108 
THE CULTIVATOR 
when old habits and ancient abuses are concerned, but 
there is a point beyond which even an Englishman can¬ 
not submit; in starvation, old prejudices and preferences 
find a powerful opponent; and the truth which should be 
every where recognized, that the man who labors should 
have the first benefit of his labor, will gradually make 
itself felt all over the world. This is the point to which 
all things in the old world are tending, peaceably if they 
can, forcibly if they must. 
IMPORTATION OF WOOL. 
We make the following extracts from a late number 
of the Boston Cultivator, and invite for them the atten¬ 
tion of our readers. Every one is aware that wool, cost¬ 
ing less than 8 cents per pound, is admitted free of duty; 
as it was supposed that none but the coarse Smyrna or 
Buenos Ayres wools, which would come in competition 
with none grown in this country, could be procured at 
those rates. Such, however, it seems is not the fact; but 
that grades of wool, which directly compete with a large 
proportion of our wool, ranging from middling to fine, 
are imported to a great extent, and at prices which ex¬ 
empt it from duty. Of this duty-free wool, the importa¬ 
tion annually is from ten to fifteen millions of pounds, 
and is constantly increasing. The number of sheep in 
the United States may be estimated at 20 millions, and 
the clip of wool at 50 millions, about equal to the 
wants of the country, There is a vast capital engaged 
in this production of wool by the farmer, and the prices 
seem to have reached the lowest point compatible with 
the business, and further reduction would be destruction. 
We think farmers have a right to ask that in the mutual 
adjustment of the claims of the various interests of the 
country, one so vitally important to its interests, and their 
prosperity, shall not be overlooked. The editor of the 
paper named, says: 
“We have now before us on our table, six kinds of 
wool imported duty free from South America, furnished 
us as samples by one of the largest importers in the Uni¬ 
ted States, which actually cost in South America, from 
3| to less than 8 cents per lb., and therefore all admitted 
duty free. 
“ The first kind is a long coarse wool about 7 inches 
in length, about as fine as wool of our coarse long wool 
sheep, such as is manufactured into coarse blankets, car¬ 
pets, worsted, and coarse cloths. This sample is very 
white and clean, and may be afforded for 12^ to 16 cents 
per pound. 
“ The second is a coarse wool of a finer grade, fully 
equal to the wool of our best old fashioned common 
sheep, and is adapted for middle satinetts, coarse wool¬ 
ens and common blankets. 1,200 bales of this wool were 
imported into Boston in one week, duty free. If sold at 
one shilling per pound, it would afford the importer over 
100 per cent profit. This wool, by comparison, is equal 
to some taken from a half blood Dishley ewe, and clean¬ 
ses white and fine. 
“ The third is full as good as our half blood merino 
wool, and may be cleaned, as the importer said, at an 
expense of from 1| to 2 cents per lb. This wool is fit for 
the second grade of broadcloths, cassimeres, flannels, and 
the first class of satinetts, and may be imported so that it 
shall not cost the manufacturer, when perfectly cleaned, 
twenty cents per lb. 
“ The fourth, is of the same grade, full.of burrs and 
dirt; may be cleaned for two cents per lb., and may be 
purchased abroad at the lowest rate above stated, or 3£ 
cents per lb. 
“ The fifth, is a sample of wool about the same grade 
as the two former, short and fine, cleansed in South Ame¬ 
rica, very white and clean. We were much surprised 
when the importer assured us that this wool cost in South 
America, positively less than 8 cents per lb., and was im¬ 
ported duty free. 
“ The sixth, is very similar to pure merino wool, and 
the sample which we have washed in hot soap suds, is 
beautifully white and clean. When compared with some 
wool from the Hon. Isaac C. Bates’ flock, we were una¬ 
ble to decide which was the finest, and so we called in a 
third person, who declared Mr. Bates’ a little the finest, 
but the difference was trifling. This wool being un¬ 
cleaned, cost less than 8 cents, and was imported duty 
free; while the cloths manufactured from such wool, by 
the compromise act have been protected by a duty rang¬ 
ing from 50 to 211 per cent, down to June, 1842.” 
