THE CULTIVATOR, 
293 
evening; having good sheds, which are carefully kept 
dry and clean by littering with straw as often as is 
necessary. 
In a subsequent letter from Mr. Burritt, we have re¬ 
ceived samples of his wool, which can be seen at this 
office. He states that he paid for the 30 sheep he bought 
in Vermont, $660—that it cost $90 to get them home, 
making the whole cost $750. 
Large Fleeces.— -Mr. A. L. Bingham of Cornwall, 
Vt., writes us as follows:—“I notice in the last number 
of the Cultivator, a stump against the whole world. It 
is a very difficult matter to find a flock of sheep that will 
supersede every thing else, without finding something 
that will match them; consequently I am inclined to give 
you the result of the shearing of my sheep. In looking 
over my minutes, I find it to stand as follows: 48 paular 
merino ewes, with lambs by their sides, and two rams, 
averaged me 6 pounds 2| ounces of well washed wool 
per head. One buck, the Vermont Hero, 12 pounds 7 
ounces—the other, the American Tiger, three years old, 
12 pounds 10 ounces—one ewe sheared 9 pounds—four 
others between 8 and 9 pounds—the remainder between 
4 and 7 pounds per head. Fifty-two yearling ewes, in¬ 
cluding two rams, averaged 6 pounds ounces—one 
yearling buck 8 pounds 14 ounces—another 8 pounds 9 
ounces. Sixty Gaudaloupe breeding ewes averaged me 
a fraction less. I should like to know how many Mr. 
Randall took his averages from, whether they were all 
breeding ewes or yearlings, and how much the average 
was in pounds and ounces. Will he give us the result, 
so that we can see how we stand? So I would say old 
Cornwall against the world.” 
Heavv Fleece.— Mr. Buel Warner, of Cornwall, 
Vermont, writes, that having seen in our last, an account 
of the fleeces yielded by Mr. Randall’s sheep, and no¬ 
ticing that Cortland “ offers against the world,” he 
was induced to send us the weight of a yearling buck of 
his, own brother to Mr. R.’s heavy fleeced one. Mr. 
Warner states that his sheep was yeaned the first week in 
April, 1844, and was sheared the 23d of June last. The 
fleece weighed 9 lbs 5 ounces, well washed and in good 
condition. This, he says, is over a pound more than 
Mr. R.’s gave at the first shearing. Accompanying this 
account, was a sample of the wool. It is clean, and of 
remarkable quality for such weight. The weight of the 
sheep is 116 pounds. He, as well as Mr. R.’s buck, were 
by Mr. Jewett’s Fortune. Mr. Warner also states that 
Mr. Jewett sold last year, a March lamb to Mr. Foot, a 
neighbor of Mr. W.'s, which sheared on the 20th of June 
last, 11 pounds of wool. 
Editor of the Cultivator —Will you permit one 
of your Boston subscribers to make a suggestion to the 
dairyman of New-York, Vermont, &c. For several 
years past, I have noticed that butter, which was 'per¬ 
fectly sweet at the time it was purchased, has acquired 
towards the latter part of the season, (say March to May,) 
a bitterish taste in the outer portion of the mass, which 
rendered it totally unfit for the table. As this was en¬ 
tirely different from the rancid taste incident to badly 
made butter, I have attributed it to some quality inherent 
in the wood of which the firkins were made, probably 
owing to the circumstance of its being wrought in a 
green state. If this be the case, I should think it very 
desirable that those farmers who are in the habit of 
packing butter for distant markets, should procure for that 
purpose only such vessels as are made of properly sea¬ 
soned wood. C. 
Mr. Editor—I have pursued an effectual method of 
exterminating burdocks. I leave them to grow until 
warm weather is fully set in, and the plants filled with 
sap. I prefer leaving the middle stalk set, but am care¬ 
ful to take them previous to budding. With a strong 
spade I cut the roots two or three inches under the sur¬ 
face, drawing the spade directly back without removing 
the earth, plucking the top part up with my hand, and 
stamping the earth firmly over the remaining part to 
prevent a free circulation of air; and few of them will 
sprout. Such as do, will be only a weak and sickly 
progeny, and a repeated application of the spade will 
prove a cheap and successful exterminator. S. N. H. 
