pound, and the average weight of the fleece may be put at 10 pounds. Were the animal fairly naturalized on some of our bleakest hill districts, such land would soon increase in value from the increased worth of its annual produce in alpaca wool. And it appears, from the experience of sev eral gentlemen who have small flocks, that, when its habits shall be thoroughly understood, little difficulty will be experienced in doing so. The following is a statement by Mr. Stirling, of Craigbarnet place, Lenoxtown, Glasgow, a gentleman better qualified to speak on the subject than any one we could name:

"I can have no doubt that, when the subject is better understood, the animal itself better known, and a more expeditious method contrived to bring them to Britain, we shall have thousands of them. When known, their docility, their temperate habits, their hardiness, and, I may add, their easy keep, will, ere long, bring them into general notice. I can answer, without the fear of being contradicted, that they will thrive and breed in Scotland equal, if not superior, to our native black faced sheep."

To those who would laugh at the idea of bringing over here, and domesticating on our hills, a Peruvian camel or sheep, (for the alpaca has properties in common with both,) we would point to Australia, a country which not many years ago possessed no quadruped but the kangaroo and yet, notwithstanding its many peculiarities of climate, is now thickly peopled with our sheep and oxen. But the question must not be left to generalities of this kind. The experience of a few short years, on the larger scale which expected importations will enable, will determine it satisfactorily; and if, as in all probability will be the case, the alpaca should become one of our domestic animals, the best thanks of the country will be due to Mr. Walton, for the persevering energy with which he has pressed the subject on public attention. His book is an exceedingly interesting and neatly got up volume, and will, we doubt not, prove a useful publication.

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There is a great effort now being made in England, Ireland, and Scotland, to introduce into these countries the fine-wooled sheep of a portion of South America, called alpacas, or the sheep of the Andes. As far as experiments have gone, it appears not only practicable to naturalize or acejimate them to the climates of these respective countries, but the gratifying facts have been demonstrated, that they arrive earlier, by two years, at that sate when the powers of procreation are developed; that the wool is finer and softer than that imported from their native country, having much more yolk imparted to it by the superior pasturage found in Great Britain, to that found on their natal mountains, and that the fleece is also increased in weight from 50 to 70 per cent., as well as in length of staple. These facts embrace considerations of great moment in an agricultural point of view, as they tend very much to enhance the value of their wool, both to the manufacturer and farmer.

The alpacas are represented as hardy, docile animals, affected neither by wet nor cold; existing best on the coarse herbage of mountain pastures

on such herbage as scarcely any other animals could subsist upon. So far as the experiments in Great Britain go to establish facts connected with their habits, it would seem that the greatest difficulty to be apprehended in that country arises from the too great luxuriance of the pastures in the cultivated portions of these countries, producing surfeits in the blood, which produce cutaneous affections resembling the itch in the human family. But as this is a physical difficulty, which may be overcome by depasturing them in the mountain regions, it is not of serious moment, because it may be avoided. The supposed average weight of clip in the range of Peruvian mountains, the Andes, is 10 pounds; whereas in England they have risen. to 17 pounds. This fact shows that translation from South America to Great Britain has exerted a fortunate influence upon that part of their production which imparts to them their greatest value; for although their carcass, when they are killed young, is available for edible purposes, weighing 180 pounds, still their wool must be looked upon as the most lucrative part of them; that being fine and silky, most happily adapted to all the nicer qualities of woollen fabrics, and commanding high prices and ready sales.

The alpacas live for twelve years without experiencing any material deterioration in their yield of fleece, and in this respect may be said to possess an advantage over common sheep, or, indeed, over either the merinos or Saxony merinos; their wool being finer, longer, more silky, and preferred in the manufacture of most of the goods of the more delicate texture; and the fact that the fleece of one alpaca is equal in weight to upwards of five or six merinos or Saxons, is a consideration of preponderating force.

A very intelligent British author, whose work we have just read, in speaking of the scab, (the disease to which they are disposed to be subject,) seems to think that, in their native land, it is ascribable to sudden atmospheric changes operating upon the perspiratory organs with deleterious effect; but suggests that, by timely and judicious treatment in its incipient state, the disease may be promptly arrested-bathing, and cooling aperients, being the only treatment necessary to restore a healthful action upon the skin, and relieve the animal. The appearance of the disease among the animals which have been imported into England, Ireland, and Scotland, he ascribes to a combination of causes, all of which are within control, and which we will here attempt to briefly notice; though, before we do so, we must be candid, and say that although we admit there is great force in his remarks, in our opinion the importations into Great Britain have not been sufficiently numerous, as yet, to establish, by the premises thereby furnished, such a series of well-defined deductions as would amount to any thing like unerring rules.

