MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP IN WINTER. 497 



sists of letting them run in the stalk fields, and a blue grass 

 pasture with a few hay stacks to run to in stormy weather. 

 When the year comes around I realize larger profits from my 

 sheep than from a similar amount invested in any other kind 

 of farm stock, with the additional advantage of having my 

 pastures enriched, as no class of stock will benefit pasture 

 grounds as will sheep. Tliis is in part accounted for by the 

 fact that they more evenly distribute their droppings, and have 

 an invariable preference for lying on high points of land, if 

 their pastures have such elevations, which require most manure. 

 I would say to those seeking homes in the West, especiall}' 

 those who wish to engage in stock farming, that to my mind 

 there is no portion of the country that offers superior induce- 

 ments to this. Our lands are cheap, a very necessary requisite to 

 induce emigration. As a corn growing country, we are just 

 about on an average with the rest of the State. For Fall 

 wheat, our average is fair, but for grass, that great desideratum 

 and base of all good husbandry, we are head and shoulders 

 above every other part of Iowa, with the exception, perhaps, of 

 two or three counties in the southwestern portion of the State, 

 and are quite the equal of the best of those. We have proba- 

 bly quite as much timber in the northern part of the county as 

 is found in any one county in the State. For coal, our store 

 is limitless. The climate is similar to that of other portions 

 of the country in the same latitude, with the exception 

 that having more than an average amount of timber, we do not 

 suffer from the Winter winds as much as those portions lying 

 more exposed and bleak. So upon the whole, we think we 

 have all the qualifications requisite to make farming successful. 



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