Have not some at as great a distance as he can perceive his own. fibers, moreover, more glossiness than others? We think they have. These will therefore reflect the light more strongly and be visible at greater distances than will coarser fibers that are more opake. We cannot but regard this test therefore as liable to be deceptive and unsatisfactory. There is, however, a mode of ascertaining the fineness of wool that is perfectly accurate and reliable. We allude to the compound microscope. Attention was a few years since directed to this test by Dr. Emmons, and illustrations of it given in the American Journal of Agriculture and Science, vol ii. p. 85. The best instruments of this kind are capable of magnifying the finest fibers of wool to the size of pipe-stems or larger, and a person skilled in the use of the instrument can measure and tell off the diameter of each fiber with about the same accuracy that the size of the saw-logs in a mill-yard can be determined. Unfortunately, however, such instruments are rare and expensive, and the community at large is therefore unable to avail itself of the definite knowledge they are capable of giving. An instrument of lesser power which I possess, shows that there is scarcely any difference in fineness between samples of the fleeces of some of the best Saxon bucks imported into the country twenty-five years ago, and those of our finest present flocks. But that most of our Saxon stock has deteriorated from what its ancestors were, is very manifest. This deterioration, however, is attributable wholly to the management which the sheep have undergone. The day has not yet arrived, when we can drive our sheep under cover whenever a shower is coming up, house them ere the night-dews begin to fall, or keep them as it were in a green-house during the cold months of the year to obtain a fleece of exquisite fineness and less than a pound in weight. The market has governed this matter and has made our flocks what they now are. At no time, and least of all of late years, has it paid for the finest wool what it has cost to produce it. And our utilitarian farmers having become convinced that heavy fleeces of medium fineness gave them the best returns, have made it their endeavor to grow such fleeces. This has produced what deterioration has taken place from the fineness of the imported sheep. 139. Influence of keeping on fineness.-What the fleece gains in weight by high keeping, it partially loses in quality. This is the current opinion; though to demonstrate it, requires such a discrimination of the nice shades of difference that exist in fineness as no one among us has the requisite facilities for making. The opinion, however, is so rational as scarcely to need the evidence of an actual demonstration. High keeping cannot add to the skin of the sheep an additional number of bulbs or glands for secreting woolly fibres; it can only increase the activity of those already existing there, thus causing them to elaborate. the matter of wool more rapidly; like a sieve or strainer overloaded with material, a greater quantity and of a grosser quality passes through. Hence, on the best established physiological principles, with the fact ascertained that high keeping increases the quantity of wool, it will follow that it does so by increasing both the diameter and the length of the fibers, but not the number of them. If high keeping increased only the diameter of the fibers, nothing would be gained by it, as the additional weight would then be wholly at the expense of the fineness. But it adds to their length also, we must believe, in the same ratio that it adds to their diameter. High keeping, therefore, cannot be regarded as either vain or pernicious. The only valid objection to it is on the score of economy. 140. Jar or hair.-This is another point which is looked to by all our more intelligent wool-growers. As in most other quadrupeds, so in the sheep, the coat is composed of two very different kinds of hairs; the main growth being of a finer quality and shorter; but interspersed more or less among this is another set of longer, coarser, and often differently colored hairs, which project considerably beyond the others. In the sheep it is the former that constitutes the wool, and the latter is called jar or hair. This hair was most abundant in the former native sheep of this country, often projecting an inch or two beyond the wool and giving the animal a shaggy appearance akin to that of the goat. It prevails more or less among all varieties of sheep. The Paulars have it more than any other of our fine-wooled breeds, but the Saxons are not exempt from it. It is a great deterioration to the quality of the wool, and hence every good breeder endeavors to rear sheep as free from this defect as possible. In the fine-wooled sheep it is frequently so thin and fine as not to be perceptible to the naked eye when looking directly upon the wool; but often when a sheep, apparently devoid of this hair is brought between the sun and the eye, innumerous fine fibers projecting out beyond the ends of the wool are readily seen. It has heretofore been customary with us, in assorting flocks, to reject from the first class every individual in which any of these hairs were detected. 141. History of the market, and prices of wool.-When the Merino sheep were first introduced among us, nothing like a market for their wool was possessed by our citizens. It was only occasionally that an oppor tunity was enjoyed of turning this staple directly into money by selling it to some manufacturer. The common practice of the grower at that time was to have his wool manufactured into cloth on his own account, and place this cloth in the stores of the vicinity, to be there sold on commission. During the war of 1812, 1815, full blood Merino wool was worth about two dollars per pound, and some sales of half-blood Merino were here made to our manufacturers, at that time, for one dollar. But on the close of the war, it soon fell to about half of these rates. About the year 1820 the owners of some of our best flocks were accustomed to take their wool for sale to the city of New-York. For the finest wool of the Long Island flocks seventy-five cents per pound was paid in that year, and sixty-two and a half cents for the quality furnished from this county. It was somewhat lower the following years. In the year 1825, Isaac Bishop, of