was one hundred and fifty per cent. more than that of the Merinoes. In Decem ber, 1866, he purchased in Canada five hundred Leicesters, wethers and ewes, averaging 125 pounds each, and fed them shelled corn and oil cake, at the same cost as for the peas of the previous year. At the end of ninety days they averaged 148 pounds. In each case cut broom-corn stalks were supplied for foodand bedding. All were alike healthy. The same state of facts exists in the vicinity of Philadelphia, where sheep are mainly kept for mutton; and summer purchases for feeding are of the mutton varieties as far as practicable. This is especially the case in Gloucester county, New Jersey, below Philadelphia, and in the rich and highly improved district of Lancaster, and adjoining counties. Leicesters of greater or less purity are prevalent in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, of medium size and light bone, taking on flesh and fat with great readiness, and weighing about one hundred pounds dressed. It is claimed that they require less feed than other breeds of the same size, and they are accordingly held in high esteem. Their wool is long and fine, and finds a good market. In Butler county, Pennsylvania, the fleeces of coarse-woolled sheep are reported a pound or two heavier than Merinoes. The average for Cotswold fleeces is placed at eight pounds in Franklin county, Pennsylvania. In Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, it is said: "The Cotswolds, Leicesters, and South Downs, with our natives, are the principal sheep raised here. Mutton being in great demand, at high prices, they are the most profitable breeds our farmers can raise. Our market is at home, and the prices higher than those of New York or Philadelphia. We have no pure Merinoes; they have been tried, but not proving as profitable as mutton sheep, have been discarded." A correspondent in Vinton county, Ohio, refers to his flock, mostly Merinoes, with a few grade South Downs interspersed, all fed together, and testifies to the far superior condition of the Downs. His fine-wools averaged 3 pounds 141 ounces per fleece, and his coarse-wools 4 pounds 2 ounces. In Medina county, of the same State, where they are not numerous, "small farmers are becoming more in favor of coarse-woolled sheep." It is conceded in that locality that the "cost of keeping is a little more than that of Merinoes; the weight of fleece is not much greater, but lambs are healthier and sell for more to the butcher." It is further stated of the Merino flocks of this county that "sheep came out of winter quarters poorly, especially where the flocks were large. In this township one man lost more than a hundred, or half his flock; another eighty; two others sixty or more each; and so on down to ten or less." It is but fair to say that these heavy losses occurred in flocks that suffered most in the great storm of June, 1866, when 535 perished in the township in question, and 7,000 to 8,000 in the county, and that the survivors were doubtless debilitated by the exposure. Testimony also comes from Clermont county, Ohio, that Cotswolds, Leicesters, and South Downs are taking the place of the Merinoes;" that they do better there, and appear to be more healthy; that they do not require as close attention, and are more profitable. There are occasional expressions of this preference for mutton breeds coming even from the prairies, where their popular competitors have enjoyed singular and extravagant favor. For instance, in Williamson county, Illinois, it is said that "Cotswolds and other mutton breeds are found more profitable than Merinoes. The Cotswolds yield as much wool, which is better adapted for working by the machinery of this part of the country;" and, strange to say, in the border region of Minnesota, Nicollet county, while it is supposed that "Merinoes furnish more wool, the other breeds are more in favor on account of their mutton, and also because their wool is more easily manufactured by the farmer's family for home use." In Kosciusko county, Indiana, it is claimed that, while there is little difference in the amount of feed consumed, "fine-wool sheep require more attention than the natives or South Downs, and the latter will endure more exposure than the former." Mr. F. Beeler, of Marion county, Indiana, strikes a just balance between these breeds in saying, "Were I starting anew in a place distant from market, I should raise Merinoes, while, on the other hand, were I commencing where I could have convenient access to a city market, I should certainly take the mutton sheep." A farmer in Ripley county, Indiana, writes that he has Cotswolds and South Downs, and sees little