THE CULTIVATOR. 
169 
It will probably appear, when the subjects of breeding and grazing are 
discussed, that it will be the most profitable course to fatten the ewes 
when they are five, or at most, six years old, and supply their places with 
the most likely shearing-ewes. When a sheep gets much older than this 
it begins to decline in its wool, and certainly loses much of its propensity 
to fatten; while, in the usual system of sheep husbandry, the principal 
.profit consists in early and quick fattening. 
The natural age of sheep it is ditficult to assign. They will usually live 
and breed, and thrive tolerably well, until they are ten years old; but 
there are instances of their living and thriving to a much more protracted 
age. Lamerville speaks of a Spanish ram, thirteen years old, that died 
sound, and got lambs in his thirteenth year.* Mr. Moore of Winthorpe 
had on his pastures in 1824 a ewe that yearned a pair of lambs when she 
was a shearling; had two pairs yearly for fifteen years, and in the last two 
years produced single lambs.f Mr. Culley has “ heard of particular sheep 
living to nearly twenty years old—those which the mountain shepherds 
call guide-sheep, viz: old wethers kept on purpose to guide and direct the 
bleating flocks upon those unfrequented wilds. 
The molar teeth or grinders of the sheep are well adapted for lacerating 
and reducing almost to a pulp, the grassy or more hardened fibres which 
compose a great proportion of the food of the animal. They are not only 
surrounded by enamel, but columns of it sink deep into their substance 
and rise above the upper surface of them. The faces of these teeth are 
cut into a number of deep grooves running across them, from without, in¬ 
wards, and the projecting parts of the teeth of the one jaw are received 
into the depressed grooves of those of the other. 
The faces of the molars being also slanting, in a direction from without 
inwards in the lower jaw, and from within, outwards in the upper one. 
and the projecting edges of the enamel being exceedingly sharp, it is al¬ 
most impossible that, in the lateral grinding motion of the lower jaw in 
the act of rumination, and the slow and careful manner in which it is per¬ 
formed, many of the fibres can escape, or if they do, there is an after 
provision for reducing them, which will, in the proper place, be descrih 
ed —Library of Useful Knowledge, Farmers' Series. 
Miscellaneous. 
WILL THE STATE PATRONIZE AGRICULTURE ? 
Is a question often asked, but somewhat difficult to be answered. While ca 
pitalisls and speculators can in a tew hours, or days, make their hundreds 
and thousands of dollars, by the mere transfer of property, or on a rise of 
stocks, they will not care for the interests of agriculture, though it be the le¬ 
gitimate source of our wealth. While party politicians are looking to office 
for fame and fortune, they are not willing that agriculturists should share in 
the bounty of the state, though they be the great tax paying community. 
Yet we trust there are many, very many, who fall under neither of these 
appellations so far, as to render them regardless of the true interests of the 
state. The agricultural products of the state are believed to amount to fifty 
millions of dollars annually. Ten per cent, or five millions of this annual 
product, has been produced by improvements growing out of the legislative 
appropriations for agriculture in 1817. Our lands are susceptible, it is well 
known, of vast improvement in their product, and should the appropriation 
be made, which is contemplated in the following petition, we have not the 
least doubt but it would be a certain means, in five years, of adding ten per 
cent, or five millions of dollars, to the annual products of our agriculture; 
and that the revenues to the state, from the increase, would far more than 
remunerate the treasury for the expenditure. 
The petition inserted below was drawn in 1832, by Jesse Hawley, Esq_ 
We republish it at this time, because we believe the plan it suggests in the 
main a good one, and with the view of bringing the subject before the pub¬ 
lic in time to form a topic for deliberation in the agricultural convention 
which is to meet on the 2d Monday in February. 
PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE. 
To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of JVew- York, in Senate 
and Assembly convened: 
We the subscribers, being mostly Farmers, residing in the County of 
Humbly Represent: 
That we should be highly gratified to see a State Agricultural 
Institution, forming an appendage of the magnificent system of Inter¬ 
nal Improvement by which the State of New-York has signalized herself 
among her sister states in the American Confederacy;—to be constituted 
by a main State Society, with County Societies, as branches to the same; 
to be endowed with an annual appropriation of twenty-five thousand dol¬ 
lars from the State Treasury;—to be distributed among the several County 
Societies on the ratio of one hundred and fifty dollars to each Member of 
the Assembly;—to be expended in premiums for practical and experi¬ 
mental improvements in Agriculture, Horticulture and Manufactures; and 
the residue (being nearly six thousand dollars) appropriated for the funds 
of the State Society, to be expended in procuring choice, select, rare and 
useful Animals, Vegetables, Seeds, Implements, and Essays on Agricul¬ 
ture, for public distribution. 
That the citizens of each County in the State be authorized and requir- 
* Lamerville on Sheep, p. 102. 
J; Culley on Live Stock, p. 212. 
