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[Written for the Southern Field and Fireside.] HOW CAN WE IMPROVE OUR LANDS, AND MARE COTTON! This ever recurring question has been con stantly before the public mind for near half a century, and has as yet never been satis factorily answered. Various attempts have been made, as well by practical farmers, as those who claim to be scientific, but none have suc ceeded so far as to make any permanent impres sion upon the masses generally of their success. We apprehend that a proper answer to this question can only be obtained by a long con tinued process of induction; and then, so multi farious will be the points embraced, that to no one man can the discovery ever be justly awarded. It is the object of this essay to pre sent, as succinctly as possible, after the ex perience and observation of a series of years, what are the cheapest and best processes of improving the soil, while we cultivate the great staple of the South. In what do our lands so rapidly deteriorate, under the cotton culture adopted generally by our planters? What do they require to restore them to their pristine vigor? We answer to both questions, nitrogen and humus. The first is mainly of animal, the other of vegetable ori gin—though nitrogen is sometimes produced, not in large quantities, from vegetable decompo sition, and humus results to some extent from animal sources. Nitrogen, being the chief ele ment of ammonia, is always forming this com pound in a soil where it exists, under favorable circumstances by combining with hydrogen.— Ammonia is the great principle upon which de pends the fertilizing qualities of guano and all animal manures. It is a volatile salt, and hence the difficulty of having it retained in dung heaps on soil?. It is estimated that sixteen pounds of ammonia will render an acre fertile, all other es sential elements being present. We doubt not, a single cow, with proper food, would waste enough, if properly husbanded, in a year, to en rich five acres of land. Humus is the decayed organism of plants or vegetation of any kind. During the gradual process of its decomposition, it forms humic, ulmic, geic, cremic and apo cremic acids, by combining with oxygen, all of which are essential to the healthy growth of vegetation. There is no system of farming that substraets the humus so rapidly from the soil, as cotton culture, not because the lint and seed of cotton are more exhausting in themselves, but because it is a clean culture through the whole of a long summer, and there is nothing returned to the soil of which to make humus, but the stalks and leaves of the cotton. Now, the question recurs, where can the Southern planter obtain nitrogen and humus at the cheapest rates, with which to rejuvenate his barren fields ? The dung and urine of animals are the great sources of nitrogen. Not only ammonia, but other voluble salts, answering the same ends as humus and its acids, and redupli cating this humus a thousand fold, by the rich verdure with which it clothes the fields, —there- by calling into action, through the medium of green manures, much of the soluble, as well as insoluble elements of the soil. The following propositions, then, may be con sidered as apharistic : without animals, there is no ammonia; without ammonia, there are no re munerating crops. Have we the animals, then ? the horses, the cows, the sheep, the goats, the hogs ? Very few formers have enough stock to improve their soils as fast as they draw upon them, even if they could save all their excre ments. But with the small amount of stock they now have, much can be done towards improve ment, by adopting the right system. We frequent* ly hear it remarked that such a man has too much dtock —it takes too much to keep them. Alas! what a fallacy ! This is the foundation of the whole farming economy of the South. No won der it takes too much to feed them, when there is such scanty provision made for them, and such little attention paid to them in any way. With a view of correcting all the evils, inci dent to the important question of stock hus bandry at the South, we propose to the careful consideration of her agriculturalists, the grazing and folding system, by which the cattle are kept fat by permanent pasturage of luxuriant grasses during the greater part of the year, and the cot ton fields fatted in return, by the droppings of the animals. Here, doubtless, some of our readers will smile derisively at the idea of haul ing in litter, and hauling out manure, at such a cost of time and labor, for an increased number of stock, as under the old composting system. Not too fast, gentle reader; we propose a much cheaper system than this—one that puts all the animals to work gathering their own feed, and then depositing the manure just where it is needed, without the waste attending the com posting system, and the trouble of loading and unloading. Our system, then, involves, first, permanent pasturage, without which it is impossible to keep stock to advantage in any country. The great difficulty of stock raising at the South, lies in this very thing—the dependence of farmers on