126 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
large, and when properly prepared and dried, is convert¬ 
ed into charcoal by Dupont to make gunpowder. 
To those who are desirous of undertaking the cultiva¬ 
tion of the willow, Mr. Heed can supply cuttings of the 
best varieties, as he has heretofore complied with orders 
from Boston, Kentucky, and the interior parts of the State 
of New-York. March and April are the months to pro¬ 
cure them. They should be set out in rich land along 
streams occasionally overflowed, or in swamps, which if 
too wet, should be ditched and drained. 
The yearly crop of willow twigs is cut in March. The 
cuttings are tied into bundles, and the butt ends placed in 
the water of the swamps where they grew. They are 
left there a shorter or longer time, according to the sea¬ 
son, and until the swelling of the buds indicates the flow 
of sap, which loosens the bark, when they are removed 
and denuded of the bark, which then comes off very ea¬ 
sily. 
Mr. Wm. Leveridge, a miller on the Great Kills in 
Southfield, also has a plantation of Welsh and American 
willows. The former grows long, slender and smooth, 
and is well adapted for work which requires it to be split 
or twisted. Enough for the present. Perhaps more 
hereafter, from yours, Richmond. 
IMPORTATION OF MERINO SHEEP. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker— Some two or three 
months since, I saw an article in one of our papers, pur¬ 
porting, I believe, to be taken from the Albany Cultiva¬ 
tor,* giving a very erroneous account of the importation 
of Merinoes into this country; and what was somewhat 
more surprising, the writer made a parade of communi¬ 
cating the information for the benefit of posterity. 
The deep interest I took in furnishing my country with 
this invaluable animal, the direct concern I had in the 
shipments, and my official station, afforded me the means 
beyond that of any other person, of becoming accurately 
acquainted with the number shipped, and the ports to 
which shipped; which information I have embodied in 
my letter of the 31st January last, to L. D. Gregory, Esq. 
which was published in the Bellows Falls Gazette of the 
24th ult.; and I take the liberty to send you a paper with 
the request of a republication in the Albany Cultivator. 
This request I have no doubt you will comply with, be¬ 
cause you must be desirous that the agricultural commu¬ 
nity should have correct information upon all subjects af¬ 
fecting their interests, and because you must be averse to 
give currency to statements, professing to be intended for 
posterity, that are not marked by truth and fairness, which 
all, except gentlemen of poetical imaginations, must deem 
essentials, when information is intended to be transmitted 
to future generations. 
I am the more desirous of the republication, as I have 
understood that much imposition has been practiced in 
regard to Merino sheep, in the western part of your State. 
Respectfully yours, Wm. Jarvis. 
Weathersfield , Vt. } March 1, 1844. 
Weathersfield, Vt., Jan. 31, 1844. 
Dear Sir—In reply to your letter of the 15th inst., re¬ 
questing me to give you an account of the Merino sheep 
of Spain, and of their introduction into this country, &c. 
&c., I shall with pleasure do it so far as my memory 
serves me, and I believe that will be found to be tolerably 
correct, as I long since gave much attention to the sub¬ 
ject, from a conviction that the wool growing business in 
the United States would prove a source of national pros¬ 
perity. In Spain the fine wooled sheep are divided into 
two classes; the Trashumantes or traveling sheep, and the 
Estantes or stationary sheep. The wool of the Trashu¬ 
mantes is very much superior to that of the Estantes, ow¬ 
ing undoubtedly, to the superior care and attention which 
is given to them. The Trashumantes are owned in flocks 
from 5,000 to 30,000; the larger flocks are placed under 
the superintendence of a mayoral, who has the whole 
control over the flock, and annually accounts with the 
* In a letter since received from Mr. Jarvis, he says— “ I per¬ 
ceive that I was mistaken in attributing to tne Albany Cultiva¬ 
tor the article to which 1 alluded, in my letter to Mr. Gregory; 
and 1 now cheerfully and promptly offer to you an apology for 
the error.” 
