THE GENESEE FARMER. 



8T 



SPIRIT OF THE AGRICULTURAL PRESS. 



Sheep in Kansas.— The editor of the Leavenworth 

 Kansas) Comervatwe, gives an account of a visit to a 

 irm in that neighborhood, vrhere there are 1,225 sheep, 

 'hirty of them were bought in Vermont, two hundred in 

 [icWgan, and four hundred in Iowa. He says : 



" Some of them are "proud as a sheep" of their lineage, 

 ^ear the daintiest fleeces, and cost as high as two hundred 

 nd fifty dollars each. Thew'are the Spanish Merino, the 

 'aular Merino, the French Merino and the savory South 

 towns." 



Mr. Baknes prefers the Spanish Merino for this latitude 

 nd raises only from that. They are hardy, compact in 

 )rm, shear more than the French Merino, and cost less 

 )r keeping. His Spanish Merino ewes sheared from six 

 ) seven and one quarter pounds each, ot washed wool, 

 he bucks sheared from thirteen and a half to fifteen and 

 half of washed wool. 



The fine sheep shear about twice as much as the coarse, 

 nd fine wool is usually thirty per cent, higher than 

 aarse wool. 



He expects to shear 5,500 lbs of wool in the spring.— 

 t fifty-five cents per lb, this wool will bring in the 

 leasant little income of $3,025. And in addition to the 

 ■ool, there is fifty per cent, increase in the lambs. Last 

 ear Mr. Barnes raised three hundred lambs from five 

 undred sheep, and next spring he counts upon seven 

 undred lambs. 



The cost of keeping the sheep is less than one dollar a 

 gar each. 



Kr.eeding Ewes should not be fed too Highly. — S. S. 

 andall, the well-known sheep-breeder and author, gives, 

 I the Country GentUiivan, his views concerning the great 

 lortality among young lambs in the Spring of 1862. In 

 lany sections, particularly in Western New York, they 

 npeared to be wanting in physical development at their 

 irth, and a thousand died in a short time thereafter. 

 >. Randall is of opinion that the difficult}^ was largely 

 iving to the too close confinement and high feed of the 

 regnant ewes during the month of February. Fullness 

 r flesh in the mother is unfavorable to the well-being- 

 r the offspring before birth. They should be strong and 

 ealMiy, but not fat. It is recommended to allow animals 

 1 this condition, succuleut food, as roots ; to feed spar- 

 igrly with grain, and not to crowd them in poorly 

 sntilated sheds. They need protection from storms, 

 articularly rain, with plenty of exercise and pure 

 ir. 



Selling the Wool on the Sheep's Back. — This is now 

 eing done to a considerable extent, at high prices. The 

 Uevelavd (Ohio) Wool Grower <& Manufacturer of Feb. 

 3th, says: 



It is interesting to witness the excitement which is 

 eing created in this city, and through the West, in refer- 

 Qce to the incoming clip. From present indications, it 

 ; safe to conclude that three-fourths of the wool now on 

 le sheep's backs, will be sold before the first of March, 

 'ery large quantities have been contracted at sixty cents. 



very responsible man in this county, states to us he 

 ad refused eighty cents for his next clip, and the samples 

 bown, weighed last year from seven to eighteen lbs. per 

 ead. Yet this man wisely refused to contract. Wools 

 1 this State, or in the West, are freely contracted for at 

 fly cents, thus ranging from fifty to eighty cents for the 

 *t clip.. 



One Hundred and Fohtt-five Miles of Sheep. — The 

 2^ew York T^mes of Feb. 21st, says : 



Few persons are aware of the extent to which sheep are 

 sold in this city. Including those received at the four 

 public market places, and those sent directly to butchers 

 an average of over 10,000 live sheep i.per week were 

 slaughtered in this city during the past year. Besides 

 these, there are at least 1,000 dressed carcasses received 

 weekly. If the whole number were driven in atone time, 

 three abreast, allowing four feet of space for each sheep, 

 the line would extena from New York to Albany, a dis- 

 tance of over 145 miles. 



Since the commencement of the war, the demand for 

 wool has so greatly increased that farmers are adding 

 largely to their flocks. They find that, with the high 

 prices of wool and the gooddfemand for lamb and mutton, 

 sheep-raising is one of the most profitable branches ot 

 farming, and they are now holding back their stock. 



In former years the thin ewes have been bought up by 

 farmers for store sheep, at $l,60a$3 per' head." Of late 

 this class has been mostly kept in the country. Those 

 sent to market have been bought up by butchers at |-3a^'4 

 each. Contrasting with this class are a limited number of 

 extra large fat sheep, usually sent in about the holidays 

 .ind sold at high prices. A few have brought as high as 

 .1;i;)a$20 .rfttch. Three full-blooded Leicester sheep, from 

 Canada, were recently sold to a butcher of this city at $70. 

 They dressed 471 lbs. The pelts would bring $;3,75 each, 

 which would leave the cost of the mutton a little over 12 

 cents per pound. In view of these figures it is safe to 

 advise the raising of more sheep &ndfetver dogs. 



Scab in Sheep.— Col. Harris, of the Ohio Farmer, in a 

 recent letter to his paper from Richland County, Ohio, 

 says that this disease is very prevalent in all that district. 

 He says : 



" The cause of its sudden development may he attrib- 

 uted to the peculiar season ; at any rate the thing is be- 

 coming serious. I believe the generally received theory 

 of Scab is the presence of parasitic insects burrowing in 

 the .skin of the sheep, and thus causing an irritation, fol- 

 lowed by feverishness, and finally by death, or loss of 

 fleece and all merchantable condition. 



"Any treatment of the Scab must be aimed at the de- 

 struction of the mites which infest the cuticle. In warm 

 weather this can be accomplished b}' dipping the sheep in 

 a solution of tobacco, or by smearing with tobacco oint- 

 ment, or red precipitate ; at the same time feeding flour 

 of sulphur in meal. 



"A resort to this treatment in cold weather and while the 

 sheep are in full fleece, is difficult and dangerous, but the 

 present emergency may justify the experiment; in which 

 case it will be necessary to keep the sheep carefully 

 housed except when very fair daj's. Separate the dis- 

 eased animals as much as possible from the well ones, and 

 use the precautionary means of feeding sulphur to all 

 such as do not yet show signs of the disease. The pre 

 ventive will be of more service than the cure." 



" Grow More Wool." — This cry is heard throughout 

 the land. A gentleman writes from New York to the 

 Cleveland Wool-Groicer & Manufacturer, as follows: 



The manufacturers of wool in this country require 

 more of the raw material grown here than is done. Is it 

 not a singular fact that while we are exporting food to all 

 quarters of the globe, produced in the West and brought 

 here for shipment at great expense, we are importing 

 wool fourteen thousand miles transportation as well as 

 from Great Britain, where the annual rent of land is as 

 much as a freehold per acre is in Wisconsin and other 

 great States. We shall consume this year sixty million 

 pounds of foreign wool, at the same time the home grower 

 never prospered as highly and his prospects for the .com- 

 ing crop are brilliant. Good farming requires an 

 abundance of sheep, and in my observation, of too long a 

 period to be written, I have never known a skillful wool- 

 grower who did not make it profitable. 



Mutton is as dear in this market as it is in London. 

 Cannot you stir the great farming interest of this country 

 to give double the attention to sheep husbandry, and re- 

 lieve ourselves of the burden of paying so many millions 

 away for an article we can so well supply ? 



