THE antiquity of that Spanish proverb, “Whereon the foot of the sheep touches, the land is turned into gold,” I am not able to determine; yet its truth many thousands of our countrymen, I know, seek to test. There is a sheep and wool mania throughout the northwest, and the caution of many accredited wise men is, that “sheep must go down; these fancy sheep will soon have had their day.” The fearful ones remember the “hen fever,” and the “morus multicaulis” excitement; but these citations are no argument against the animal with the “golden hoof,” and the growth of wool as an article of production next in importance to our bread, which now promises so much comfort and wealth for the husbandman of the prairies.

In this article I may advert to the east and the south; of the first, especially, Vermont has proven that good-blooded stock will find both admirers and purchasers.

The south has enlisted some of the best writing talent in favor of sheep husbandry; and bold, practical men, under adverse circumstances, have found most satisfactory results in that country; but I have no guide in my attempt to make a plea for the sheep in their adaptation to the prairies; certainly I have seen no paper on the subject in our “Patent Office Reports.” The weight of testimony has, until of late, been against our grasses, our climate, and sheep husbandry as an occupation; but the expansion of our population, practical experiences, and national adversity, record facts which have a vital relation to the material interests of the northwest.

The States of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan have expended more than two hundred millions of dollars in the construction of railroads.. They have brought life to a thousand cities and villages on the “iron ways,” and wealth to such farmers as have found a near market and an easy transportation of their grain to the older States. But the demand for grain is met, the warehouses are full, and in central Iowa wheat is a drug in the market at fifty cents, and corn a fifteen cents a bushel; and the future is not full of promise; our lands are fast being exhausted, and for a wheat market we must depend upon a scarcity in the Old World, and even then the profits must be determined by the carriers and toll-gatherers by sea and land, who fix their rates of transportation as high as is possible and not amount to a prohibition of the products ready for a market.

Not less than a million of farmers seek relief and enhanced profits by a varied agriculture. There is another million of industrial pioneers many miles distant from a railroad, who seek to practice the most obvious principles of domestic economy in raising on their farms those products which can be taken to market for the smallest per cent. of their value.

Pork and beef raising have brought fair returns, and well-directed enterprise anticipates and is prepared to meet the wants of the country for years to come.  The prairie States as yet produce not one-fourth the beef and pork they might if labor and population were proportioned to the natural resources of the soil; but even now our eastern friends say, “you of the west have ruined our beef-raising and pork production; it is better to buy than to employ men to till our farms.  These products, then, require no stimulation, and we can on mutual terms do as we have, and in other directions better.

"Wherewithal shall we be clothed” is one of the problems of to-day. Rebellion has diminished the supply of cotton, and raised it in the great markets of the world to almost fabulous prices; and such is the derangement of labor, that an early peace or a compromise would fail to meet, by a production of cotton, a supply equal to the great demand.

It was a reproach to our agricultural interests that in years of peace our production of wool did not keep pace, by at least fifty millions of pounds per annum, with the increasing demands of the country, stimulated by advancing civilization, rational ideas of the need of warm clothing, and the augmentation of our population. The deficiency now must be an appalling fact, painful to all who take pride in our country as on the way to national independence, with unbounded varied production and native resource. And we must submit longer to this in penalty for late-bought wisdom, since a million of men are taken from the ranks of peaceful producers, to form an army, which never saves, but “wastes and wears,” as if the best-clothed army in the world had inexhaustible resources.

"King Cotton” aspired to clothe the world, with the aid of a vicious, unnatural system of labor. Right, reason, and the events of the times have hurled from power the pretentious prerogatives, and left for us bu the former seat of a king, over whose dethronement there are awakened no emotions kindred to those awakened by the personification of real fallen royalty. Our feelings are those of joy, for the great west waits with impatience the inauguration of the reign of the “Prince of Wool.” This shall be in the practical realization of that for which our great land is fitted in nature: the raising of “animals with the golden hoof,” and the production of a warm and healthful clothing for our people, and a cheap, palatable, and nutritious food.

Our prairie farmers have at a late hour awakened to their real interests; and to meet those who would reproach them for their tardiness, it may be said, in palliation, that in the newer states speculation and not production has engaged a large class. The real pioneers have been occupied with the wheat-field to meet the wants of the family, and produce the largest return from the work of their animals at the plough.

A new country is the paradise of poor men, and the high rates of interest, such as are unknown in the east, have rendered the purchase of stock an impossibility. The visitor, too, has coveted so many broad, fair acres which he found money to purchase, that the meeting of taxes and ordinary expenditures has made a demand equal to the full measure of his ability. And then flocks near at hand were out of the question, and the driving them 600 to 1,000 miles from the localities where they were to be found, seemed a forbidding, unprofitable journey. I should mention, too, that numerous and palpable failures alarmed the timid, and put back wool-growing many years. I hear the echo yet of changes rung on the failures in the older counties of this State, and being indisposed to admit the theories of the day, I have been pointed to the bleaching bones of well-bred flocks, and reminded that an easy way to sink a fortune is to go into the "sheep speculation.”

