the care taken to specify the green soap as the most proper to be employed in the process, we must suppose experience had taught him, that it possesses superior powers to the soaps made with other oils, and yet in the classification of various oils according to their aptitudes for making good soap, by the French chemists, * hemp seed oil is placed sixth on the list: from the known practice however by the manufacturers of colouring other soaps green, the probability is that the superiority of the green soap is generally acknowledged. Whether green soap is commonly used in Flanders, is uncertain; but a soap bearing the name of that country, was found by M. Roard, director of the dyeing establishment in the French National manufactories, to be superior to any other for scouring wool, "giving it a degree of whiteness which is extremely difficult to produce by any other means." See Annals de Chimie,

No. 158.

I have taken measures to be informed of the particular reasons of Mr. Braalle for directing the green soap, and when enabled, will

* A great scarcity of this article was experienced in France, in 1793, when the civil commotions forced a great number of the manufacturers to relin. quish their business: at this period other manufactories were established in' different parts of the country, but the article was very inferior. The necessity therefore was felt of making more generally known the principles upon which the manufacturing of good soap depend. Three well known chemists being invited by the government to concur in the design, instituted a course of experiments for the purpose of ascertaining the best method of preparing soap, and the substances that deserved the preference in this manufacture, The chemists were Darcet, Pelletier, and Lelièvre. The experiments of those gentlemen enabled them to class the oils nearly in the following order, according to their different degrees of aptitude for forming good soap.-1. Oil of olives, oil of sweet almonds.-2. Animal oils, fat, butter.-3d. Oil of colza or rape.-4. Oil of turnips, oil of beechmast.-5. Fish oil.-6. Oil of hempseed.-7. Nut oil.-8. Linseed oil.

The oils of hempseed, colza, turnip, and linseed make a soft soap. They say, oil of hempseed yields a green colour-oil of colza or rape, a yellow soap. Linseed oil, which is colourless, may be coloured by the addition of a yellow or blue pigment-namely, curcuma for the yellow, and indigo for the blue: but as these different oils are usually employed mixed together, the manufacturers add during the boiling a mixture of curcuma and indigo when they wish to have green soap. By exposure to the air, it becomes white, and afterwards brown.

communicate the result of my enquiry. In the mean time the common soft soap of our country, not sharp, may answer.

The process of Mr. Braalle was published by the minister of the interior in 1803, after a public experiment had been made by order of the French government, before M. Molard, the administrator of the Conservatory of Arts and Manufactures: and the duke de Liancourt, in order to teach the process to the people of the district in which he lives, and who raise much hemp, made another trial of it, the next year, before many of the inhabitants who assisted thereat, and in presence of Messrs. Molard and Braalle who were invited to attend on the occasion. The common kitchen utensils were employed, and with the most complete success. The hemp after being rotted, was delivered in small quantities to all the women who assisted at the experiment, and they unanimously acknowledged, that it underwent with ease the ordinary operations, and that it had all the requisite qualities in a degree superior to hemp rotted according to the usual process.*

The above facts leave no doubt as to the utility of the process of Mr. Braalle; the adoption of it is therefore recommended to the American farmer, the account of whose experiments will meet with a welcome reception by the Editor.

OBSERVATIONS ON SHEEP.

CHAPTER I.

IMPORTANCE Of Sheep.-Division of the species as to fleece.-Encouragement to American Shepherds, from our climates and the health of our flocks.-Examples of successful attention to their improvement.

It is impossible for one practically acquainted with the oeconomy of this interesting part of the brute creation, and who is moreover impressed with a sense of the various and important uses to which every part of their body is applicable; to forbear paying them a tribute for the rank they hold in the scale of general utili

* Memoirs de la Soc. d'Agric: de Paris.

ty. Without detracting from the acknowledged importance of the horse or of the cow, it cannot be denied, that sheep form an indispensable link in the chain of agricultural objects, and excite a peculiar interest in those, who are alive to the influence of the tenderness, the innocent gambols of the progeny, and to the expressions of affectionate solicitude of the female parent. While their flesh increases the supply of substantial and delicate food, their wool adds to the means of obtaining it, by furnishing ample employment to the industrious poor, by whose labour it is made to protect the irritable skin of the infant, to defend the hardy maririner or soldier from the winter's storm, and to "cherish and adorn the person of the prince."* Even the offals of his body are made to contribute to our necessities. We are indebted to his skin for the means of recording and preserving a permanent evidence to the titles of our property, and for other purposes; and even his bones are applied to various uses in the arts.