Granville, commenced purchasing wool, and this was the first of anything like a regular market for it within the county. Since that time the buying of wool has become an immense business among us, in which several persons, residing mostly in Salem, Cambridge and Granville, have engaged, a part of them acting commonly under commissions from the eastern manufacturers. And the wool market in these villages has become so extensively and favorably known, that a large amount of wool from the western part of Vermont and the surrounding counties in this State is brought to them for sale. The purchases thus made by wool merchants resident in the county, for many years past, has amounted to about 400,000 pounds annually. In 1825, 50 to 52 cents were paid for wool of the best quality. In 1827, 36 cents. In 1829, 50 cents. An inspection of the books of some of the principal buyers, from this period to the present time, shows that the following prices have been paid by them in successive years. We give what appears to have been the range of prices for the common lots of wool grown in the county, and also what we find entered as the highest price or that which was paid for the best lot that was purchased in each year. It should be remarked, however, that in some years the finest lots have not been offered for sale. The common lots are such as rank in market between grade Merino about three-fourths blooded and full blood Merino. In 1831, 60 to 78 cents were paid for the common lots and one dollar for the finest. In 1832, 30 to 40 cents. The four finest lots in the county at this date were those of Dobbin, Livingston, Campbell and Clapp, who sold for 52 cents. In 1833, 38 to 50 cents, and about 65 for the finest. In 1835, 40 to 52 cents and later in the season 48 to 65, at which time Dobbin, Livingston and Clapp sold for 82, Campbell for 83. There was the most excitement in the wool market this year that we have ever had. A firm in Salem bought largely, and the prices soon after depreciating, they were ruined thereby. In 1836, 40 to 56 cents, and for the finest 68 to 75. In 1838, 31 to 40 cents, and 50 for the finest. One of our buyers In 1839, 45 to 54 cents, and 63 for the finest. this year unfortunately retained on his hands his year's purchases the average cost of which had been 52 cents. After keeping it till the third year, despairing of doing better, he effected a sale for 30 cents, sinking thirteen thousand dollars thereby. In 1840, 33 to 40 cents, and 45 the highest. In 1841, 35 to 45 and for the finest 50. The wool is mostly purchased in June, July and August, at which times the prices above cited have been paid. Some, unwilling to part with their wool at the prices then current, have obtained a higher price a few months afterwards and at other times have kept their wool on hand two or four years ere they could realize the sum they had placed upon it. In some instances wool after being retained two or three years has been sold at a price below that which was at first offered. The above statement is particularly important as showing how variable the price of wool in our market has been. No other commodity produced by our farmers has undergone such fluctuations. And this has been the most disheartening circumstance connected with this business. Another fact merits a passing remark. There is by no means that degree of discrimination now made between the different qualities of wool that was made fifteen years ago Among the common wool of the county a difference of about twelve cents was then made between the coarse and the fine, whilst of late years it is only half of that amount. Our finest wool, moreover, then brought fifteen to twenty cents more than the best grades of common wool. It now brings but about eight cents more. This may be in a slight degree attributed to what is probably a fact, that the wool now grown is more even and nearer to one quality than it then was. But there has been no change in this respect at all proportionate to the change in the market rates. These rates show that the growing of wool of a high grade of fineness is much less of an object now than it has heretofore been. 142. Most profitable sheep.-A heavy fleece, and a fine one are incompatible. This is the testimony of all our wool-growers. In other words, it is impossible for human skill to unite the fineness of the Saxon with the weight of the Merino. But that some approximation towards this is attainable is not doubted. It becomes an important question to determine which kind of sheep is the most profitable. As has been already intimated, the opinion has here been prevalent for many years, that heavy fleeces afforded a better return than fine ones. And the range of the market price for several years past, indicates that this opinion is well founded. Every one will admit that fleeces of a high grade of fineness, can scarcely be made to weigh two and a half pounds; whilst a quality equivalent to full-blood Merino, can with little difficulty be made to weigh three and a half pounds or more. Then, as prices have been for six years past, one dollar and five cents would be the average return annually yielded by a fine-wooled sheep, and one doliar and nineteen cents the return from a heavy-fleeced one. The latter would consume a somewhat greater amount of food; the former would be a more delicate animal and would require somewhat more care and attention. In view of all the facts, there can be little difference of opinion upon this subject. The heavy-wooled sheep must be regarded as the more profitable. And in forming a flock at the present time, the intelligent wool-grower would adopt a standard the reverse of that by which the agents of the Saxon Elector culled the Escuriel flock in Spain, nearly a century ago. Heavy fleeces of medium fineness being the object, he would select sheep possessing short thick necks, and broad across the fore-shoulders. With these marks, the body will generally be of the desired kind, and like the Dutchman's horse, "a big one when it is lying down." This is the form which, in conjunction with a fair degree of fineness, has had the preference among us of late, without any particular regard to the point whether the blood was Saxon or Merino. The question, "If you was now purchasing a flock of sheep, what kind would you select?" is answered by two of our most experienced and intelligent wool-growers, as follows: |