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ON SOUTHDOWN SHEEP AS BEING WELL SUITED FOR THE MIDDLE RANGE OF HIGHLAND PASTURES IN SCOTLAND.

By Mr H. WATSON, Keillor Farm.

HAVING, during the last twenty-five years, been in the management, or possession, of a considerable breeding flock of Southdown ewes, varying at different times from 500 to 1000 in number, and during that period have had good opportunities of drawing close comparisons betwixt that and the other breeds of mountain sheep, viz. the Cheviot and Black-faced, I have come to the conclusion (and am acting upon it in my own practice), that from a pasture ranging from 500 to 1200 feet above the level of the sea, having a moderate portion of green sward, the rest whin and heather, there can be no more profitable stock of sheep kept, than a flock of Southdowns of the best sort. My chief reasons for having preferred this breed are:-that the Southdown sheep, although naturally a spirited and active animal, are easily controlled and managed by a good shepherd, -can go over more ground for their food than any other kind of sheep, without stopping their growth,-and when tried by severe storm in winter, will brave it better than even the Blackfaced Highland,-and although reduced very low in spring, sooner pick up condition, than the other short-woolled sheep. As a proof of the Southdowns' inclination to fatten, when put to good keep, I may mention a fact, that while I have seldom been able to produce a fat Cheviot ewe the same season she has reared a lamb, I never fail to make good fat of the cast Southdowns off grass. Their wool is so closely matted on their backs, and about the head and neck, as to be almost impervious to rain or snow; hence, so soon as the storm ceases, they appear dry and comfortable, their coat not the least disordered, and altogether free of that droukit (Anglicè drenched) appearance, which longer woolled sheep exhibit, even for days, after a winter

storm.

In all my experience, the Southdown sheep have kept remarkably healthy. I have never seen an instance of rot in my flock, while, during the last twenty years, I have been forced to clear off a lot of Cheviot and also of Black-faced ewes, from that in

curable disease. This, however, may have been more owing to the unsoundness of the pasture from which I got them, than from any peculiarity in the constitution of the animals themselves.

My average loss in the Southdown lot has invariably been much under that of any other sheep I have bred; they are hardy and easily managed at lambing time, affectionate mothers, and on moderate keep give a great quantity of milk, and if there is any inducement for having early lambs, they will go with the ram, almost as soon as the lamb is weaned.

When crossed with a well-bred Leicester ram, and brought into good keep, they produce, perhaps, the most profitable lamb that is bred, taking wool and carcass into account. I have for the last ten years put all the ewes I could spare from pure breeding to this sort of crossing, lambing the ewes on turnips in spring, then turning them, as soon as the season would permit, to the hill pasture (the Sidlaws) till weaning time, when the lambs are brought to the infield pastures, and put to turnips for the winter, on which food they are kept for about 2d. per week each, and placed on the earliest grass in spring, so that within a month or six weeks after they are clipped, they are fit for the butcher, who values this cross almost as high as the pure bred Southdown. The wool is of the finest quality for combing, and fetches the highest price of any British grown wool, generally from 2s. to 2s. 2d. per lb., and the clip will in a good season At sixteen months old, I have never realized less than 40s. each, wool and mutton. In Smithfield this cross is much sought after.

average about 6 lb.

On lands where folding is found necessary, the Southdown submits to this treatment better than any other breed of sheep; indeed, such in all cases where I have put them to the test, is their spirit and hardiness, that nothing short of ill treatment seems to injure them.

Combining these facts, I can have no hesitation in recommending a Southdown flock of sheep in preference to every other, on such situations as I have described, viz. too high to be occupied during the whole season by a flock of Leicesters, and under that level which the native Black-faced sheep only can thrive upon.

So far as I know, it is not yet sufficiently ascertained by experience, how far a cross betwixt the Southdown and Leicester may be carried, so as to keep up the activity of the former, with the well-known fattening qualities of the latter. Another strain of breeding through the Black-faced and Southdown sheep, whose habits are so much akin, seems likely to succeed. By this cross, improvement in quality of wool would be gained, while that of the mutton would not be deteriorated. I have at present some experiments going on, which I trust will go far to determine these points. When finished, I shall be glad to communicate the results to my brother breeders, considering it a duty every British farmer owes to his country, to make known whatever he conceives may be for the general good, or that may in the smallest degree tend to keep up the proud position we now stand in as a body, feeling it can only be by combined efforts this position can be maintained, laying aside all selfish and narrow-minded jealousies.

ON THE DISEASES INCIDENTAL TO THE MOST USUALLY CULTIVATED PLANTS.-NO. III.