Having spoken of the failures, it is fit that I should here account for them.  Small flocks have shown a poor increase, for the reason that lambs have been allowed to drop at all seasons, and, as the rule, they were sure to come in the coldest and most inclement months, If thirty per cent. withstood the exposure, it was called “good luck.” It was, too, a common practice to “let the sheep run,” being sure to find them by the ear-mark for shearing, and at the approach of winter, on a deep fall of snow, in the mean time giving dogs, wolves, and lovers of mutton opportunity to decimate the flock at pleasure. Large flocks have suffered by experimenters, who have made astonishing profits with figures, on the basis of what has been done with a small flock and good attention; but in the sequel their failures have only proven the truth of the old proverb, "no pains, no gains.”

A novice in wool-growing, when making his purchases, asks how many for the money, not how good, and he gathers his flock in Ohio or Pennsylvania.  They are old, or young and ill-bred; if cheap, in poor condition, and through dust and under a burning sun they make the journey, worried by dogs and faint from nursing their lambs. Reaching their new prairie home, the frost has been there before them, and the native grasses are worthless. There is no fresh meadow feed, and winter finds the flock poor, unacclimated, and to be further tested as to strength and tenacity of life by late-cured and frost-bitten hay.

As a substitute for the warm sheds enjoyed by the flock the previous winter, they must accommodate themselves to a fence for shelter, (a tight board fence would have been as a luxury;) and the straw sheds which did answer a purpose were often found eaten out or blown away. In these large plans of operations 500 or 1,000 head were kept together as “doing well enough.”

Death was sure to make the flock less; and near the “ides of March,” when the number was conveniently small by fever and further deaths, the scene would be closed by the discouragement and ruin of the owner, and the knowing nod of the visitor, with the consolatory and explanatory observation that “this is not a healthy country for sheep.”

Dr. J. M. Shaffer, Secretary of the Iowa State Agricultural Society, a close observer, and a gentleman of high attainments in many respects, wrote for the public last year: “The wool-growers of Pennsylvania and Ohio settled hereabouts, brought stock with them, and in a short time abandoned the effort, proclaiming that the climate was unfavorable; that the texture of the wool deteriorated; that the winters were very disastrous to the flocks, and the wolves scarcely less so. Did they consider that their sheep had nothing but wild grass for food, and no adequate shelter from the storms, such as they were accustomed to in the older States? We contend that wool-growing could be made a most profitable business here. In no country do tame grasses produce more luxuriant growths. There is plenty of water, abundance of timber for protection, both in its forest state and as affording material for the proper buildings for their protection in the winter. Wherever it has been tried, surrounding the stock with the proper elements for its nutrition and safe-keeping, it has succeeded.”  This is proof as to failures, and I have a large number of such and varied testimonies, which I forbear to give.  “From one know all.”

I pass to the question: What are the inducements to engage in sheep husbandry in the west? These are of a peculiar and a general nature. Those peculiar are found, first, in the disturbed condition of the country. The old landmarks of enterprise and labor are removed, and in the midst of changes “we know not what a day may bring forth,” while this is certain, that man must, in this clime, continue to he the “clothes-wearing animal,” and that cotton, as the material on which our people are to rely, is out of the question. We must have a substitute, and economy and comfort suggest that we place our dependence in wool and flax, both suited to our climate and soil. For the successful use of flax we wait in hope on the promised inventions and improvements of those who will give us the prepared fiber at a low price, and the linen without the distaff, insuring that smooth, strong cloth, of cheap home manufacture, which to sleep on and wear during a large portion of the year, as did our fathers years agone, will be a novelty and a luxury.

Wool is no exotic. Earnestness and skill are the first requisites, and a production of wool equal to the wants of all the dwellers on the continent will be at hand, bringing into use millions of acres of the finest native sheepwalks, now producing grass that is just suited to the flock, which is left unclipped only to be crisped by frosts and swept away by autumnal fires. Disturbed labor and inadequate production point to a virgin empire in extent, and invite the world to a way of wealth, and to independence of cotton, which secured, cuts the sinews of the rebellion, diversifies our productions, gives scope to rational enterprise, subsistence and hope to those who would find a homestead on the free or cheap lands of the northwest.

At no period in our country’s history, all the advantages considered, have sheep lands been as cheap as now. Heavy timber lands required a large outlay before grasses could be grown. Government openings and prairies years ago were at a great distance from railroads or navigable streams. Now the large owners of lands near towns and railways must realize. Reverses have thrown lands, where there are roads, and schools, and society, into market. War has called the best of our farmers from home, and good farms can be had for the tilling and the taxes.

Further peculiar inducements are found in the want of labor. It will require years to recover from this shock to our producing interests occasioned by the war; and there is a practical question, What profitable enterprises require the least labor? Wool-growing is one. The dairy enslaves the household. In pork-raising, swine take the most of their food from the hand or pail. Wheat-raising is a constant tax on muscle, as it is a drain on the soil. Different is the flock that during more than half the year may stroll over the prairies, requiring but the attentions of a boy and dog to keep in advance of the ewes, that they may be folded at nightfall.  Little attentions go far in insuring success in sheep husbandry; and even the girls will consider it a pastime and a pleasure to give attention to the lambs. The schoolboy and the invalid, as a recreation, may bestow much of the care required by the flock, and but little is left for sturdy labor. The grass is mown and gathered by machinery and horse-power with such skill that two good laborers are equal to the task of furnishing winter food for a thousand sheep.

