IMPORTED COTSWOLD EWES, YEARLINGS. Bred by Robert Earne, Aldsworth, North Leach, England. Imported and owned by Burdett Loomis, 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 duction of fancy goods from long wools for gentlemen. pro 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 intro duced 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, 674 to 73 cents; Ohio and Virginia, half to full blood merino, 55 to 62 cents; Ohio and Virginia, common to half blood merino, 473 to 57 cents; western merino, 45 to 574 cents; Canada combing, 70 to 85 cents. 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 mutton is quite as urgent as the want of combing wool, and farmers nett large cities, and many even in the interior, are finding a rich profit in a breeds. A few facts from the correspondence of this department will aid in elucid the vexed question of the comparative profit of fine and long wool sheep. from speculative operations, the latter, in suitable situations and circumsta appear to have the advantage in the comparison. From Cooper Sayre, of Oaks Corner, Ontario county, New York, a staten concerning a flock of fifty Cotswolds, regarded as thorough-bred animals, the recipients of State fair premiums, places the cost of keeping at $2 per for ewes and $2 50 for wethers. This includes five months' winter feeding hay worth ten dollars per ton, and cornstalks, with one bushel of beets per costing twenty-five cents, and a peck of oats daily for the lambs of the flo His ewes average seven pounds of clean wool each, and his wethers ele pounds. The minimum sales of the former are not less than twelve dollars ea His ewes average a yearly increase (of lambs) of 120 per cent. His princ buck weighed, at 18 months, 264 pounds. At the end of the first year he pects a weight of 140 pounds, 200 pounds at two years old, and from 200 250 at three years old, and an increase in three months feeding for market 40 pounds. He estimates the cost of care and labor, exclusive of washing shearing, at $3 each. It is an interesting fact relative to a flock of this that the loss is but three per cent. An interesting exhibit of the debtor and credit sides of a flock of South Dow is made by Ralph H. Avery, of Canastota, Madison county, New York. Takin the average yearly cost and produce of his flock as a basis, he estimates for flock of ten ewes as follows, with $19 10 each as a comfortable blance: 191 00 about He writes further as follows: " My sheep are usually sent to pasture the first of May, and put into winter quarters about the middle of November, making six and oue-half months in pasture. During the summer and autumn I 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 & supply of salt once a week. I deem it very essential that sheep have ant supply of pure running water the year round. When put into winter 8, which consist of a warm shed open on one side, a tight, warm, and dry always well bedded with straw, and well lighted and ventilated, and an ard in which there is a trough constantly supplied with water brought spring, they having free access at all times to all the different departas their instincts lead them. They are regularly fed three times each pon clover hay, cut when first in bloom and cured mostly in cock, so as serve the leaves, color, and flavor as entirely as possible. Occasionally at I feed on cornstalks, wheat, oat, or bean straw, for a variety. No grain ots are fed at any time. I, however, think a few roots, regularly fed, would neficial to their health. My sheep, thus kept, are always healthy and in condition. I never lose any except by accident. After a thorough trial of several breeds of sheep, I consider the South Downs esmost profitable for wool and mutton combined, for this section of country. hardiness, early maturity, and easy fattening qualities, together with the rior quality of their mutton, they are not equalled. In other sections of the atry other breeds might be preferred." he hardiness of the Cotswolds is well illustrated by the fact that they live thrive as far north as the Ohio river without other food, summer or winter, the natural grasses of the meadows and forests. It is a common experience he south, and a well attested fact in Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia. Anby Killgore, writing from Stewartstown, Missouri, of his flock near Maysville, ntucky, says: From 1852 (the year I made my first importation) to this date, my sheep ve never been fed, either in winter or summer, but live bountifully the year and on blue grass pasture alone. With this treatment I have suffered serious is from the ewes becoming too fat for breeding and compelling me to consign em to the butcher. I have never owned a common sheep for breeding purses; nor have I ever handled anything but Cotswolds, except a few Downs, d they only for a short time. All I know of other breeds is from observation other hands, and from this I have been satisfied to breed the Cotswold sheep clusively. The South Down is a great favorite with me, and has some adantages over the Cotswold, while laboring, at the same time, under some great isadvantages." Another of the sheep-breeders of Kentucky writes: "I have not fed my sheep this winter, and they are in fine order. We never feed unless the ground is covered with snow six inches or more." 31 1 Messrs. S. & S. W. Allen, Vergennes, Vermont, sends the following statement, embracing long and short wool breeds: It will readily be seen that this flock of merinoes commanded speculative prices. It would scarcely be advisable to stop breeding American merinoes so long as purchasers eagerly demand them at the rate of $100 each for ewes and $50 for lambs. But when both breeds are sold at the same price, and held for wool and mutton alone, what will this comparison show? It is worth noticing, that the amount of corn, oats, roots, salt, and labor is the same, and that the only extra expense of the Leicesters is for half a ton of hay at five dollars, and three dollars more for pasturage; ten merinoes costing, for feed and attendance. $4 90 each, and ten Leicesters $5 75 each-a difference of about fifteen per cent. in favor of the former. To counterbalance this, the wool of the Leicesters yields two dollars more per annum, and their superiority in mutton is equiva lent to 45 pounds in three years, or 15 pounds per annum. For the purposes of mutton and wool, then, this showing decidedly favors the ten Leicesters, which produce nearly 150 pounds more of mutton, worth $15, and $2 more in wool, making $17, from which deduct $8 50 for extra cost of keeping, leaving a dif ference of $8 50 in favor of the Leicesters. cost A. L. Graves, Ottumwa, Iowa, with a flock of 160, makes the average of feed and care of ten ewes and ten wethers $41 40, and of the same number of cross-bred sheep-South Downs and native-$42 40. The merinoes yield 100 pounds 10 ounces of wool, and the cross-breeds 96 pounds 14 ounces. Thus far the merino has the advantage in point of profit; but the mutton aspects of the case are immensely in favor of the South Down blood. The crossbred attains its growth in two years, two-thirds of it the first year; the merino in three years, one-half the first year, and one-fourth each year of the remaining two years. In addition to earlier maturity, the size is larger and the price |