FIRE-BLIGHT. 
The opinion that fire-blight in the pear tree is fre¬ 
quently if not usually caused by the influence of frost on 
the imperfectly ripened wood, is now very generally 
adopted, and some interesting cases in corroboration have 
occurred the present summer. 
“We have had no frost so severe as this,” observes 
D. Thomas, in the Ohio Cultivator, “and as late in the 
season, since the year 1817. It has given us a new chap¬ 
ter in the history of fire-blight.” * * “It has pro¬ 
duced ten times more fire-blight than I ever saw before. 
It was not confined to the pear tree, though that suffered 
most; but the apple tree and the quince tree share largely 
in the calamity; and even the cherry tree) which was 
not on the list of such as were susceptible of this malady, 
did not escape.” 
The new shoots of fruit trees, being young, fresh, and 
succulent, were peculiarly susceptible of injury by frost, 
which operated on them with as great facility as the frost 
of winter operates upon the young shoots which grow 
late in summer or in autumn, producing blight in the or¬ 
dinary way. Most of these young spring shoots escaped; 
a portion were killed at once by the frost; and another 
portion, a large one, though not killed immediately, were 
so affected as to cause a diseased action in the sap, or a 
poisonous fermentation, which after a time resulted in 
the death of> the branch or tree. 
That the fire-blight thus resulting, was not the effect 
of the cold of last winter , was conclusively shown by the 
fact that no appearance of the disease was seen before the 
frost; but immediately after the frost, it was observed to 
be taking place all through the country; and from that 
period to the present time, which is near the latter part 
of summer, new cases have been continually taking place. 
A Stevens pear tree showed no indications of the disaster 
until operated on by the intense heat of the present mid¬ 
summer, and a young Bartlett was seen the present week 
to be suffering from the first stages of the malady, in one 
of its limbs. A Florence cherry tree died a few weeks 
only after the frost. In no case has the most rigid exa¬ 
mination detected the slightest indication of the presence 
of an insect or of his ravages. 
The great variation in appearance, and the irregular 
manner of attack, are worthy of notice. In some cases, 
the malady appeared to be simple death or cessation of 
growth, the leaves gradually withering, without that 
sudden change to a black color which shows the presence 
of poisonous sap in the branches, produced by freezing 
and partial decomposition. In other cases the latter 
symptoms were fully developed. Again, in some cases, 
single or small twigs only were destroyed on the tree; 
in others, large limbs or large portions of the bark were 
affected. 
NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
New work on Sheep.—“ The American Shep¬ 
herd,” by L. A. Morrell, Esq., of Lake Ridge, Tomp¬ 
kins county, N. Y., will soon be issued by Messrs. Har¬ 
pers. From our knowledge of Mr. Morrell, and from 
having read a considerable portion of the work, we have 
no hesitation in saying it will possess a practical charac¬ 
ter which cannot fail to render it highly valuable to 
sheep-owners in all parts of the country. Previous to its 
going to press, the work was submitted to the examina- 
of the Executive Board of the New-York State Agricul¬ 
tural Society, by whom it was recommended in the fol¬ 
lowing language:—“ The committee have great pleasure 
in recommending the work to the attention of wool 
growers and others interested in the breeding and ma. 
nagement of sheep, as one containing a large amount of 
practical and scientific information on a most important 
branch of American agriculture.” We are authorized to 
state that an opportunity will be presented at the coming 
State Fair at Utica, for procuring copies of Mr. Mor¬ 
rell’s book. It will be recollected that Mr. M. offered 
a premium for the best plan of a sheep-barn. He re- 
quests us to state that the first premium was awarded to 
M. Y. Tilden, of New Lebanon, Columbia co.; the s« 