Another inducement is found in the present high price of wool. At this writing good wools are in demand at from 60 to 80 cents the pound. It must require years to meet the demand for this staple, and extremely low prices may not be anticipated. The increase, too, will be in demand, which is worth not less, annually, than the wool. A good lamb brings $2, and ordinary store sheep $4 each, and much lower prices will be regarded as remunerative. The inducements to sheep husbandry, which are of a general nature, are found, first, in the actual profits of the business.  No position is more susceptible of proof than this, that a pains-taking farmer, with a good flock of sheep, is independent.  This is his position as a wool-grower in the older States, where the pastures are circumscribed and grain is expensive; where the increase has been of slow sale, and close keeping has given a light clip of wool.

Hon. H. S. Randall—very high authority—who resides in the region of the averaged priced lands in New York and the east, says: “I have kept Merino sheep more than thirty years. * * *  The fleeces of the flock (not counting wethers) have averaged over two dollars per annum. On the best lands in the State it now costs about two dollars a head annually to keep a Merino sheep. * * * The lambs and manure are clear gain.”

The highest estimate of the cost of keeping a sheep in Iowa, in a flock of 500 or upwards, is not over one dollar, and this embraces high feeding with corn in such a quantity as will contribute to ready maturity, high flesh, and a heavy fleece.  This is not the lowest estimate. Favorable contracts for both, parties have been made for keeping at 60 cents per head, including washing and shearing.  These are my estimates for Iowa on a flock of 1,000 head; that the total cost of hay, straw, corn, ricks, hovels for shelter, washing and shearing, and service of the shepherds, is not over $1,000.

The profits are estimated by a clip of wool, 4,000 pounds, at, say, 40 cents a pound, $1,600. Say 500 lambs, at $2 each, $1,000. Those figures, calling the flock worth $4 a head, and the interest of the capital invested $400, will give a profit which ought to be satisfactory, and the present actual value of wool and the increase would add to the above fully 30 per cent. Profits are further determined by the comparative small cost in transporting wool to the best markets.

At any point two hundred miles from Chicago this ratio of cost in freighting is well established: that to transport your products to the seaboard, on wheat you pay 80 per cent. of its value; on pork 30 per cent.; on beef 20 per cent.; gross on wool 4 per cent. This is not conjecture, but my own experience, that I give 80 percent. of the value of my wheat which impoverishes my farm, to find a market; and 4 per cent. to find the best wool market, the production of which enriches my acres beyond computation.

National development and expansion, not less than our independence of cotton and the vicious system of labor which has supported its pretensions to kingship, are involved in the early clothing of our prairies with bleating flocks.  We have room and occupation for hundreds of thousands, who should go forth in swarms from our teeming cities to escape crowded garrets and the death damps of cellars. To the young man who believes “the behavior of sheep as fascinating under any circumstances,” and finds no room on the “old farm” in the east, we can say: Here is room—an unclaimed are a larger by thousands of square miles than the land of Midian, from which the Israelites brought forth three-fourths of a million of sheep as spoils—a range of country from southern Kansas to the latitude of St. Paul, in Minnesota, on the north, as varied in climate and production, and better adapted to the wants of the shepherd than the famed walks of Spain, varying as the southern plains of Andalusia and the northern snow-clad mountains, on and between which extremes there were depastured, with profit, several millions of sheep, the progenitors. of our famed Merinos.

The purpose to raise our own wool and to cease importation is not enough.  We can export, and prove not only that the best sheep known are in our country, but that our cheap, rich lands, salubrious climate, coupled with American enterprise and skill, are at onge the promise of wealth and an attraction to all seeking a home and remunerative occupation.

This may be the place to say that the more common and varied use of woollens greatly contributes to general health and comfort. These are the days of cotton and rheumatism. We must return to the use of wool in our variable climate. What is health for the soldier may be to the citizen.

The fireman on the steamer, and the sailor in the exposures of heat and storm, clad in woollen, escape the aches and coughs to which the less exposed are subject by the substitution of cotton. This subject of wide dimensions is engaging the attention of the medical fraternity, and there can be no doubt that sanitary reform will look to the more general use of woollen for men in all the ranks and occupations of life.

The extension of sheep husbandry is related to the moral improvement and general culture of our population. Wheat-growers are said to work in the summer to make their money; and in the winter, with nothing to do, work as hard to keep from spending what they made.

In old “cider-making times” the ludicrous yet truthful account of the late fall and winter work was: In the fall we made thirty barrels of cider, and in the winter “me and the boys drank it up.” Different from those enterprises which throw the work into a few months, and then.leave the laborer to sink into idleness, sheep give all the year round employment, and the fairest division of labor for all seasons, and yet time for reading, recreation, and rest.

