[267] 



every hundred ewes give eighty lambs; they can be made to give from 

 one hundred to one hundred and twenty. We have assumed that the 

 lambs bring $1.50 per head; they can be made, as mutton, to yield $3 

 per head net. Moreover, we have left out of the consideration the ma- 

 nure, which, at the lowest estimate, is worth fifty cents per head. In cor- 

 roboration of our estimate, we would state that we have taken pains to 

 obtain the opinion of sheep-raisers upon this point, and though their esti- 

 mates differ from each other, all agree that it is the most profitable part 

 of their farm operations. 



No estimate of the profits of this business is complete without a consid- 

 eration of the value of 



SHEEP AS FERTILIZERS. 



This is a matter of special interest to the farmers of East Tennessee, to 

 whom the recuperation of their exhausted fields is a subject of vital im- 

 portance. Chemical analysis shows the manure of the sheep to be richer 

 in the elements of vegetable growth than that of the horse or cow. Its 

 nature and method of distribution insure nearly its entire utilization, 

 while that of these other animals is, to a large extent, wasted. In Eng- 

 land it is held to be worth over a dollar per head. In this country it is 

 commonly placed at fifty cents. Our own estimate would be much higher. 

 In the absence of a record of exact experiments by others, we may be 

 excused for referring to two of our own made this year. Our sheep are 

 folded every night, summer and winter, in an enclosed shed, with a paled 

 yard attached. The shed is kept well littered, and the yard scraped once 

 or twice a week, the scrapings being thrown into the shed. Last August 

 the manure from ten sheep for the year was spread upon a quarter of an 

 acre of my thin land. The piece was then sowed to turnips. Though 

 the season has proved very unfavorable, it promises a yield of at least the 

 rate of 250 bushels to the acre. Without the manure it would not yield 

 fifty. The manure of these ten sheep will make me fifty bushels of tur- 

 nips; its effects will be larger next year, and will be very perceptible for 

 the two or three succeeding years. 



This summer the scrapings from a yard in which twenty sheep were 

 folded, have amounted to about four bushels per week, or about ten bush- 

 els per head for the year. In May one bushel of these scrapings was 

 sown in a ridge of sweet potatoes, ten rods in length. As compared 

 with the adjoining rows the effects throughout the season have been vis- 

 ible; and judging from the few that have been already dug, the yield 

 will be increased at least three pecks, or an increase of sixty-six bushels 

 to the acre. The nightly manure of twenty sheep thus saved and used 

 would cover an acre and a half of land, and increase the yield one hun- 

 dred bushels. And furthermore, the force of the manure is far from 

 expended on the first crop. This is the result of only half of the sheep's 



