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, 63 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 ex change 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 $1 50 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 SO 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 mountain 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: 66 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, f West Cornwall, Vermont, sold his entire crop of ewe lambs in the season of 55 at $100 per head when five months old. The subjoined statement shows |