per pound greater in the market. These points increase, very materially, the disparity in mutton production, while the cost of keeping is very moderately enhanced. Recent speculative prices of merino lambs constitute the only element of superiority, in point of profit, which may temporarily counterbalance the superior profit from mutton production in the cross-breds. Several statements have been received from owners of merino flocks, (most of them thorough breds,) which exhibit a wide range of expenses and balances of profit, depending upon the price of feeding material, the length and severity of the winter, and somewhat, also, upon the liberality of the feeder. They represent the different sections of the country, and a wide range of prices of sheep. These exhibits, averaged, give the following results: Average price of ewes, $16 40; wool of ewes, 6 pounds each, worth $3 86; average cost of keeping per annum, $2 65; percentage of lambs to ewes, 80. This is about the average prolificacy of this breed throughout the country, while Cotswolds will probably average 120, and South Downs still more. So far as indicated by statements received at this office from American breeders, founded on their own experience, South Downs would average 150 per cent. Probably the actual average throughout the country would be somewhat less. The exhibits of long-wool flocks, as shown in the preceding statements embracing both long and short wools, and in many others of a general character, indicate a smaller difference in their cost of keeping than is generally believed. Long wool sheep, of course, require more feed than small breeds, but they are of earlier maturity and more easily fattened, retaining the fat in the carcase instead of excreting it in the wool. The original data, briefly analyzed above, illustrate conspicuously the favorable influence of the milder climate and abundant herbage of the central bluegrass regions upon the thrifty long-wool breeds. So suited are they to this climate, that in Kentucky, for instance, South Downs and Cotswolds are the favorite breeds, and many of the best farmers could scarcely be induced to exchange for fine wool sheep, however great the temporary advantage promised. To illustrate this difference in expense of feeding in different sections, and to show the money value of climate to sheep breeders, the following statements are given, each presented as the actual quantity and value of feed consumed by ten merino ewes: G. S. Center, South Butler, Wayne county, New York, pastures six months, at a cost of $15, and feeds six months, clover and timothy hay, worth $20 per ton, and corn at $150 per bushel, costing $50; salt, 50 cents. Total cost of feed, $65 50. Charles M. Clarke, Whitewater, Walworth county, Wisconsin, pastures six months, and feeds six months upon clover and timothy hay, at ten dollars per ton, and corn and oats at forty cents per bushel, costing for the year, $46 80. E. Findley, Ottawa, Illinois, pastures eight months, at a cost of $4 60, and feeds four months six bushels of corn, worth $1 80, and one pound of hay each per day, worth $8 per ton, or $4 80 for what is required-altogether costing, including salt, less than $12. Facts like these are directing the attention of wool-growers to the milder climates of Maryland and Virginia, as well as to Kentucky and Missouri, and to the mountains of Tennessee and the plains of Texas. The entire Alleghanian region is unsurpassed for profitable sheep husbandry. The writer of this, in his volume upon "West Virginia," refers to the fact, that in Hancock, Brooke, and Ohio counties, in that State, there were in 1860 as many sheep as acres of improved land—a proportion to acreage eight-fold greater than in Ohio, the first wool-growing State in the Union; and says of the highlands: "The mountaia regions are unexcelled as sheep walks, and are beginning to be improved as such. * * * The mildness of the climate and excellence of mountain pastures are conditions favoring the production of the best quality of wool. For sweetness and flavor, the mountain mutton of Virginia is deservedly cele brated. The production of fine spring lambs, of South Down or Cotswold blood, for the markets of the eastern cities, would prove here a most profitable business." This mountain-fed mutton, fattened upon grass alone, has long been noted in Washington and Baltimore. In a private note from Paul McNeel, of Pocahontas county, (near the summit of the Alleghanies,) whose flocks formerly numbered 900, mostly common sheep, and who acknowledges sheep husbandry to be more profitable than the production of cattle, horses, and mules, the following illustration of the above fact occurs: "I began with 500 or 600 sheep about the year 1830. In buying, I bought such as I could fatten the next year for the White Sulphur Springs. I suppose I furnished from 300 to 500 head each year for more than twenty years; and Mr. James Caldwell, the proprietor, told me the best muttons he bought were purchased from me. Old General Wade Hampton and Mr. Singleton, of South Carolina, built summer residences at the springs. I frequently met them, and they always asked me about my sheep, and what I did to make them so fat and the flavor of the mutton so good." Thousands of merino sheep have recently been introduced into Virginia from the north; but the long wools, among provident and thrifty farmers, are preferred; and it is evident that the central and southern latitudes will compete successfully with more northern locations for the supply of the worsted wools of the country. THE AMERICAN