IMPROVEMENT IN THE QUALITY OF WHEAT. 
Col. LeCouteitr, the most skillful grower and impro¬ 
ver of wheat in England, in some tables lately published 
in one of the English periodicals, has given the results 
of some of his long continued experiments in improving 
Wheat by crossings and selections. By continuing to se¬ 
lect and propagate only those varieties that gave the most 
and best flour with the least bran, he now obtains over 
2400 pounds of superfine flour to the acre, and so thin is 
the skin of his best wheats that from an acre of 52 bush¬ 
els, only 542 lbs. of bran, middlings, and shorts were 
given. One hundred pounds of this flour, as repeated 
and careful experiments have proved, will make from 
six to twelve per cent more bread, of the first quality, 
than the same quantity of the best common market flour. 
The beauty, purity, and weight, of some of the speci¬ 
mens sent by the Colonel to the Fair of the Royal Ag. 
Society, surprised all « ho noticed the samples, and most 
strikingly proved the improvement that skill and perse¬ 
verance can effect in the most common cultivated plants. 
THE CLYDESDALE HORSE AND ZETLAND PONY.—(Fig. 66.) 
We copy the above portraits from the 10th part of 
Prof. Low’s “ Illustrations of the Domestic Animals of 
the British Islands,” in which we find the following ac¬ 
count of the Clydesdale breed of Horses: 
<£ The Horses of Scotland employed in labor, pass by 
gradations from the smaller varieties of the mountain¬ 
ous districts to the larger breeds of the plains and culti¬ 
vated country. It is in the Lowlands that those adapted 
for the heavier labors, and properly termed Draft Horses, 
are reared. Although varying in size, form, and pro¬ 
perties, in different districts, they have been gradually 
approaching, with the increased means of general in¬ 
tercourse, to a greater uniformity of characters. The 
part of Scotland which had early become the most dis¬ 
tinguished for the production of the larger horses for 
draft, was the county of Lanark, otherwise termed Clydes¬ 
dale. This district, intersected in its whole extent by 
the river Clyde, comprehends a large portion of that 
vast field of coal to which Scotland owes its existence 
as a manufacturing country, and contains within its bounds 
the city of Glasgow, which, from a secondary town, has 
become, within the period of less than a century, one of 
the most rich and populous cities of the empire. The ra¬ 
pid anil continuous increase of this g'reat manufacturing 
city, and the prodigious land-carriage in the rich mining- 
district connected with it, created a demand for horses 
of superior strength and size for the purposes of draft. 
The kind of carriage employed for the transport of mine¬ 
rals and all kinds of goods, being the single horse-cart, 
the Horses required were those which should combine 
with weight of body a considerable degree of muscular 
activity. Those of the district have become, in an emi¬ 
nent degree, adapted to the conditions required, and be¬ 
ing intermixed in blood, and formed on a common mod¬ 
el, a breed has been produced with well defined charac¬ 
ters. It is termed the Clydesdale Breed, because the in¬ 
dividuals are mainly derived from that district. 
“ The Clydesdale breed of Horses has a manifest affinity 
with the Black Horse of Holland and the Netherlands; and 
universal tradition refers to an importation, at an early 
pex-iod, of a number of Flanders stallions to the neigh¬ 
borhood of Hamilton, by one of the Dukes of that name. 
It may likewise be believed, that horses from different 
sources have been from time to time introduced into the 
popoulous mining and manufacturing district of this part 
of Scotland, and that thus the breed of Clydesdale is real¬ 
ly of very mixed lineage, although its distinctive cha¬ 
racters have been communicated to it by the blood of the 
Black Horse. 