the woods’ old fields and highways, with their scanty supply of grass and herbage, to keep their cattle during the summer, and then to have the run of the com and cotton fields during autumn, gathering all they can of leaves and shucks, and stalks, leaving the land down-trod den and depreciated; while the remainder of the winter and early spring is eked out with a scanty supply of dry forage. We propose, as a remedy to this great evil, for every planter to put down a portion of his arable land in Bermu da grass; and if too poor to produce luxuriant grasses, buy guano, and give it a good start with this fertilizer. Rolling lands might be selected, as the grass roots will protect the soil from waste, by washing rains, while the more level fields could be retained for cultivation. This grass, on good land, will give excellent pastur age for nine months in the year, say from April to November, unless the freezes come early ; in which case, the time may be less by a few weeks. It is useless for our planters to seek for a better grass for the South—it has all the necessary elements of a good grazing grass, be ing nutritious, tenacious of its rights, fighting its way through all opposition, and maintaining its hold in the severest draughts of our long sum mers. Such a grass is invaluable, and we hesi tate not to assert, that with proper care, it will pay better than any other grass, or grain, or root, on a given section of land. The only objection ever urged against the Bermuda grass among cotton planters, is its ten acity of life, and the difficulty of eradicatihg it from a soil where it has possession. Hence, the plan is among many to destroy every vestige of it oh their farms. The true policy is to put down a field which will never be needed for cul tivation again, and, as it is propagated by the roots and not by seed, it is very easily kept in bounds. On all common uplands whore the soil is not very rich, it may be easily destroyed, as we have seen it done again and again, by turn ing the turf over with a good turning plow in the fall, and let the roots take the freezes till Feb ruary; then sow oats, and follow with peas—it will be completely shaded out, and ready for cotton the next year. By scattering the roots xkx sovsxx&n ims xxxxsxxx. over a corn field before the last plowing, it will take complete possession of the soil, and be ready for pasturage the next summer. We have no doubt that it is a great ameliorater of the soil, and will be used for this purpose in coming time, when the philosophical axiom of ‘less land and more labor,’ shall be recognized by the planters of the South. Our main reliance for winter food must be on the turnip crop, upon what is called the folding system. One thousand bushels of Ruta Bagas may be relied upon, per acre, when properly ma nured and managed. As the object is not sim ply to feed the stock but to improve the land, we would purchase super-phosphate of lime, sow in the drill, and cultivate well. Our plow ing and our hoeing are, however, all that will be requisite. When the turnips have matured, fence off a small section, enough to last your stock several days, and turn them in, to feed ing and working. It may be well to have dif ferent sections for kinds of stock, or the hogs may follow the cows, as they would make a clean sweep of all that was left in the soil. A light hurdle fence might be constructed with movable pannels, which would save much labor in changing from one section to another. Our plan is to have two slanting planks nailed to gether on slats, which will be about two and a half •feet high, then drive two stakes at each end, and put a heavy rail in the cross. If not high enough, another rail could be added. This could be taken down and put up with very little labor. Now, what are the qbjectionsto this system? Nothing, but the same old plea of not having time to stop a hand to attend to the stock in cotton picking time, or of planting the turnips in crop time. What a foolish objection! We assert, and we can maintain the position, that with good Bermuda grass pasturages, and a fine field of turnips, one hand can make more money by attending to the stock on the folding system, than a dozen can, who do nothing but plant, tend and pick cotton the year round. Don’t be startled, but let reason predominate for once. Two acres of rich Bermuda grass, will keep one cow, eight months in the year. A half acre of Ruta Bagas, with what dry for age can be easily husbanded on a farm, will keep her the remainder of the year. A cow voids from 1,200 to 1,500 gallons of urine in a year, the salts of which, after evaporating the water, will be equal to about 100 lbs. of solid matter, composed of urea and other organic matters containing nitrogen, sulphates of soda and am monia, muriate of ammonia, and common salt. A cow fed on excellent pasture land, produced 37 lbs. of dung in a day and night, equal to 13,500 lbs. a year,* in which are contained all the elements of good soil. How much land, think you, would these solid and liquid excre ments of one cow, fertilize in a year ? How much would a hundred cows manure in three nights, after