MERINOES OF VERMONT. The increasing interest manifested of late in the breeding of pure blooded finewooled merino sheep indicates that the progress in sheep husbandry, which has been most remarkable during a quarter of a century past, is destined to continue, and that the growth of fine wool is to become one of the leading interests of this country. Nowhere has there been felt so much general interest in this subject as in the State of Vermont. The Spanish merino was introduced here early in the present century, and by the judicious and careful breeding of more than forty years has become a far more perfect animal than when first imported, combining a heavy fleece of fine texture with a vigorous and healthy constitution, adapted to a northern climate, which the less hardy Saxons were unable to withstand. The flocks of such gentlemen as Edwin Hammond, of Middlebury, William R. Sanford, of Orwell, Rollin J. Jones, of Cornwall, E. S. Stowell, of Cornwall, Geo. Campbell, of Westminster, John T. Rich, of Richville, and others in Vermont, have made the thorough-bred merino sheep celebrated throughout America. Animals from these flocks are eagerly sought from all portions of the country, and at prices almost fabulous to those not familiar with the facts. Rams from one to three years old are sold at from $1,000 to $5,000, and in some cases $10,000 has been refused for a single animal. The owner of a superior ram frequently received from $2,000 to $3,000 for his services in one season, besides using him in his own flock. Ewes are sold at from $100 to $1,000. Hon. Rollin J. Jones, of West Cornwall, Vermont, sold his entire crop of ewe lambs in the season of 1865 at $100 per head when five months old. The subjoined statement shows the weight of fleece and weight of carcass, respectively, at a public shearing of these lambs, given by the purchaser, at West Cornwall, Vermont, May 23, 1866: Gross weight of carcass after shorn, forty-five ewes, 2,515 pounds, 3 ounces. Average weight of fleeces, 11 pounds 5 ounces. These lambs, like most of the principal flocks of pure bred merino sheep in Addison county-the leading sheep-growing county in the State-were descendants of the Spanish merinoes of the importation of Stephen Atwood, of Connecticut, and now generally known as the Infantado stock. The ram lamb Ophir is a most perfect specimen of what long continued effort at improvement can accomplish. He was but ten months old when his portrait was taken. The ewes of the best flocks, when matured, shear from ten to fifteen pounds each; the ram from fifteen to twenty-five pounds, unwashed, and they are generally shorn in April or May, when the weather is cool and the fleece less oily than it would be later in the season, at the ordinary time of shearing. The number of breeders of fine sheep is rapidly increasing. Competition is keen, and we may look for a still further advancement in the excellence of flocks and a more general dissemination of the American merino through the United States during the next decade. The addition to the material wealth of the country in this event can scarcely be estimated, as, with the requisite protection by a judicious tariff, the American breeder can be confidently assured of ample and gratifying remuneration. The people of Texas were becoming considerably interested in sheep husbandry and the breeding of improved stock when the late unhappy rebellion terminated their intercourse with the north, and even since the close of that struggle have again commenced visiting Vermont with a view of purchasing stock and engaging anew in the prosecution of the enterprise. The soil and climate of Texas are favorable to the breeding of sheep, and we look to see the "Lone Star" become one of the leading wool-growing States of the Union. Several of the best flocks of Vermont will be represented at the exposition at Paris in 1867, and a still greater triumph for the American breeder than that achieved at Hamburg a few years since may be expected. We hope to see it fully demonstrated that the pure bred American merino has no equal on the face of the globe. CATTLE FARMING IN THE PAMPAS. BY REV. G. D. CARROW, LATE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN SOUTH AMERICA. There are two classes of men (discoverers by land and sea, and pioneers in new fields of tillage and commerce) who, though almost invariably distinguished for great and good qualities, seldom realize an adequate return for their services to their country and to mankind. The truth of this statement is confirmed by many facts belonging to the history of the discovery and colonization of this continent. Were we not so strongly assured of the contrary, we might suppose that the discovery and exploration of the three greatest rivers of this continent, and of the globe, were events certainly calculated to insure solid comfort to their authors during the brief period of their mortal life, as well as immortal fame on the pages of history. What are the facts which so sternly forbid this natural supposition? Fernando de Soto was the first white man who explored the banks of the Mississippi, and saw that "father of waters" roll beneath the boughs of the primeval forest to the sea. But only a few days after his passage of the mighty stream he had ceased to live; his body, to conceal his death from his enemies, was wrapped in his mantle, and, at the hour of midnight, was silently sunk in the middle of the current. "The wanderer," says Mr. Bancroft, "had crossed a large portion of the continent in search of gold, and found nothing so remarkable as the