1850. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
371 
which had hitherto resisted with comparative in¬ 
difference the most deadly and corrosive acids and 
poisons, were shrivelled up, and reduced almost to 
the state of a cinder. Finding that ammonia pos¬ 
sessed this astonishing power, it then occurred to 
me that this agent might be employed in an ex¬ 
tremely simple and effective way. I took a portion 
of the earth containing the worm, and mixed with 
it a small quantity of lime; to this I added a quan¬ 
tity of powdered sal-ammoniac; the effect of this 
was the decomposition of the sal-ammoniac by the 
lime, and the liberation of ammoniaeal gas: this 
had precisely the result of the liquid ammonia; the 
worm was instantly destroyed as by an electric 
shock.” 
We do not know that this method of destroying 
the wire-worm, can be made practically useful; 
we publish it to induce a repetition of the experi¬ 
ment, under various forms, in the hope that some 
valuable results may be brought out. 
Addison County (Vt.) Fair. 
The Agricultural Society of this county held its 
exhibition at Yergennes, on the 25th of September. 
The county embraces the richest portion, perhaps, 
of that part of Vermont lying between the Green 
Mountains and Lake Champlain. It is a district 
more especially devoted to grazing, than any other 
branch of farming. Hence it was to be expected 
that the leading objects of this exhibition would be 
the various kinds of live stock, particularly horses, 
cattle and sheep. In all these classes of animals 
the display was highly respectable, and in horses it 
was decidedly fine. By the politeness of J. H. Bar¬ 
ret, Esq., secretary of the society, we are enabled 
to state the aggregate number of animals exhibited, 
excepting swine, as follows:—cattle, 196: horses, 
74; sheep, 142. 
Among the horses, the “Black-Hawk” stock was 
very conspicuous. With the exception of one breed¬ 
ing mare, five years old, the oldest of this stock ex¬ 
hibited were but four years old. None of them com¬ 
peted in the class of matched horses; in the other 
classes comprising twenty premiums, the progeny 
of Black-Hawk took fourteen , including the premium 
for the best breeding mare, best “single driving 
horse, (mare or gelding),” and all the first premi¬ 
ums excepting one. Among them were some very 
superior animals. Such stock as the four-year-old 
mares of Mr. Sherman of Vergennes, and Mr. Moore 
of Shoreham, the two-year-old colt of Mr. Johnson 
Middlebury, and the yearlings of Mr. Doane and 
Mr. Moore of Shoreham, and Mr. Adams of Panton, 
as well as others of the same family , cannot fail to 
be highly valued and admired. 
The sheep were mostly Merinos, though there 
were some Saxons and some Leicesters. With the 
facilities for rapid and easy transportation to mar¬ 
ket, which are now open to this section by railroad, 
we have no doubt that the production of mutton, on 
the best lands, will be found profitable; and the 
English breeds of sheep, or some crosses from them, 
will be adopted to a considerable extent. Those 
who intend to engage in rearing this description of 
sheep, should endeavor to breed from the very best 
animals. We venture to give this hint, from the 
circumstance that most of the Leicesters exhibited 
here did not appear to be well bred. 
Of the Merinos, we noticed that the fleeces of 
those which appeared to be generally regarded with 
most favor, were very heavily loaded with a sticky, 
adhesive gum, or yolk. On inquiring the object 
of producing so large a quantity of this matter, we 
were told that it was considered profitable so long 
as the manufacturers, or their agents, would pay for 
it at the same price per pound as wool. This an¬ 
swer somewhat surprised us, as we had supposed 
the manufacturers were in earnest in their efforts to 
purchase clean wool. Will some one explain? Hoes 
the manufacturer deduct from the price of the wool 
he buys, an equivalent for the weight of yolk which 
it contains? This is rather an important subject to 
the wool-grower; it is important that he should 
know on which he can make the most money,—the 
production of wool or the production of gum. 
The cattle were mostly of large size. Many of 
them were descended in part from the Short-horn 
stock introduced by the late Gen. Barnum, of Yer¬ 
gennes. This stock has been crossed, more or less, 
with Short-horns from other herds. They are, in 
general, liable to the objection of having too much 
bone, and rather coarse flesh; though some of the 
animals exhibited were of good form and quality. 
There is no natural obstacle to the rearing of the 
finest cattle in this section ; nowhere is grass more 
abundant or more nutritive; and it is only necessary 
that the points and quality which constitute excel¬ 
lence in cattle should be understood, and applied by 
a judicious selection of breeding animals, to rear 
cows and oxen here, which for the dairy, the stall, or 
the yoke, might challenge comparison with any in 
the world. 
We noticed several full-blood short-horns. A bull 
and several cows, fair specimens of the breed, v. T ere 
exhibited by Charles Smith, Esq., of Bristol, the 
president of the society. A bull shown by R. T. 
Robinson , of Ferrisburgh, bred by Mr. Vail, of Troy, 
is a well formed and thrifty animal. There were 
but few Devons. Mr. Sanford, of Orwell, exhibited 
the fine young bull which was at our State Fair. 
We saw no full-blood Herefords. There were sev¬ 
eral pretty good half-bloods. We were disappointed 
in not seeing specimens of this valuable herd here, 
as there are good ones owned in this section, and 
their thriftiness shows that they are well suited to the 
location. The only full-blood Ayrshire, was the 
bull (now thirteen years old) presented several years 
since by Mr. J. P. Cushing, of Massachusetts, to 
Mr. Wightman Chapman, of Middlebury. He is still 
spirited and active, and has sufficient vigor of con¬ 
stitution to render him useful for several years. He 
has been an animal of great value, and the section 
where he has been kept, has suffered great loss 
from his not having been properly appreciated. 
We noticed that the Short-horns and Herefords 
were classed together—that is, competed with each 
other; and so of Ayrshires and Devons. We do not 
perceive the advantages of this system. We do not 
see how a fair comparison can be made between 
animals belonging to breeds whose characteristics 
are widely different. The leading qualities of the 
Ayrshires, for instance, are such as fit them particu¬ 
larly for the dairy; while those of the Devons, on 
the other hand, are such as adapt them particularly 
to labor. Hence the points of each must be judged 
with reference to different objects, which renders 
comparison impracticable. 
Oxen and steers were numerous. Several of them 
were in high condition, for grass-fed cattle. We 
saw a pair of five-year-olds, exhibited as working 
cattle, put on the scales, which weighed upwards 
of 4,000 lbs. Mr. J. N. Smith, of Addison, showed 
a pair, six years old, of fine appearance, and in 
good working trim, which weighed upwards of 
3,600 lbs. 
The show of fruits, was highly creditable to the 
section, indicating that the soil and climate are well 
