The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-07-11
SHEEP.REARlNG.

the pen Of Robert E. Scott, Esq, scarcely
less distinguished as lawyer and statesman,
than as a farmer. The devastations Of the
Joint worm 10 the counties lying along the
Blue Ridge, and its rapid progress northward-
", induce Dir. Scott to regard its presence in
Fauquier as an inevitable event TO be shortly
consummated, and ne strenuously urges the
necessity of taking time at once by the fore
lock, and looking out for some other means Of
subsistence less liable to casualties, than the
wheat crop. This he finds in wool growing a
species of farming to which his county is Pc
euliarly adapted. Experiments have hereto
fore been made, but with SO little success as
10 have disheartened all who engaged in it
The cause Mr.. S. regards as perfectly palpa-
accustomed to the old system of raising few
sheep merely for their own private use, had
not reflected that where business was to be
made Of it, the sheep required the strictest at.
tention all the year roand, precisely as any
other crop would have done. By way of en-
couragement, he mentions several persons,
who, with the proper degree of attention, had
succeeded very well. One of these is MIR.
Pollock of Fauquier, who brought flock of
merinos from Vermont very late in the last
season, driving them all the way, very scanti-
ly protected against the weather, aud has LOST
but fourteen out of seven hundred and fifty,
four of these having been killed by dogs. Mr..
p. has found the sheep more profitable than
any crop previously raised on the same land.
MIR. John Baker drove about the same
handsome profit on them, though about thirty
have been killed by dogs. The flock of Mr.
John Dawson, selected with great care ami
crossed upon some ofthe best breeds, presents
the best specimens of the merino to be found in
that part of the country. They are one hun
bred and fifty in number, and though driven
from the adjoining county late last fall in very
poor order, proper attention and nourishment
have produced quite a revolution in their ap-
pearance. He labored under many disadvan.
tages, had jus removed to a new home, &c.
Yet his sheep, when sheared few days since,
yielded an average of three pounds. The
fleece of single buck, three years old, after
having been thoroughly tagged in the spring,
was sheared and weighed in the presence of
Mr.. s., and found to yield nine pounds and a
half-that of another weighed nine pounds
that of third, two years old, but we'll washed
on his back, yielded upwards of five pounds,
of beautiful fine texture. Mr.. Scott, without
entering into the merits of the different breeds
of sheep, expresses the opinion that we'll
keptf of merino ewes will, under ordinary
circumstances, yield profit offrom 2 to So per
sheep.
sMr. Scott denounces those old fogies, the
dogs, without mercy, and calls upon the coun
ty court to impose the tax authorised by the
Legislature. He places them in the same CATE
CORY with the joint worm, and says that they
have been banished wherever sheep-farming
has been introduced. His denunciation seems
to be the outpouring of wounded spirit, for
he says that in the outset OF his farming career,
his farm lying near Warrerton, he was, in one
night, deprived Of fifty out of one hundred
ewes he had set apart for breeding, by the
fangs of these merciless four.fooled land pi,
rates. AT another time he had the mortifica.
ton to find Bakewell buck, and at another
fine Coteswold, among the slain. Instead of
wasting their substance in supporting marau.
ding ours, ne thinks the people of Fauquier
ought TO take measures to obey more fully the
scriptural injunction, "feed my sheep"
NIAGARA.-The Legislature of New York
has some important matters under delibera,on
among them a ship canal around the Falls
ofNiagara. These falls are, just now, the OBJ.
ject of good deal of attention, elaboration
and enterprise. Utility is looking around
about them. He sees great power there and
don't like to see il thrown away. He has no
poetry in his soul, and no regard for the sent.
mentalisms and fancies of others, except SO
far as he can profit by gratifying them there
fore we see Utility going at the falls in a two.
fold manner in both the ornamental and the
useful. He is bridging the Niagara with mag.
nihcent wire suspension bridges, two of which
re already completed, and one other at leas,
is to be built for railroad. Railroads are
coming together there, and now we are 10
nave great ship canal. Utility, Jonathan's
engineer will not be long in getting at the
"a'er'power somehow or other, and The visitor
at the falls few years hence will likely fin,
that Utility and Jonathan, between them have
uansmografed things there very much.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF PUBLI
WoRKs.-We should have mentioned that III
Board decided, on Friday, to send dsintei
estsd engineer TO survey the two dispute
routes, lby the White Sulphur Springs an,
the Monroe rouie,) and determine IN n.
which y best. Il also decided ,h., the 70,
ingson and Ohio Railroad was TO havs :. 80 :.
mlnstion at Coving,on. This pu,. i, M; ~
more Of road upon the Central Railroad C Gu.
paDy. S''l =
yohn Kelly, soldier Of the revelation. die
IN v M township, Auskingum county, Obi
Wv LIN ui''mo, aged ninety three years.