138 



Cheap Food for Stock. 



Vol. IV. 



alike and do well. The flocks ought like- 

 wise to be as small as we can conveniently 

 make them. It is an invariable rule that a 

 small flock does much better than a large one, 

 even if both, according to their number, are 

 fed equally well. If the flocks in each yard 

 can be reduced to between fifty and one hun- 

 dred, so much the better; and it is a great de- 

 sideratum to make them as few as fifty, if it 

 can in any way be eflected. It is likewise 

 necessary to have a separate yard for old and 

 poor sheep, and if there are any in the flock 

 that do not subsequently do well, they should 

 be removed into what is commonly called 

 the hospital. These hospital sheep, by being 

 few in number, having a good warm shed, a 

 sheaf of oats, or a few screenings fi-om under 

 the fanning mill once a day, will soon begin to 

 improve and do well. I have had my hospital 

 sheep in a better condition with this care by 

 spring than any other flock, and I must say 

 that for the last three seasons, my sheep were 

 in a better condition when I turned them out 

 of my yard in the spring, than when I put 

 them in in the beginning of winter. 



Sheep ought to be rather sparingly than 

 sumptuously fed, three times a day, out of 

 racks, to prevent them from running over and 

 trampling on the hay. As soon as one is seen 

 in any of the flocks to become thin, it ought 

 to be removed at once into the hospital where 

 it will be better fed. If you neglect to do 

 this soon, it will be too late, and you will suf- 

 fer loss ; for a sheep once reduced to a certain 

 point cannot be recovered. It is good to give 

 them a feeding of straw or pine tops, if you 

 please ; it invigorates their liealth and makes 

 a change in their food. They ought all to be 

 daily watered, and if your hay has not been 

 salted, they ought to have a lick of salt occa- 

 sionally. By adopting these rules, you will 

 save all your sheep ; or you will not lose more 

 of them than you would of the same number 

 of horses and cattle. They will have no dis- 

 ease among them. I have often thought of 

 an observation made to me by an experienced 

 wool- grower from whom I asked for informa- 

 tion of the diseases of sheep; he answered,— 

 " What have you to do with the diseases of 

 sheep— take care of them and you will have 

 no need for remedies." This observation 

 struck me as strange at the time, but subse- 

 quent experience has amply confirmed it. 



And now, what will the former gain by 

 keeping his sheep well ! In the first place 

 ke will gain in his hay,— a fat sheep will not 

 eat as much as a poor one; he will save all 

 his grain — sheep in good condition do not re- 

 quire any. In the next place he will save all 

 his sheep — he will have more and better lambs 

 in the spring ; and in consequence of it, he 

 will have several ounces of wool more to each 

 sheep ; and what ia better than all the roet, 



he will in the end save himself loss and anx- 

 iety. The saving will at least be firom one- 

 eighth to one-fourth of the value of his flock, 

 and all this by attending to a necessary work 

 in due season. A. 



Cheap Food for Stock* ' 



A correspondent of the Poughkeepsie Tel- 

 egraph states " that his crop of beets, sugar 

 beets and mangel wurtzel, which he was thea 

 harvesting, would be one thousand or twelve 

 hundred bushels from less than an acre of land. 

 His largest six sugar beets weighed sixty- I 

 seven pounds. The cost of raising did not 

 exceed six cents per bushel. * 



Though we have numerous instances of the 

 large yield of roots and their great value for 

 stock, showing them to be a very profitable 

 crop, yet many farmers are slow in adopting 

 th is great im provement in their business. As 

 the country becomes more thickly settled, 

 farmers will be more limited in the extent of 

 their lands for mowing and grazing, and in 

 order to keep as much or more stock on less 

 land they must raise roots. 



With proper attention to this business, 

 twice or three times as much stock can be 

 supported, and in better condition too, from 

 the same land, as there can be by feeding on 

 hay and grain. Sugar beets and other valua- 

 ble roots for stock will generally produce 

 twenty tons to the acre, which is worth a£ 

 much as seven tons of hay." 



The fall is a good time for preparing ground 

 for root crops ; let it be freed from stones, and 

 well ploughed, then by exposure to the frost, 

 the earth will become finely pulverized. 



If the manure can be put on in the fall, it 

 is all the better, for it will not waste by evap- 

 oration in the cold season, and if the grourid 

 be well prepared and the manure applied iu 

 the fall, and the ground be harrowed or stirred 

 with the cultivator a few times in the spring 

 before sowing, to kill the weeds, there will 

 be but a few weeds after sowing ; this method 

 will save half the expense in cultivation, as 

 w^e showed particularly in an article on this 

 subject in tlie past summer. — Yankee Farm' 



Why do pearl-ash and water remove grease 

 spots ? 



Because the pearl-ash unites chemically 

 with the grease, forming a species of soap 

 wliich easily washes out. 



Why is pipe-clay used for scouring cloth? 



Because the pure clay, or alumina, has 

 great afiinity for greasy substances. 



The mind tires in indolence. To be able 

 to do much, it is necessary that wfe should 

 have much to do. 