feeding on Bermuda grass during the day, or folded day and night on a luxuriant plat of turnips ? These are interesting questions, to be answered by some future scientific agri culturist, who will adopt and carry out the only system of improving lands adapted, in our humble opinion, to the wide spread plantations of the South. Sheep folding has been adopted in England and other countries of Europe, for the purpose of manuring land, and doubtless would be used much more extensively, but for the fact that land is too high for grazing purposes generally; hence, soiling and stall feeding are the best sys tem. Most of the manure, solid and liquid, can be saved and carted out over the few and not distant acres of land possessed by a single fanner. In the South, however, this system will not pay, and has already been abandoned by the few who have tried it, while many are growing doubtful as to the value of hauling out composts at all. All admit the utter impossibi lity of keeping up extensive lands by this pro cess, and hence, many have introduced guano, and other foreign manures, which is thought to be more profitable, and better adapted to the cotton culture of the South. We feel well as sured that the grazing and folding system is destined at no distant day to take precedence of all others. Connected with this system, there must be a judicious rotation of crops. Very few Southern planters, even among the more intelligent, pay any regard to this important fact in agriculture. The plan, generally, is to keep the best lands in cotton, and the poorest in corn and wheat, until so exhausted that they will produce neither, then turn them out to slowly recuperate under the growth and leaves of the old field pine. Learn ing wisdom from the past, some of the more in telligent planters of middle Georgia have adopt ed a three-years rotation thus: 1. corn; 2. cot ton ; 3. faUow or rest. Wheat, oats, potatoes and turnips are of such secondary importance, that they do not bring them into the rotation, but have lots and small fields adjacent to the farm yard, which are kept highly manured for these crops. In our ojfinion, a more judicious rotation would be as follows: 1. corn; 2. wheat, followed by turnips; 3. cotton; 4. rest. The ad vantages of this rotation can be made very ap parent to any one under our grazing and folding system. Let it be premised that one-fourth of the plantation is in Bermuda grass for permanent pastorage. The remainder is divided into four equal parts, No. 1. in com; No. 2. in wheat, just ground; No. 3. in cotton, and No. 4. at rest. Our stock feeder drives his cattle from the pas tures every night, and folds them on No. 4. now at rest, until, section by section, the whole field or all the fields are manured in this way, and turned in, when the turnip crop, which was planted after the wheat, takes the place of pas tures, and the stock feed on them during the day as heretofore indicated. At night, if the weather is cold they can be put under sheds that are well littered. No. 1. is now sown in wheat. No. 2. prepared and planted in cotton, after the turnips are cut off. No. 3. put to rest, and No. 4. (which has had the advantage of rest and the folding of cattle at night) planted in com. There will be quite as much compost as can be hauled out, which may be applied to com or cotton, or wherever it seems most needed, or is most convenient. Thus the plan moves on during the four years of rotation. If, under this system, there is not a manifest improvement of the land, then have all the calculations of agri culturalists and chemists signally failed to throw any light upon the subject of ameliorating the soil And if under this system, with the same amount of land and labor, a planter does not make more money, including the increased value of his land, we have wofuUy mistaken our call ing in an attempt to write an agricultural essay. If he does not make quite as much cotton, which wo are not willing to admit, the amount of but ter, beef, mutton, pork, ludes and other animal products, with com, flour, Ac., will at least equal if not outstrip the cotton crop on the old plan. And then, deduct the depreciation of the value of land in the one case, and the increased value in the other, and there is no comparison between the profits of the two systems. Our plan takes •Thault's principle of Agriculture, page 95. less land, less labor, less capital, and contem plates larger profits. The single county of Hancock is now spend ing about $50,000 annually, for nitrogen, trans ported from the Chincha Islands. Who doubts but that the same elements may not be produced and sowed at a much cheaper rate by our plant ers, on the system which we have presented so imperfectly ? Not only nitrogen, but humus is also developed by the rotation of crops, and the permanent pasturage system. For, instead of the cattle devouring nearly everything left on the land, as under the present system, the leaves and stalks of all products remain to decay, and return to the soil more humus than was taken from it by the crop. But one more item remains to be discussed, in this essay, for the proper and permanent