years ago, and his stock was well distributed over the country. The differences now observed, sometimes, in the white Chesters, so that they can hardly be identified as one breed, are owing to the extra care taken by some farmers in selecting their breeding stock, or to their various fancies. Some prefer an erect ear, others a lop-ear; some prefer a slight curliness or wave of the hair, others to have it perfectly straight; some do not wish a large carcass, but a small and compact one, attaining a weight, at a year old, of about 300 pounds. The western farmers, living where corn is plenty, require a very large animal. Thes differences do not detract from the merits of the Chester county hog, as regar good general figure, easy feeding, and capacity to return a greater weight and value for food consumed than any breed now known. Farmers who breed for weight usually estimate a gain of one pound per day till they are two years old, and these very often far exceed this. They have attained a weight of over 900 pounds, and 500 to 600 pounds is very common.

That the Chester county pig is not an original, but a mixed breed, is proved in the very great variety in their appearance and in feeding qualities. Like does not produce like in all cases; and what is called "breeding back" is quite common. There is no absolute certainty of the offspring being like either sire or dam. Very fine and perfectly-shaped sows often have indifferent pigs, and very fine pigs are also occasionally produced from ill-shapen mothers. Sometimes blue spots on the skin and black spots in the hair occur. These are probably to be traced to a cross of Berkshire, a breed at one time quie common in Chester county. Improved stock of every description, to be kept up to a certain standard, requires continuous care in breeding and feeding, Hence the common saying, as respects swine, that "the breed is in the trough." While it must be admitted that the good points and properties of the Chester county breed are not so confirmed and established, that like will always produce like, there is yet, taking the best samples, so full a development of nearly perfect figure, quiet habits, and fattening tendencies, as to make a capital ground-work, which some energetic farmer may use as a starting point, as Bakewell, and Ellman, and Webb did with sheep, and bring up the white Chesters to a still higher standard and a more determined type.

The hog is often the poor man's main reliance, every portion of it being sus ceptible of use; and if his weight at a given age can be doubled on the same amount of food, a vast benefit will be conferred on the economic interests of the masses, and a large addition to the aggregate wealth of the country.

MODEL PIGGERY.

BY PASCHALL MORRIS, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

The plan of the piggery delineated in the accompanying engraving is suscept ible of reduction or extension, for a larger or smaller number of pigs, and is in tended to supersede the not only useless, but objectionable as well as expensive, mode of constructing large buildings under one roof, where confined and impare air, as well as the difficulty of keeping clean, interfere greatly with both health and thrift. Twenty-five or thirty breeding sows, farrowing at different periods of the year, can be accommodated under this system of separate pens, by bringing them successively within the enclosure; or an equal number of hogs can be fat

tened without any crowding or interference with each other. Some two years

ago I sold a very fine pair of Chester county pigs to a customer, (not a farmer,) who complained that at the end of twelve months they only weighed 175 pounds each. On inquiry as to his management, I found they had been kept in the horse stable, which was cleaned regularly once a month. It was dark and badly ventilated, and the pigs were entirely out of reach of sun and pure air. The tenacity of life shown by the white Chesters, under such circumstances, spoke well for the breed. Thrift and growth were of course impracticable. Neither the white Chester, nor any other breed with which we are acquainted, will do well in confined or close quarters; and where too many are kept in a single pen the heat of contact is very apt to create mange.

The nature of a hog, no less than the composition of his food, indicates a large amount of animal heat, and we have always noticed that they suffer much more from heat and confinement than from cold. This fact is kept in view in the above arrangement. The entrance, as seen in the engraving, is on the north side of the building, which therefore fronts the south, as does also each separate pen. The main building is thirty-two feet long by twelve wide, with an entrance. gate at each lower corner to the yard of two first divisions. The entry or room in the centre is eight feet wide, allowing space for slop barrel, feed chest, charcoal barrel, (almost as indispensable as feed chest,) hatchway for access to root cellar underneath, the whole building, and also passage way to second story. This latter is used for storing corn in winter and curing some varieties of seeds in summer. A wooden spout, with sliding valve, conveys feed to the chest below. The grain is hoisted to the second floor by a pulley and tackle on the outside, as observed in engraving.

The perspective of main building allows a partial view of platforms, surmounted by a board roof, and divisions in the rear. The ground plan allows six of these on either side of the passage way. The first two pens, to the right and left of the door, are 12 by 12 each, and attached to them are 25 feet in length of yard

by 15 feet wide. All the yards are extended three feet wider than the building, which admits of the two entrance gates at the corners.

PASSAGE WAY

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Another division then commences, consisting of a raised platform, 6 to 8 feet wide, and extending the same width as the first pen, with a board roof over it, and also boarded up on the back, which answers the purpose of a division fence to separate from the pen behind. Twenty-five feet of yard are also attached to this, and the same arrangement is continued to all the six divisions.

We have found this board roof and wooden floor on the north side of cach pen and fronting the south to be ample protection in cold, wet, or stormy weather. The floor is kept perfectly clean, and even the feeding trough is not on it, on account of more or less of wet and dirt always contiguous to the trough, which freezes in winter and becomes slippery.

Each yard is used for the deposit of refuse vegetables and weeds, litter, &c., thrown in from time to time, to be consumed or converted into manure. This is conveniently loaded into a cart passing along on the outside of each range of

pens.

