260 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
SHELTER FOR SHEEP. 
Every one has perhaps heard of the man whose roof 
remained unrepaired io the perpetual detriment of all 
dry articles and sound lungs within doors,—because when 
it rained he could not repair it, and when the weather 
was fair he did not need the repair. For a similar rea 
son, many flocks of sheep pass year after year, unpro¬ 
tected because shelters are not needed in summer, and 
cannot be made in the depth of winter. *To induce their 
owners to adopt an improvement, and provide, in time, 
suitable shelter for their flocks, we wish to state a few 
facts in the case. 
Lewis A. Morell, of Tompkins county, N. Y., before 
he had provided shelter for his flock ot Saxon sheep, 
1200 in number, lost from 70 to 100, during winter, and 
once lost 150. For the four successive years after pro 
tection, the average number wintered being 1,800, the 
average yearly loss amounted to only 31, being less than 
If per cent. 
J. W. Childers, of the English Agricultural Society, 
brought his sheep to shelter about Christmas, and found 
before two days that they did not eat so much as when 
exposed, by the proportion of five to three. When in 
the field, his flock required fifty baskets full of turneps a 
day; but when sheltered they needed only thirty a day. 
“Yet such great progress,” said he, “ did they make, 
that you would have thought they had been eating fifty 
baskets a day, when shut up, and only thirty when in the 
field.” In another experiment, which was accompanied 
by accurate weighing and measuring, where turneps and 
oil-cake were given as food, the quantity of turneps di¬ 
minished in a few weeks nearly one quarter, and the 
oil-cake diminished about one-third; while the increase 
of weight resulting from shelter was more than one- 
third. The Editor of the English Agricultural Gazette, 
inferred from actual experiments, performed by himself, 
that twice as many sheep might be kept in a fatting con¬ 
dition on the same quantity of food under perfect shel¬ 
ter, as under entire exposure, [f these results were 
obtained in the mild climate of England, what may not 
be expected in our severe winters ? 
L. A. Morell is satisfied that at least one ton of hay to 
the hundred sheep is saved by protection every winter. 
Of oats, which I fed liberally before protection, the 
amount saved is equivalent to 500 bushels each year, and 
yet my sheep have been in finer order than when they were 
grained; showing, notwithstanding the virtue of grain, 
that there is more virtue in warm shelter .” The same 
successful manager has also found that the aggregate in¬ 
crease in four clips of wool from his flock, resulting 
from protection, amounted to 1250 lbs.; and that the 
increased number of lambs exceeded one hundred a year 
In view of these facts, we wish every farmer to make 
a calculation of the whole amount of food thus saved 
every winter, the increase in the weight of his sheep, the 
saving of life, the increase of wool, and the increase in 
the number of his flock. 
If it will cost one dollar per head, to winter sheep by 
the ordinary way, then to winter 1000 would cost $1,000. 
One third of this saved would be. $333 
The difference in loss by wintering, according toL. 
A. Morell, would be about 50 sheep, which at 
$2 each, would amount to. 100 
Putting the increased value of his sheep, by in¬ 
crease of weight, at one tenth the value of the 
flock,. 200 
Increase in the fleece, say 160 lbs.,. 60 
Increase in lambs, say 60,...... 50 
$743 
equal the total saving every year, by the use of suitable 
shelter, at a very moderate estimate, and which would 
abundantly pay for suitable sheds, if they required erect¬ 
ing every year. 
Now is the time of year to make preparation, to pre¬ 
vent the disastrous results, which must always attend ex¬ 
posure through our long, stormy, and freezing winters. 
For directions in the construction of sheep sheds, see the 
Cultivator, vol. 7, p. 15. 
LECTURES on the CHEMISTRY of VEGETATION. 
We have been exceedingly interested in reading the 
reported sketches of Dr. Playfair’s lectures on this sub¬ 
ject, lately published in our foreign exchange papers. 
We have, however,only room for a brief notice of the 
most interesting portions. The point to which he first 
called particular attention, was the great care displayed 
by nature in the introduction and protection of seeds. 
Some were surrounded with a hard scaly armour of flint 
as in the seeds of corn; some have thick coats, such as 
beans and peas: others are protected by hard shells, and 
placed in the midst of a pulpy, fleshy covering, destined 
as manure for the seed, such as the peach. In all, the 
greatest care was taken to protect the seed from injury 
until the period of germination. Three parts were dis¬ 
tinguished in all seeds; 1st, the cotyledon, which forms 
much the largest portion of the kernel, and which is in 
fact the magazine of food for the young plant; 2nd, the 
'plumule, plume or gemmule, which is the young embryo 
that is afterwards to become the stem of the plant; 3rd, 
the radicle, or part which is to become the roots. In 
the common garden bean the cotyledon is divided into 
two portions called lobes; the plumule or embryo stem 
is the small white point observed at the upper part of the 
divisions or lobes, and the radicle is the curved white 
cone which is found at the base. The most frequent 
form in seeds was two cotyledons; but in other seeds, 
for example the grasses, in which the food is only in one 
cotyledon, and in other seeds, there were compartments 
for the primary food. Consequently, botanists divided 
plants into two gre’aX divisions; those having the food of 
the embryo stored in one magazine—the monoctyledo- 
nous plant; and those having two or more compartments 
—the dicotyledonous or polycotyledonous plants. These 
two plants possess capital differences. As soon as those 
essential parts of a seed, the plumule, radicle, and coty¬ 
ledon, are formed, it loses all activity, and life apparently 
becomes suspended, until called forth for the purpose of 
re-production. Under favorble circumstances, seeds may 
be kept for a very long time in this inactive state. He 
had himself seen, in Mr. Miles’ garden, at Bristol, wheat 
growing, the seeds of which had been found in a mummy ; 
Pliny states a case where he had known wheat to grow 
after 100 years; and Home mentions an instance in which 
rye grew after 149 years. Coffee beans are the seeds 
which most easily lose their suspended vitality; for they 
refuse to grow, unless planted immediately after being 
taken from the bush. But expose a seed to the com¬ 
bined influence of light, air and moisture, and the sus¬ 
pended vitality becomes active. The embryo plant 
feeds upon the nutriment in the cotyledon; the radicle 
protrudes from the seed, descends into the ground, and 
forms roots; the little plumule ascends, and forms a stem, 
and the cotyledon shrivels up and disappears. The lit¬ 
tle plant now feeds itself from the air and the soil, and 
grows apace. The stem increases in height and throws 
out branches, and leaves, and the roots diverge in search 
of food. It was long a question of dispute to what force 
the form of a tree was owing. Some philosophers said 
the roots descended into the earth, because they loved 
moisture, and the stem ascended because it loved the 
air. But Detrochet showed this was not the case; 
for he took a box and bored holes in the bottom of it, 
placing beans over each hole, and some moist earth on top 
of the bean. The roots should have grown up in the 
moist earth and the stems downward into the air, if that 
opinion had been correct. But this is not the case; for 
the radicles went downwards into the air, and the stems 
ascended into the earth; and in a short time they shrivel¬ 
ed away and died. Be the force, then, what it may, 
roots have a natural tendency to descend, and the stems 
to ascend. That this has some intimate connection with 
gravitation, Knight has shown by his beautiful experi¬ 
ment. Mr. Knight arranged wheels driven by water, in 
such a way that he could either drive them horizontally 
or vertically, and regulate their speed. He then planted 
beans on the rim of the wheel, in conditions favorable to 
growth, and then set his wheels in motion. The effect 
of this was, that, when the wheel attained a certain de- 
|gree of speed, which, in the case of the wheel in ques- 
