238 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



FEBRUARY, 5, 1834. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEB. 5, 1834. 



■WINTERING SHEEP, CARE OF LAMBS, .fee. 



Give your ewes with lamb somewhat more than 

 their usual quantity of food for a month or six 

 weeks before they are expected to yean. They 

 should hot he fed so as to fatten them, for if they 

 are in high condition they will he more apt to 

 suffer in becoming mothers, and will be less fit for 

 nurses. It is a good practice to give about half a 

 gill of Indian corn a day to each sheep with lamb 

 for some time before and after they have yeaned, 

 and roots may be advantageously added after that 

 period. The Farmer's Manual says, " If you have 

 stored more turnips than are sufficient for the use 

 of your table, give them to any stock that will eat 

 them except your sheep ; give to them potatoes, 

 but not turnips at this season, they will injure the 

 lambs." 



If your sheep, whether store sheep or ewes with 

 Iamb have good hay, about a quart of potatoes a 

 day to each will, it is said, he very beneficial, and 

 an ample allowance. But when the object is to 

 fatten them, according to a writer in Rees' Cyclo- 

 pedia, about a gallon of potatoes a day with a little 

 hay will be the proper quantity ; hut this depends 

 in part on the size of the animals, and in part on 

 the quality and quantity of the hay which is given 

 them. Potatoes, beside their use as food for sheep, 

 are said to he very serviceable as an article of diet, 

 which usually supersedes the necessity of medicine. 

 They have, when given raw, an opening quality, 

 which is said to answer a similar purpose with 

 sheep, which is effected with swine by brimstone 

 and antimony. Potatoes baked, steamed or boiled 

 will furnish more nutriment than those which are 

 raw. 



Care should be taken to place in the stable small 

 tubs or troughs of water for the sheep to drink in. 

 They will do very well in summer without water, 

 as they feed when the dew is on, hut they need 

 water in winter, especially if fed mostly with dry 

 food. " When sheep have colds, and discharge 

 mucus from the nose, good feeding, together with 

 pine boughs given occasionally, will probably cure 

 them ; or tar, spread over a board, over which a 

 little salt is strewed, which will induce sheep to 

 to lick up the tar, and this will cure a cold.* 



•' When several kinds of food can he procured, 

 it is right to give them alternately to the sheep at 

 different meals, in the course of the same day ; 

 the qualities of one kind aid or compensate those 

 of another. At certain hours of the day dry fod- 

 der should be given, and at others roots or grain. 

 If there be any danger that the roots may decay, 

 the winter should be begun with them, mixing, 

 however, some dry food with them, for alone they 

 would not be sufficiently nutritious."! 



Sheep should have a yanl by themselves, its 

 size adapted to the number of the flock. They 

 require shelter overhead, but its sides should not 

 be so close as to confine the air. The rack from 

 which sheep are fed with hay should be upright, 

 so that the seeds, &c. may not fall into the wool 

 about their necks. Under the rack a trough should 

 be fixed, which will serve at once for catching the 

 seeds of the hay, and for feeding the sheep with 

 roots, &c. 



If the flock be large, or over about fifty, a sep- 



aration of it during the winter is desirable for pro- 

 moting the health as well as the comfort of the 

 animals. The full grown wethers should be put 

 by themselves, anil will not require so good keep- 

 ing as the ewes and last year's lambs. A suitable 

 apartment should likewise be provided for such 

 sheep as by reason of age, sickness or infirmity 

 require extra attention. Sheep require but little if 

 any salt in winter, and there are reasons for be- 

 lieving that a too free use of salt has been the 

 cause of sickness and death in sheep.* 



M. Tessier observes, that "Sheep have been 

 known to be attacked with long and troublesome 

 looseness in consequence of having taken too much 

 salt ; which has induced a belief that sea water is 

 poisonous to them ; and that his sheep have al- 

 ways been healthy, though he had never given 

 them salt, but he states that it may he indispensa- 

 bly nece.-sary in wet countries." 



SUBSTITUTE FOR SWEET POTATOES. 



The cocoanut squash, cut into pieces, and roast- 

 ed like sweet potatoes, is found to be fully equal 

 to them, and so closely resembles them in flavor 

 that it would be difficult to distinguish between 

 them. It grows freely in this climate, and may be 

 kept till mid winter. — Goodstll's Farmer. 



* Dearie's N. E. Farmer. 



T T etsier's Treatise on Sheep. 



ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE. 



Ji Fact. In conversation with one ot our most respect- 

 able lawyers, he informed us that in the course of his 

 practice here, he had been engaged in the trial of nine- 

 teen persons for the crime of murder, and that of these 

 nineteen cases, seventeen were the consequences of in- 

 TEMpsnAifcE, in one or the other of the parties concern- 

 ed. — St. Louis Obs. 



Great Gale at Buffalo. The Albany Argus publishes a 

 letter from Buffalo, stating that the most severe gale of 

 wind ever known in that place, passed over that town on 

 the afternoon of the 12th inst. Many buildings were un- 

 roofed and otherwise seriously injured, chimnies blown 

 down, carriages overturned, &c. The water of the lakf 

 was raised considerably, and much damage done to the 

 wharves, store houses, and some of the vessels. 



