1851. THE CULTIVATOR. 273 
A SILESIAN MERINO EWE. 
Notes of a Tour in Europe. 
The above figure is a portrait of a Merino ewe, pro¬ 
cured in Silesia, by R. Sanford, Esq., of Orwell, 
Yt. It is one of the lot noticed in our current volume, 
p. 218. We have received from Mr. S. the following 
notes in relation to his tour through Europe for the pur¬ 
pose of examining and purchasing sheep. In the present 
chapter we have the results of his observations in regard 
to France and Spain ; in a future number he will furnish 
those relative to the various German states through 
which he passed. 
Editors Cultivator —In compliance with your re¬ 
quest, I will endeavor to give a short account of a tour 
in Europe. I sailed from New-York, Jan. 24, in the 
packet ship Splendid, for Havre, France. We had three 
days of pretty rough weather; the rest of the time quite 
fine. We had a passage of 24 days. I was very sea¬ 
sick about half the way, which was anything but plea¬ 
sant, I assure you. Mr. Greely has pictured it very 
fairly in his description of crossing. Havre I found to 
be a very busy place, as of course it must be, it being the 
great shipping port of France. One of the first things I 
noticed, was the horses that they work in their carts; 
they were very large and strong built, and carry enor¬ 
mous loads with them. I think they are preferable to 
any I ever saw for draft-horses, especially for cart horses 
for our cities. I had to stop one day in Havre to get 
my luggage through the custom house, and my passport 
vised, which is a very great annoyance. I started from 
Havre at 11 o’clock, A. M.—arrived at Paris 5 P. M. 
The railroad runs a good part of the way up the valley 
of the Seine—most of the way a beautiful country, and 
in a good state of cultivation. They were plowing and 
sowing their spring wheat. The plows are cumbersome 
and awkward things. They have long beams—the fore¬ 
end of the beam mounted upon a pair of wheels about 
half the size of a wagon wheel. Paris is a splendid city, 
so far as outward show is concerned. There appears to 
be very little business done in comparison with our cities. 
I shall not attempt a description of the city, as my busi¬ 
ness was to see the stock of the different countries I 
visited. 
The first flock I visited was Mr. Gilbert’s ; he has not 
only a good flock of sheep, but good horses, and some 
fine cows. He keeps about 25 cows; some of them have 
the appearance of being fine milkers; they are well cared 
for, and are in fine condition as well as the rest of his stock. 
He has good warm stables for all of his stock. Nothing 
is left out, unprotected. In fact it is the custom through 
France and Germany to shelter their stock in the winter 
season. He appears to be man of a good deal of intelli¬ 
gence and a good farmer. I found him to be kind and 
obliging. After looking over his stock, he took me a 
few miles from his place to see the agricultural school at 
Gruno. It is a government establishment. They have 
a large farm connected with the school, and are breed¬ 
ing most kinds of stock. Their policy is to cross 
every thing in the sheep line. They are making a cross 
between English and Merino. They have English ewes 
and Merino rams. Of cattle they have almost all kinds 
—French, English and Swiss. Their bulls were mostly 
