From this statement it will be seen that the number of sheep has decreased from 23,535 in 1846, to 5,005 in 1850, and that their average values have fluctuated between 55 cents and $4.67 per head. These extreme fluctuations in numbers and in price are not credible by those who have not bestowed immediate attention upon such questions. Precisely why such remarkable fluctuations have taken place, it would be difficult to determine to the satisfaction of many. Causes have existed which legitimately would tend to effect not only the number but the price of sheep. Yet no adequate reason can be assigned for such extreme changes in numbers or price. The figures show that men have been influenced in their movements as sheep are-the one follows the bell-wether, while the other regulates his business by the movements of his neighbo.s. There has been nothing which should have produced these violent changes. Sheep husbandry, for the last fifteen years, has, upon an average, been as profitable as the ordinary business of the farm for the same period.

Present pecuniary profits should not be regarded as the only motive which should influence the operations of the careful and considerate farmer. The cleanliness of his farm, the preservation, if not the increased productive capacity of his soil, should not be lost sight of in deciding in what manner he should conduct his farming business. If experienced English farmers are content to fatten sheep for the butcher, only asking the manure made as their clear profit, then surely our farmers ought to consider whether they will not be able to enrich their farms to so great an extent, by feeding sheep, that they will be content with a small profit for the grain and labor expended.

Our sheep bear no proper proportion to the number of acres of land which we have.

In England they have one sheep to every 2 1-7 acres of land.
In Ohio we

64

46

64

3 6-10

Thus it appears that the number in the entire State is 500 per cent. greater than the number in Butler county. Our numbers are deficient when compared with other countries, upon the basis of population.

United States, in 1866, had for every head of sheep...... .1
Ohio, in 1866,

66

46

.0 37-100

These comparisons show that we in Butler county are greatly behind in the number of sheep. Our population, our acreage, and our ability to raise and keep sheep, all suggest that we should give more attention to sheep husbandry, and should speedily increase our flocks. If other countries, or other parts of our own State, less favorably situated, find it profitable to keep so large a number of sheep, surely this county, in such proximity to Cincinnati, where good mutton always finds ready sale at a fair price, can find abundant warrant for increasing their flocks of sheep, and for improving their quality.

Thus far no serious disease has prevailed among our sheep. They have been exempt from ailments of almost every kind. Their only enemy has been found in the four thousand ravenous dogs which infest the county, and which not only annoy and disturb the quietude of whole communities, but which do, annually, injuries exceeding in value all the dogs of the county one hundred fold.

The following statement will show the extent of losses sustained by dogs:

Thus it appears that the annual average loss sustained from injury by dogs to the sheep of the county amounts to $1,306. The evil seems to be on the increase. Why our farmers submit so tamely to such outrages upon their prized property, is past comprehension. The loss is not only serious in itself, but tends greatly to discourage those who would otherwise give their attention to sheep husbandry. The vexatious annoyance to those who are striving to attain success, and accomplish good results for themselves and their county, cannot be computed by dollars and cents

BUTTER AND CHEESE

must not be passed unnoticed. As to the latter article, neither the quantity made nor its quality give it any special claims upon our attention. We do not aim to make enough cheese for domestic use. The amount manufactured is consequently very inconsiderable, and its quality is not such as to give it a high marketable value.

Butter making, however, has grown to be an important business. In no branch have we made greater improvements than in this domestic department, Formerly, good butter was a rare commodity in our markets. Now they are pretty well supplied with a fair quality, in many cases a superior quality, of butter. Our housewives in this department, as in most others over which they have special supervision, have made most commendable progress in improving the value of their products. We present all the available statistics in regard to these articles:

There are other topics connected with the agricultural interests of this county which most probably should have received attention. In considering the multitude of the more important questions, they have been overlooked.

In conclusion, it affords us great pleasure in being able to bear favorable testimony to the general progress which has been made in the intellectual, moral and social culture of our agricultural population. This improvement has been more general and more marked among females than among males. In substantial educational attainments, in moral culture, and in social accomplishments, our young women of the county are far in advance of our young men. Even in the same families, the daughters have more refinement and more propriety of deportment than the sons. It is greatly to be desired that there will be no abate nent of effort on the part of our young women to attain a high position, and that, by increased manly exertions, our young men may make more rapid progress, so that they may soon occupy a like honorable position in the good opinion of worthy men and women everywhere.

AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF LORAIN COUNTY.

A PRIZE ESSAY,

BY N. S. TOWNSHEND.

History.-Lorain county was organized in A. D. 1824, with Elyria as the county town. The first settlements by whites within the present limits of the county were made in the township of Columbia, in A. D. 1807, when the jurisdiction of Cuyahoga county extended westward to Black river. Permanent settlements in several towns were made in A. D. 1816. The first settlers of Lorain, as of the whole Western Reserve, were from New England, and were many of them men of intelligence and great energy. They laid the foundations of society so wisely that the Reserve has always sustained a pre-eminence in the State for the intelligence good order and thrift of its inhabitants.

In A. D. 1830, and subsequently, there was a considerable immigration of English people, most of whom were farmers and working men, whose labors contributed to bring some of the wetter portions of the county into cultivation. Since 1840 there has been a large immigration from Germany to the northern part of the county. Ignorance of the English language has been a temporary obstacle to the success of these immigrants, but such of their children as are not kept out of the district schools by religious bigotry, soon acquire our language, and exhibit as much attachment to the land of their adoption as though their ancestors had been among the first that landed upon Plymouth Rock. The diverse national tastes and peculiarities of the present inhabitants of the county have already had, and probably for a long time to come will have, a marked influence upon its agriculture and social condition. The New England pioneers who cleared the land were also alive to the value of good roads, of schools, and of churches; the English to ditching, draining, and otherwise improving the land and the stock, and to the beneficial influence of agricultural associations and exhibitions, and the Germans have furnished an excellent example of untiring industry and economy. If all these valuable qualities can be combined in our future population, Lorain, notwithstanding its flat surface and clayey soil, will not fall behind her sister counties in social or industrial progress.

Geography.-Lorain county is on the northern border of the State, and is included in the section known as the Western Reserve. It is bounded on the north by Lake Erie, east by the counties of Cuyahoga and Medina,

south by Medina and Ashland, and west by Huron and Erie. It lies between 41 and 41° 30′ north latitude, and between 50 and 5° 30′ west longitude from Washington, and contains 500 square miles, or 320,000 acres of land.

There are twenty-one townships in the county, each of which is five miles square, except those which have the irregular shore of Lake Erio for their northern boundary, and the townships of the western tier, which lack the usual breadth westward. The townships are named Amherst, Avon, Black River, Brighton, Brownhelm, Camden, Carlisle, Columbia, Eaton, Elyria, Grafton, Henrietta, Huntington, La Grange, Penfield, Pittsfield, Ridgeville, Rochester, Russia, Sheffield and Wellington. Of these towns, Avon, Sheffield, Black River and Brownhelm border on the Lake. The county extends from the Lake five townships southward on its western side. The eastern side is irregular; three townships necessary to complete the parallelogram belong to Medina county, while the township of Columbia, lying eastward of the regular line, has been attached from Cuyahoga.

Black river rises in Ashland county, and runs through near the centre of Lorain from south to north, making where it enters Lake Erie, in the township of Black River, the harbor of the same name. From the narrative of Col. James Smith's captivity among the Indians, in A. D. 1755 to 1759, it appears that the name given to this river by the Delaware Indians was Canesadooharie. The falls of both its branches at Elyria afford fine mill privileges, while some distance below the falls the scenery is perhaps the most picturesque in northern Ohio. Vermillion river enters the county on the western border, and after a course of a few miles, turns to the westward again and enters the Lake in Erie county. The western branch of Rocky river runs through the township of Columbia, and enters the Lake in Cuyahoga county.

Geology. The underlying rock of the greater part of the county is the Waverly sandstone, or rather that form of coarse grained grindstone grit which in part takes its place. Only a few miles east of the county line is Berea, so celebrated for its grindstones. This rock has its line of northern outcrop across the county from east to west, a few miles back from the Lake. It affords excellent building material. Some of the finest structures in Cleveland and of Canadian cities are from the quarries of Amherst in this county.

Along the Lake shore, and for three or four miles back, the underlying rock is shale, the upper layers of which are soft and friable, the lower more compact, but containing seams and fissures from which inflammable gas sometimes escapes, but no petroleum has been found. The dip of the rocks is toward the southeast, while the general surface of the county declines almost imperceptibly in a northern direction toward the Lake.