im provement of our lands: and that is, level-culture. In this climate of rolling lands, and washing rains, it is useless to apply manure in any way to the soil, unless it is protected from waste. We have for several years abandoned hill-side ditches, upon steep declivities or long slopes, having found the improved system of level cul ture to answer a much better purpose. Our plan is to cultivate every field and every crop on a perfect level. Beginning, generally, at the highest point, with a spirit level, constructed on the most improved plan, we lay off our guide rows from twenty to fifty yards apart, according to the steepness of the hill-side. Each of these rows, being on a perfect level, is intended for a seed row. We now begin to run on one side parallel rows, the proper width for corn or cotton, until wo approach near half way to the other guide row ; we then begin at that and lay off, until the rows meet in the narrowest pai t. Short rows are then filled in by running on one ridge, and returning on the other, always splitting out the middle between the ends of the short rows more narrowly than the width of the regular rows. If the corn rows are six feet, the ends of the short rows should not be more than four. By this plan, when a short row is plowed, there is always another near at hand to be taken, without having to lift the plow some distance to get to another row. We hesitate not to assert, that if a former will, take a hill side however steep, and cultivate on this plan before gullies have been formed, he will never be troubled with them. In old fields where they have been formed, hill side ditches are, to some extent, advisable; but it is always a necessary evil; for when not connected with level culture, it as surely, but more slowly, car ries off the surface soil. On a hill side, protect ed by land culture, simply, the deterioration is gradual, from the base to the summit; but where there are hill side ditches, it begins at one ditch and terminates at another—that portion of the soil which would have kept the land immediately below the ditch, in good heart, has been carried off by the ditch, as can be illustrated in any field where ditches have remained permanent for a number of years; just below the ditches the soil is always the poorest. Level culture also pos sesses the rare advantage of holding all the water, between the com or cotton beds, of sum mer showers, so that none is lost only by evap oration. Frequently on clay lands it remains for a day or two, gradually soaking in and add ing moisture and nourishment to the plants, when under the old mode of plowing it would have passed down the slope as fast as it fell, and leave but little permanent moisture behind. Thus we have, in brief outline, presented what we deem the true system of improving lands in the older sections of the South, where the soil has been so much abusod and deteriorated. It involves four important principles, neither of which belongs to the present agricultural system of the South, except in a few isolated cases, viz.: permanent pasturage—folding of stock—rotation of crops, and level culture. Every other sys tem, or combination of systems, that has yet been proposed, has failed; and we offer this to the planters of the South as one that has suc ceeded as far as it has been tried, and in all its parts sustained by the principles of agricultu ral chemistry and philosophy. The cheapness of our lands and large extent of our farms have already brought the composting system into dis repute, which has been succeeded by the intro duction of foreign manures, which seems to be now in the ascendant; but the tocsin of alarm has already been sounded from Virginia and Maryland, that it is not an ameliorating, but ex hausting system, and our planters will have to look to other sources for the hope of permanent success. We verily believe that the plan we propose, taken in all its parts, will succeed. Whatever may be its faults, it at least commends itself to all the lovers of progress in science and art, as being suggestive. Whether in all its minutia?, we have hit upon the very best processes for improving our soils, and protecting them from wash, remains to be tested, by the unerring calculus of the inductive philosophy. -»«»• —- A Fish Story. —The following, from an Eng lish paper, is hard to beat: “On the 6th of April, while a fisherman in one of the boats be longing to Ferryden, was hauling his line at a considerable distance from the shore, a circum stance occurred which illustrates the voracity with which different kinds of piscatory animals prey upon one another. While a fisherman was drawing up a haddock that was on one of the hooks, he noticed a large halibut making an at tempt to devour one of the smaller fish as he was drawing it up. He immediately seized a clip and laid hold of tho halibut, but he had hardly got a proper hold of it when he perceived a ling trying to seize the halibut. Having freed one hand, he immediately seized the ling with the other, and proceeded to pull it on board, when he noticed a large sea cat making strenuous attempts to seize the ling. This ani mal was also successfully laid hold of and taken on board, concluding this remarkable chase.” — Henry Ward Beecher ox Newspapers.