The flock becomes an every-day study—an instructor as to the great laws of animal life and scientific development, and truly contributes to elevation of character, not less than to the unfolding of the wisdom of the Creator, who, though he had cursed the ground, kept the occupation of Abel—the first keeper of sheep, who “brought of the firstlings of his flock”—in association with wealth, purity, and renown through the centuries of which we have knowledge in the records of sacred and profane history.

Let me not be understood as advocating a great flock for the prairies—an overshowing enterprise which promises an easily-made colossal fortune. All great gains which are material are related to losses of some description; for in every sphere of activity there is a law of compensation linked to us as by the chain of destiny. I would promote home independence, which is formed by diversified labor, and a rational but not unnatural expenditure of energy.

In the great facts of to-day that five noblemen own one-fourth of Scotland; that thousands of square miles of the worn-out tobacco lands of Virginia and the forsaken cotton fields of the Carolinas had few proprietors, who worked many slaves, there are no suggestions of happiness, social order, and intelligence in the gradations from “ the chariot to the plough.” I would not emu- Iate those who have become rich by wool-growing in Texas, California, and Australia, compelled to sacrifice neighborhood society, and denied a population dense enough to sustain schools and churches. What is wealth when its accumulation is attended with the relapse of the shepherds and their families into ignorance and coarseness, being lowered often into the scale of the vile by immoral association with "half-breeds” and roving desperados. We abjure the flocks of thousands for single estates, which necessitate nomadic life and a sparse population, and bring a deprivation of these blessings which are at once the bond of neighborhoods and the promise of virtue and intelligence unattained by the shepherd kings in the infancy of our race, never to be enjoyed by those who prefer isolation, and to be "monarch of all they survey,” rather than the rural and rival companionship of farm neighbors, however humble.

On this topic I have but a few lines, for the books have wide and critical discussions of the various breeds which now enlist the attention of the American shepherd, and newspaper articles by men of experience and comparison have covered the ground which I might otherwise occupy.

James S. Grinnell, esq., now of the Agricultural Department, has a learned and critical article on various breeds and their history, in the Massachusetts Agricultural Report of 1860; and the Hon. H.S. Randall has a most practical and exhaustive paper in the last New York State Agricultural Report, on the Merino sheep. Distant from Chicago and large cities in the west, coarse- woolled mutton sheep are not highly esteemed. They produce less wool than the Merino; consume more food; are unsuited by nature to congregating in large flocks, and do not live as long as the Spanish Merino.  With novices in breeding, the size of the Spanish sheep is against them, and it is a prevalent opinion that their flesh for the table has no value. I have held that grass-fed grade Merino. mutton is far inferior to that of the coarse-woolled sheep; but that when fed on corn through the winter the “sheep taste” is gone, and the meat is delicious. Mr. Randall, in his report referred to, makes this strong case for my favorites:

The meat of the Merino, when well fattened and properly treated, (not cooked and eaten too soon after being killed,) is juicy, short-grained, high colored, and well flavored. Though the scarcity and value of full blood Merinos have prevented many of them from appearing in our markets, the grades have always been favorites with the butcher and consumer.  The former finds that they weigh well for their apparent size, and get to market in excellent condition. There is not a drove that sweeps from the plains of the northwest that does not exhibit a sprinkling of this blood; and if they are merely grass-fed, the twenty fattest and least travel-worn sheep in the drove will usually be found those which, by a little darker tinge of their wool and its greater thickness and ‘squareness on the ends,’ betray more Merino blood.”

The French Merinos have lost their popularity, being a sheep with less constitution than the Spanish, and only producing a great growth of wool when kept in high condition. Yet some of the heaviest shearing flocks within my knowledge are French stock crossed by the use of Spanish bucks.

“Both (French and Spanish) have their admirers, and I suppose that circumstances and locality will govern to a great extent, without deciding between them. In central Illinois and south where they can be herded on grass the most of the year, and corn is grown cheap and in great abundance at a low price, I think the French will always prove the most profitable. * * * The wethers make good mutton, will fatten readily in large flocks, and will fall but little behind the mutton sheep in weight, and when the wool and mutton are taken into-account they will prove a profitable breed for the farmer.”

The Silesian Merinos have of late been brought into competition with French and Spanish stock. It is claimed that they are pure Spanish sheep. Louis Fischer, of Silesia, has their pedigree running back to 1811, and claims them as the best Infantado ewes crossed with Negretti bucks. They are not as large as our American Merinos, nor as dark-colored on the surface. The wool is oily, but free from gum, and does not on the surface stick together.

Mr. William H. Ladd, of Richmond, Jefferson county, Ohio, one of the most liberal and intelligent breeders of stock in our country, is an advocate of the Silesian. In a letter before me he says:  "That by judicious classification, numbering, and selection, for fifty-two years without any outside cross, they have obtained an identity of characteristics never reached in a large flock before.” He adds: “That having bred these sheep now a number of years, I consider them to have good constitutions. Owing to their great purity of blood and fixedness of characteristics, they possess the power of transmitting their qualities to a remarkable degree, when crossed upon the other fine-woolled sheep of the country. I have sold ewes to be crossed upon almost all classes of fine-woolled sheep, and never knew them fail to increase the weight of fleece by adding to the density.”

