[dymond] elevator SCREENINGS 81 



on a diet of pure screenings for only a day or two, and then a little 

 cracked corn is added. The proportion of corn is increased gradually 

 until the ration consists of half or slightly more than half corn, the 

 sheep being given all they will eat of this mixture, as well as hay. 



The aim of the feeder is to get the sheep on a diet of corn as soon 

 as possible, but pure corn is too heavy a feed for the sheep, and so the 

 screenings are used as a sort of '"filler." Formerly, elevator screenings 

 contained much shrunken and broken wheat, oats, and barley, but 

 with improved methods of recleaning the screenings, practically all 

 this material is removed, and only the smaller weed seeds and chaiï are 

 available as screenings. When corn sold at $20 per ton, such screen- 

 ings cost at the feeding stations $10 to $12 per ton.. On such feed the 

 sheep usually gain from 12 to 15 pounds during the first thirty days. 

 After that they gain less rapidly. Fifty thousand sheep will eat about 

 two cars of screenings and a car of corn per day. Seed-house screen- 

 ings and screenings containing a large proportion of broken flax are 

 avoided. At Kirkland much of the manure accumulating in the sheds 

 is hauled away by farmers during the summer, and put into piles until 

 fall. The manure, when so piled, "heats" and the vitality of many of 

 the weed seeds which have become mixed with the manure is destroyed. 

 Farmers who have used this manure admit that large numbers of 

 weeds make their appearance after its application. Its use, however, 

 has not resulted in any serious spread of noxious weeds. This is 

 explained by the two following circumstances: — 



1. In that district, as in other parts of Illinois and neighbour- 

 ing states, large quantities of corn are grown. This sheep 

 manure is put on corn ground, and by constant cultivation of the 



. corn the weeds are destroyed before they can mature seeds. 



2. Practically all of the farms around Kirkland are worked 

 by tenants, and as rents are high and land valuable, the careless 

 and slovenly farmer is crowded out. 



It must be admitted that the farms are all practically free from 

 noxious weeds, although one meadow was seen to be badly contamin- 

 ated with tumbling mustard, very probably introduced through 

 screenings. Although the use of this manure has resulted in no very 

 serious spread of weeds, its use undoubtedly involves considerable 

 risk of introducing some of the worst weeds the farmer has to fight. 

 At Montgomery and Stockdale, the American Guano Company has 

 put up factories where the sheep manure is dried and pulverized, and 

 from it is made a fertilizer used largely on golf links, country estates, 

 market gardens, etc. 