— Consider how universal are newspapers in America. They penetrate every nook and cor ner of society. No other element of power has such a sphere. The pulpit, the court, the lec ture, compared with the newspaper, touch so ciety in but few places. The newspaper in America is universal. It reaches within and without, from surface to core; it travels every where, is bought by everybody, read by all classes, and is wholly or nearly the only read ing of more than half our population. Its ser vice to good morals and to intelligence among the people is incalculable. All the libraries of Europe are not of as much service to the na tions of Europe as the newspaper is to the American nation. Its power is growing! Who would, twenty years ago, have dreamed of such growth and power as has been developed ? But the next twenty years will witness a greater. The editor is to be the schoolmaster. The best talent will find its highest sphere in the edito rial room. Already that chair is more influen tial that the bench or the platform. No braiu can act upon so many as that which speaks by the printing press of the daily paper. Ink beats like blood in the veins of the nation. Independent. AYRSHIRE AND WEST HIGHLAND CATTLE, CLYDESDALE HORSES BLACK-FACED MOUNTAIN SHEEP. The following interesting letter of Sanford Howard, now in Scotland, we extract from the Rural New Yorker , to which Mr. Howard is a regular contributor: Kilmarnock, Scotland, June 18,1859. In my last I made a brief allusion to the Glasgow Cattle Show, and more particular no tice of some portions of it may be interesting to some of your readers. To the public generally, the most attractive department was the Ayr shire cattle. In several of the western coun ties of Scotland dairying is extensively carried on. Butter and cheese are made in large quan tities, and in the large towns much milk is sold. The Ayrshire breed of cows is almost univer sally kept here, and it is deemed settled that they are the most profitable for the purpose mentioned. In fact, it is the only dairying breed in Scotland. Other breeds have been tried—as the milking (Yorkshire) variety of the Short-horn, and the Channel Islands (Alderney) breed. The former is less hardy than the Ayrshire, is a large con sumer, and is said to afford less milk—and es pecially less butter—in proportion to the cost of keeping. The Channel Islands breed answers well for butter where shelter is given, but does not bear the exposure which the Ayrshires are generally subjected to, and is less ’profitable in the cheese dairy. The Ayrshires are constantly disseminating themselves. They are rapidly in creasing in Ireland; many orders are annually' sent from England for them, and even the gov ernments of France, Prussia, Russia, and other countries have sent agents to procure them.— The rising colonies of Australia and }'an Die man’s Land have also introduced them. The re putation which the breed has acquired, has tended to make breeders more careful in their system of breeding, and much improvement has been the result I cannot help thinking, how ever, that the rules by which this stock is some times judged, are in some respects at variance with the principles of actual utility. Too much attention is paid to a fashion in regard to the shape of the udder and the position of the teats. No doubt the shape, and especially the capacity of this organ has more or less to do with the power of the animal for yielding a large quanti ty of milk; but that the special model assumed here is always indicative of the relative intrin sic value of the animal for milking purposes, cannot be shown. Indeed, several persons have been candid enough to admit, that a cow which did not come up to the fashionable standard in this point, might afford an equal or greater quantity of milk, and be in no way inferior on the score of actual profit. Yet the shape of the “vessel” (as it is called) is often made the leading, and sometimes almost the only point, in judging cows in milk. At a show, (not that of Glasgow,) which I lately attended, the medal for the best cow or heifer was awarded to a clumsy-headed, sour-countenaneed, weak-backed animal, which I wpuld not have accepted as a gift. But this was probably an extreme case, and lam glad to know that there are breeders who will not be led by the mere caprice of the day, to sacrifice the most important points in reference to constitution and general usefulness. Tho classes of “aged” animals (those three year old and over) of the Ayrshire breed, at the Glasgow Show, were very fine. Several of the bulls and cows were almost faultless, so for as regards their external points, and it was wholly by these, in connection with pedigree, that they were judged—no statement, so far as I could learn, respecting the quantity of milk, butter or cheese, afforded by any cow, being given or re quired. The one which took the first premium as a cow in milk, was a really splendid animal, latciv bought by her present owner for £9o— ’ There was a good show of short home.