place of his burial." Francisco de Orellana, striking a stream that wound itself along through the rugged passes of the Peruvian Andes, built a mere raft of green wood, launched it, and drifted with the current. Onward it bore him through plain and forest, mountain gorge and fertile valley, ever growing deeper and wider, till, at the end of seven months, and at a distance of four thousand five hundred miles, his frail and rudely constructed vessel felt the heaving, and his experienced eye surveyed the great expanse, of the Atlantic Ocean. He called the river Amazon. Marvellous was the adventure, and immortal the fame. But, ten years later, the discoverer perished in an expedition designed to locate and further explore the river, whose course he had followed from its birth in the mountains to its death in the sea. In 1515, Juan Dias de Solis, crossing the equator, and steering boldly to the south, in the teeth of the terrific'gales which sweep north ward from the latitude of Cape Horn, entered what he soon perceived to be the mouth of a great river, and finding, or hoping to find, silver among its sands, called it El Rio de la Plata. But venturing ashore a few days after the discovery, he was put to death by the native savages. The explorers were in search of the precious metals, but died at the height of their career in poverty and disappointment. Posterity, however, was to reap incalculable advantage from their adventures and sufferings. Harvests of grain and cotton are now gathered in the valley of the Mississippi more valuable than the produce of the mines of Potosi. Harvests of fruit, corn, and cotton are to be gathered in the valley of the Amazon worth more than all the gold that streaks the mountains whence that river flows. And from the far-reaching plains of La Plata's basin, supplies of meat and clothing might be drawn in quantities sufficient to meet the necessities of more than half the world. The pampas form the larger portion of that great river's basin. Of their wool-producing capabilities, and of the extent to which they are already laid under contribution, the writer has given some account in the report of 1864, Department of Agriculture. In the present communication his purpose is to give to agriculturists of the valleys of the north some information on the subject of horned cattle breeding on the great plains of the South American continent. THEIR ORIGIN. There were no horned cattle either in the northern or southern division of this continent prior to the discovery. The first ever seen in the new world were imported by Columbus in 1493. Respecting their importation into the northern section of the southern continent, Lieutenant Gibbon, in his Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, says: "This pampa looks like a great pasture field, enclosed by the Mamoré ditch on the south, and the Securé on the north. Under the shade of the trees stand the cattle of the field. They have gradually clambered over the Cordilleras from the flats of Guayaquil, through the table lands of Oruro, and from the salt district of Charcas. The creoles drove them down by the side of the Mamoré river, and let them out into the grassy prairie lands of Chiquitos and Mojos. When the cattle came among the Indians they knew not what to make of them. There were no such animals in their wild lands. The fierce tiger, and the poisonous serpent which they worshipped, were outdone. The cow interfered with the belief they previously had, that the largest animals were God's favorites, particularly those which had the greatest means for active aggression or self-defence. The cow helped to change such a religion. By degrees they learned that she neither bit, clawed, nor stung; that she carried a bag full of milk; that her teeth were given her to cut the pampa grass, and not to devour the flesh of a human being; that she was docile and friendly to man, and not his enemy. The Jesuits (missionaries) taught the Indians how to milk the cow and how to use her milk. They soon learned how to tend cattle, to lasso them, to yoke them by the horns, so that they may drag along a bundle of drift wood from the edge of the river to the middle of the plain. In this way they kept cattle near them, while herds roamed through the pampas, became wild, and are now so scattered through the lands that it is difficult to count them." The pampas described in the lieutenant's report form the central and southeastern departments of the present republic of Bolivia, and he is doubtless correct when he states that the first horned cattle introduced into that part of the continent came from the Pacific coast. In 1551 horned cattle were first brought into Paraguay from the coast of Brazil. These Sir Woodbine Parish regards as the progenitors of the numberless herds that for three centuries have roamed the southern plains. For the original importation Paraguay was, doubtless, indebted to the Jesuits, as was that country, and, in fact, the whole interior of the southern continent, for almost all the elements of their early civilization. Sir Woodbine is mistaken, however, in asserting that the whole pampas stock originated from the breed imported into their mission grounds by the Jesuits of Faraguay. Prior to the date to which that importation is assigned, settlements of Europeans had been effected in southeastern Peru, and the colonists, as Mr. Gibbon suggests, had brought cattle with them from the west coast. The present stock, therefore, may be regarded as the combined results of two original importations, one from the Atlantic, and the other |