Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1866-05-03
What is due TO neglected interest


the domestic animals. Tire horse and
the bullock hold high place among
the animal races. Swine, though
once prohibited as an article of food
for man and deemed fit in a herd, after
the spirit Of Satan had entered them
to be drowned in the sea, have their
admirers And dogs, which no free
trader in this Congress proposes to tax
have, in their worthlessness to the
number of four millions, immunity from
assessment, eating out the nations
substance annually to the amount OF
$50, 100000 and these, with unleashed
license, though indulging their appe-
tIte for mutton at a cost of millions of
dollars annually, have their admirers
and defenders. | would venture more
than passing word for the animal
behaving well under all circumstan-
ccs." Two centuries ago it was the
remark of statesman, Wool is the
| flower and strength, the revenue and
blood, Of England" A study of the
polices and industries of that country
up to the era of the American cotton
gin confirms that opinion and to-day
the golden-hoofed animal, whether re-
garded as scavenger and cleaner on
the hill-sides or fertilizer in wastes and
fields, producer of food or material for
comfortable clothing, employment in
the mlll-a staple which diversilies
trade and spreads the sails of commerce
is not appreciated as when the Ro-
man, Augustus, was possessed of a
| flock of two hundred thousand by will,
| and at the remote period when Greek
shepherds moistened the growing fleece
with oil and wine, or during the peri
cd when England forbid tile exporta-
tion of sheep, and the two hundred
years she has denied the expectation Of
wool
Great Britain has now one sheep to
each acre, exclusive of mountain aud
forest, and the anual product OF her
woollens is hundreds,of millions Of dol.
lars. Australia, where English policy
and enterprise obtain, grew thirty
years ago 100000 pounds of wool
and has now s0,oo0,OO0 pounds
Franco, with an area not larger
than four of our northwestern prairie
States, with crowded population,
folds tel million more sheep than all
The United States which, instead OF
having, like France, one sheep to the
acre, has a hundred acres Of pasturagc
for every sheep. ..H
During the last four years wcsimpor-
ted 250,000,000 pounds of wool and
woollens, to the value Of Sl33, 100000,
making grand total Of $223 100000
worth in our currency. | know these
figures are startling, but they do not
convey the whole truth, since false in
voices have lessened the total. Who
can doubt the wisdom Of that policy of
European nations which has regarded
wool as the "h1wcr and strength, the
revenue and the blood :" ltis mqucs.
toned related To enriched lands,
cheap and palataUle food, increased
products of manufacturing industry,
rural cOntentlneut, constant employ
ment without drudgcry, remuneration
to the MANNED soldier and the nations
orphans, a scope for maturity of iudg-
ment profitable pastime for the shep-
herd i'll llte's evening, and scope for
aesthetic culture which has worthiIy
enlisted the time and benefactors of
princes and noblemen for centuries.
We ask nothing for an exotic Our
latitudes, grasses, conformations, and
limpid springs render this country
quite as natural home for the sheep
as the pastures fed by the focks of La
ban, or the shepherd kings of the East
Gentler than the caressing child, un-
degenerate by migration, scarcely de-
cimated in numbers by the vicissitudes
of war, and so yielding to scientific
care that the breeder may make his
ideal form of beauty and then give it
existence. Thus transferred from trcp-
ical heat to country of frost and
snow, additional care and scientific
breeding have given us animals models
of beauty, added to the sofness ard
strength of the fleece, and raised it
from an anual clip of one and q half
pounds, greatly improving the form,
mvigorating the constitution, adding
to longevity and cooperating with ma
turc in enveloping the animal with a
suitable protection against the rigors
of a northern winter. With a mocke-
ry of protection under the frown Of the
South, and subject to policy change
able as parties, the American merino
has attained perfection never reach
ed in the wales of the Orient under the
shadow of Lebanon, nor with the care
of Spanish shepherds or the patronage
of princes and mobiles in continental
Europe. At the great international
fair, held at Hamburg two years since,
where three hundred and fifty entries
of sheep were made contcnding for
premiums, Vermont mcrino sheep bore
off the first two and second premiums.
The same success is anticipated at the
Worlds Fair about to be held at Paris.
These twelve animals ON exhibition
were sold to q Silesian count fof
5000. yet not q larger sum than enter.
prising flockHmasters now pay for a
| single animal. Es ~a#@ ~f
Shall this superiority be maintained,
and the noble blood be spread until
our country as far sufpasses other na-
tons in the number Of its focks as it
does how in excellence, OF" must this
great interest be depressed, our focks
reduced by the emigration of the
| youno shepherdS to SOuth America
where sheep-walks have but nomi-
nal value and there is immunity from
school taxes and excise duties! Or
will we hold our vantage position un,
til the flock shall be found in the fore,
ground Of every rural scene of beauty
and in the march of empire that vast
pasture ground between the Sierra
Nevada and the Rocky mountains
stretching from Mexico to the British
possessions, and one thousand mile:
in width, be white and peopled as thu