46 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
The first notice that we find on record of the blight in the pear I 
tree, and which also extended to the apple and the quince, is in a j 
letter from William Denning, Esq. written in 1793, and inserted in 
the first volume of the Transactions of the Society for the promo¬ 
tion of Agriculture, &c. p. 185. It was first observed by the writer : 
in 1780, at his place in Dutchess, now Putnam. “I observed,” 
says he, “ the young, remote and tender shoots first affected; I 
traced the malady to the spot where the sap first ceased to flow, 
but could discover no external cause. On the second year, I found 
the boughs wounded deeper, and progressing yearly, the trees con¬ 
tinued to sicken, and in six or seven years died.” Mr. Denning 
supposed he had detected the cause of the blight in a worm or borer, 
which he found in the wood of the tree near the ground ; and he 
bared the collar of some trees to the frosts of winter, with partial 
benefit as he supposed. The worm found at the root was probably 
the saperda bivetlata, described by Say, in a previous volume of the 
Cultivator, in a letter to the conductor, and was not the cause of 
the blight. 
The earliest personal knowledge we had of the blight was in 1802; 
and during that and the few subsequent years, it destroyed very 
many trees. The disease seemed then to disappear, with us, until 
about 1824-5, when it again appeared, and continued till 1831, since 
which we have not noticed it among our trees. We are inclined 
to believe that the blight has appeared periodically, at intervals of 
ten to fifteen years, and has continued four or five years at each re¬ 
turn. 
The first step towards discovering a preventive is to ascertain the 
cause. The popular notions that the blight is caused by lightning 
or the sun’s rays, is too unphilosophical to be entertained for a mo¬ 
ment. Like causes will always produce like effects; and as these 
alleged causes are continually operating, they cannot be the true 
ones. There is little doubt but the blight is caused by an insect, 
which injects a poison into the elaborated sap of the tender branch¬ 
es ; and it is probable that the species is one which assumes its de¬ 
structive form only at intervals of some years, like the locust. In 
1831, we made a topical application to our trees of chloride of lime, 
in a diluted form, which we supposed might, by affecting the sap, 
render it obnoxious to the insect, or prove an antidote to its poison. 
The disappearance of the disease, at that period, prevented our de¬ 
termining on the efficiency of the application. Professor Harris has 
ascribed the blight to an insect called scliolitus pyri. 
Me. GARBUTT’S PREMIUMS. 
Mr. William Gakbutt, a very intelligent, excellent and enter¬ 
prising farmer, of Wheatland, Monroe, has instructed us to offer, 
in his name, the six following premiums. “I have long wished,” 
says Mr. G. in his letter to us, “that cultivators would exhibit, 
through the medium of agricultural journals, their methods of farm¬ 
ing, together with the amount of labor and the product of their 
farms. It would open an immense volume of useful knowledge, and 
give a powerful impulse to agricultural improvement. With the 
view of furthering so desirable an object, I will add two classes of 
premiums to your list, viz: 
1. For the best managed grain and grass farm, grain being the 
staple, of not less than 100 acres,.$10 
2. For the second best,... 7 
3. For the third best,....... 5 
4. For the best managed grass and stock farm, of not less than 
150 acres,.. 10 
5. For the second best,.. .. 7 
6. For the third best,.... 5 
As Mr. Garbutt’s object is to elicit and disseminate useful infor¬ 
mation among his brother farmers, for the common good, the better 
to produce the desired result, he imposes upon competitors for the 
above premiums, the following conditions :— 
1. That the competitor shall live upon and manage his farm, ei¬ 
ther as owner or occupant. 
2. That the statement of management shall embrace a period of 
three years. 
3. That such statement shall exhibit the character of the soil, the 
description of the crops and stock, the mode of management, esti¬ 
mated value of all the crops and stock, mode of managing manures, 
expense of labor, &c. In short it must exhibit a true account of 
the profits of the farm for the three years, in such detail as to ena¬ 
ble others to profit by the examples of the successful competitors. 