"The sheep appear to excel in the following points: In the thickness of the wool as it stands on the skin, growing to an unusual extent on the belly, and covering every part, giving an uncommon weight of fleece in proportion to the size of the carcase; in the fineness of staple, considered in reference to the weight of fleece; in the uniform character of the fleece, the wool on the belly and thighs approximating, in a remarkable degree, to the quality of that on the back; in the fullness, evenness, and elasticity of staple.”

“The sheep are well shaped; * * * the body pleasing and symmetrical to the eye. The different individuals, also, bear a close resemblance to each other. They appear to have good constitutions.”

"They have more good points than any sheep I have ever met with before. They are clothed in wool from tfie nose to the hoof; it is thickly set and of an even surface—a perfect wool staple. . * * * They will shear as much, according to weight of carcase, I am sure, as any sheep I ever saw. It is quite fine for Merinos, clear and white on the inside, but quite dark on the outer ends.”

So much of testimony may be due to a class little known, but having ardent admirers, while my favorites for the prairies—the Spanish stock wherever bred—"speak for themselves;” and I come now to

On the “old farm" it is easy for the son to do what his father has done for years before him successfully; but in a new country, with a numerous flock, and without practical experience, he is likely to follow the unskilled, and meet the losses and derision, represented in the homely figure of “coming out at the little end of the horn.”

Men advanced in years, who have made the flock a life-study, have, according to their own convictions, passed but to the threshold of inquiry; but they have given us of to-day a noble vantage ground, with the strong reflections of light from their failures, successes, and philosophy. They have so far established sheep-breeding as a science as to bring the eminent flock-masters of the Old World into the company of princes and the learned; and the pioneer shepherds of our own country, embracing Livingston, Humphreys, Jarvis, and others, by their devotion to sheep, the animal, have eclipsed their valuable civil and diplomatic service. Being too benevolent to "put their light under a bushel,” and telling plainly to eager learners what they knew, they have caused their names to be gratefully apostrophized to-day in the homes where the flock has a friend, and more intelligently revered than was Pan in heathen mythology by the shepherds on the plains of the east. Theirs and the later experience is, that “blood tells,” and that good stock from the best families is desirable, yet not essential to success, since it is as easy by good management to be possessed of a good flock as it is of a fortune.  Full-bloods were not always within the reach of those who have established a good flock.  Fortunate in procuring bucks of pure blood, they were used, and the best of their stock was crossed to remedy defects, and the more perfect models again used until, in many cases, the crosses have, in beauty, constitution, and product of wool, surpassed those of noble pedigree. I observe now in Vermont flocks but faint evidences of the Saxon blood, which, but a few years ago, predominated, causing the flocks to be well near worthless. Eminent French writers declare that however coarse the fleece of the present ewe may have been, the progeny in the fourth generation will not show it. In a few generations the best staple found may be obtained even from our native stock of ewes; and if, as is said to be true, there is no difference now made in Europe in the choice of a buck, whether he is full blood or fifteen-sixteenths, we may be less mortified by the impositions to which we are subjected, having bought stock showing well, yet of doubtful blood.

It is fatal to success to overstock and allow the flock to sink into the extreme of poverty. This is attended with a loss of wool and the degeneracy of the increase. The other extreme is a forced, unnatural growth, by too high keeping, that produces a weakness which is stamped upon the offspring, and becomes the occasion of discouragement to the sanguine purchaser of stock, who must see his “bloods" go down, or prepare for them every delicate attention and prevention against cold and storm, as if the nurse of old age, infirmity, of childhood’s weakness. The old Greek maxim for the boy was, "become that which you would wish to appear;” and it is a departure from the principles of common honesty for the breeder to show animals for sale which are pampered, and will lose their attractive appearance when subjected to common yet proper treatment.

Let the flock be well prepared for winter.  The early frosts will destroy our native grass, and then oats in the skeaf may be fed, and the stubble-land may be pastured, but to make it certain that the fat taken on in the summer is kept there at the latest day possible, timothy grass should be laid down, and be reserved for the flock until the prairie grass is frosted. Rye, too, may be sown as a substitute for grass. For lambs, it is most admirably adapted. It may be sown among the corn, and on the approach of winter it will be found that the lambs have learned by degrees to eat the corn and to have attained an astonishing growth at late autumn.

Winter being upon us by the first of December, this is the time for sorting.  Lambs should always be folded separate. Yearlings having weak teeth should, if there is a flock of over one hundred, be fed by themselves. Large wethers should be sorted out from the ewes, and the breeding-ewes put in a pen of such dimensions, with gates, that they may be handled with ease, and when in season, served with promptness and marked, that the time of their lambing may be known, and the sire of their offspring. Once two weeks the teasers may be turned in, to find such as have escaped impregnation. It is never a good practice to let the buck run at large with the ewes, but where there are not more than thirty or forty ewes, after the first week, it will do. I depend on a full-grown buck for from fifty to one hundred ewes.