You. IT. 
t Farmer’s Journal, May 3, 1824. 
22 
ed to form a County Agricultural and Horticultural Society, organized 
with officers and committees, similar to the former Institution; that they 
dravv their respective quotas of the public moneys, by the draft of their 
Presidents, certified and sealed by the County Clerk, on the Treasurer 
of the State Society;—that they add thereto, as far as may be, by private 
subscriptions and donations from patriotic citizens; but in order to obviate 
the senseless objections made to the former Societies, no competitor for 
premiums shall be required to pay initiation fees;—that the officers thereof 
shall distribute these moneys for premiums (alter paying the necessary 
contingent expenses) on the best articles of Agriculture and Horticultural 
products; farm stock; experiments in farming and gardening; routine of 
crops; premium farms; and all the varieties of domestic household and 
shop manufactures;—that the Treasurer of the County Societies annually 
render an account of these applications of their moneys to the Treasurer 
of the State Society, and he, his accounts to the Legislature, or the 
Comptroller;—that the surplus funds of any one year, be carried to ex¬ 
tend the list of premiums for the succeeding year;—that any county, fail¬ 
ing to form and organize a Society, shall forfeit its quota of the state boun¬ 
ty, and the amount thereof shall be carried, either to the disposable funds 
of the State Society;—or, to the next year’s fund for distribution to the 
County Societies. 
That the State Societies be composed of Delegates from the County 
Societies, either, by the President, ex-officio;—or by a proxy, to be 
elected, either at the annual meeting, or by the Board of Managers; and 
also of the Members of both Houses of the State Legislature, as the Mem¬ 
bers thereof;—that they annually convene at the Capitol jn the City of 
Albany, on the first Tuesday of February, for the choice of their officers 
and the transaction of business;—and that any citizen of the State be eli¬ 
gible to its offices. 
That the President, Corresponding Secretary, Recording Secretary, 
and the Treasurer of the State Society be allowed a moderate salary of 
$200 or $250 per annum, for their services; and that the like officers of 
the County Societies, together with the Managing Committee, and the 
Reviewing Committee for premium farms, be allowed from one to two 
dollars per day, for actual services rendered in making preparations for, 
and in superintending the public exhibitions, and other business concerns 
of the Society;—in order to reward labor and talent, ensure the due and 
diligent performance of the duties of their respective offices, and to give 
life and spirit to the Institution. 
That the funds may not be left to the doubtful contingencies of indivi¬ 
dual subscriptions;-!-or town votes;—or supervisor’s supplies;—but, mads 
certain, adequate and permanent appropriation for a period of twenty 
years, that a thorough and efficient experiment be made on the utility of 
Agricultural Societies, instead of the former incompetent and penurious 
trial of two years, only. 
We present you with this outline as being our views of the best manner 
of organizing and sustaining such an Institution: and we confidently ask 
it of you: 
Because, Agriculture, being the chief source of human sustenance, de¬ 
serves equal encouragement from the public authorities with any other 
vocation of mar, in society;—but has hitherto been the most neglected:— 
Because, from past experience we are convinced that the award of premi¬ 
ums, and the competition for them, is the best mode yet devised, both 
to stimulate and reward the exertions and enterprise of individuals in 
making practical experiments, to be collated into a body of science for 
general instruction:— 
Because, from the like experience we find that no certain reliance can be 
reposed on voluntary subscriptions to obtain the funds for premiums:— 
Because, the limited means and daily wants of our practical Farmers deny 
them the time and capital to make gratuitous expeiiments; and when 
so made by the lew spirited and enterprising individuals, the result re¬ 
mains obscure, without general circulation for the public benefit:— 
Because, the Farmers being the principal Tax-Payers of the State, de¬ 
serve a portion of the public bounties for the encouragement and im¬ 
provement of their vocation:— 
Because, scientific and practical improvement in Agriculture are a com¬ 
mon public benefit, as well as the education of our children; and like 
that, most assuredly deserves to be sustained with a systematic organir 
zation by statute law and state bounty:— 
And because, w r ere it encouraged and sustained by public bounties, we be¬ 
lieve it could be made greatly to increase subsistence; multiply popula¬ 
tion; and enhance the value of our lands. 
We humbly conceive that such an Agricultural Institution belongs to 
the grandeur of New-York, to adorn her present Civil, Literary and So¬ 
cial Institutions, and her system of Internal Improvements:—that while 
the experiment would cost the State Treasury half a million, yet nearly 
all, and probably more than than that amount would be returned, by the 
increase of Canal Tolls, from increased production; the taxable value of 
the Real Property in the State augmented probably more than twenty mil¬ 
lions; and the market value of the farming lands in New-York, made to 
command better prices than those in the adjoining states, as is already the 
fact, along the northern boundary line of Pennsylvania. And that the 
project is a great statesman’s measure. As in duty bound, et cetera 
