FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 107 



heuee oue dangler of this rushing. Again, in sheep feeding, quietness is of the 

 utmost consequence. I can go into my flocli of Iambs and they will not get up. 

 They are quiet and contented. If oue of these ranting rusliers were to swoop down 

 on a flocli of laimbs the latter would be frightened and would bunch up in the 

 farther corners of the pen, and the profit of that day's feed is gone. 



The statements of Prof. Mumford tiiat in wool production we are retrogressing 

 is true. Michigan is showing fewer sheep, but the mutton quality is improving at 

 the expense of the wool. It is liard to combine wool and mutton, but the crossing 

 of Lincoln rsnns on Merino ewes seems to fulfill this purpose. A lot of these cross- 

 bred lambs shown in Owosso sheared eleven pounds of wool per head with a car- 

 cass weighing 128 pounds. 1 am. after much experience with this Lincoln-Merino 

 cross, inclined to believe that it gives the best selling avooI and the best mutton as 

 well. 



I would feed corn on the ear in preference to shelled corn. I would give the grain 

 feed early and leave hay in the rack for the lambs to eat later. If a man would 

 shell the corn for nothing I would not let him do it, so firmly has my experience 

 fixed my belief in the superiority of ear corn. 



A wanii barn is better than an open shed. 



No oue should attemjit to feed lambs fast. There is no hurryiug to be done 

 about a sheep barn. 



My experience with silage for lambs has not led me to fill my silos last fall. My 

 fattening lambs have done as well on dry feed as formerly on silage, but the l>reed- 

 ing ewes have not. 



Export lambs are coming rapidly to the front of late, and the highest prices are 

 obtained for this class of lambs. 



C. C. Lillie: In my statement as to the comparative food cost of beef and 

 butter, I referred solely to dressed beef and not to live weight. That is, it costs as 

 much to produce a pound of dressed beef as a pound of butter. 



Mr. Mitchell: Mr. Welch keeps his lambs too long. Wlien a lamb goes into 

 winter quarters he should be in good condition from rape and good pasture, and 

 should gain from the start. I liave fed silage witli most excellent success. Lin- 

 coln sheep are large and coarse; their place is on relatively low ground with good 

 pasture. 



A. M. Welch: I shall sell hereafter about Decoration day. I have fed Lincolns, 

 Htuupshires and Shropshires. I like half-blood Shropsliires the best. I don't want 

 a white faced Lincoln. They Mill not ilock together, but scatter to the four cor- 

 ners of the fields. They are not healthy, either. I do not like a kind of sheep 

 tliat requires one man running about ahead with a box of tar and another behind 

 ^^■'th a sheep shears to, keep them clean. 



H. H. Hinds: Silage is an elegant food for all classes of animals; so is hay and 

 so are roots. The silo it but one method of storing the corn crop. The value of 

 silage and its cost is at least $1.00 per ton, and probably more nearly $1.50. 1 have 

 fed 500 tons of silage per year and may be assumed to know something about its 

 value. My siloes have a capacity of 750 tons. Siloes should be round and as deep 

 as convenient. The chief value of silage for lambs lies in its succulence. There 

 is a necessary loss in the corn crop in keeping. The corn is in its prime for feed- 

 ing when it is ripe and fi-esh. It deteriorates from that forward whether it be 

 stored in a silo or left in the shock. A canned peach is not so good as a fresh one, 

 but it is better canned than dried; so with the corn crop. 



Robt. Gibbons: A visit to a sheep farm lately revealed the fact that crossing 

 liambouUet rams on Merino ewes enlarged the carcass of the lamb and kept up 

 the character of the wool of the fleece, but yielding, of course, a less weight of 

 wool. Mr. Cook suggested an excellent cross, the Lincoln-Merino, but to keep up 

 that .practice involves the dependence on others for the pure bloods on both sides. 



Mr. Welch has been asked for a description of his feeding rack, and it is here 

 appended. 



Length of bed piece. 2 ft. 9 in. 2x4. Height of standard 1x4 oak 35 in. above 

 bed piece on the outside, 32 in. on inside, so as to put top board on slanting. Four 

 pieces of 6 in. flooring for bottom of rack. First board on side of rack at botton 

 S in. wide, width of second board on rack 4 in., which is placed 18 in. above top 

 of bottom board, or leaving an IS in. opening. Third board G in. wide, placed on top 

 of standards which are cut slanting. For the side of each, standard of S pieces for 

 none rack. Strop or oval iron % in. wide, 21 in. long, with a hole in each end and 

 counter sunk for IM in. screw. These irons are to hold sliding board in place, 

 which is 1x10 dressed to %. Now bore a small hole the size of sash cord in the 



