14 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
If the manufacturer will say to the wool grower, quantity is pre¬ 
ferable than quality; and the purchaser of cloth will say to the ma¬ 
nufacturer, coarse cloth is preferable to fine, for beauty, warmth and 
wear, then may we expect to see the Goat stand in the place of the 
high-bred Merino, and the wonderful improvement in modern ma¬ 
chinery sacrificed Lo wilful ignorance. 
That fine wool can be produced as easily as coarse, without ca¬ 
pital, care and discrimination, is absolutely inadmissible, any more 
than purchasing superfine cloth at the same cost of coarse. Gold 
is not found in this way. 
Bleaching by heavy rains, dew and fogs, although not a property 
of wool, is a consideration. Wool, cotton, hemp and flax, long 
subjected to the direct, or alternate influence of great moisture and 
intense solar heat, loses its cohesive property. Cloth, feathers, 
wool, &c., soon decay upon being subjected to solar and humid at¬ 
mospheric influence. 
Hence the difference between the delightful, bewitching, silky 
curls of the miss of ten and sixteen, and the weather—beaten head 
of the rugged cow-boy without a hat. Age likewise exerts its in¬ 
fluence. Could not a blind man by the touch, distinguish the diffe¬ 
rence between the downy softness of the infant hair, and the harsh 
covering of the aged head ? Wool from a very old or diseased 
sheep, is diminished in firmness of texture, is not so strong. The 
three or four first clippings of wool are the best. 
The different qualities of wool, as to length, fineness, elasticity 
and softness, grown on an individual sheep, have in European coun¬ 
tries, produced an officer called wool stapler , or sorter, as yet little 
known in this country. His business is to assort the individual 
fleeces of a flock, and apportion it, No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, as to qua¬ 
lity. And in this way, from experience, like the inspector of beef 
and pork, render it tangible to the purchaser, and at the same time 
fix the reputation of the flock. 
If I was desirous of a judgment, I should want it by a competent 
judge. When we arrive at this point in our country, we shall be 
on fair ground. One man’s flock will staple three-quarters first 
quality; one one-half; another one-third. Then the only inquiry 
of the purchaser will be, how much staple wool, No. 1, or No. 2, 
have you ? according to his requirements as to quality. This will 
at once simplify the process of purchase, and establish the produc¬ 
tion of wool upon its proper basis. A good flock will then be a 
good flock in the market, by the decision of a good judge. A fair 
decision can in no case be had, but by a competent, disinterested 
and independent judge. F. 
No. V.—On the habits, management of sheep, and production of 
wool. 
Young - Men’s Department. 
From the New-York Farmer. 
THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION TO FARMERS. 
by henry colman. — (Concluded.) 
What, however, is practical skill itself but the avails of know¬ 
ledge ? When a man does a thing well, even in the most humble 
mechanical art, we say he knotvs how to do it. Careful inquiry and 
observation, added to repeated trials, have taught him the best 
mode of operation. Now, may not others avail themselves of what 
he has learned, and save the expense of time and trouble necessary 
in repeating the experiments which he has made, and going over 
again and again the same ground which he has traversed ? Is not 
the great part of all knowledge, especially that of a practical na¬ 
ture, the fruit or result of experiment? and wherever and however 
this knowledge has been obtained, ought we not gladly to use it ? 
and does not even the most practical man, if he has any pretensions 
to common sense, carefully and necessarily avail himself, in every 
department of business, of this knowledge, which has been the ac¬ 
quisition and accumulation of centuries ? May not this knowledge, 
then, be communicated in, and gathered from, a printed paper, a 
book, as well as in any other form? indeed in this form, rather than 
any other, with many obvious advantages ? 
If, then, knowledge is not only valuable, but indispensable in the 
most simple operations of practical husbandry, it is still more ne¬ 
cessary in all its higher departments. The nature of soils, the na¬ 
ture and properties of manures, the varieties of plant-', their sea¬ 
sons, cultivation and uses, the raising of animals and the improve¬ 
ment of their breeds, the construction of even the mould-board of 
a plough, are all matters of science and philosophy; which come 
to the man not by intuition ; which are to be learnt; for the im¬ 
proved condition of which, we are indebted to the experiments and 
studies of intelligent and sagacious minds, who have given days 
and years to the examination and trial of them; for which even the 
most common farmer, who opens a furrow, is greatly in their debt. 