Connected with the culture and improvement of the soil, and consequent profit of the farmer, the value of sheep is great. They not only subsist, but fatten upon soils, too poor for the support of larger animals; and while they enrich the surface by a great quantity of manure, they save the trouble and expense of subsequent labour, by its equal distribution. They eagerly devour many plants and weeds rejected by other stock, and in particular rid our stubbles of the troublesome ambrosiat, alike exhausting to the land, and injurious to the dairy. But to the gentleman farmer, they are invaluable; they afford him the least hazardous employment, and the most rational amusement resulting from his experiments and trials to perfect his breed; and whether we refer either to the invaluable Merino, or to the common breeds, give the greatest and quickest return for the capital employed, with the least trouble or risque, of any species of stock: but above all, they enable him to diminish the number, and to circumscribe his confidence in servants, whose idleness and waste often detract much from the pleasures of a tillage farm.

The most general divisions of sheep, are into the long and short woolled: the one proper for combing, and worsted stuffs, and

* Lawrence on cattle. † Bitter weed.

coarse cloths, the other for carding and making fine cloths*. In Europe, and particularly England, those varieties are kept distinct with great care, from a conviction, the result of long experience, that a mixture of the long and short woolled breeds, produce a fleece, good for neither purpose. In the United States, with probably but few exceptions, little attention has hitherto been paid to this important point; the consequence is, that no particular breeds, until lately, could be named or distinguished as pure, being mostly mixed, and from the little attention paid to the selection of rams, a degenerate race had been produced, which called loudly for a change. The rapid increase, however, of our cloth manufactures, and the great spirit which is prevalent throughout most parts of the country for improvement in the breeds of our domestic animals, will no doubt point out to our farmers the indispensable necessity for close attention to the subject, and the great emoluments to be derived therefrom. In England, where attention has been paid for years to the improvement. of stock of all kinds, and where we might suppose that especially in the case of sheep perfection had long since been attained, it is wonderful to hear of the continued exertions made to improve, and of the care they take to preserve the purity of their several varieties.

The general hardihood of the American sheep, their freedom from disease, and consequent multiplication, are fully sufficient to shew how well adapted the climates of the United States are to this invaluable breed of domestic animals: to prove also what capabilities there are for improvement, and what may be done by care, a few instances shall be given of the weight of sheep in different states, and the quantities of wool yielded by them. The general healthiness of our sheep, is indeed a most important consideration, and additional source of encouragement to a spirited extension and improvement of our stock. Their complaints are

Even in the same fleece, various kinds of wool are found suitable to the fabrication of articles very dissimilar in their nature, and adapted to purposes in the manufacture of a description totally different from each other. The separation of these constitutes the business of the wool stapler, whose art shall be unfolded in a succeeding number of this work.

few and simple, and of course easily cured, whereas those that affect the sheep of Europe are numerous and very fatal; it is not uncommon for whole districts to be swept by epidemics, even the names of which are unknown here; and the solitary complaints that attack individuals, also require unceasing care and attention on the part of the farmer, from which we are happily in great measure relieved.

There is no reason to doubt the congeniality of every part of the United States, except some low marshy districts, to sheep of either the long or short woolled varieties. Even in the dry maritime parts of the states of South Carolina and Georgia, if shelter be provided, to which the animals will, of their own accord, natu- \ rally resort, I entertain no doubt of their doing well with care. Several spirited gentlemen of the first mentioned state, have made a beginning with the Merino breed, and from them we shall learn whether it will best answer to extend that race, or adhere to the coarser woolled. The western parts of those states, however, which are blessed with a very mild climate, either as it respects heat or cold, are peculiarly calculated for breeding sheep, because they would require little attention as to food, either winter or summer*, and should these remarks reach those distant regions, it is suggested to their happy citizens to turn their attention to the subject. The fleeces of their native stock are at present of a superior qualityt.

Notwithstanding the general neglect and inattention which have prevailed with respect to the sheep in this country, there have

Destruction from wild beasts may be avoided, by penning sheep at night near the house; a high pen of half an acre, might be made, and removed occasionally-no more certain method could be adopted to manure the land. After they have been driven up a few times at night, the sheep will regularly return home (as I well know) to the fold at the close of the day.

† Mr. Wm. Maclure informed me, that in a tour to the back parts of Georgia, the winter before last, he found at the bottom of the iron mountain, a district of country abounding with wool, the fineness of which excited his admiration. The inhabitants abound in every thing which moderate ambition could wish for. They bought nothing except salt. Their houses were filled with clothing from the fine wool mentioned, mixed with cotton, of which article, they raised immense quantities, and woven by themselves.