148 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
A correspondent at Cornwall, Vt., with the signature 
of “ A Subscriber,” sends an article on the Sheep of 
Vermont, together with handsome samples of wool, 
which he states are “from prize ewes exhibited at 
Vergennes, and at New-York city, in October last,” 
now in his possession. 
In regard to the introduction of the Spanish sheep 
into this country, and the advantages which have ac¬ 
crued therefrom, the writer well remarks, that—“ far¬ 
mers are more indebted to such men as Jarvis, Hum¬ 
phrey, and Livingston, than to some men of greater 
pretensions, who, in wmtching the shifting currents of 
popular opinion, lose sight of the agricultural interest.” 
He thinks the natural advantages of Vermont are great 
for producing wool, and that some of the flocks will 
compare well with those of other states, “ yet as a 
whole there is need of vast improvement.” He states 
that the last census of Vermont showed that she pos¬ 
sessed “ about 1,700,000 sheep,” and that the average 
weight of the fleeces “ is two pounds and three ounces.” 
[We suppose this to include lambs, as they were gene¬ 
rally included in the census. This lessens the average 
considerably.] He sets the price of their wool at thirty 
cents per pound, for the last five years, which gives for 
each sheep, “ sixty-five cents ” per year. For the 
“surplus” sheep, he says, the farmers have usually ob¬ 
tained from 83 to 150 cents per head. Thus in many 
cases the profits of sheep-husbandry are small. But, 
4 ‘ by a judicious application of means,” he thinks “ the I 
net profits of the sheep of Vermont can be doubled.” j 
The means are, breeding from sheep of the best quali¬ 
ties. “For this purpose,” he says, “the best flocks in ' 
the country should be examined; agricultural papers, I 
and treatises on sheep should be consulted.” In this j 
connexion he recommends Morrell’s “American Shep- j 
herd.” Suitable shelter and food are also mentioned as 
among the requisites to improvement. A cross with a J 
good Merino buck, he thinks, “ will add from eight to j 
twelve ounces to the weights of each fleece, in ordinary I 
flocks.” He mentions the flock of A. L. Bingham, of 
Cornwall, as one of excellence. 
S. N. Hawes sends us an account of the flock of 
Tyler Stickney, Shoreham, Vt., which he thinks a 
very good one, Mr. Stickney. it is stated, bred the 
Merino bucks Fortune and Vermont Hero, which have 
heretofore been noticed in the Cultivator. 
We have received from Mr. John H. Nettletonj 
of Watertown, Ct., several samples of Merino wool 
from his flock. Mr. N. exhibited some excellent bucks 
at the N. Y. State Show r at Utica, and from all we can 
learn, his flock is a good one. 
We have also received several samples from Mr. J. S. 
Petti bone, Manchester, Vt. They show well as to 
fineness, and are particularly clean and white. Among 
others we notice some very fine and handsome samples 
taken from an ewe, nineteen years old. She reared a 
lamb last season and is expected to do the same the pre¬ 
sent year. A few days since we saw fourteen head of 
Mr. Pettibone’s sheep, which had been purchased by 
Hr. Miller, of Cortland. We examined several of 
them which we thought very good animals—the wool 
long, soft, and white. 
SORE LTPS IN SHEEP. 
In reply to L. N., Chatauque Co., (see current vol. p. 
69,) Mr. Reed Burritt states that he has had that 
disease among his sheep this winter, and cured it by ap¬ 
plying a little tar, with a small wooden paddle, and 
afterwards giving the sheep in their feed-troughs a 
mixture of two parts salt with one of rosin. The sheep 
got well in a short time, and have had no symptoms of 
the disease since. 
PREMIUMS ON SHEEP. 
Mr. Reed Burritt suggests that it would be proper 
for the New-York State Ag. Society to require that all 
sheep entered for premiums, should be in the same situa¬ 
tion as to their fleece —that is, that all should be shorn 
the season they are exhibited, or that none of them 
should be. He thinks that no fair comparison can be 
made between a sheep with a fleece of fifteen or sixteen 
months growth, and one that had been shorn within 
three months of the time of exhibition. The length 
of wool in one case, he thinks, disguises the shape and 
size of the animal, by which deception the judges or 
committees are often led to make a different decision 
from what they would do were all the subjects of com¬ 
petition under the same circumstances. 
FOOT-ROT IN SHEEP. 
We have received an able article on this subject from 
Mr. J. T. Nathorst, Mt. Heathy, Hamilton county, 
Ohio. The chief object of the communication is to 
show that the idea of our correspondent “Grazier,” 
in reference to the non-contagiousness of foot-rot, is 
erroneous. As we have already published several arti¬ 
cles in reply to this position of “Grazier’s,” and also 
given our own views of the subject, it seems to us that 
nothing further is needed to correct that error. We 
however make a short extract from Mr. N.’s letter, 
which will be read with interest: 
“ In the year 1829, my father bought four hundred 
sheep in Saxony for the government in Sweden, my 
native country. He had previously on hand over one 
hundred Spanish Merinos, also a Royal flock. When 
the Saxons arrived at their destination, (my father’s 
farm,) they were sadly affected with foot rot; perhaps 
brought on by being driven a great distance over alter¬ 
nately hard and muddy roads, if not caught from diseased 
sheep while travelling. The Saxons were kept strictly 
apart from the Spanish Merinos; nevertheless, in a short 
time, the disease in its worst shape broke out among 
the latter. We accounted for it by the fact that they 
had been driven through the same lane to the pasture.” 
Mr. N. states that the foot-rot had never been known 
in Sweden till its introduction as above described. 
INFLUENCE OF STOCKS ON GRAFTS. 
L. Tucker, Esq. —I notice at page 368 of your 
December number, an article upon the influence of the 
stock upon the graft. The remarks as to a dwarf or 
slow-growing stock retarding the development of the 
scion, and a vigorous growing stock advancing its de¬ 
velopment, are facts so long proven that they admit of 
no argument. But the writer, as well as many of his 
predecessors, is entirely in error when he ventures the 
assertion that “ Grafts do not affect t'ue stock, that is, 
the scion does not impart any of its distinctive qualities 
to the part of the tree below the point of insertion,” and 
that “ it appears clear, therefore, that during the life 
of the individual, the point of junction formed by the 
meeting of the stock and the scion, constituted a line of 
demarcation, a cross which the influence of either can¬ 
not pass.” 
In proof that there exists a certain degree of influence, 
I will now state that if a bud or graft of the Prunus 
Chamcecerasa, or Siberian Weeping Cherry, is inserted 
in a stock of the Mazzard, it will cause its roots to be¬ 
come fibrous, whereas naturally they are very deficient 
in fibres, and if a bud or scion of a peach tree that is 
diseased by the yellows, is inserted in a healthy peach 
slock, it will impart the disease to the stock, and any 
shoots which afterwards spring from the stock below 
“ the line of demarcation ” will be diseased. As to an 
apricot scion producing plums, that is out of the ques¬ 
tion, and the Philadelphia gentleman who supposes so 
has forgotten as to the stone he planted, or he may 
have planted an apricot stone that failed to vegetate, 
while a plum stone planted or accidentally dropped 
there, may have sprung up. At all events no such 
transmutation could take place any more readily than 
could the silly supposition of wheat changing to chess, 
or that a cow could produce a colt as its progeny. 
Wm. R. Prince. 
Prince’s Nurseries, Flushing, Feb. 10, 1846. 