While upon this subject, we venture to suggest to land holders, 
and others who feel a deep interest in the substantial improvements 
of our country, whether they would not subserve their individual as 
well as the public interests, by following the patriotic example of 
our worthy friend Garbutt, in offering premiums for improvements 
in husbandry. These will do more to enhance the value of real es¬ 
tate, and to promote the common weal, than the multiplication of 
banks, or the mad schemes of speculation, which have raised thou¬ 
sands to imaginary opulence, but which, in reality, have reduced 
tens of thousands to absolute ruin. Productive industry, after all, is 
the true source of national wealth and greatness; and the more we 
enlighten and honor labor, the more we shall have of it, and the 
better it will be for us. 
BREEDS OF SHEEP. 
The breeds of sheep in the United States may be comprised under 
the three following heads, viz: 
1. Short and fine wooled, which embrace the Merino family, includ¬ 
ing the Saxons, which are reared principally for their fleece, a ne¬ 
cessary and exclusive material in all our fine cloths. The average 
weight of fleece may be stated at 2| lbs. and the length of the staple 
2£ inches. 
2. Middle wooled. —This class may be considered as embracing 
our common sheep, and the South Downs of Great Britain. These 
are raised both for fleece and carcass, the quality of the mutton be¬ 
ing generally considered better than that of either the short or long 
wooled kinds, and the fleece heavier, though coarser, than that of 
the former. The average length of the wool is stated at 3j inches, 
and weight of fleece at 3£ and 4 lbs. The fleece of this class is em¬ 
ployed in the fabrication of common and coarse cloths, flannels, &c. 
Most of the flocks in Britain come under this denomination,—the 
wool used for their fine cloths being almost exclusively the product 
of Spain and Germany. 
3 . Long wooled, which embrace the Leicester, Cotswold and Lin¬ 
coln breeds. These afford the material for worsted goods, hosiery, 
&c. and although these sheep give a heavy fleece, often reaching to 
nine and twelve pounds, they are principally reared for the sake of 
their carcass—for their great weight and early maturity for the 
butcher. 
As this latter class are of but recent introduction, and as their 
fleece is likely to come in demand as manufactories of worsted goods 
are multiplied among us, a few remarks in relation to each of the 
long wooled kinds above named, may not be uninteresting. 
The New Leicester breed are an improvement, made by the cele¬ 
brated Bakewell, after long and persevering efforts, and perpetuated 
by his disciples, by breeding only from select individuals. “Mr. 
Bakewell perceived, that smaller animals increased in weight more 
rapidly than those of very large size; and that they consumed so much 
less food, that the same quantity of herbage appplied to feeding a 
I larger number of small sheep would produce more meat, than when 
applied to feeding a smaller number of large sheep which alone it would 
support. Acting upon these observations he selected from the diffe¬ 
rent flocks in his neighborhood, without regard to size, the sheep 
which appeared to him to have the greatest propensity to fatten, and 
whose shape possessed the peculiarities which he considered would 
produce the largest proportion of valuable meat, and the smallest 
quantity of bone and offal. In doing this, it is probable he was led 
to prefer the smaller sheep, still more than he had been by the con¬ 
sideration above stated, because it is found that perfection of shape 
more frequently accompanies a moderate sized animal than a very 
large one.” This quotation furnishes a valuable hint to American 
breeders, who are too prone to graduate value in proportion to size. 
Mr. Bakewell studied to improve the value of the carcass, deeming 
the fleece a secondary consideration. His improvements became so 
manifest and popular, that he was able to let his rams at two and 
three hundred guineas a season, and in one instance he let a single 
sheep for a Ihousand guineas the season. In 1793, Mr. Paget, an 
associate of Bakewell, sold at auction, a flock of 130 new Leicester 
ewes for £3,200, (= to $14,108,) averaging £2516s. lid. each, or 
about $108. 
“ No other sort of sheep, (says the Farmers’ Series, from which 
we draw the preceding facts,) possesses so great a propensity to fat¬ 
ten—no other sort of sheep is fit for the butcher at so early an age— 
and although they are not calculated for the poorest soils, no other 
sort of sheep, in soils of a moderate or superior quality, is so profita¬ 
ble to the breeder.” The weight of these sheep, at a year and a 
half old, is stated at from 24 to 36 lbs. per quarter. The staple of 