The alpacas, in their home pastures, are permitted to traverse their native mountains, where, 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, they have an almost illimitable range, breathie a pure air, and have appointed places for bathing a luxury which they delight in, and which tends to eradicate dirt from their skins, and to keep the pores open. When brought to the coast for shipment, they are peut up in close enclosures, or sheds, and subject to the discomfort of fetid air. Their food, too, is changed from the stinted and coarse herbage of the mountains to clover and grain. Ou board ship they are confined in small coops, exposed to the foul air of bilge water, and the equally offensive exhalations of guano, and are again fed also upon clover and grain-a diet by no means adapted to animals which have been always previously used to a most stinted and abstemious diet, and

particularly so, as, from their deprivation of exercise, their systems are no prepared for so sudden a change as from thin potations to luxurious fare. Again: upon their arrival in Great Britain, through a mistaken kindness, instead of being at once sent to highland and mountain pastures, they are put upon the forcing system, to gormandize themselves into a surfeit; and thus, through riotous living, (if we may use the term,) to engender disease. The cost of the alpaca, including the purchase and transportation to the shipping port from the mountains, is trifling-not exceeding $5 a head; and we should presume that the freight to America would not exceed from $15 to $20 a head; so that the cost here, per capita, could not, in any event, exceed $25. But, as it would be advisable to have them accompanied by a native shepherd, the cost of his passage and wages should be taken into the bill of expenses; and hence, if importations were made into this country, it would be well for several gentlenen farmers to join, in order that the shepherd's expenses might be divided among them.

We have brought this subject to the notice of our readers, because we are most sensibly impressed with the belief that there is an obvious necessity for a change in the system of husbandry of this country; that other products than those now raised will have to be grown, to maintain such prices as will prove remunerative of the labor bestowed and capital invested. We have long foreseen that there was abroad a spirit of concentration upon particular crops, and an expansion of the quantity grown, that would operate to decrease their moneyed value. Among these, we will, for the present, enumerate three great staples of the planting and farming interests. The cotton, tobacco, and wheat culture, within the last few years, have been so extended, as that it may now be said to have reached a point of production beyond the demand, and to indicate, with unerring certainty, that a portion of the force now engaged in growing these productions must be diverted to other and new pursuits. We have arrived at this conclusion after long, impartial, and serious reflection; and we should consider ourself faithless to the trust reposed in us, as the editor of this journal, did we not, in all frankness, so express ourself. We speak now of the cotton, tobacco, and wheat, grown within the limits of our own happy Union; but when we reflect upon the experiments already made in Texas in the culture of these products, and consider the adaptation of her soil and climate to such purposes, we are the more strongly impressed with the necessity which exists for diversifying our own agricultural labors.

Impressed as we have been with these sentiments for a considerable time, it is now two years since that we suggested the introduction into our agricultural pursuits of the culture of madder; and many months since we endeavored to claim the attention of our readers in behalf of an extension of sheep culture. And now we have deemed it our duty to present to their consideration the propriety of importing alpacas, with the view of their engaging in the most profitable branch of wool growing.

The English farmers and noblemen have already tested the important truths, that the alpaca does not deteriorate by being translated to the highlands of England, Scotland, and Ireland; but, on the contrary, that the animal undergoes a most striking improvement in his capacities for earlier breeding, as well as in the quality and quantity of his fleece; and with these facts, thus satisfactorily established to our hands, we do think it should be a sufficient inducement with farmers and planters to go at once into the experiment of testing the question whether our country is not equally

well adapted to the introduction of the alpacas as either England, Ireland, or Scotland.

In our vast territory, there are millions of acres of mountain lands which are now not producing a dollar a year to their proprietors, that might be converted into alpaca pastures, and thus be rendered sources of great profit. In Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, there are mountains and highlands enough, if converted into walks for the sheep of the Andes, as would, in a very few years, add a million to the annual income of those States. Then, we ask, why should the intelligent planters and farmers of those States hesitate to engage in an enterprise that could not fail to be productive of the most striking pecuniary advantages to themselves and their common country?

