in his list, had the suggestion been made. The idea that the impure blood, by mixing with the pure, can be entirely annihilated is unphilosophical. "Like streams that flow onward, like fragments of rock torn from their native precipices, like metals changed by the chemists, the elements still exist, but in other forms; they are not annihilated, but have entered into new combinations, never to return to their original sources."—Bachman. To this point numerous other authorities might be adduced, but we will content ourselves with the two following: Dr. Pickering says, " Varieties do not revert to their original type;" and even Dr. Prichard admits that "the smallest varieties, once produced, are never again obliterated. This (he says) would seem to be one of the mysteries of nature: we may compel her to place her signet, but we know not how to force it off again. Man, like the magician, or half-skilled scholar, (so beautifully described by the German poet,) often possesses the skill to compel her to work, but has not yet learned that, which may oblige her to desist." This is beautifully exemplified in the case of the horse. The Arabian is the finest race in the world; in his own country no one ever thinks of crossing the breed-on the contrary, the pure blood has descended uncontaminated through successive generations; but in this and other countries, where the practice of amalgamation with other races prevails, they have endless varieties of this noble animal, but no pure Arabian race. But in regard to sheep, the American farmer, being now forewarned, is forearmed; and we anticipate that, with the exercise of that good sense for which our countrymen are remarkable, they will cease to pursue a practice that has been proved to be erroneous.

What would one of them think of a chemist, who, being possessed of two liquids, one oleaginous and the other aqueous, both of exceeding great value, should mix the two together and destroy both? And yet the sheep-breeder who mingles the hairy sheep and the woolly sheep, is guilty of a greater absurdity.

Let those persons who affect to despise what they term "book knowledge" (if all such have not been weeded out of the garden of agriculture) remember that the distinction made by us between the hairy sheep (whose fleece will not felt nor full) and the woolly sheep (whose covering will do both) is not only scientifically correct, but is one of exceeding great practical importance as regards manufactures and the arts. We next propose to show, by arguments drawn from experience that great instructor in everything which relates to natural history, that the true way of breeding sheep is to preserve the two species distinct. We will commence with Saxony. The kingdom of Saxony is situated in the east of Germany. It is bounded on the northeast by Prussia; on its southeast border is the Erzberg mountains, which separate it from Bohemia; on the west it has Prussia and the Saxon Duchies; it is divided into four circuits, viz: Bautzen, Dresden, Leipzig, and Zwickau. These circuits are respectively divided into counties; in the circuit of Bautzen there are two counties, viz: Bautzen and Zittau; in Dresden there are four counties-Dresden, Meissen, Hayn, and Freiberg; in Leipzig there are three counties-Borna, Rochlitz, and Grimma; and in Zwickau there are five counties-Chemnitz, Zwickau, Niederforchheim, Plauen, and Glauchau. Saxony is the smallest kingdom in Europe, containing, according to some writers, 5,800, and, according to others, only 5,640 square miles. She has, then, about one-eighth of the territory of Pennsylvania, and about

one-eleventh of that of Virginia; but she has a population of 1,600,000; and it is calculated that she has 25,000,000 of sheep.

The Saxons sell their sheep and export immense quantities of wool, notwithstanding which their manufacture of wool employs 25,000 persons. But the subject to which we desire at present to call the more particular attention of the American people is the exceeding great fineness of the Saxon wool, which, considering that this quality is generally indicative of all others estimable in fleece, demands serious attention.

The King of Saxony has recently presented us with several hundred specimens of fine wool, grown in various parts of his kingdom. These we have subjected to strict examination, and find that they all possess a high degree of fineness, a large majority of them having the maximum of that known to wool grown upon the body of a sheep. How came Saxony possessed of this superior breed, since, according to the celebrated agriculturist, M. Thaer, there were no less than three varieties of sheep in Germany before the introduction of the merinos, neither of which was held in high estimation? The answer to this question is, that in 1765, Augustus Frederick, then Elector of Saxony, imported 200 merinos from Spain; they were placed at Stolpgen, in the county of Hayn and circuit of Dresden, then one of the most populous and best-cultivated districts in that country. Popular prejudice for some time ran high against them, but it gradually subsided, and in 1777 they had grown into such estimation that an agent was sent for 300 more; 110 only could be obtained, but they were selected from all the best flocks in Spain, particularly from that of the Escurial. Then commenced two other establishments, viz: that of Rennersdorf, in the county and circuit of Bautzen, and of Lockmühle, in the county of Niederforchheim and circuit of Zwickau. In this manner the foundation of sheep-breeding was laid in Saxony; but the noble superstructure raised upon it would never have been presented but for the rigid adherence to the rule of never mingling these merinos with the common sheep of the country. By these means a pure breed of full-blood merinos was raised all over Saxony; and it is from their descendants that our specimens, which attract the attention and admiration of all beholders, were obtained. We challenge the inspection of these specimens, which are all of fine wool, not a hair to be found in the whole collection. What a lesson is here taught to the American sheep-breeder! We have collections of fleece from some other foreign countries which we might bring into contrast, but we wish to avoid all invidious comparisons.