Every good shepherd will have a hospital flock, on which he will bestow extra attention, and to which he will add from time to time such as are drooping, or are pushed aside from their grain, or are doing poorly from any cause.

Sheds which will keep out the wind and rain are essential. When boards are not to be had, poles and a good covering of straw will be a substitute for one or two winters.  I am not partial to close confinement in tight sheds, except it is a necessity to keep the flocks from wolves or dogs, or to keep the ewes from exposure in lambing time. Let the sheds be low and open on the south side, and if the extreme cold for a long period pinches and impoverishes the flock, increase the feed of grain and you restore the warmth and arrest the decline. Cold is favorable fo a good growth of wool, but to economize food and insure the health of the flock the more even the temperature the better.

A good feeder will have hay-boxes and grain-troughs. The flocks may live if fed on the ground, but nothing less than keen hunger will force so delicate an animal to take its food from the wet and filth of the yard. The racks will more than pay their cost by a saving of hay in one winter, and if grain not in the sheaf or ear is fed for more than one-half the season, troughs will be an imperative necessity.

It is a part of good management to indulge the epicurean tastes of the flock.  Why should the sheep be confined to the same variety of food from month to month, a treatment which we would deem a hardship? Every pioneer farmer can cut prairie grass, which is a suitable, well-relished food, and Hungarian hay cut early is very nutritious; then he may make up a variety by feeding oats in the sheaf, timothy hay, and corn cut before frosts and fed in the bulk, Many well-wintered flocks have subsisted on cut-up corn mainly, which has increased the weight of the fleece above that attained by ordinary keeping full 20 per cent. There is no excuse for having poor stock, if they are fed three times a day, and furnished with salt and good water and such varieties of food as our country readily furnishes.

So soon as the snow has passed off in the spring, there is a strong temptation to let the flock out on the ground and effect a saving of expense in feeding.  This is a ruinous practice. Fasting becomes a necessity, if there is not grass, and the flock is returned to dry hay, wasted in flesh, and with a loss of appetite when the breeding ewes especially should have received extra attentions by a daily feeding of roots or bran, that there might be an abundance of milk for the lambs.

If the lambing season does not begin before there is a good bite of grass, the shepherd will be spared much of vexatious care, but um%er the most favorable circumstances it will be found the Ppoorest economy to forego personal attentions for a single day. Occasionally a ewe will sink under the labor of parturition, and must be relieved. Often the best sheep will refuse to let the lamb suck because of the distention and inflammation of the udder, and for several days the milk must be drawn away by hand. In the case of abortions, malformations and the birth of twins or the loss of a mother, there will be found enough of nursing and mating to give a profitable employment.

Tagging, which is not so necessary as at the east, owing to the astringent nature of our prairie grasses, may be done early to prevent this gathering of filth on the most exposed parts of the wool. It is also a good practice to shear the wool and sweat-locks from the udder and vicinity, that the young lamb may readily find the teat.

I forbear to speak of the best washing methods, being opposed to the practice as one injurious to the sheep—often detrimental to the health of the washer— presenting a temptation to half do what ought to be well done if at all; and so varied is the time between washing and shearing allowed by different owners, and such is the apparent unconcern of the wool-purchaser whether the flock just from the stream was herded on the sod or the sand, that I am persuaded the honor and interest of both the producer and purchaser of wools would be subserved by a public sentiment which inhibits the practice of sheep-washing altogether.  If the wool-buyers would make only a deduction of 20 per cent. on the unwashed fleece, which, I think, would be reasonable, I should never wash another flock.

To shearing and folding we attach importance. Boys can do the shearing.  It is not common for a man advanced even to middle life to take up the business successfully. The learner must be patient, and content to clip a small amount of wool for the first few days. Neither violence nor a great amount of strength will be required if the sheep is kept “on end,” and practice will soon show that the position is the natural one, preventing successful struggles on the art of the sheep, and the only sure protection against torn fleeces. The barn door, in preparation for shearing, should be as clean as the house floor, and a platform made of planed plank, should set about eighteen inches high, go that the neck of the sheep may rest on the thigh of the shearer, having one foot on the platform. Sheep, to shear well, must have a full stomach, and have a good covering of flesh on their bones. It is no object to take the last ounce of wool, for in the process clips of hide are usually taken, and the animal is exposed to being sunburnt, and will more readily take cold on exposure.

A second platform, built as high as the waist of the folder is necessary, and this should be smooth, that the wool may be put up neatly and in compact form, exposing the shoulder, the best part of the fleece, "of course.” I prefer a folding box on which the twine is laid; by bringing up the sides and ends fastened by hinges, you have compressed fleeces of uniform shape.

It is quite time that there was a uniform gractice of storing our wool at home, or in a neat place prepared for the neighborhood, rather than to pack it off through dust for a street show, and when in the hands of the purchasers, left to their combinations and the daily fancy quotations of the market. Prairie wool has a dark color, given to it by the soil and burnt god, but this does not detract from its value; and if it is a long staple, grown on a healthy sheep, yielding to the touch and corky, it has a real value which will bring eager purchasers the distance of a long journey.

