No. 63.J 279 



the want of care through our long winters. They should have good 

 sheds to protect them from cold and wet weather. Old sheep should 

 be foddered twice each day; giving them as much as they will eat at 

 S o'clock, A. M., and 3 o'clock, P. M. They will do without wa- 

 ter if they have plenty of clean snow; roots will promote digestion, 

 and are preferable to grain for either ewes or lambs. The latter 

 should be fodderetl three times each day, and have water. We have 

 raised mangel wurtzels and sugar beets ever since they were first in- 

 troduceil into this country. We now cultivate the beets in prefer- 

 ence to the mangel wurtzels, and usually plant about two acres of 

 beets and carrots, and about one-half acre of ruta bagas. We consi- 

 der beets to be better than any other feed for fattening cattle, milch 

 eows, working oxen, calves, horses, store and fatting liogs and sheep. 

 We have fatted heifers on beets, that weighed when two years and 

 six months old, 800 pounds, and had 135 pounds of tallow. The 

 beef is much more tender and juicy, and also much sweeter than 

 when fatted with meal. A man in this town fatted a hoo; which 

 weighed when dressed, 600 pounds; his age was 20 months, his feed 

 was mostly sugar beets, with meal, the last two or three weeks. I 

 am surprised that roots are not more extensively cultivated by our 

 farmers. 



TO PREVENT WHEAT WTNTER KILLING— CULTURE OF 

 SILK IN MADISON COUNTY— OREGON MULBERRY. 



BY THOMAS MELLEN, MADISON, 



Much has been said and written on the subject of winter wheat 

 being thrown out of root, by the lifting process of the frost acting 

 on the surface of the ground, and partially and in most cases totally 

 killing the wheat plants of whole fields in this and other sections of 

 the country, where formerly we raised good and heavy crops of wheat, 

 and considered it as sure a crop as any other. And as much inquiry 

 is made as to the cause, and what would be the remedy against such fre- 

 quent losses, I will take the liberty to state my views and observa- 

 tions on the subject, and also the results of some experiments made 

 at my suggestion. When the country was new w^e raised good and 

 heavy crops of winter wheat, even on the tops of our highest hills, 

 and where it is since ascertained the soil is thin, and either a subsoil 

 or hardpan is less than a foot from the surface, and yet the wheat 

 was never winter killed. 



After the stumps became rotted and our lands cleared of them, and 

 we summer fallowed our pastures for the first time, we invariably had 

 heavy crops of winter or fall sowed wheat, and never in that case had 

 it thrown out by the frost. Nor did the lifting process of the frost 

 show itself on the wheat crop at the second summer fallowing of our 

 pasture lands; but from the third time to this day it has proved in- 