— They were judged wholly in reference to their fattening points. With the exception of a sin gle animal, none of them competed in the dairy classes. Next came the Galloways and West High landers—aboriginal breeds of Caledonia, and admirably adapted to her healthy mountains and moors. Both are very handsome in form, though differing somewhat from each other.— The West Highlanders occupy the bleakest dis tricts, and thousands of them are reared with out shelter, and with no other food, except a lit tle milk from their dams in early childhood, than what they grub from the rugged pastures. Na ture has given them a coat of hair which pro tects their bodies against the winter’s storm. Some of them at this show had still a conside rable portion of their last year's hair, three or four inches long, hanging in patches on them. The Galloways are not so heavily coated as the Highlanders, and belong to a lower country. They are larger, but hardly as deep chested in proportion to their size as the Highlanders—very round bodied and lay their flesh very evenly. These breeds would be valuable in America, in the hilly and mountainous districts and on the northwestern prairies. They are bred almost exclusively for beef, but some of the Highland cows present by no means a mean appearance for dairy purposes, and their milk is of the rich est kind and affords butter of the best quality’. There was a large display of draft horses, chiefly of the Clydesdale breed. They are the best horses of their kind that I have ever seen. Their weight is from 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. each, their shape is excellent, and their action much superior to that of any’ other large horses I have anywhere met with. There was a class of road sters, among which were some fairish animals, but quite inferior to our best horses of this class. A very useful kind of horse was shown under the name of “Ponies for Milk Carts." They were generally about 14 to 14$ hands high, snugly made, full of muscle, and generally fair trotters. They would weigh from 950 to 1000 lbs. each. There was a large display of the Black-faced Mountain Sheep, and to me they had a very in teresting appearance. Their native habitat is the same as that of the Highland cattle, and there is between them a similarity of character istics. Prebably there are no hardier sheep in the world, or any which have more striking in dividuality or fixity of type. The rams have very large horns, handsomely curved, and the ewes have small horns. Their heads, black or speckled, are beautiful—the eye fuU and bright. Their wool, of a year’s growth, nearly reaches the ground. A prettier sight is seldom seen than a flock of these sheep, led by a line of bold, active, full horned rams, followed by ewes and young lambs. I think the breed may be useful in America, and I have bought a small lot for Mr. Isaac Stickney, of Boston. Among the implements at tho Glasgow Show were McCormick's reaping machine, Hussey’s, and Manny’s and Wood’s combined reapers and mowers. The two former have been somewhat modified since their introduction into Britain. The latter has been tried the present season as a mower, in England, with good results. A few days ago I attended a fair for the sale of cattle, at Tarbolton. The occasion was not entirely novel, as I had attended some fairs of this kind before, but taken in connection with the associations of the place, it had a peculiar interest. It wiil be recollected that this town and neighborhood are connected with the Plow man Poet of Ayrshire, or to give him a higher title by which he is recognised, the National Poet of Scotland. The fair was held on what was called Fire Hill—that “hill” which Bums says he “had come round about”—(it is hinted that he could not have traveled the foot-path which leads over it that night)—where he met a grim personage who communicated to him the de signs of Dr. Hombrook. The hill is a singular spot for the curious. It is principally a natural elevation, at the apex of which is a mound of artificial formation, where, according to tradi tion, the Druids held religious worship. They kept a fire burning here day and night, for cer tain periods, and called the place Tarbolton. Partly in remembrance of this ancient custom, the present inhabitants keep a fire here all the night preceding the annual fair. This has been done from the earliest period of the Anglo-Saxon occupancy. At the foot of the mound is a broad terrace, where it is said the heathen worship pers were gathered, and who were kept from the sacred mound by a circle of trees at its base. It is said tliat at a later period, this spot was the seat of judiciary tribunals for the inhabitants of the neighborhood. • On this terrace and on the slope of the hill below, were collected on the present occasion, within the space of two hours, between 100 and 500 head of cattle with their attendants, while on the whole hill were several thousand persons, as purchasers or spectators. It was a most interesting scene. Viewing it from the top of the mound, one could hardly help com paring it, in the mind's eye, with the scenes enacted here in