780 DR. CHASE'S RECIPES. 



Sheep, Value of on a Poor Farm.— "Some farmers of our acquain. 

 '.ance/'says ilae Ame'tican Agriculturist, "feel an antipathy to sheep for the 

 reason that they 'bite close.' We consider this their chief recommendation- 

 They can only bite close where the pasture is short, and tlie pasture is short oniy 

 on a poor farm. A poor farm "will necessarily be encumbered witli briers, 

 weeds, and brush in the fence corners. Under such circumstances we should 

 say to a farmer who has $20 or upward in cash, or credit for it, let him borrow 

 the amount if he has to pay 1 per cent, a month for the use of it, invest it in as 

 many ewes, not older than 3 years, as you can get for that money. Put them 

 in such afield as we have described, and give them, in addition to what they can 

 pick up, a pint of wheat bran and oatmeal each daily, with free access to water 

 and salt. They will first go for the briers and clean them out; every portion ot 

 that field will be trodden over and over again, nnd the weeds will have no 

 chance. Fold them on that field during winter, and carry them feed sufficient 

 to keep them thriving. Get the use of a good buck in season— Southdown 

 would be preferable — and in the spring, if you have luck, that means if you 

 give them proper attention and feed regularly, you will raise more lambs than 

 you have ewes. The money will be more than doubled, and the wool and 

 manure will pay for their feed and interest. In the spring you may put that 

 field in corn with the certainty of getting 50 per cent, increase of crop. 



Remarks. — The author considers this perfectly sound advice to any farmer 

 under the circumstances; and sound to every farmer who has not already got 

 sheep on his farm, to obtain a few as soon as possible; for he will undoubtedly 

 find them the most profitable for the amount invested in them of anything on 

 the place. Confirmatory of this see the next two or three items. 



Sheep Better Than Neat Cattle.— A competent and experienced 

 writer on this subject says: " One great advantage sheep have over other stock 

 is, they never die of the contagious diseases which they contract. They get the 

 scab, or foot rot, or something else, and if unchecked it gets them in bad condi- 

 tion, and would ultimately, perhaps, kill them. But the very worst contagious 

 diseases to which sheep are subject give the owner ample time to treat the 

 affected animals, and the diseases are generally of a character which yield rap- 

 idly to treatment. But a man may have a lot of hogs and feed them on hun- 

 dreds of bushels of corn, and about the time the bottoms of his cribs are neared 

 and he is thinking of selling, some disease breaks out among them — no one 

 knows what it is or what to do for it — one animal after another, following in 

 rapid succession, is affected, and the greater portion die. I have known farm- 

 ers to be well nigh ruined by the appearance of a contagious disease of this 

 character. Sheep are, happily, exempt from such rapid and fearful mortality. 

 Besides, when a sheep dies — and they do die, sometimes, — its pelt is suflScient 

 to pay for its keeping from the last shearing to its death. It makes no difference 

 when it dies, or what kills it, the sheep never dies in debt." 



Sheep, More Made on Them than Upon Horses. — The Iowa 

 State Register says that an old and careful farmer of Indiana, after 33 years' 

 experience, informs them that he has made most on sheep, for the money 



