SHEEP — FISH CULTURE. 103 



ago. They are very spirited, seldom need urging, and I attrib- 

 ute their good health in part to using cistern water. 



SHEEP. 



Of all farm stock, sheep are my special favorites. Not 

 only for profit for the least labor bestowed upon them, but for 

 their gentle and quiet ways. I began about twenty-five 

 years ago with thirty Merino ewes, brought here from Ohio. 

 Improved the fineness of the wool by purchasing full blooded 

 rams of French, Spanish and American Merinoes, and in- 

 creased my flock to about 600. But the war creating a demand 

 for coarser wools, and Chicago becoming a mutton market, I 

 bred my Merinoes to coarse-wool bucks, and now have a flock 

 of a yearly average of about 175, averaging ten and one-half 

 pounds of wool, and weighing at the beginning of the 

 feeding season, exclusive of lambs, about 150 pounds average. 

 I feed in the open air, in racks sixteen feet long, one foot wide, 

 and three feet high, having a tight plank bottom, raised four 

 inches from the ground, and two boards on each side and end, 

 eight inches apart. Nail to a 2x4 post at each corner and 

 at the middle. A 2x4 two feet long is nailed at the bottom 

 of each pair of posts, upon which rests the bottom plank nailed 

 fast to keep the box from being turned over by the wind. In a 

 snow or rain storm, turn the rack bottom side up, and put the 

 sheep under cover. 



ARTEFICIAL FISH CULTURE. 



How I made my ponds : The embankment at the lower 

 end of the pond is made by putting in a grout wall of water-lime, 

 sand, gravel and stone. I dug a trench as deep as I could 

 conveniently and wide enough for a man to work in. I then 

 drove hard-wood two inch plank into it a depth of three feet 

 and filled it with grout to the surface. I then ran it up 

 as I would in making a grout wall for a building to within two 

 feet of as high as I wanted the embankment. Laid down 

 tile to let the water run through while making the wall 

 and embankment. The embankment is thirty feet wide at 

 the base, ten feet high, and ten feet wide at the top. The 