The passage way between each range of pens gives convenient access to the feeder for all the divisions. A door also communicates from one division to the other, to make changes when necessary; and also a door or gate from each pen to the outside, so that one or more can be removed and others introduced without any confusion or interference from any of the other pens. The two pens the main roof of the building, being more sheltered, are reserved for sows who may happen to farrow very early in the season, or in extreme cold weather, which is always avoided if practicable.

under

For several reasons, the boiler for cooking food is in a rough shed adjacent to the piggery and entirely outside of it. There is no reason why this should be necessarily a part of the piggery.

The above plan is not offered as embracing much that is novel in arrange ment, but as one that combines many advantages

1st. Complete separation, as well as easy communication between each pen, as well as to outside from each.

2d. Avoiding close and confined air, and admitting of extension or alteration for a large or small number of pigs.

3d. Facilities for keeping clean and receiving refuse vegetables and weeds. &c., for conversion into manure, and also for loading from each pen into a cart passing along outside.

4th. Cheapness. With the exception of the main building, all the rest can easily be erected by an intelligent farm hand.

LONG-WOOL SHEEP.

BY J. R. DODGE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

The supply of fine wool in the manufacturing markets of the world is yearly increasing, and the tendency in price is downwards. The demand for long wool is still unsatisfied, and the movement of prices for all the best styles is decidedly upwards. The English long wools bear quite as high a price as the finest of Australian merinoes, and much higher than those of the Cape and of South America, which have suffered a material decline within the past year.

The increasing manufacture of combing wools, the tendency towards which was noted particularly by the writer in his "Condition and Prospects of Sheep Husbandry in the United States," in the report for 1862, is perhaps the most notable fact concerning the woollen manufacturing industry of the present day. New and beautiful styles of ladies' goods command the admiration and patronage of the fashionable world; and invention is almost equally rife in the production of fancy goods from long wools for gentlemen.

In 1865 the imports of woollen goods into this country amounted to $20,347,563. Of this one-fourth part was for woollen cloths and shawls. The remainder was

mostly for long or coarse wools, including dress goods, blankets, carpets, and flannels. The delaines and dress goods far exceed other items, amounting to $7,817,139. This fact significantly illustrates our want of combing wools. In two years the imported dress goods of the United States have cost nearly eighteen millions of dollars in gold, while the same item for the two preceding years did not reach two millions. On the contrary, more cloths and shawls were introduced in 1862 than in 1865.

The wool quotations of commercial papers, wherever examined, test the correctness of these remarks. The following are the prices quoted at the present writing: Choice Saxony, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, 67 to 73 cents; Ohio and Virginia, half to full blood merino, 55 to 62 cents; Ohio and Virginia, common to half blood merino, 47 to 57 cents; western merino, 45 to 57 cents; Canada combing, 70 to 85 cents.

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In connexion with these quotations, it is remarked that a change had occurred within the year preceding; that then fine wool was in demand and the lower grades neglected. Combing wool, however, is in as good demand as it was a year ago, and commands as good a price." An English journal, (the Farmer's Magazine,) in alluding to our want of worsted wools, says "that there is great danger that their" (our) "worsted factories will have to be closed for want of raw material."

The high price of Cotswold wool should not be deemed extravagant, in view of the fact that its shrinkage in scouring is but from 18 to 20 per cent., while the waste in merino wools ranges from 40 to 70 per cent. A pound of average Cotswold fleece will produce as much scoured wool as two and a half pounds of merino fleece which shrinks 68 per cent.

The breeding of long-wool sheep, especially of Cotswolds, Shropshire, and other Downs, is increasing perceptibly in this country, especially in Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan; and the advance in this direc

tion will be still more rapid in the immediate future. The necessity for good mutton is quite as urgent as the want of combing wool, and farmers near the large cities, and many even in the interior, are finding a rich profit in mutton breeds.

A few facts from the correspondence of this department will aid in elucidating the vexed question of the comparative profit of fine and long wool sheep. Aside from speculative operations, the latter, in suitable situations and circumstances. appear to have the advantage in the comparison.

From Cooper Sayre, of Oaks Corner, Ontario county, New York, a statement concerning a flock of fifty Cotswolds, regarded as thorough-bred animals, and the recipients of State fair premiums, places the cost of keeping at $2 per year for ewes and $2 50 for wethers. This includes five months' winter feeding with hay worth ten dollars per ton, and cornstalks, with one bushel of beets per day, costing twenty-five cents, and a peck of oats daily for the lambs of the flock. His ewes average seven pounds of clean wool each, and his wethers elevea pounds. The minimum sales of the former are not less than twelve dollars each. His ewes average a yearly increase (of lambs) of 120 per cent. His principal buck weighed, at 18 months, 264 pounds. At the end of the first year he expects a weight of 140 pounds, 200 pounds at two years old, and from 200 to 250 at three years old, and an increase in three months feeding for market of 40 pounds. He estimates the cost of care and labor, exclusive of washing and shearing, at $3 each. It is an interesting fact relative to a flock of this size that the loss is but three per cent.

An interesting exhibit of the debtor and credit sides of a flock of South Downs is made by Ralph H. Avery, of Canastota, Madison county, New York. Taking the average yearly cost and produce of his flock as a basis, he estimates for a flock of ten ewes as follows, with $19 10 each as a comfortable balance:

101 00

Leaving a net profit of.....

He writes further as follows: "My sheep are usually sent to pasture about the first of May, and put into winter quarters about the middle of November.

aim to prevent them from becoming too fat, which I find a very difficult matter. In this they differ from any other breed which I have kept. My only care during the season at pasture is to put tar upon their noses two or three times