serious and hurtful 
commercial scares when sheep men went into panics with¬ 
out a cause. The last depression was due to a scare of the 
wool-growers. The proof of this is that confidence has re¬ 
turned without the advance in prices supposed to be neces¬ 
sary. This is increasing despite the low prices of wool. 