Alpaca wool.-More than two million pounds of wool of this beautiful animal were imported into Great Britain, in the year 1843, from western South America. This fact alone shows the great importance of the animal, and the propriety of efforts to acclimate it in this country. Enlightened and patriotic individuals in England have expended considerable sums for this purpose, with the brightest prospects of success.

In Nos. 8 and 9 of the Farmer and Mechanic is a reprint of an English work, containing a full history of the attempts to introduce the alpaca into Great Britain. The work has two engravings, and is afforded for 20 cents, although the English copy cost $1 371.

No. 37.

POULTRY.

Poultry may justly be classed among the most profitable as well as convenient appendages of the farmer's stock. This affords daily nourishment, and furnishes the means of manufacturing the luxuries of life. If we were for a time deprived of poultry, our loss would be severely felt; the products of this branch of supplies are so intimately interwoven with the various dishes for the table. No capital is more profitable than that which is invested in the business of raising poultry. It would not be an over-estimate, we believe, to place the value of the poultry in the United States at $12,000,000. Its importance deserves more attention. The public are greatly indebted to Mr. Bement, for his excellent publication on this subject, styled the "American Poulterer's Companion.' We have made, from this work, a few short extracts, designed to teach some important things in respect to the bearing of the subject on the agricultural and other interests of our country:

"But though most farmers keep fowls, and raise their own eggs, there are many who have not learned the difference there is in the richness and flavor of eggs produced by fat and well-fed hens, and those from birds that have been half-starved through our winters. There will be some difference in size, but far more in the quality. The yelk of the one would be large, fine colored, and of good consistence, and the albumen, or white, clear and pure; while the contents of the other will be watery and meager, as though there were not vitality or substance enough in the parent fowl to properly carry out and complete the work that nature had sketched. In

order, therefore, to have good eggs, the fowls should be well fed, and also provided, during the months they are unable to come to the ground, with a box containing an abundance of fine gravel, that they may be able to grind and prepare their food for digestion. Of eggs, those from the domestic hen are decidedly the best; but those of ducks and geese may be used for some of the purposes of domestic cookery."-Page 10.

"In well-fed fowls, the difference will be seen, not only in the size and flesh of the fowls, but in the weight and goodness of the eggs; two of which go further in domestic uses than three from hens poorly fed or half starved."-Page 31.

"To promote fecundity and great laying in the hens, it is necessary that they be well fed on grain, boiled potatoes, (given to them warm,) and, occasionally, animal food. In the summer, they get their supply of animal food in the form of worms and insects when suffered to run at large, unless their number is so great as to consume beyond their supply in their roving distance."-Page 33.

The following communication from Mr. Bement, taken from the American Agriculturist, will likewise be read with interest, as it shows the degree of profit, ascertained by actual experiment, derived from about 100 fowls:

"I noticed, in the last number of the American Agriculturist, some queries propounded by a correspondent over the signiture of H. C. M.' in regard to the profits from, number of eggs obtained, and amount of food consumed by a given number of fowls per year.

"Now, sir, in the first place, I would recommend to your correspondent to try the experiment himself, even if it be on a small scale-say from twelve to twenty fowls. Keep an accurate account with them; charge the cost of the fowls, the food they consume, and all expenses attending them. Keep an accurate account of all the eggs obtained, and all the chickens raised; and, at the end of the year, credit the eggs and the stock on hand, and the queries will be answered. But, as he probably wishes to avail himself of the experience of others, and jump into the business at once, I will endeavor to gratify him by giving the result of some of my experience.

"When I first moved on to my farm, I kept about one hundred fowls, which were allowed to run and roost where they pleased, annoying me in the garden, destroying my grain, and soiling my implements, and from which we did not obtain over one thousand eggs and about sixty chickens during the year. I then built me a poultry house, and enclosed about onefourth of an acre of ground with a picket fence between six and seven feet high, placed the fowls in it, and commenced keeping debit and credit with them. In six months and seven days we obtained from sixty hens two thousand six hundred and fifty-five eggs. The year following, from the same number of hens, we obtained over four thousand eggs.

"Hens that are well fed and attended to will average about ninety eggs each per year; and they will consume about thirty-eight quarts of grain, in proportion as follows, per head, in the same time:

"The amount consumed within the year, of the different kinds of grain,