14 



THE GENESEE FARxMER. 



COST OF EAISIKG AND KEEPING SHEEP AND 

 FKODUCING WOOL. 



AVe extract the following estimate of the expense 

 of raising and keeping sheep, and producing wool, 

 in different sections of the country tiom the last 

 Patent Office Report: 



D. L. R. Butt, of Centre, Cherokee Co., Ala., 

 eays: "The cost of producing wool, in this section, 

 is about 12J cents a pound, and the market value, 

 2.5 cents. There is no article that can be produced 

 in this region with so little care and cost, according 

 to the market price, as wool, and I am surprised 

 that there is aot more attention paid to its pro- 

 duction." 



D. R. Stillman, of Alfred Centre, Allegany Co., 

 N. Y., says: "Sheep are kept in pasture from 

 seven to eight months, and the remainder of the 

 yeir on hay and straw, the younger portion of the 

 flock usually receiving, dally, a small quantity of 

 grain. The cost of keeping a sheep will vary but 

 little from $1 a year, and at two yeais old it will 

 sell for ^2 from pasture, leaving the wool for the 

 profit. Good wool can be produced at a less ex- 

 pense of keeping and labor than poor, as the fleeces 

 are heavier, while the sheep are more quiet and con- 

 sequently require less food. The cost of raising 

 from three-fourths to full-blooded Merino wool, is 

 about twenty-five cents." 



John Young, Jr., of Forest Grove, Allegany Co., 

 Pann., says: "Sheep are profitable stock with us. 

 We have some full-blooded South Downs and Le:- 

 cesters. From what I have seen of their crosses 

 upon the connnon stock, I think a very great im- 

 provement will be the result. They prosper ia every 

 part of the country. Last year.. 1854, their wool 

 was worth 33 cents p^ef pound. The cost of raising 

 them is 75 cents per head, and when full grows 

 they are worth $2 each." 



j S. Gore, of Tippecanoe, Fayette Co., Penn., 

 says*: ''It costs about $IM a head to keep sheep 

 properly for a year, while wool \s worth about forty 

 cents a pound; so that it is evident that sheep-clip- 

 pino- at two and a half pounds a head, leaves no 

 profit. But our improved breeds, vfhich yield from 

 four to twelve pounds per head, pay very well. Be- 

 sides this, I find that my French sheep raise about 

 three lambs per head, annually." 



[" Three lambs per head, annually 1" Is not this 

 a mistake ?J 



R W. Bayloe, of Wood End, near Charlestown, 

 Jefferson Co., Va., says: "Sheep are very profitably 

 raised in this section, especially the improved breeds, 

 commanding, at home, from $8 to $10 each £,t two 

 years old. We have as good imported Cotswolds 

 and South Downs as England can produce, the latter 

 •being preferred. Their crosses upon our common 

 stock are regarded as highly advantageous. Wool 

 growing amply remunerates the shepherd for his 

 care. Wool cannot be raised under twenty cents a 

 pound." 



James B. Kendall, of Poplar Grove, Kanawha 

 Co., Va., says: "This is decidedly a fine sheep-rais- 

 ing' county, but the subject has not received the 

 attention it merits. The cost of producing wool, I 

 believe, does not average more than 12 J cents per 

 ' pound Our sheep are seldom fed. They keep in 

 fine condition the wbole year on the mountain range. 



They are free from disease, and live to a good age 

 Wool is worth from thirty to thirty-seven and a half 

 cents per pound." 



A PROFITABLE FLOCK OF SHEEP. 



On the 17th of July, 1855, I purchased of H. 

 LouNSBURY, of this town, twenty jearling ewes, at 

 $1.50 per head. They had been confined, with 

 eighty-eight other sheep, in a field of fiCieen acres 

 up to the day of purchase. In consequence of this 

 strict confinement, they were poor in tlei^h and small 

 in size. By careless management in the previous 

 spring, they all lost their lambs, and were themselves 

 aflected with disease. I drove them home, and 

 turned them into middling fiiir feed for one week, 

 and then changed them again into full IreSh feed. 

 The result was, thay did not scour, but grew and 

 fatted remarkably fast; for, in the following October 

 I was oliered $2.50 per head. Here, you observe, 

 was an improvement of one doflar a head in three 

 months. 



On the 1st of December I turned .in a buck of the 

 same breed. The first day of May, 1856, I had no 

 lambs, but on the tenth of the same month I had 

 eighteen lambs, all large, fat, and running about. I 

 will here state that these ewes had six quarts of 

 grain per day from the loth of February to the 10th 

 of May. This feed consisted of corn, oats and 

 buckwheat, in equal parts, and as much good timo- 

 thy hay besides, as they wanted. In consequence of 

 careful mauageinent and good feed, the ewes were in 

 line condition when they bought forth their youpg, 

 and gave a large flow of milk, which cau.sed ihe 

 young lambs to grow with great vigor. To-day, 

 November 20th, I was offered $2 per head for the 

 lambs, and $3 for the ewes, and at ten rods distance 

 from the flock you could not tell the Iambs from 

 the old sheei^. 



These ewes turned off fifty-nine pounds of wool, 

 which was sold for Ihirty-five cents per pound. Now 

 let us figure up the profit on these twenty ewes, 

 from first cost, and throw out all othir expenses. 



$60.0') 

 ;5G.OO 

 20.G5 



20 two year old l']wes at $3 per head, 



18 Lambs at $2 per head, 



59 lbs Wool, at 35 cents per pound. 



Substract first cost on ewes. 



Total. 



Profit, 



$110.05 



r^o.tH) 



§S6.()6 



Almost every farmer can judge correctly of the 

 expense of keeping these ewes during the past six- 

 teen months. They are half native and half South- 

 down. They are all healthy to-day. and fit for the 

 shambles. A. L. Smith. — JVkhols, Tioga Co. A*. Y. 



A Good Dairy. — At the winter meeting of the 

 Cortland County Agricultural Society, premiums 

 were awarded to two brothers named Conable for 

 the best cheese dairy, averaging five hundred and 

 ten pounds of butter per cow. The best dairy of 

 butter was from seventeen cows, .ind averaged two 

 hundred and one and fifteen-sixteenths pounds per 

 cow. Mr. Geo. Miller, with a large dairy averaged 

 one hundred and ninety-eight pounds per cow. 

 What county beats Cortland? W. H. Gardner. — 

 Hornby, JV. Y. 



