26 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Put sheep, said I, where deer range, and they must do well—passing 
over the practical consideration, that fences present no impediment to 
a deer; he roves and selects at pleasure. Fences are an insurmounta¬ 
ble barrier to a sheep. From 28 to 30 sheep of almost any description, 
having an extensive range, will do well. It is the sheep best suited for 
domestication, and the best domestic management, that interests the 
practical farmer. I have seen the exemplification of associating com¬ 
mon or native sheep, in large flocks, in yard accommodations; and 
they did not endure confinement so well as the merino, who has for 
generations and centuries been subjected to restrictive management. 
That sheep are profitable farm stock, on suitable land, and under 
good management, is acceded'—but that sheep ill managed, or on un¬ 
suitable soil, are profitable, is an absurdity. “ What the man is worth, 
the land is worth.” What the shepherd is worth, the sheep are worth. 
The pasture for sheep should be high, dry, warm land, the more 
disposed to the production of aromatic plants, the better. Altitude, 
alone, is not enough. Some high lands are springy and wet, which is 
deadly and ruinous to sheep. Sheep, when confined in common pas¬ 
tures, are continually roving and traversing it, which soon renders the 
unconsumed grass foul, and impedes its growth. From their social 
habits, having selected their lodging, they are exceeding tenacious 
of their resting place, which soon becomes offensive and unhealthy. 
They should therefore always be changed from one enclosure to 
another, as often as once a week, or at most, once a fortnight, that the 
grass may be washed by rains and dews, and the sheep be furnished 
with clean lodging. In the interim, the grass can grow undisturbed, 
and is fresh. In this way I have been able to sustain in good heatlh 
a greater number than to give them the whole range at once. No 
more than a hundred sheep should be kept in one flock. Sheep should 
have access to clean running water, through the whole year, for health, 
the secretion of milk, and growth of wool. In winter, they should be 
daily watered, which prevents their drinking too much at once, and is 
absolutely requisite when fed on dry hay. I think the autumnal 
change from the succulent grass of the fields, to dry hay, adverse to 
the health of sheep, the growth of lambs, and the growth of wool. 
Sheep cannot sustain any sudden or great change, without injury. 
Sheep should be fed at regular periods in the winter, and likewise have 
regular gentle exercise, to circulate the blood, invigorate the system, 
so as to enable them to resist the cold. It gives them an appetite, and 
facilitates the digestion of the food. Being a ruminating animal, they 
should be allowed quiet for this office. 
I make it a daily practice to have my sheep and lambs, during win¬ 
ter, driven a considerable distance, and watered, fed in racks, both for 
economy of fodder, and the benefit, of the sheep. If fed for a short 
time on the snow, a new place should be every time selected, and the 
hay distributed over a large extent of surface;—sheep fed around a 
stack or in a yard, the hay thrown out in bunches, - to be trampled un¬ 
der foot in mud or dung, the, sheep without water or exercise, cannot 
do well. 
My sheep'are Saxony and Spanish merinos; they are divided into 
flocks of a hundred, each. They have been fed on early mown clover 
hay. ^Tiave nov, 7th March, the same number with which I com¬ 
menced the winter; having lost one old ewe and gained one lamb. 
(This has beeti an unusually severe winter.) 
The two h, e st flocks of fine sheep I ever knew, for health, amount 
of»wool, ar/,d great increase, were managed as follows, viz:—the first, 
with whic^n I W as intimately acquainted for ten years, seeing them 
during tV,i s term as often as once a week: this flock was liberally fed" 
in the 'winter on carrots; they were uniformly in high flesh and high 
health, their udders distended with milk, rearing nearly all their 
la mbs, and yielding an abundant fleece. If I do not mistake, this flock 
Igave of washed wool, ewes 5 lb., lambs from 3 to 4 lbs. 
The second flock was one in which the proprietor practised feeding 
grain. After the injury of the grass, by one or two severe frosts, he 
commenced with feeding, at the rate of half a gill of Indian corn, per 
sheep, daily; this was gradually increased to a gill, through the winter. 
These sheep were fat, and yielded great fleeces. 
Beans, corn and peas, are the best grain for sheep, yet they are more 
heating and feverish, and not so well adapted to the secretion of milk, 
as vegetables, of which carrots are decidedly preferable. The kind of 
vegetable to be produced must be adapted to the soil, to render it pro¬ 
fitable. 
Sheep should be well looked after in summer and autumn; they 
must come to the barn in good condition, or they will not winter with¬ 
out more care and cost than they are worth. Most persons, who keep 
sheep, increase their number beyond their means of subsistence. I 
can produce more wool, and rear more lambs from 300 sheep well fed, 
than from 400 under ordinany management. I think very few are 
aware of the necessity of sufficient feed and care, for domestic stock; 
I do not mean high feed; that belongs to the staller. 
