36 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
sistence. I can produce more wool, and rear more lambs from 300 
sheep well fed, than from 400 under ordinary 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 ob¬ 
serve 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 
savinar, 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 
relation 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 discretion, 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 excessively foul, the confined breath and effluvia 
pestilential; the sheep acquire a disinclination to motion, and snuf- 
fly, 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 
liberally furnished with sheds, which should be located on dry ele¬ 
vated 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 lamb¬ 
ing period, and after shearing. Thousands of lambs are lost for 
the want of one night’s shelter. Thousands of sheep are 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 attaina¬ 
ble improvement in the merino is effected by attention to purity of 
blood and selection; more particularly of the buck, for his excel¬ 
lencies or imperfections, if hereditary, exercise an extensive influ¬ 
ence. He should at any rate be of pure tdood, 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 selec¬ 
tion of breeding ewes. None but those of good size, good nurses, 
and of proper age, should be permitted to breed. The flat sided, 
bad nurses, thin wooled, should be excluded. In large flocks, me¬ 
rino ewes ought not to 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 preserve 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. Buel —In 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 si- 
licious limestone, which on exposure to the weather, crumbles and 
breaks to pieces. The soil upon the surface, over the beds, is 
sometimes a red clay, mixed with limestone, gravel, and sometimes 
a sandy loam. The plaster is not unfrequently found in the shape 
of a cone, or a single rock; but in such case more entensive 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 appearance 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 oramorphous gypsum is found, 
(which is the description to which almost all that is used belongs) 
in strata, of two, three and four feet in thickness, efflorescences of 
gypsum are found generally encrusting the different strata. In al¬ 
most all the rocks on the Seneca river, and in those from the Cayu¬ 
ga and Phelp’s beds, are found thin veins, a half an inch to three or 
more inches apart, of crystallized gypsum, or what the mineralo¬ 
gists term selenite. 
In the Medical Repository, vol. 13, p. 77, is the following analy¬ 
sis of the Onondaga plaster, into its constituent parts. The On¬ 
ondaga plaster resembles in color, appearance and specific gravity, 
that from the beds of the Seneca river and Phelps, Ontario county. 
One hundred grains of the Onondaga plaster, was found to contain 
47 parts sulphuric acid, 32 of lime, and 21 of water. And judging 
from appearances, these are probably nearly the proportions in 
which the constituent parts of all our gypsum in. western New- 
York are combined. There are some beds of plaster in Cayuga 
county, which afford a dark blueish specimen, sometimes almost 
black. This is owing to the presence of argillaceous matter, which 
gives it likewise a foetid smell. It is probable that th's variety does 
not contain so much sulphuric acid or lime, as those gray and light¬ 
er colored plaster rocks, which are destitute of that fce’id odour, 
which invariably denotes the presence of argil. 
As to all practical purposes for manure, there is no difference be¬ 
tween the gypsum of western New-York; though some of our far¬ 
mers entertain preferences, (according as they have been in the 
habit of using the gypsum from some particular bed,) in favor of 
one kind, and some of another. I have known the gray and the 
blue plaster to be sowed side by side, in a great many instances, 
for the purpose of experiment, and on all varieties of soil, and the 
results were invariably the same; and indeed, must always be, as 
the component parts as to all practical purposes, are the same. 
But quere, whether that plaster containing argil, is as good on 
clay lands, as that which is without it 1 also, whether it is not bet¬ 
ter on sandy lands ? 
The gypsum of western New-York, wherever it appears, is a 
portion of one vast bed or strata, which extends from Oneida coun- 
ty to the Genesee river, and reappears again in Canada and in Ohio; 
and I am informed, likewise in the northwest part of M chigan. 
This strata is of various depths beneath the surface at different pla¬ 
ces, sometimes upon or near the surface, at other times thirty or 
forty feet beneath it. This strata does not appear to be of great 
width. All the beds of gypsum yet discovered in this state, are 
not forty miles distant from the Erie canal. I believe they are ge¬ 
nerally south of it. 
Mineralogists tell us, that gypsum is found “ abundantly over¬ 
laying rock salt deposites.” I have not heard of salt in this vicini¬ 
ty, though salt has been manufactured from springs at Montezuma, 
distant about seven miles from the beds in this neighborhood. 
Until very recently, the value of the lands upon which these beds 
of gypsum are found, has not been appreciated. Within the past 
year, I have known land of first quality for farming, containing ex¬ 
tensive beds of plaster, sold for less than $50 per acre, which is the 
common price for good farming lands in this vicinity. Considering 
the few quarries which have, as yet, been discovered of this valua¬ 
ble mineral, and its increasing consumption, a rapid appreciation of 
their value in this country may be anticipated. 
Seneca-Falls, February 27, 1836. S. J. B. 
P. S. Would not the state be the gainer in a pecuniary point of 