The Chemical Bank of New York, which keeps, per- 

 haps, more small accounts than almost any other in the 

 city, of persons engaged in retail business, and of mechan- 

 ics, has from some unfounded cause, been run upon for 

 a day or two ; upon learning which, the Branch Bank 

 made them a loan of $100,000. 



Great Storm in Georgia. The Macon stage left that 

 place on Saturday last, and arrived in this city yesterday 

 evening, — seven days on the route. The contractor, 

 who came through, informs us, that the roads were lit- 

 erally blocked up with trees, that had fallen under the 

 incumbent masses of sleet which they had accumulated 

 during the late inclement weather. The number of 

 trees which were cut aw;<y and removed, with the as- 

 sistance of the passengers, is estimated at about one thou- 

 sand. The roar of the falling trees, and the crashing of 

 the limbs as they resounded through the woods, are re- 

 presented to have been alarming and astounding. In 

 addition to these obstacles, the sta^e h id also to encoun- 

 ter the swollen water courses, which had risen above 

 their banks and inundated the country. The injury sus- 

 tained by the Ogeechee bridge, noticed in our last, has 

 been greater than was reported — two arches, we under- 

 stand, have been entirely swept away. We fear the 

 planters have suffered severely. — Savannuh paper Jan. 11. 



* See N. E. Farmer, vol. xi, p. 246. 



The last number of the American Rail Road Journal, 

 contains an account of a sort of amphibious locomotive 

 recently invented, which it is Baid will operate alike ex- 

 peditiously on land or in water. It iB shaped like an al- 

 ligator, the head and tail projecting upwards, with land 

 wheels near the ends, and water wheels near the centre. 



A Manual Labor School for colored young men and 

 boys, will be opened on the 1st of May, in the village of 

 Peterboro', Madison co. N. Y. * 



The V. S. Army, as now constituted, comprises 0,412 

 men, viz : dragoons 393 ; artillery 1,781) ; infantry 3,225 : 

 recruits and unattached soldiers 973. The whole num- 

 ber of recruits, including dragoons, entered from 1st Jan. 

 to Sept. 30th, 1832, is 2,036. 



The number of fires in Philadelphia during the past 

 year was thirty-six. Loss of property thereby $b0,172 ; 

 insurance effected upon it. $21,252. 



NEW WORK. 



LILLY, WAIT &. CO. and GEO. C. BARRETT, 



Will Publish 1 his Month the First Volume of 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 

 AND RURAL ECONOMIST, 



Forming a Compendium of tile most important 

 Brandies of Agriculture and Rural Economy. 



BY THOMAS G. FESSF.NDEN, ESQ.. 



Editor of the New England Farmer. 



The Editor and Publishers have been induced to 

 offer this work to the Public in consequence of the 

 great and increasing demand for information on the 

 subjects which it is intended to embrace, with a bops 

 that it may prove useful to the Agricultural and Hor- 

 ticultural community, in whose pursuits all mankind 

 have a direct and obvious interest. It is intended to 

 form a Compendious Directory to the Farmer, Gar- 

 dener, florist, and Rural Economist, and to be so 

 arranged that every article may be readily referred to. 

 VOLUME I. 

 The First Volume will be devoted to Agricul- 

 ture, in its various branches, embracing the following 

 among other topics: 



Soils, Manures, Dairy, 



Grasses, Hemp, Sheep, 



Grains, Flax, Swine, 



Indian Corn, Neat Catlle, Poultry, 



lllieat, Horse, Woodland, Sfc. ifc. 



Fences. 



VOLUME II. 



The Second Volume will be devoted to Horti- 

 culture, in its various branches; also, Silk, Bees, 

 Rural Economy, «Scc. In this volume, the following 

 will be among the number of topics embraced in the 

 treatise : 



Garden, Hot Beds, Insects, 



Orchards, Mulberry, Rural Economy, 



Fruits, Silk, Sfc. cyr. 



Fine, 

 To each volume will be added a list of the best Im- 

 plements in use, and drawings of the most important 

 an. I improved kinds will be given. 



CONDITIONS. 



The work will be comprised in two volumes, royal 

 12mo. of 350 pages — price $1 a volume;— and either 

 volume may be had separately, as they will be entire- 

 ly independent of each other. 



To persons at a distance remitting $5 by mail, post 

 paid, to either id' the undersigned, shall be delivered 

 at any post office in the United States 5 copies of 

 either volume free of postage, sewed and done up in 

 strong cloth hacks and in good order. 



For $1, remitted free of postage, shall be sent one 

 copy of either volume, postage unpaid. 



Subscriptions solicited, by LILLY, WAIT Sf CO. 

 121 Washington street, and GEO. C. BARRETT, 

 Publisher of the New England Farmer, Nos. 51 Sf 52 

 North Market Street, Boston. 