owner for the nett income. Two shepherds, four dogs, 
and a pack-horse or mule are employed for every thou¬ 
sand sheep. The traveling sheep are divided into three 
classes, which take their names from the provinces where 
they are principally kept, viz: the Leonesa, which are 
by far the most numerous, and are esteemed the finest 
sheep in Spain; the Segovian, which are considered the 
next best, and the Sorian, which are deemed a little infe¬ 
rior to the latter. I never saw any of the Segovian or 
Sorian sheep, and therefore speak of them from their ge¬ 
neral character, derived from Spaniards the best informed 
on the subject. The Leonesa are pastured in the sum¬ 
mer on the mountainous and hilly country of Leon and 
the two Castiles, and in the fall are driven into the plains 
of Spanish Estramadura to be pastured through the win¬ 
ter. 
Many of their flocks are driven two hundred miles from 
the summer to the winter pasture and vice versa. Soma 
explanation will be necessary for the better understand¬ 
ing of the cause of this management. The plains of 
Spanish Estramadura are subjected to an almost invariable 
drouth from the latter part of April to the autumnal equi¬ 
nox; but the rains commence about the 21st of Septem¬ 
ber, and continue to fall every two or three days in very 
heavy showers till the latter part of March, when they 
gradually fall off till the end of April. In six or seven 
weeks from the first rain, from an apparently arid waste, 
those plains are covered with a beautiful coat of verdure 
and so continue till April, as the thermometer rarely falls 
below 40 deg. of Fahrenheit at sunrise. Whilst the 
plains are thus parched up in summer by drouth, in the 
mountainous and hilly regions, they have occasionally 
refreshing rains, which there keep their pastures good 
throughout the summer. Their flocks are usually started 
in the month of April from the plains of Estramadura to 
their summer pastures, and in October back again. They 
are generally sheared in the latter part of May, and the 
wool is sent to St. Andero and Bilboa, the two nearest 
seaports to their summer pastures, for sale. The pro¬ 
prietors of the flocks always own lands in the mountains 
and in the plains, sufficient for both their summer and 
winter pastures. From the circumstance of their sheep 
being fed the year round upon green fodder, it was the 
general opinion in Spain that the merino would not suc¬ 
ceed in any other country. But the experiments made in 
Saxony, in 1765, by the introduction in that year of the 
Spanish merino, it has been proved beyond all question, 
that with proper care and management, wool can be 
grown quite as fine as the Spanish, when fed upon dry 
fodder four to six months in the year. In fact they have 
succeeded in all countries where they have been tried, 
except in England; and their deterioration there, must 
undoubtedly be OAving to the extreme humidity of that 
climate. 
The origin of the fine wooled sheep of Spain appears 
to be a question of much doubt. It is certain that Colu¬ 
mella, a Spanish writer on agriculture in the days of Au¬ 
gustus Csesar, speaks of fine wooled or covered sheep. It 
is probable they were carried into that country by the 
Carthagenians or Romans, as the name mareno , implies in 
Spanish, from or beyond sea. But it is of little conse¬ 
quence to those who want a soft, warm, handsome gar¬ 
ment, whether those sheep were natives of Spain, or 
whether the original stock was imported into it from 
another country. 
I shall now call your attention to the first introduction 
of them into the United States. Soon after the accession 
of Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency, Chancellor Livingston 
was appointed Minister to France, and in 1801 or 1802, 
he obtained from that government three or four merinos 
of the Rambouillet flock, which he sent to New-York 
and put on one of his farms. This flock was obtained by 
the king of France from the king of Spain, and were un 
doubtedly pure blooded sheep. A little before Gen. 
Humphreys left Spain, he \\ T as enabled to get two hundred 
sheep from Spain into Portugal, and they were sent to 
Figueira, at the mouth of the Mondego, and thence ship¬ 
ped to the United States. From what flock he obtained 
them, I never could learn, though I inquired a number 
of times; but as Spanish Estramadura and Leon border on 
Portugal, from 38 deg. of latitude to the northern boun 
