802 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
ORNAMENTAL GATE.—Fig. 92. 
The frame is composed of hard wood sticks, 2| inches 
square; the lattice of boards 2 inches wide and % of an 
inch thick, well riveted together at each crossing, which 
prevents the possibility of swagging. 
Middlefield, Ms., 1845. Lawrence Smith. 
GOOD SHEEP—HEAVY FLEECES. 
I have noticed, Mr. Editor, some statements of the high 
shearing properties of Col. RandalPs flock, A. L. Bing¬ 
ham’s, and some others, in the last two numbers of the 
Cultivator. These facts are of some interest and import¬ 
ance to all engaged in sheep husbandry. In your recent 
visit to Vermont, had you extended your tour as far as 
Williston, I could have shown you a very superior flock 
of sheep, which for the number, I think, is not far sur¬ 
passed by any other in New England. Let me give 
you a few facts in regard to the shearing of my last 
elip. Each fleece was weighed as it came off, with 
steel-yards, that had been compared with Fairbanks! 
Patent Scales, and found to be perfectly accurate—and 
the weight was recorded at the time. 
I had 42 ewes that sheared six pounds and a quarter of 
very clean washed wool. One yearling buck that shear¬ 
ed 8 lbs. 10 ounces. And one, also a yearling, which 
sheared 10 lbs. and 8 oz., and the shearers will testify that 
the wool was very thoroughly washed. I had 3 sheep that 
sheared between 7 and 8 pounds—12 that sheared nearly up 
to seven—and so on, and 88 that went nearly to six lbs. 
each. Of my whole flock of 207—90 of which were 
yearlings—the exact average was five pounds and three 
quarters of an ounce. Some of the yearlings went as 
low as 3| lbs., and two old ewes that had shed a great 
part of their wool went below three pounds. I have 
seen no account where the average on so large a flock 
was so great. My flock has been established within two 
years, and I have spared no pains or expense in making 
the best selections. My flock is made up of Gaudaloupes 
from the Shaker Farms, Enfield, N. H., and of Paulars, 
so called, from the flocks of the Messrs. Cutting, and 
Mr. T. C. Wright, Shoreham, and M. Bingham, and A. 
L. Bingham, Cornwall, Vt., and of that very superior 
flock, J. I. Bailey’s, Newport, R. I. I paid from $10 to 
$30 each, for my ewes, and $40 for my best yearling 
buck, when a lamb about four months old. This last 
was purchased of Mr. A. L. Bingham, of Cornwall, who 
has refused $50 for the own brother to him, a lamb of 
this season. I consider this buck as the very best I ever 
saw. I have about 20 lambs from him, and they show 
him to be a stock getter of the highest order, having 
very thick and very fine wool, and so like the sire, that 
you, a stranger, would be able to select them from a 
flock of 90, after you had once seen him. He is a buck 
of very large size for his age—of proud and lofty carriage 
—of great strength and courage, and strong constitution. 
I wish, Mr. Editor, that we could get the average 
weight of the entire flocks of A. L. Bingham, Col. Ran¬ 
dall, &c., &c. If the average is taken on a small por¬ 
tion of a flock, it gives us no adequate or just idea of the 
whole. I find if I take my average on 53 instead of 42, 
that it is reduced to exactly 6 lbs. each. 
I would give you the following general statement of 
my shearing, which will lead you to understand about 
how my flock stands. Of ewes with lambs by their 
sides, except where they were yearlings, three sheared 
over 7 lbs. each—12 from 6 to 7 lbs. each—48 from 5 
to 6 lbs. each—and 88 from 4 to 5 lbs. each. The balance 
of the flock of 207, sheared below 4 lbs each. 
I have about 250, old and young, full blood, pure me¬ 
rino sheep; 90 of the number are lambs. The balance 
are one, two, and three years old. I have a few high 
grade sheep, which I intend to dispose of, so as to have 
nothing on my place but pure blood merinos. 
Williston, Vt., Sept. 12 th, 1845. L. G. Bingham. 
P. S. You see I have given you an account of the 
worst as well as the best end of my flock. I wish that 
others would do likewise. Then we could compare 
notes with proper data to go upon. “ The truth, the 
whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” is my motto. 
Will your correspondents enlighten us? 
CLEARING LAND. 
L Tucker, Esq. —You inquire, page 152, May No. 
Cultivator, for an article on the best mode of clearing 
land. I trust you are in possession of a better article than 
the following: if not, this is at your service. 
Girdling or belting, where timber and wood are of 
little or no value, is the usual, and I am of opinion, the 
best mode, and to be the first step, in clearing land. If 
deadened a few years before cleared and brought into 
cultivation, the bark, limbs, and much of the sap part of 
the timber becomes decayed, and forms a valuable and 
lasting manure; whereas, had the whole been cut and 
burned while green, not only the decayed part above al¬ 
luded to, but much of the vegetable mold, or soil of the 
land, would have been also consumed. 
The trunks of the trees must necessarily be burned 
'''"■n the land; and the larger the log heaps the better, 
las less surface is burned over. 
I believe it is universally admitted, that burning over 
land is injurious to the soil; but the ashes made and al¬ 
lowed to remain, where log heaps and large brush heaps 
have been burned, fully restores the injury done. I can 
conceive no soil benefited, by burning anything that 
might otherwise decay on it. Except in extreme dry 
weather, by burning of new ground clearings, or even 
log heaps, the organic or vegetable matters are seldom 
destroyed to any considerable depth; but the proportion 
burned becomes heavy and inert; and if all, to the usual 
depth of the plow were burned, the result would be the 
same, as if spread to that thickness of brick dust made 
from the same material. 
To obviate any danger from burning wood on the 
land, I would recommend establishing manufactories in 
the vicinity of them; which would soon add a greater 
value to the wood, than to the land when cleared. 
Such is the fact at the north where manufactories are 
• established, and villages have sprung up; such is the 
case in the sugar districts in Louisiana, and along the 
(rivers and water courses of the whole country where 
steamboats and vessels ply, and commerce is carried on. 
In a word, the most profitable mode is the course usually 
taken, especially by new settlers. Deaden the timber, 
cut and burn the under brush, and put in a crop; after¬ 
ward, and before the limbs and trunks begin to fall, to 
endanger life and limb, cut down and burn; and what is 
very important—go ahead. Yours, truly. 
New River, La., 1845. S. Tillotson. 
DESTROYING ALDERS AND OTHER BUSHES. 
Editor or the Cultivator —Sir—On the receipt of 
your August number, I noticed the article on “Killing 
Alders,” and your invitation to others for facts on that 
subject. 
Mr. Jefferson somewhere suggests the importance and 
utility of perpetuating the experience of old men, and 
agriculturists depend so much upon facts for what they 
do, that I am induced to state my own experience on this 
subject. 
In ihe town of Salem, Washington county, N. Y., 
where I have resided for more than forty years, I have 
been in the habit yearly of cutting all kinds of brush that 
sprout in the open and cleared fields. This has been 
done in the months either of July or August, in the old 
of the moon, when the sign is in the heart; and when it 
has been done on the day the moon changed, but before 
the change, the sign being in the heart, it has never 
failed, to my recollection, to destroy the brush. 
John Crary. 
Salem , August 18, 1845. 