difference in the cost of keeping those and the common sheep of the country. A correspondent in Warren county, Indiana, thinks the long-wools are more easily kept than Merinoes, because they are hardier and less pampered. Another in West Virginia notes a similar local preference, and estimates the cost of keeping at the same rate, "except that the fine-wool breeds require more care, being less hardy." In Pike county, Illinois, a farmer procured in Canada, four years ago, a flock of Leicesters, which have done well and proved pecuniarily satisfactory. His fleeces last year averaged seven pounds, and were sold in Chicago at seventy cents per pound, while the best Merino was selling for fifty-two cents. His wethers, at two years old, weighing one hundred and sixty-two pounds, brought seven cents per pound, with the wool off. A neighbor, at the same time, commenced wool-growing with a flock of Merinoes from Vermont, and now obtains four pounds of wool per head, the last clip of which was sold at forty-five cents, while his wethers, three years old, were sold at five dollars each, unsheared. The Leicester flock has always yielded three lambs to two of the Merinoes. He estimates the keeping of five Leicesters to equal that of seven Merinoes. These cases, side by side, would seem to present fairly the comparative merits of the two breeds, though no single comparison can be deemed conclusive. Even as wool producers, without regard to meat, the comparison is very favorable to the Leicesters, as follows: Five Leicesters, yield 35 pounds wool, worth. Difference, (sixty-eight per cent.)... $24 50 14 56 9 94 The receipts for wethers sold show a still greater difference, amounting to sixty-two per cent. in favor of the Leicesters, in addition to the wool sold, of which no statement of quantity and price is given, as follows: Five Leicester wethers, 162 pounds each... Seven Merino wethers.. Difference.. $56 70 35 00 21 70 If such exhibits of actual results do not actually substantiate the superior profit of mutton breeds, they, at least, offset remarkable statements made by Merino fanciers under very favorable circumstances. In 1850 a wool-grower in Winnebago county, Illinois, bought a flock of 250 Merino sheep and bred them to first class Merino rams till 1859. He then crossed them with South Downs and bred the offspring to Cotswold rams. Carefully recording losses, weight of fleeces, price of wool and mutton, and weight of wool sold since 1851, the following results were exhibited: Merinoes.-1862: Weight of washed wool per fleece, 3 pounds; weight of fat sheep after shearing, 98 pounds. 1859: Weight of washed wool per fleece, 43 pounds; weight of fat sheep, 94 pounds; average yield of lambs per 100 ewes, 83; average loss of lambs first winter, 5 per cent.; loss of sheep during the winter, 3 per cent. For several years his wool sold for 15 cents more per pound than that of the Cotswold cross which he afterwards bred, but as the weight of fine fleeces increased, the difference in price diminished. Cotswold cross.-Weight of washed wool per fleece, 5 pounds; average live weight, 150 pounds; average price per pound, live weight, of fat sheep, 4 cents; average yield of lambs per 100 ewes, 109; average loss of lambs first winter, 2 per cent.; average loss of sheep during the winter, 1 per cent. His last clip. brought a higher price in Chicago than the Merino fleeces of the same weight. Of the relative cost of keeping he says: "There is very little difference in the cost of wintering. The Merinoes require more careful management and quite as much grain to get through the winter in good condition. The cross of Cotswolds consume more straw, stalks and coarse food." A correspondent in Mitchell county, Iowa, reports the cost of wintering two hundred cross bred sheep (Merino, Leicester and South Down,) at $2 55, the the summer keeping upon wild prairie not being estimated; the average weight of wool 4 pounds 2 ounces. Another flock of three hundred "natives or mongrels, costing $2 50 each in wintering, yielded fleeces of 3 pounds 13 ounces each. The flocks of Sanilac county, Michigan, are "a mixture of common Leicester, Cotswold and South Down, with a dash of merino." A prominent wool-grower writes that his own flock of 130 "has averaged 5 pounds river-washed wool per head for the last five years." The time may come when the profits of wool-growing will cease to be satisfactory even to prairie-farmers. Already there are signs of dissatisfaction. A farmer in Washington county, Wisconsin, with a flock of 116 merinoes, estimates his expenses at a sum equivalent to sixty-one cents per pound for his wool, and figures up an actual loss of $50 28, as follows: .Interest on $467 capital invested about 7 per cent. - Forty acres woodland pasture. Sixteen tons of hay. Four tons peas and straw.. 