THE CULTIVATOR. 
10 
I was much gratified to find eight very superior wethers of the 
Leicester with a cross of the Cotswold breed. They were bred 
and fattened by Mr. Thomas Dunn, of this city, on his farm in the 
town of Guilderland, fourteen miles west of Albany. 
They were purchased by Messrs. Kirkpatrick & Co., butchers in 
the Centre Market, at fifteen dollars per head, who deserve great 
credit for their exertions to procure superior meats for their stalls. 
The carcases were exhibited on the 20th ult., and excited the 
admiration of a numerous body of spectators, for their great size 
and general appearance: and if their mouths did not water fora cut 
ftom one of their saddles, accompanied with a little currant jelly, 
then I must say , they were destitute of good taste. 
In addition to the mutton, were exhibited at the same stall, the 
beef of a very superior steer, and a calf six weeks old. 
Their nett weight averaged, when dressed, 35 lbs. per quarter; 
or 140 lbs. per animal. Wool on an average, say 8 lbs. It must 
be remarked, however, that these were the refuse lambs, which he 
declined to sell for breeders. The pelts sold for $2-50 each. 
They were fed by Mr. Kirby, Mr. Dunn’s shepherd, since last 
October, on corn and oats. 
To the late Christopher Dunn, Esq. we are indebted for this very 
valuable race of sheep. About twenty-five years ago he procured 
some ewes and a buck from a Mr. Lax of Long Island, (who smug¬ 
gled some of the Bakewell breed over from England,) and com¬ 
menced the foundation of his flock. During the late war, some very 
superior Leicester sheep, destined for Canada, were captured by one 
of our privateers, and sent into New-York and there sold at auc¬ 
tion. Our zealous and spirited citizen, repaired thence and procur¬ 
ed one of the bucks, at a very high figure. Since then additions 
of superior bucks, by importations and selections from other flocks 
in this country, have been made, and none with more advantage, 
than the celebrated Dishly buck, owned by Charles H. Hall, Esq. of 
Harlaem. From this buck some of his finest specimens have origi¬ 
nated. But his last cross of the Cotswold, has given more size 
and strength of constitution, with at least one quarter more wool. 
His Cotswold buck was imported in 1832, and is, perhaps, the 
largest sheep in this country—weighing alive, at least 250 lbs.—and 
giving at one shearing 15i lbs. of wool, 14 inches long ! 
Mr. Dunn’s flock consists now of about 150 head, old and young, 
from which he supplies, in part, the great demand made every fall— 
selling his ewes from $12 to 15, and bucks from $30 to 50 each. 
From the above stock has originated the flocks of Mr. Bullock of 
Bethlehem—Wilkinson, Duane and North, of Duanesburgh, &lc. 
I should be doing great injustice to Mr. H. Y. Webb, were I to 
omit to notice his well filled stalls of very superior beef and mut¬ 
ton. My attention was particularly attracted by three very supe¬ 
rior wethers, two years old, bred and fattened onruta-baga turnips, 
by S. Hawes. It was the first exhibition, in our market, of the 
Hampshire Downs, imported by Mr. H. about 3 years since. Their 
carcasses would nett about 124 lbs. each. The mutton of this breed 
is considered of very superior quality. B. 
Elements of Practical AgricwlSnre, 
By David I.ow, Professor of Agriculture, &c. 
DRAINING. 
Principles to be ever kept in mind by the tillage-farmer are to 
keep his land dry, rich and clean. The first in the order of these 
principles, and an essential one to be regarded in cold and humid 
countries, is to keep the land dry. 
While a certain portion of water is essential to vegetation, an 
excess of it may prove greatly injurious. In the colder countries 
an excess of water is one of the main causes of infertility, and a 
primary object of the husbandman there is to carry it away from 
the ground. 
The water which falls from the atmosphere does not sink to an 
indefinite depth or to a great depth in the earth. It is easier re¬ 
tained at or near the surface where it falls, and whence it is evapo 
rated, or it finds its way to a lower level, by channels upon the 
surface, or in chinks of rocks, or beds of gravel, sand, and other 
permeable substances beneath the surface. 
The purpose in draining is, when water stagnates at or near the 
surface, or when, having penetrated to pervious substances below 
the surface, it is finding its way to a lower level, to confine it to a 
determinate channel, and to carry it away by some conveient outlet, 
in order that it may not overflow or saturate the soil. 
The substances through which water finds its way with facility 
are the looser earths, sands, and gravels, the crevices of rocks, 
and beds of loose or decomposing stones: the substances which 
resist its progress are clays and the harder rocks. 
When the soil rests on a retentive sub-soil, whether of clay or 
pervious rock, it forms a species of reservoir for water, absorbing 
and retaining it. The object of the drainer in such a case is to give 
egress to the water in fixed channels or drains. This is partly 
effected by the common ditches of the farm, partly by the open 
furrow’s of ridges already described; and, when these are insuffi¬ 
cient, by cutting trenches in the hollows, or where best suited 
to effect the purpose. These trenches are either left open, or 
they are filled to a certain depth with small stones or other substan¬ 
ces, through which the water may percolate; and then they are 
covered again with earth and soil, so that the plough may pass over 
them in tillage. 
When water overspreads the surface, or is absoibed by the soil, 
and is unable to penetrate to the looser strata below, the carrying 
it away in channels is termed surface-draining. When it has al¬ 
ready penetrated into the earth, and is contained in reservoirs there, 
or is finding its way to a lower level through permeable substances 
below the surface, the confining it to a fixed channel is generally 
termed under-draining. These two purposes of the drainer are 
constantly combined in practice, but yet they are in some degree 
distinct. It is the intercepting of water below the surface that 
constitutes the most difficult part of draining, and which requires 
the application of principles which it is not necessary to apply in 
the case of surface draining. 
If we shall penetrate a little way into the looser portion of the 
earth, we shall generally find minute stratification, consisting of 
gravel, sand, or clay, of different degrees of density. These strata 
are frequently horizontal, frequently they follow nearly the incli¬ 
nation of the surface and frequently they are broken and irregular. 
Sometimes the stratum is very thin, as a few inches in thickness, and 
sometimes it is several feet thick: and sometimes the traces of stra¬ 
tification disappear, and we find only, to a great depth, a large mass 
of clay or other homogenous substances. 