By GEORGE W. JOHNSON, Esq., Corresponding Member of the Maryland Horticultural Society, &c.

Canker. Whatever may be the disease under which a plant is suffering, it is too usual for the cultivator to confine his attention. to the part immediately affected. It is looked upon as a strictly local derangement, and the remedies are as erroneously topical. To consider that because a bud, a branch, or a root are diseased, that the cause of the distemper is to be sought for there, is as sensible as supposing that every local pain endured by the human frame arises from a disorganization of that part. On the contrary, we know that the diseases of animals arise almost universally from the stomach, and, as Addison remarked, "that physic is generally the substitute for temperance or exercise." The functions of the stomach, by whatever cause deranged, render digestion imperfect, and the secretions defective; the bile is superabundant or deficient in quantity, and headach

is the result; the liver is diseased, and it causes a pain the most acute between the shoulders; the blood is ill elaborated, and eruptions are thrown out on the surface of the body. With plants it is the same. It may be laid down as an axiom, without exception, that all vegetable diseases, unpreceded by exter nal violence, arise from the unhealthful state of the sap,-a state brought about conjointly or separately by the improper food imbibed, and the deranged digestive power of the leaves and other organs. That this is so will not appear strange, when we reflect that from the sap all the parts of the plant are formed, and continually are increased in number and size. The solid substance of the wood, and the temporary tender blossoms, are alike extracted from that circulating fluid. If the constituents for these are wanting, or if improper components are introduced, disease is the necessary consequence. Disease, which in youth and manhood usually arises from intemperance and over-excitement, visits old age as a consequence of its decayed vital powers; and if the silver cord has not been loosed," or "the golden bowl broken" by the short-sighted indulgence of early years, man gradually declines into the grave, as the vital organs cease to perform their office, because the limit of existence natural to his species has been attained. Some diseases peculiar to old age are prematurely induced in the usually vigorous period of life by licentious indulgences, individual or hereditary. Ossification of the vascular system is an example. In the vegetable part of the creation, the canker or ulcer, to which our apple, pear, elm, and other trees are subject, is a somewhat parallel instance. This disease is accompanied by different symptoms, according to the species of the tree which it infects. In some of those whose true sap contains a considerable quantity of free acid, as in the genus Pyrus, it is rarely accompanied by any discharge. To this dry form of the disease it would be well to confine the term canker, and to give it the scientific name of Gangrana sicca. In other trees, whose sap is characterized by abounding in astringent or mucilaginous constituents, it is usually attended by a sanious discharge. In such instances it might be strictly designated ulcer or Gangrana saniosa. This disease has a considerable resemblance to the tendency to ossification which ap pears in most aged animals, arising from their marked appetency

to secrete the calcareous saline compounds that chiefly constitute their skeletons. The consequence is an enlargement of the joints and ossification of the circulatory vessels and other parts, phenomena very analogous to those attending the cankering of trees. As in animals, this tendency is general throughout their system; but, as is observed by Mr Knight, "like the mortification in the limbs of elderly people," it may be determined as to its point of attack by the irritability of that part of the system. This disease commences with an enlargement of the vessels of the bark of a branch or of the stem. This swelling invariably attends the disease when it attacks the apple-tree. In the pear the enlargement is less, yet is always present. In the elm and oak sometimes no swelling occurs; and in the peach I do not remember to have seen any. I have never observed the disease in the cherry-tree or any of the pine tribe. The swelling is soon communicated to the wood, which, if laid open to view, on its first appearance, by the removal of the bark, exhibits no marks of disease beyond the mere unnatural enlargement. In the course of a few years, less in number in proportion to the advanced age of the tree, and the unfavourable circumstances under which it is vegetating, the swelling is greatly increased in size, and the alburnum has become extensively dead; the superincumbent bark cracks, rises in discoloured scales, and decays even more rapidly than the wood beneath. If the caries is upon a moderately sized branch, the decay soon completely encircles it, extending through the whole alburnum and bark. The circulation of the sap being thus entirely prevented, all the parts above the disease of necessity perish.

In the apple and pear the disease is accompanied by scarcely any discharge; but in the elm this is very abundant. The only chemists who have examined these morbid products are Sir H. Davy and Vauquelin, the former's observations being confined to the fact, that he often found carbonate of lime on the edges of the canker in apple-trees (Elements of Agric. Chemistry, 2d edit., p. 264).

Vauquelin has examined the sanies discharged from the canker of an elm with much more precision. He found this liquor nearly as transparent as water, sometimes slightly coloured, at other times a blackish-brown, but always tasting acrid and saline.