To deny the obligation, is most ungrateful; to wrap ourselves in 
the conceit of our own perfected wisdom, and to refuse to avail 
ourselves of the result of other inquiries and experiments on sub¬ 
jects, where we can only be said as yet to have reached the shores 
of the great ocean of truth, would be consummate folly. 
We^ay that agriculture is most largely indebted to science. All 
the great improvements which have been made in the art, are due 
to science. Intelligent men, learned men, sagacious, inquisitive, 
scientific, experimenting men, the bright lights of society, who are 
always in advance of their age, are the men who have led the way 
in agriculture, as well as in every other improvement in society.— 
They have brought the power of mind to bear on this great sub¬ 
ject ; and wherever its rays have been concentrated, they have kin¬ 
dled a flame which has served to cheer and to guide the humble la¬ 
borer, otherwise groping in darkness, to treasures buried in the 
earth, which, without it, he never could have reached, and whose 
existence, otherwise, he never would have suspected. Science, 
within a century, has more than quadrupled the products of the 
earth; has immeasurably abridged the toil of the husbandman; and 
has made the labor, which he does bestow, ineffably more efficient 
than, without its aid would have been rendered. To science we 
owe the improved form of the plough, which will do twice the 
work, with half the power, which could have been executed by the 
clumsy implement of not many years since. To science we owe 
the cultivator, the roller, the threshing mill, the cotton gin, the su¬ 
gar press, the flour mill, the spinning jennie; and but for science, 
but for what is contemptuously termed book-knowledge, we must 
now have been satisfied with wearing the skins of our flocks, un¬ 
shorn of their wool; and have been left to the miserable necessity 
of nlanting our corn with a stick or a clamshell; and grinding it in 
a hollow stone, wi’h an Indian pestle. 
What science has yet in store for agriculture, no sagacity can 
foresee. If we may judge from what it has done, we may look 
forward to most extensive and more valuable improvements. Edu¬ 
cation is most important and useful to the farmer, in enabling him 
to avail himself of what has already been achieved; and in qualify¬ 
ing him for, and stimulating him to, new advances. In the art and 
science of agriculture, let men speak of it with what disdain their 
ignorance or self-conceit may prompt, there is room and occasion 
for the exercise of the highest intellectual abilities; here, as in eve¬ 
ry other case, knowledge is power; and knowledge constitutes a 
productive capital; and here, other circumstances being equal, 
knowledge will not fail to give all the advantage over ignorance, 
which it confers in any other department of business or of life. 
We urge the importance of education upon the farmer, as among 
his greatest and most valuable resources of comfort and enjoyment. 
The farmer, even in the most busy situation, but especially remote 
from the city, has abundant leisure for reading and intellectual im¬ 
provement. There are many stormy days when his out-door labors 
are omitted; there are his Sundays, which, with the exception of 
the hours devoted to public worship, are usually uninterrupted; 
there are long and still evenings of winter, which, without some in¬ 
tellectual resources are most likely to be spent in stupid drowsi¬ 
ness, or too often, in a manner far worse, at the shop or the tavern. 
What favored seasons are these for the delightful companionship 
of books ! what inexhaustible sources of innocent and refined plea¬ 
sure are here opened to a man’s self! and what abundant opportuni¬ 
ties for communicating instruction and pleasure to one’s family! and 
with respect to the young especially, hanging upon us with all the 
confidence of affection and reverence, of laying a foundation and 
adopting the best means for their improvement! “Studies,” says Ba¬ 
con, “ serve for delight, for ornament, and for use.” Cicero passes 
a still higher encomium upon them, in his beautiful oration for Ar- 
chias. “Studies give strength in youth, and joy in old age. They 
I adorn prosperity and are the support, and consolation of adversity, 
i At home they are delightful to us; they present no impediment to 
'business; they pass the night with us; they are the companions of 
