THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with 

 this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pic- 

 tures of fields, orchards and farm homes; prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs, 

 Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns, hen houses, corn cribs, 

 etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch cleaners and watering troughs. 

 A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help 

 us improve the appearance of THE AGE? 



SHEEP AND ALFALFA. 



The range sheep business is at present 

 the most profitable industry in the Rocky 

 Mountain States and throughout the West 

 generally. This legitimate, farm assistant 

 has been practically separated from agri- 

 culture and become a distinct investment, 

 so much so that the average farmer re. 

 gards a sheepman as an enemy instead of 

 a part of the new diversified system of soil 

 culture. Sheep are herded npon the pub- 

 lic domain, with no rental except in some 

 states where a grazing tax is imposed, and 

 as now managed are of no benefit to the 

 cultivated area. The farmers should be 

 the sheep owners and could easily double 

 their annual profits, and remove many of 

 the objectionable features of the present 

 system, by combining sheep and alfalfa 

 growing. 



Sheep run wild over the mountains, 

 destroying the young vegetation and under 

 brush, and tramping out the natural reser- 

 voirs for holding the rains and snowfall 

 from which irrigation water is obtained. 

 Men wander about in a semi-civilized man- 

 ner guarding the flocks from many possible 

 dangers of losses from separation, thieving 

 and prowling animals. Many of the herd- 

 ers become deranged in mind and crippled 

 in body while amassing wealth or striving 

 to gain food and clothing for their families. 

 The water for culinary purposes is often 

 fouled by dead carcasses left in the streams 

 or the erection of dipping vats and bedding 

 corals near the banks. Disease makes 

 ravages upon the flocks because of short 

 feed, poor camping places or neglect, and 

 yet the business represents investments of 

 millions of dollars and pays from twenty to 

 forty per cent profits with present prices. 



The farm is the place for herding and 



feeding sheep, and alfalfa the cheapest 

 and best crop that can be produced for 

 feed. This plant grows anywhere that a 

 little moisture can be obtained, and will 

 produce from two to six crops every year 

 for an indefinite time after a stand is se- 

 cured Sheep will thrive upon the green 

 crop and keep fat through the winter on 

 the hay. The fenced fields would soon be 

 fertilized for producing better crops, the 

 noxious weeds be destroyed and sufficient 

 income derived to make all necessary re- 

 pairs and improvements by each farmer 

 keeping a small band of sheep. Under ex- 

 isting conditions a flock of 2,000 herded on 

 the mountains costs about $2,000 a year and 

 yields an average of six to eight pounds of 

 wool, with an annual increase of about one- 

 third. Thus the income is practically 

 double the expense, when wool is worth 15 

 cents a pound and mutton sheep $2.50 per 

 head. The wool is better and heavier and 

 the sheep more saleable at increased 

 prices where the flock is fed and cared for 

 as farm animals. 



THE TOBACCO PLANT. 



Tobacco is a useful plant that should be 

 grown on every farm, or in the garden as 

 an ornament and for the many beneficial 

 purposes to which the cured leaf can be 

 converted. The stems are good fertilizers 

 and will keep insects away from fruit 

 trees if piled round the roots to the depth 

 of a foot or more. Leaves may be put in 

 hen's nests and sprinkled round the coops 

 for destroying lice and nits. The fumes 

 of burning tobacco will kill plant lice on 

 house flowers and disinfect a room better 

 than any prepared articles of commerce. 

 When boiled and mixed in water the nico- 

 tine will cure sheep scab and all skin dis 