Good summer treatment will consist in furnishing ample pasturage, by allowing the flock in the open country a feeding circuit of miles, that they may cull the choicest blades in valley and on hill-top, permitting them to slake their thirst at pleasure, and choose the hours and time when they will rest in the shade. The yard for folding should be on the side of a hill that an accumulation of wet and filth may be avoided, and when the flock is large there should be a change of yard at least once a week. If the pastures are enclosed, it will be found conducive to health to change the flock as often as twice each month.  My rule in salting is to feed not less than four quarts a week to a flock of one hundred head.

Lambs should be weaned at the age of four months. When passing through this severe trial it is best to put them on a fresh pasture, and so far removed from the dams that their bleating cannot be heard, and they will soon become quiet and thrive well. In every large flock there will be those which are small and weak. Often the very best bloods may prove poor nurses; but if with early attention, in addition to fresh feed, a daily allowance of bran or oats is furnished, all may be wintered.

I have but glanced at these topics, which are the “head-lands” of the subject and many important matters in the details of sheep husbandry I must leave unnoticed to abbreviate this article, adding little more than my personal experience as an admirer of the sheep and the owner of a flock, which I shall call a foot-note.

I well remember, when a boy on a Vermont farm, thirty years ago, the blooded lambs of Judge Hoyt, who had, it was said, a buck right from Spain and ewes from the flock of “Consul Jarvis,” I remember that they were unlike other sheep in that region of Vermont, which were mostly natives, and in contrast, low, thick-set, with very white faces, while the surface of the wool was of a dark color and a gummy appearance.

Saxony sheep were soon brought on to the farm, being all the rage at that day. Their wool was of remarkable fineness, and I remember the boast of their great admirer (a wool-buyer) that one of the stock clipped three pounds, and it was worth sixty cents a pound. Flocks were crossed seemingly without regard to any other quality than a fine staple, and the “silk-worms” were introduced, capping the climax of fineness, as they truly did of folly. These were so tender that to save the lamb it became the rule to dip it in a pail of tepid water, and it was only by having almost air-tight barns, and giving the closest attention, that the lambs passed through the first winter.  Fine wool was presently in less demand, and the sheep-raisers in that region of the country who had been able to do it discovered that they had a flock with a light fleece and feeble constitution.

Being weary of nursing those exotics by night and by day, I stealthily but most conscientiously inducted a buck into the yard—a cross of one of the early Merinos. This sheep was deemed as "coarse as dog’s hair,” with the declaration that not one of his lambs should be nursed by those Saxony ewes; but the lambs survived the threat, and I was their feeder the first winter, and strove to make good the cross by the best attentions which I could bestow. At shearing, their clip was five pounds six ounces each of clean-washed wool—a wonder of the day, which found its way into the papers, creating a demand the same season at good prices for all the bucks of that cross. I remember that as one of the proudest days of my life, when ex-Governor Chittenden, of Vermont, alighted from his carriage, and asked me, "Will you sell me one of those good shearing bucks?”  As a boy, I regarded it as a compliment, and it stimulated me to maintain my little reputation as a breeder and feeder.

Those days were followed by two seasons of most painful experience with the foot-rot, in a flock of several hundred, one-half of which much of the time, when in pasture, would eat on their knees, and each week their hoofs must be pared and vitriol applied.

The near approach of winter found the flocks diseased, so poor that hundreds were pelted for the wool, and the business was for a time divested of its romance by this most loathsome disease, which, happily, is unknown, or will not abide with flocks herded on the prairies.

From this period up to the last six years, I did not lose my interest in the flock, although but a theorist and an observer on various farms and at State and county fairs.

My practice was renewed six years ago, on the purchase of 100 good ewes, of about three-fourths Merino stock, from a reputable breeder in the State of Michigan. Many of this original stock are yet on my farm, good shearers and breeders.

Three years later, I purchased a few hundred more of similar stock, and two years ago a larger number; a year ago, a few hundred of superior breeds, costing from six to fifteen dollars each making my total flock purchased and raised about 4,000 head.

The average clip of the flocks, with fair keeping, is, of washed wool, about four pounds each. I do not claim a large number of bloods, but those I own have quite met my expectations. From the flock of Lyman Wood, residing in Lodi, Michigan, I purchased twenty Spanish lambs, which gave at their first shearing eleven pounds each. A company of Vermont lambs, of the same stock, numbering thirty, from the flock of the late Dr. Eels, of Cornwall, Vermont, sheared twelve pounds each, without pampering or any extra attention.  Great success I do not claim; but have demonstrated that native prairie grass, up to the time of frost, as a pasture, and when cut early for hay, is quite equal, (if embracing weeds of resinous qualities, and what is known as “blue joint" grass) to the timothy hay of the eastern meadows. It is proven, too, that the northwest furnishes a healthy home for the flock; and, further, that a removal of the sheep to the prairies, from the cast, greatly increases their size; also, that an allowance of corn to the amount of three bushels to each sheep, is both a safe and cheap food, and will add to the product of wool above that gained from common feeding not less than twenty per cent.  I estimate the enhanced value of virgin prairie, when well pastured to be equal to the government price. The native grass is killed, hence the expense of ploughing is lessened, and the soil is ready for a good crop the first season.

