A HISTORICAL, TOPOGRAPHICAL & AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF THE COUNTY OF WASHINGTON. Taken under the direction of the New-York State Agricultural Society, [The first portion of this work, on being put into type, has been found to occupy so much more space than the writer had supposed it would do that he has been led to depart from his original design of pursuing the several topics in consecutive order, that he might first complete these branches to which this Survey mainly has reference. As the several topics to be reported upon are measurably distinct and independent of each other, the succession in which they are pre-ented becomes a matter of minor consequence To fully report upon every subject is obviously impracticable. It has therefore been deemed specially important that in those industrial branches to which attention is most prominently directed in this county, and in which it occupies a leading rank, a full account should be rendered; whilst in those branches in which other counties of the State are in advance of this, a cursory notice only, from this county, will be required And overburdened with matter as the present volume of Transactions is, the following articles only are now submitted; the sections being numbered onwards from last year's volume, for the purpose of more convenient reference in a final index ] PART SECOND. SHEEP HUSBANDRY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY. 106. Adaptedness of this county to fine wooled sheep.-No section of our country can be better adapted for the convenient and profitable keeping of fine wooled sheep than the eastern half of Washington county. From the Bald mountain range of hills on the west to the state line on the east, almost every farm contains a portion of interval or permanent meadow from which hay for winter consumption is gathered; and the remainder consists of hilly upland, yielding a short, sweet nutritious grass for summer pasturage. To the west of this tract, the level lands towards the Hudson river furnish no such pasturage; and to the east of it, in Vermont, the lands become more broken and mountainous, with no intervening valleys supplying the requisite amount of meadow lands. Most of our hills it is true are susceptible of cultivation to their summits, and at the present period, would be more profitable if given up to tillage. But although the prices of wool render its production little lucrative, it can here be grown to such advantage, that these hills now are covered with flocks, and it is probable they will so continue in all coming time. 107. Wool statistics of this and other counties.-Eminently adapted as this county is for the keeping of sheep and the growth of wool, this has been during the past twenty years the leading and prominent busi ness of the county. And the quantity and quality of this staple here produced, is probably unrivalled in any other section of our land. Of thirty-six million pounds of wool grown in the United States, aocording to the returns of the last national census, 9,845,295 were produced in the state of New-York, and next to us stands Vermont, yielding 3,699,235 pounds. The state census of 1845 furnishes us with the following statistics of the sheep husbandry in the five counties of this state that rank highest in this branch, and also in the counties of Dutchess, Rensselaer and Columbia, whose local situation, and whose reputation in the wool market associates them with Washington county. In addition to the returns given by the census, a column is appended, showing the average weight of the fleeces in each county, this being a pretty accurate indication of the fineness of the wool; and also a column showing the average num ber of sheep to every hundred acres of cleared land in the county. 108. Relative fineness of the wool.-It appears from these statistics that the reputation which this county has so long enjoyed in the wool market, justly belongs to it. In the fineness of its wool it surpasses all the other large wool-growing counties of the state. And one county only, produces a greater amount of wool than Washington, namely, Ontario; and the wool of that county is evidently of a coarser quality than that which is here grown, as is clearly indicated by the fact that the fleeces there are on an average six ounces heavier than they are with us. These returns make the average weight of the fleeces of this county to be two pounds and fourteen ounces. But this, it is quite probable, is somewhat heavier than they actually are. Almost every man is prone to over-estimate the amount of his clip, and is annually disappointed when it comes to be weighed, to find the fleeces so light as the scales declare them to be. Those who have been extensively engaged in pur chasing the wool of this county for several years, and have thus become familiar with its weight, think that two pounds and three quarters is about as high as the fleeces will average. 109. Discrepancy between the number of sheep and of fleeces.-There is quite a discrepancy in the census returns above cited, between the number of sheep reported and the number of fleeces. Thus, in this county, thirty-five hundred more fleeces are reported, than the number of sheep which we had; and a similar excess is shown in several of the other counties. This I suppose has been caused by the unsold clip of the preceding year having been reckoned in, in certain towns, wherever it was found remaining on hand. At first glance 110. Disproportionate number of sheep to the lambs in this county. Another interesting fact is shown in the preceding table. Whilst this county exceeds any other in the State in the number of its sheep, four other counties surpass us in the number of their lambs. there would appear to be some error in such returns. That we with some 36,000 more sheep than Chautauque county possesses, should not raise as many lambs by over 2,000 as that county does, will seem very singular to those not intimately conversant with this matter. There can be no material error in the return, upon this subject. The enumeration was made at midsummer, shortly after shearing time, when every farmer knew the exact number of his sheep and of his lambs. And the result is in no wise different from what persons intelligent with regard to our sheep husbandry were prepared