“ The Clydesdale breed of Horses, as it now exists, is 
of the larger class, the ordinary stature of the individu¬ 
als being sixteen hands. Their prevailing color is black, 
but the brown or bay is common, and is continually 
gaining upon the other, and the grey not unfrequently 
THE WISKONSAN PLOW.—(Fig. 67.) 
This plow is highly recommended by those who have 
used it, for its ease of draft, and the perfect manner in 
which it inverts the sod. It is the invention of Mr. E. 
G. Whiting, and is manufactured at Rochester, N. Y. by 
A. J. Langworthy. 
manifests itself, although the parents should have been 
dark. They are longer in the body than the English 
Black Horse, and less weighty, compact, and muscular; 
but they step out more freely, and have a more useful ac¬ 
tion for ordinary labor. They draw steadily, and are 
usually free from vice. The long stride characteristic 
of the breed is partly the result of conformation, and 
partly of habit and training; but, however produced, it 
adds greatly to the usefulness of the horses, both on the 
road and in the fields. No such loads are known to 
be drawn at the same pace by any horses in the king¬ 
dom, as in the single horse carts of carriers and others in 
the west of Scotland; and in the labor of the fields, these 
horses are found to combine activity with the physical 
strength required for draft. 
“ The horses of this breed are now reared all over the 
counties of Renfrew, Ayr, and Dumfries, but they are 
still produced in the greatest numbers in Lanarkshire. 
They have fair justice rendered to them when young, 
by their being allowed their natural exercise over a large 
range of pasturage, until the age at which they are ta¬ 
ken up for work. Although not pampered, the mares, 
when in foal, are kept in good order, by means of tur- 
neps, potatoes, and similar food. The only kind of hor¬ 
ses, too, reared by the farmers, being those of the native 
stock, there is no mixture of breeds, and little employ¬ 
ment of those half-bred mares which are common in 
other breeding districts. On the other hand, the rearing 
of draft horses being more a part of the regular routine 
of the farm than elsewhere, the farmers are usually sat¬ 
isfied to obtain a fair average stock, without seeking to 
produce horses of superior figure and higher price. Few¬ 
er examples of very fine horses may be presented here 
than in other breeding districts, but fewer fall below the 
standard aimed at. 
“ The Clydesdale Horses, although inferior in weight 
and physical strength to the Black Horse, and in figure 
and showy action to the better class of the draft horses 
of Northumberland and Durham, yet possess properties 
which render them exceedingly valuable for all ordinary 
uses. On the roads, the individuals perform tasks which 
can scarcely be surpassed, and in the fields they are found 
to be steady, docile and safe. It is important not only 
to the district which produces them, but to all the others 
to which they are carried, that a due attention be given 
to a development of the useful properties distinctive of 
the breed. In Clydesdale, some breeders apply them¬ 
selves to the rearing of Stallions, and exhibit in their 
practice the skill and liberality which can be desired; but 
in the case of the mass of breeders in the district, no pe¬ 
culiar energy or skill is exhibited. They are often too 
easily contented with cheap and inferior mares, and not 
always sufficiently aware of the importance of employ¬ 
ing stallions of the first class.” 
MINERAL PHOSPHATE OF LIME. 
Mr. Kimberly has presented to the R. E. Ag. Society, 
a specimen of native phosphate of lime from the moun¬ 
tains of Estramadura in Spain, which when analyzed by 
Mr. Phillips was found to contain 90 per cent of the phos¬ 
phate. As the Society supposed that this must be a most 
valuable manure, it resembling bone dust essentially, so 
far as the phosphate of the dust is concerned. Prof. Dau- 
benny offered to undertake at his own expense, a journey 
to Spain, to examine its geological position, quantity, fa¬ 
cility of obtaining it, &c. provided the British Govern¬ 
ment would grant him the passports necessary to ensure 
safety in that wild part of the kingdom. The Report of 
Prof. D. will be looked for’with much interest. 