Another material fact, which may allay the fears of the young shepherd, is, that it is not common for the sheep to die in your debt. Your valuable horse, worth, perhaps, fifty sheep, on its death is a total loss; and from the ox or cow dying by disease, accident, or poverty, you may not save more than ten ger cent. of its cost; while from the sheep, at death, it is usual to obtain from fifty to seventy-five per cent. of its value in wool.

I have purposely avoided the minutæ of fine breeding, confident that for the present we can well forego the purchase of fancy stock, while those who have small flocks from necessity, and almost perfect apartments for winter keeping, will want us for customers a little longer. Without disparaging the favorites of any breeder, I will only say, I have tried mutton sheep. My first purchase of Cotswold crossed on the Merino resulted in a failure. A Leicester buck I have used to grade Merinos, and shall do so no more. South Downs I find hearty, early maturing sheep, of beautiful form, but very light shearers. My last full-blood ewe of the Downs died from eating too much corn, picked up in the stalk-field, and I bid adieu to coarse fancy sheep. That they have their uses, when kept in small flocks and near the cities, I will admit, but they are ill-suited to make up a large flock, and are unprofitable when wool is the prime object.

Sheep driven into this country with the foot-rot, I have observed, recover from this disease without attention; and not knowing of its existence in any flock in the State, I am of the opinion that it will not abide with us.

I have seen what is known as the scab but in one flock. There is a species of mange, or itch, which results from keeping a large number together in filthy apartments, and a want of good air. Some of my flocks have it. In addition to being a great trouble, it will, if neglected, result in a loss of wool, and in a confirmed contagious disease.

It first shows itself by violent scratching with the hind feet, and presently small yellow or purple spots will be noticed on the skin, which soon becomes bare and sore. Every sheep affected should at once be sorted out from the main flock, and dipped in a strong decoction of tobacco juice, in which vitriol, in the proportion of one ounce, of vitriol to one pound of tobacco, may be added. Two or three applications of this liquid, at intervals of a few weeks, will effect a certain cure.  A mixture of sulphur and lard is applied with good success.

I have a few cases of “stretches” in the flock each winter. It is evinced by loss of appetite, and almost continued stretching. I think it occasioned by dry food, which brings on constipation. A dose of oil, with a small admixture of turpentine, I have found to work a cure. Forcing the sheep to swallow a small quid of tobacco is said to be a safe and effective remedy.

Swelling in the throat is a late affliction which has resulted in some sections of Michigan and New York in the loss of from twenty to fifty per cent. of the young lambs. This disease has caused me the loss of a few valuable lambs, and occasioned serious apprehensions on the part of many sheep-owners.

The lambs are often weak at birth, yet by feeding, their lives may be prolonged, until the lumps in the throat become so large that respiration is no longer possible. It is an affection of the thyroid glands, and, from the early death of the lambs, it must be congenital. The disease is named clyers.  My friend, William M. Holmes, esq., of Union Village, New York, who is a good breeder and a close observer, is of the opinion that the ammonia in exhalations from filthy yards and close sheds is promotive of this modern disease, It may be scrofula, which will prove to be connected with certain classes of animals inheriting impure blood, as it is with families of the human race.

Drawing this article to a close, in which I have striven to condense the practical rather than to elaborate my thoughts, I give it as the sum of my conclusions, that the patient, intelligent wool-grower on our new lands will find no obstacles which may not be readily overcome. Present success gives the promise of such an extension of sheep husbandry that in a few years we shall not be under the necessity of importing, as now, thirty or fifty millions of pounds of wool to clothe our population. Good breeding has added, in the northern section of the Union, twenty per cent. to the weight of our fleeces during the last ten years, and the next decade promises a larger increase.

Our national sheepwalks, as yet untrod by the "golden-hoofs,” embrace an area of country larger than the pastures of ancient Assyria and the famed pastures of Europe; and had we a population one-half as dense as that of the sheep districts of France and Spain, without lessening the other staple products sent to market, we could clothe our own people, and produce a sufficiency of wool at forty cents a pound to pay the interest and principal on our debt of one thousand millions of dollars within the period of time which has been required to earn the well-deserved fame of our American Merinos.

The poetic aspirations of Colonel Humphreys, written more than a half century since, while abroad, will represent the desire of men who, in the decline of life, have left public stations, not more than the ambitious lovers of the flock in the west.

Since there is no picture of varied rural beauty drawn on canvas without the presence of the flock, I entertain the hope that there may soon be transferred a life scene to every prairie farm where is seen the prospered shepherd, and happy children witnessing the sportive glee of the lambs. Not long, then, shall we wait to hear the hum of machinery in the fabricating of our wool by our waterfalls, and the presence of refined and advancing civilization.