to expect. Sheep in this county are reared for their wool only; and so long as they can furnish this, of a fair quality, so long are they retained among us. The owners of all our best flocks never sell a sheep to the butcher. It is only the aged and refuse individuals that are parted with. In the autumn of the year, it is customary to cull the flock, and such individuals as appear unable to survive the rigors of the coming winter are selected. and disposed of to the pelt-mongers, for the value of their hides and tallow. Young and thrifty sheep, for the shambles, are never drawn from this county. Hence our flocks abound with a greater proportion of adult and aged sheep, than do those of other counties. In addition to this, there are one or two other customs which make the number of our lambs less than it would otherwise be. When a flock is as numerous as the owner desires, he frequently ceases from raising lambs altogether, for one or more years, the additional quantity of wool hereby obtained from the ewes, being reckoned as more than equivalent to the value of their lambs, when the care required for rearing these is taken into the account. This is particularly the course adopted when no buck can readily be obtained whose stock will be an improvement to the flock. Moreover, many of our flock-masters adopt it as a rule, never to raise lambs from their yearling ewes, inasmuch as this practice has a tendency to injure their growth and render them permanently dwarfish in stature. These are the causes, there is little doubt, which render the number of lambs in this county so disproportionately small for the large number of sheep which we possess. 111. Number of sheep in the several towns of the county.-The following table shows the number of sheep in the several towns of the county at three different periods within the last quarter of a century. It is particularly interesting as exhibiting the steady advance in this important branch of our industrial pursuits that has been made in every section of the county, during that period. It will be perceived by a glance at the above table, that for twentyfive years past, every town in the county has been steadily advancing in this branch of business, with one notable exception. Granville, which in 1835 ranked as the third town in the county, in the number of her sheep, has exchanged that for the dairy business-and, as the market prices have ranged of late years, this change has been greatly to her advantage. Indeed, since the date of the last enumeration above recited, the price of wool has been so discouragingly low, that, at least in some years, the keeping of sheep has been an expense to the proprietor, instead of a profit. In consequence of this, several large flocks have been entirely broken up and sold out, and all the others have been more or less curtailed; and it is probable the census now being taken will show that the number of our sheep at this date is nearly or quite a fourth less than it was five years ago. 112. Competition in wool from the west and south considered.-The wool market has of late been so glutted with western wool, and the open winters of that region enable sheep to be carried through this portion of the year at an expense so far below what is practicable here, that many of our farmers have been filled with alarm, anticipating that we should be driven entirely out of this business. But the writer has never shared with his neighbors in these forebodings, even when they were much more rife than at present. The whole history of the sheep shows that it is only in hilly and mountainous districts that fine wool has been grown with success, and this quadruped would require to be changed to a different nature from what it has ever heretofore possessed, ere it can be maintained in perfection upon the level surface and rank herbage of the western prairies. And the brief experience which has already been had, abundantly confirms this opinion. So rapidly does the fleece degenerate, that our western neighbors find that to keep up the quality of their flocks, it is necessary for them to have a constant influx of finewooled bucks from the east; and among other testimony upon this point, that of senator Ewing is most decisive, who tells us that a portion of his flock having been sent from Washington county, Pennsylvania, to Illinois, deteriorated so rapidly, that three years afterwards he scarcely knew his own wool. Our settled conviction in this matter ever has been, that the rich, level lands of the west are adapted only to that class of sheep whose value rests in the carcase, rather than in the fleece, and that the Saxon and Merino breeds can never be successfully maintained there. The south bids more fair to become our competitor in the article of fine wool than does the west. The elevated, dry pasturage furnished among the mountain lands in the western part of Carolina and in Virginia would seem well calculated for sustaining the fine-wooled breeds; and the mildness of the winters there, may enable wool to be grown at less cost than it can possibly be furnished by the farmers of the north. As respects climate, we stand in about the same relation to the south that Saxony does to Spain; and whatever superiority this may give the former country over the latter on the European continent, the same it may be expected we possess over our southern neighbors. If, as is the fact, the rays of the sun here are sufficiently powerful to inflame and excoriate the backs of the finest wooled lambs, it would seem impossible to rear such lambs at all many degrees farther to the south. 113. Predilection of our inhabitants for fine-wooled sheep.-The idea that the eastern, hilly part of this county is peculiarly adapted for the keeping of sheep of the highest grade of fineness-that in this respect it equals if it does not excel all other sections of our country-has long been entertained by our citizens. Hence a decided preference for and attachment to sheep of this kind has here prevailed, with a corresponding dislike towards those of an opposite character. So strong has been this predilection, that the late eccentric civilian of Roanoke, who is reported to have said that he would willingly go across the street at any time to kick a sheep, would here find any number of persons to go with him on |