former years. How wide the contrast! Under the influence of Christian civi lization, as here displayed, how has the condi tion of man been improved, and his sentiments exalted. Where the rude hunter obtained but a precarious subsistence, the landscape smiles under the hand of skillful cultivation; green meadows alternating with fields of waving grain are presented on every hand, while immediately before the eye is a rich display of one of the most important products of agriculture. But there are other associations which height en the interest of the picture. On an eminence within view, is the lofty monument erected with in a few years to the memory of “Scotia’s ill requited chief,” William Wallace, in the inscrip tion on which the name of our Washington is combined with that of the Scottish hero and the hero of Thermopylae, and all of them declared to be “Watchwords of Liberty.” At a little dis tance, and almost within sight, are the ruins of Cragie Castle, wliich is said to have belonged to the Wallace family, and where he is believed to have sometimes resided. Much of “The Land of Burns” is embraced in the view. In the distance are the Cumnock hills, o'er which “the rising moon began to glow er” when the poet sat himself with all his pow er to count her horns, but could not tell whether she had “three or four.” A little nearer, in the same direction, are the woods of Ballochrugle, the spires of the town ofMauehline, the scene of several of his poems, and near which is the farm ofMossgiel where he resided; while Lochlever, his previuos residence,'is in the (Tarbolton) par ish, and only two miles distant. At the foot of the hill is “Willie’s Mill,” “Jonny Ged’s Hole,” and the cottage where the “Brethren of the Mystic Tie” assembled, of whom he took that touching, “heart-warm, fond adieu,” when he had prepared to go to the Indies. Tl.e business of the Fair was dispatched with great lapidity. By 1 o'clook, p. m., nearly all the cattle had been sold, and many of them had left the ground. I may here remark that a fee of half a penny per head was collected for the cattle offered, and this was all that was required to obtain the facilities of the Fair. Shortly after 12 o’clock, a band of music ap peared on the mound, (the top of the hill,) and many well-dressed ladies stationed themselves there for a while, listening to the stirring airs from the instruments, and enjoying the rural holiday. Children of various ages had been out by hundreds all the morning. Soon after 2 o’clock, every person and every animal left the hill, and nothing was 6een of Tarbolton Fair, except the numerous lots of cattle wending their way, on the various roads, to the farms of their new owners. But the picture was daguhrreo typed on my mind, and will often bo reviewed with pleasure. DESTRUCTION OF SHEEP BT DOGS. The assessors in Ohio, under an act of the Legislature, have endeavored to ascertain the total number of sheep killed and injured by dogs during the year 1858. The returns from only a few counties have been published; but these, few as the counties are, disclose a fearful amount of slaughter. We append the returns of eleven counties, covering not more than one-eighth of the State: Count it*. Killed. Wounded. Value. Greene 1,269 820 *8,104 Harrison 581 1,478 8,067 Delaware 781 555 1,026 Musklnpem 1,206 884 8,186 Champaign 682 564 8,189 Lorain 482 156 1,219 Summit 820 820 2,459 Lake 412 100 888 Stark 626 719 1,879 Cuyahoga 683 1,112 8,198 Wayns 747 657 2,182 , 7,054 7,860 *25,842 Here arc over 7,000 sheep killed and nearly 8,000 injured, at a cost to the owners of over $25,000, and all by a pack of curs utterly worthless. If the proportion holds good throughout the State, the annual loss to sheep growers must be about $200,000, and if all the dogs in the State were put together they would not be worth a tenth part of that sum. We trust that the legislation under which these statistics have been gathered will be followed up vigorously, and that some judicious measures will be taken to abate an evil of such magnitude. Othor States will doubtless follow Ohio in any efficient measures she may adopt. The danger to sheep from dogs has for a long time prevent ed an increase in the sheep-growing business in this country. Many men Who would otherwise engage in it are restrained from venturing from the risk attending it in consequence of the dog pest. If this were removed the business of wool raising would at once become a leading and profitable one.— Pittsburg Gazette. To Make Dry Yeast Cakes.— Take a good handful dried hops, pour on it a quart of water, then boil it to one pint, and while boiling strain it over one pint of wheat flour, mix well, then set it aside until blood warm, then add yeast to raise it, say a cake and a half of dried, or one gill of bakers’ yeast; it will now take about twenty-four hours to rise in very cold weather, and should be placed in a warm situation. After raising sufficiently, mix into it as much corn meal as wiil form it into small cakes, place them on a board and set in sun to dry, occasionally turning them; when dry put the cakes into a bag and hang them up for use. 95