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THE COUNTRYMAN. 21 our pasturage they would not be fine breeds long. Fine pastures are the base of fiue stock. Take away the base, and the su perstructure must fall, of course. To ex pect to have, the finest kind of improved cattle, sheep, and hogs, on stunted broom- sedge, transferring these improved breeds out of their element of fine pastures, would be like attempting to raise fine shad out of water. I am not at all acquainted with the improved breeds of sheep, but from what Mr. L)a::tzler says, I would imagine it best to cross the South Down upon our common stock. I am not opposed to grafting a bet ter breed upon our hardy stock : but with out more care than our planters bestow up on their sheep. I am confident it would be a losing business to invest too much in the improved breeds. The Southern planter, without detriment to his cotton crop, can raise a great many sheep, and make it profitable. The best sheep for his purpose is the long and coarse- woolled one. He wants his wool to make clothes for his negroes, which are manufac tured from coarse kerseys.. You say in your article No. 3, on ‘ Sheep Husbandry in the South,’ that fine wool will make more durable cloth than coarse wool. This may be true, and doubtless is, but this makes no difference with the negro. He is going to have his new kersey jacket every win ter, and nothing you can do is going to make him take care of that jacket more than one winter. Hence to make negro clothing, coarse-woolled sheep are the best, because they yield so much more.. Bv sa ving one’s rams exclusively from the long- woolled lambs, I think one might have a flock of sheep, before the expiration of many j^ears, that would, with only tolerat ble treatment, average five pounds of wool to the sheep. I am confident that I shear ed sheep, this spring, whose fleeces would have weighed five or six pounds. Now in what I say, I want it understood that I do not pretend to set forth what is best for those who make sheep-husbandry their chief business. Mr. Dant^ler and others have done that. My object is to show that our planters can make all the wool and all the mutton they need,, and not let it interfere at all with their other busi ness. With little or no outlay, they can realize upon the value of their flocks from 50 to 100 per cent,, per annum. And thev can do it by pursuing the course I have—a course attended with scarcely any expense. There, is one thing, though, I must add with reference to the treatment of sheep, and that is that a man must never let his sheep “run out,” if he wishes to be suc cessful. They will become as wild as bucks, if he does, and the dogs will certain ly devour them. It is very important that sheep should be kept gentle, and a good way to do this is to raise a pet lamb, occa sionally, and when he is grown, make him the bell-wether of the flock. He will nev er forget his raising, but will always re main gentle, and come and lick salt out of your hand. There are hut few of my sheep j that will not do this, anyway. And now as to the glorious delicacy of mutton. This food cannot be extolled too highly, whether fresh or dried. No ven ison 1 have ever tasted, equalled good fat mutton, well dressed. Of course it must be well dressed, or it is offensive to taste and smell: and few know how to dress it prop erly. This is why so many are prejudiced against mutton. I have passed off upon many persons who boasted themselves epi- cures and connoisseurs, my dried mutton j hams as dried venison hams. Let your butcher be careful never to make the smallest puncture in the entrails of your sheep, while dressing him ; let the sheep be entirely cool when you kill him ; not at all heated by running ; let him be fat and ten der ; let him not be spoiled in cooking ; liis flesh not dried up in the oven like a chip ; but on the other hand, cooked slowly, aud “ smothered,” like a chicken ; this “ smoth ering” being a cross between a bake and a stew; then with some nice green corn, green peas, okra, or young and tender Irish potatoes—Kind I am ready, with this feast set before me,, to close this long, rambling letter on slieep-husbandry. J. a. t. The foregoing was wiitten June 28th, 1861, and published in the Field & Fire side.' The Orator and the Tyrant. “ The report of the miserable state of slavery into which the Agrigentines had fallen under the tyrant Phalaris, so affec ted Zeno Eleates, that he resolved to leave his native country, and make a journey to Agrigentum, in order to try whether he could not by his counsels effect some ame lioration in its condition. The philosopher made his first overtures to Phalauis himself, but finding the ear of the despot deaf to all wholesome counsel, he turned his attention to the patrician youth, whom he endeavor ed by every effort to animate with a love of liberty, and a determination to free then- country from bondage. Phalaris, being infoimed of the proceedings of Zeno, or dered him to be arrested, and calling the people together into the forum, he put the philosopher into the rank before tbeir fa ces, and repeatedly called upon him to point out who among those around him had lent a favorable ear to his counsels. Zeno observed on this point the most obsti nate silence, but turning to the citizens, he began to reproach them in suclt glowing terms with their abject submission to such a tyrant, that all at once they were filled with an impulse of indignation not to be repressed, and stoned the tyrant Phalaris on the very spot which he had designed for the martyrdom of a philosopher and friend of liberty.” Southern Pluck. “ A correspondent of a Western paper, writing in regard to the recent battles in Northern Virginia, makes the following candid admissions : It is to be noted that all who were in the late battles bear witness to the splendid generalship and bravery of the enemy. Said a colonel with his arm in a sling, when surrounded by a crowd of eager lis teners at his hotel, ‘There is a dash about these Southerners absolutely terrific : we can’t stop the devils when they charge, without killing all—and sometimes we do that-: but if we dont, they are bound to take our batteries.’ The advance of the enemy on Pope’s left, on Saturday, is described as the greatest scene of the kind in the war. When Lee arrived, every gap in their line of battle was filled up, and the whole ad vanced in phalanx so solid and deep, it looked like a forest of bayonets, stretching up and down our front for full three miles,, and overlapping our extreme left wing. On they came, steady and slow at first, our batteries playing on the.ii columns, but theirs, in commanding positions, throwing shot and shell over their heads into our ar- tilleiists and guns. Their line never wa vered, hut, advancing within musket range, it drew the fire of our troops without flinch ing. Then their guns came to a level, and belched forth a staggering fire, followed by a charge of the whole mass. Arriving at close quarters, the musketry was contin ued, while more than two opposing regi ments crossed bayonets. Five minutes de cided it. The left could not stand the pressure, and began to waver. Our bat teries were silenced or captured, as the foe had desperation and numbers on then- side. ‘Fall back! fall back!’ rang out along our lines, from left to centre, and from centre to right, and the enemy once again triumphed on the field of Bull Run.