Our next exhibition and proofs are from persons and places nearer home. We have specimens of fleece grown in the following States, viz: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, Illinois, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. Most of these are accompanied by letters from sheep-breeders and others. From this correspondence, as well as from sundry letters addressed to the Commissioner of Patents, we have extracted all that regards sheep-breeding; and from the whole we are enabled to pronounce that in the United States the hairy sheep and the woolly sheep live and thrive in different places, the position which

*The former duchy, an electorate was changed to a kingdom by Napoleon alout 42 years ago.

is the most appropriate for the one being inappropriate for the other species. So it appears that there is not only a season and a time for every purpose under Heaven, (Eccles., ch. iii., 6 to 8,) but also there is a place for all natural things; there is a place to breed and raise the ⚫ hairy sheep; and there is a place to breed and raise the woolly sheep; but for the hybrid sheep, which is not a natural, but an unnatural production of man's making, there is not (as we shall proceed to show) any place in the United States; and therefore their propagation ought not to be encouraged. If a line be drawn diagonally through the United States, beginning at the southeast corner of New Hampshire, pursuing pretty much the course of the line of tide-water, and ending in Texas, it will be found that everywhere northwest of it the woolly sheep may be bred and will thrive, provided the blood of his species be kept pure; and everywhere southeast of this line the hairy sheep may be bred and will thrive, provided the blood of his species be kept pure; but that neither will thrive on the other sides, respectively, of that line, nor will they if the species are crossed.

Postscriptum.

Peradventure some persons may imagine that fessing to be a collector of facts only) are bound to this phenomenon. It might be difficult to do so: rerum cognoscere causas.

we (although proassign a reason for "Felix qui potuit

It might be attributed to the action of the atmosphere in the neighborhood of the sea, acting injuriously upon the delicate, fine-woolled sheep, when it is attempted to raise them on the southeasterly side of the line we have projected. The merino thrives and improves in the interior of continental Europe-as, for example, in Saxony; but remove them to England, and they dwindle. It might be assigned to geological causes, for the line we have drawn points out the general direction of the great rock formations of the United States. The subsoil of a country depends for its composition on the underlying rock, of which such subsoil is nothing but its comminuted fragments. Each natural soil has its natural vegetable growth, and it is well-known that sheep, more than any other of our domestic animals, subsist upon the natural vegetable productions of the country. It might be assigned to other causes more remote. But be all this as may hereafter be developed, the fact is as we have stated. He who would refuse to be admonished by it because a reason cannot be assigned, or the modus operandi pointed out, would place himself in the position of one who would persist in swallowing poisons because we cannot tell how they produce death.

WOOL GROWING.

[From the "Wool Grower."]

Why not grow more wool?-It has been the aim of this journal to so awaken the attention of farmers as to enable them to adopt the most prof. itable system. We have, therefore, urged upon them, from time to time, an increase of their flocks of sheep. Our own experience and observation have satisfied us that there is no kind of farming that is so generally profitable as raising sheep and wool. It matters not whether you are upon the bleak mountains of Vermont or in the fertile plains of Texas,

upon the prairies of the West or the now solitary hills and mountains of the South-everywhere and anywhere the sheep will live and thrive, and, with proper care, pay more for the labor and capital invested than any other animal or any other system of farming. It is one of the most useful and economical modes which have been given us to convert the vegetation of the farm to money. Were it for the first time now presented to us, we should consider the sheep one of the most wonderful animals nature has produced for the use of man. Its annual growth of wool, so admirably calculated for human clothing and use in every portion of the globe, its skin and flesh, and, in many localities, its milk-all serve for the necessaries or luxuries of man. There is no animal in which there is so little waste or so little loss. For at least seven years of its life it will give an annual fleece each year to the value of the carcass, and the yearly increase will be nearly or quite equal to the cost of keeping, giving, as a general thing, a profit of cent per cent. Of all the other animals, the cow comes nearest to the sheep in the profit it returns to the farmer if well cared for; it will pay for itself each year by the milk it yields, and defray also the cost of keeping.