It is a common opinion, and seems a natural inference, that sheep 
are so clothed with wool, that they must be warm, and better able to 
resist cold than other animals. But the fact is otherwise. They are 
exceedingly sensitive to cold and wind. This arises from two causes. 
First, the extreme delicacy of their skin. The picking of sheep and the 
picking of fowls will exemplify this, Then observe the thickness of the 
skin of the horse and the ox. Secondly, the vigor of circulation. Sheep 
are throughout a delicate animal, and we have the authority of the most 
experienced shepherds, in saying, that “ most of the diseases of sheep 
are the consequence of debility.” 
I am compelled from experience and observation to dissent from the 
opinion and practice of some of our best managers of sheep, in rela¬ 
tion to sheds and shelter; that is, having sheds in the sheep pasture 
and yard, at all times accessible to the sheep, and subject to their dis¬ 
cretion, and that they will not resort to them only when necessary. This 
I have found otherwise. They will resort to them as an indulgence, 
which soon grows into an established habit; the shed becomes exces¬ 
sively foul, the confined breath and effluvia pestilential; the sheep ac¬ 
quire a disinclination to motion, snuffly, from the great warmth and 
excess of perspiration, operating like a warm bath, are soon debilitated 
and lose their appetite. 
It is indispensable in the domestic management of sheep, to be libe- 
arally furnished with sheds, which should be located on dry elevated 
knolls, constructed on a broad scale, spacious, elevated, airy; and at 
the same time, plain and cheap. These should be forbidden resorts, 
except in severe storms, severe winds, and during the lambing period, 
and after shearing. Thousands of lambs are lost for the want of one 
night’s shelter. Thousands of sheep destroyed by constant shelter. 
Lambs should be separated from old sheep. Feeble and old sheep 
separated from the rugged. • 
The quantity of fleece may be surprisingly increased by feed, which 
is exemplified in cossets or pet sheep. The highest attainable im¬ 
provement in the merino is efl’ected by attention to purity of blood and 
selection; more particularly of the buck, for his excellencies and im¬ 
perfections, if hereditary, exercise an extensive influence. He should 
at any rate be of pure blood, and round in form, with thick, fine, 
glossy, elastic wool, if attainable. The size of sheep constituting a 
flock, may be improved by the judicious selection of breeding ewes. 
None but these of good size, good nurses, and of proper age, should 
be permitted to breed. The flat sided, bad nurses, thin woolled, should 
be excluded. In large flocks, merino ewes ought not be permitted to 
produce a lamb until the third year, otherwise the dam is diminished 
in size, deficient in milk, the offspring feeble and puny, and calculated 
to deteriorate the flock. Nursing ewes should be kept so as to pre¬ 
serve the lamb unchecked in growth. This is the way to increase the 
size of Sheep. F. 
Note. —We regret to perceive, by a private note which accompanied this 
communication, that our valued but unknown correspondent, has misappre¬ 
hended the object of some of our remarks, and the cause of our not inserting 
his last No. in our February Cultivator. Our remarks were not intended to 
have reference to any correspondent; and his communication reached us, to 
use a printer’s term, after our columns were closed. 
PLASTER BEDS OF THE WEST. 
Mr. Bcel—I n my last communication, I endeavored to give some 
general information respecting the quantity of plaster of Paris, or 
gypsum, quarried, as well as of that consumed in the western part of 
this state. As I had to speak from information, derived in many cases 
from hearsay, I have in all probability (in my endeavor to be perfectly 
within bounds in my statements)much underrated the consumption in 
this quarter of the state. 
Perhaps it may not be uninteresting to your readers, or devoid of 
useful results, to mention a few of the geological indications which are 
exhibited in the vicinity of the plaster beds, as well as those which 
accompany them. 
In the vicinity of plaster of Paris or gypsum, is generally found 
common carbonate of lime, and often hydraulic cement or water lime. 
This is the case in Madison county, and likewise on Seneca river, in 
Seneca county, near this place. In the latter place, and in Cayuga 
county, the gypsum rock is sometimes found in a solid body, from ten 
to twenty-five feet in thickness, extending for an unknown distance, in 
beds underneath the soil, from three to six feet. Immediately above 
the gypsum is often a strata of slaty silicious limestone, which on ex¬ 
posure to the weather, crumbles and breaks to pieces. The soil upon 
the surface, over the beds, is sometimes a red clay, mixed with lime¬ 
stone, gravel, and sometimes a sandy loam. The plaster is not unfre- 
quently found in the shape of a cone, or a single rock; but in such 
case more extensive beds are usually to be found in the neighborhood. 
Sometimes it occurs in laminae of from one to three feet in depth, with 
veins of earth or limestone between; but this is most generally the ap¬ 
pearance of the beds at their mouth, or where they are first opened. 
The rock becomes more solid and of greater depth the farther the 
quarries are explored. Where the granular or amorphous gypsum is 
found, (which is the description to which almost all that is used be¬ 
longs) in strata, of two, three and four feet in thickness, efflores- 