58 bushels of peas and oats, 60 cents. $32 48 100 00 20 00 160 00 12 00 34 80 In Shelby county, Missouri, "Cotswolds and South Downs are plentier than a few years ago; are very valuable for mutton, sometimes weighing 200 pounds." In one case 190 coarse wool sheep were kept in one flock and averaged 4 pounds 1 ounce per fleece of tub-washed wool. In those regions where the "improved" Merinoes have not increased the amount of dirt in wool, the difference in wool-producing capacity between coarse and fine wool sheep is not material. Many correspondents, some of whom acknowledge a difference in cost of keeping, give a preference, in point of quantity of wool, to mutton breeds, as in a county in Missouri: "those who have experience in wintering Cotswolds, Leicesters and South Downs think it costs nearly one-third more than the Merinoes, but that the clip of the former is at least onethird heaver than the latter." The statistical correspondent of the department in Taylor county, Virginia, says: "Our sheep men are improving their stock. They prefer the Cotswolds, Leicester and South Downs to Merinoes, considering their wool more valuable.” Another in Barbour county, in the same State, deems the cost of keeping of fine and coarse wools about the same. From Louisa county, Virginia, a correspondent writes: "A few Cotswolds, South Downs, and Merinoes have at different times been introduced into this county without any definite purpose of testing the cost of keeping and profits of the pure breed, but rather for purposes of crossing. There are a few nearly pure Cotswolds. The Merinoes are objected to generally, because it is difficult to card the wool in ordinary cards." In Gloucester county, Virginia, grade Cotswolds and South Downs prevail, with fleeces weighing about 4 pounds. A correspondent in Giles county, Tennessee, gives as the average weight of fleeces of his own sheep of different breeds the following figures: South Down ewes, 94; Cotswolds, 9 pounds; an Oxfordshire ram, weighing 275 pounds, 12 pounds. The Kentucky improved are very popular, and clip from 8 to 14 pounds each. A farmer in Burke county, Georgia, gives his experience with the South Downs: "I have bred South Downs exclusively for twenty years, and have found them very profitable, and the most desirable as a mutton sheep-yielding a fleece equal in weight, and finer in quality, than the native sheep-maturing in onethird of the time, and surfeiting in fatness upon the same short pasturage, when the native sheep will pine and perish side by side with the Down. For several years many of my lambs died at five to six months old, during the heat of summer, from fatness or apoplexy; but since I have sheared them in July or August, getting a fleece of two to two and a half pounds of wool, my losses have been small, and the lambs are healthier, and by autumn are covered with a sufficiently comfortable fleece. The Downs are hardier, will bear closer folding, attain an earlier maturity, and are a better mutton, than any other race of sheep. I have sold my mutton this season, in February, at $8 per head, fattened entirely on Ruta Baga turnips." Such testimony of American farmers is abundant. It shows at least that some who have tried various breeds are content to rest their expectations of profit, even in this country of the best variety of Merinoes known, upon the improved English mutton breeds. INFANTADO AND PAULAR SHEEP. THE accompanying engravings represent sheep owned by E. W. Rogers & Sons, Whallonsburg, New York, of which they write: "Our ram General Sheridan was ten months old when the plate was taken, and weighed eighty pounds; weight of fleece when shorn, at eleven months old, was ten and a half pounds. He was bred from a pure Atwood ewe, and sired by a ram named John, purchased of Colonel E. S. Stowell, of Cornwall, Vermout, and which was sired by his stock ram Sweepstakes, the sire of his celebrated stock ram Golden Fleece, thus showing our ram to be descended from the Infantado or Atwood stock. Our group of five yearling ewes, represented in the accompanying engraving, consists of three Infantados and two Paulars. No. 1 is of the same family, on its dam's side, as that of the above-described ram, and was sired by Colonel Stowell's ram Golden Fleece, and sheared at one year old a fleece of ten pounds. No. 6 is of the same blood as No. 1, and was sired by our ram John, above named, and sheared ten and a half pounds. No. 7, same blood on dam's side as No. 6, and sired by the same ram; weight of fleece, eleven pounds. No. |