Is there any branch of farming or any other kind of legitimate business that will yield for a series of years a profit of 10 per cent? We assume that there is none. The very idea that a profit of 50 per cent. could be realized in any branch of business would set the whole capital of the country in motion. Farms would be sold, merchants would sell off their stocks, bankers close their banks, and, indeed, everybody who had money to invest would rush into this gold mine.

We aver, without fear of contradiction in truth, that there is hardly a locality in the whole Union, where any kind of farm animals can subsist, that the sheep, if properly attended to, will not give a net profit on the investment of at least 50 per cent., and that, with the ordinary management of farms, it will give some 20 to 40 per cent.

That there is no danger of overdoing the business, we have shown repeatedly in previous numbers. The annual increase of population in the Union requires the wool from three millions of sheep; so that, to clothe the increased population, would require an annual increase of sheep equal to four millions. But when we come to consider that there is now an annual deficiency of over seventy millions of pounds, there can be no doubt that wool growing is the most stable pursuit that can be engaged in. We cannot glut the market, nor will there be any long time that the market will be depressed below a point of profitable production. On the contrary, it is certain that no farm product goes less below this point than wool. It has long been a source of constant wonder to us that so many farmers in the western States neglect the sheep for the very precarious business of grain-growing. Every year will give them a crop of wool if they do but take care of their sheep. But there is no certainty for wheat, prepare the ground ever so well. If we have been rightly informed, the wheat raised in the West has cost the farmer more than he has obtained for it in market. Too much dependence has been placed upon this most uncertain and expensive crop.

We have tried wheat-growing upon probably as good a wheat farm as can be found in western New York, and we have also tried sheep upon the same farm; and we are free to confess that, although we have a good market at our own door, yet we can raise a given amount of money

quicker and much easier with a flock of sheep than with wheat. But we find it well to raise both sheep and wheat, as by that means we find we get a better profit than to be confined to either alone. With us, and in this region, four years are as long as it proves profitable to leave land to grass. Very few now resort to naked fallows. Some mow their clover early, and then let it grow till August, when it is turned under, cultivated, and sown to wheat; others mow the first year, and pasture with sheep the second, and then plough.

Every good farmer keeps a few good sheep at least. Very many who have been in the habit of putting up a large quantity of pork for summer use now select out a few wethers and give them extra keep, and make their summer meat of mutton, decidedly the most healthful that can be used, and thus realize the money for their pork fresh. The inducements to grow more wool are: a sure market, less fluctuation from the point of profitable production than any farm product, a larger interest or profit on the capital invested than any other business, and, therefore, the best business, as a general thing, that the farmer can follow. We ask our subscribers to give us their views on the subject.

HISTORY OF THE OHIO COMPANY FOR IMPORTING ENGLISH CATTLE.

[The following article by the Hon. John L. Taylor, of Ohio, is inserted at the request of several members of Congress :]

On the 2d November, A. D. 1833, Governor Allen Trimble, George Renick, Esq., and General Duncan McArthur, citizens of the State of Ohio, for the purpose of promoting the interests of agriculture, and of introducing an improved breed of cattle into this State, formed a company, and they, together with the subscribers hereafter named to the written articles of their association, contributed the amount of money necessary to import from England some of the best improved cattle of that country. The sum of $9,200 was very soon subscribed for that purpose, in 92 shares of $100 each; and after making the necessary preliminary inqui ries and arrangements, the company appointed Felix Renick, Esq., of Ross county, Ohio, their agent for the purchase and importation of said cattle.

Mr. Felix Renick was accompanied by Messrs. Edwin J. Harness and Josiah Renick, of Ohio, as his assistants, and they left Chillicothe for England on the 30th January, 1834.

The following persons were subscribers to the stock of said company on the 25th day of January, 1834, viz :