NEW ENGLAND FARIMER, 



DEC. »3, 1833 



BROWSK. 



We are indebted to William Sibley, Esq., of 

 Freedom, for tbe followiiii; coniiiiuiiicatioii from 

 a friend in New Hampsliire, on the melhoil and 

 henrfit of browsing Sheep. It contains many val- 

 nalile hints to wool growers, worthy of their at- 

 tention and practice — Belfast Advocate. 



Hopkinton, JV. H. Oct. 25. 

 My dear Sir: — On the return of your uncle I 

 was told you wished to know my method of 

 browsing sheep. * * * * As soon as the 

 ground is covered with snow I browse my sheep 

 daily. 1 go to the woods, and make one or more 

 temporary erihs, by placinj; two poles parallel, 18 

 or 24 inches apart, upon two bandfuls of brush 

 or billets of wood. Between the poles I place or 

 set my boughs of hemlock or liard pine — [pro- 

 bably spriicc, fir, or cedar will do as well] — 

 thrusting the butt ends into the snow, and having 

 them lean [all] the .><ame way. I extend luy cribs 

 till they will accommodate the number of sheep I 

 wish to feed. 1 then tread down the snow about 

 the cribs, so that sheep can easily pass by those 

 that have reached the browse and are feeding. I 

 then turn lo.y flock to the ci-ibs, and my work is 

 done. In the latter part of the winter, when the 

 snow is sufiiciently hard to bear up the shee]i, I 

 thrust the boughs, vvhen cut off, into tjie stiff' 

 snow, in rows without poles, but so close together 

 as to [irevent the sheep, passing through them. 



Three winters ago, \when I began to browse 

 my sheep, I cut my bra'.vBe, and threw it about at 

 random, but soon found my sheep too nice to feed 

 in that slovenly manner. They would rim over 

 it, and leave it. I took the hint of arranging the 

 browse in the way I have mentioned, from nature, 

 for I observed where boughs pendant from the 

 trees were sufficiently low to be reached I)y the 

 sheep, they would go directly to tlieni and feed 

 more freely than in any other way. Sheep are 

 not pleased with having their food touched even 

 by the hand of maa. 



The advantage of browsing sheep is no longer 

 doubted here. It gives them exercise, fresh air 

 and green feed during the whole winter. I drive 

 ray sheep in flocks of from fifty to a hundred, 

 nearly a mile every day, unless the weather is very 

 tempestuous, and they heed the cold about as 

 much as the deer or moose that ran.e about the 

 White Mountains. 



A farmer in this town wintered about 75 sheep 

 wholly on browse and a gill of corn a day to each. 

 His flock were not at the barn during the winter, 

 and they came out of the woods in the spring in 

 fine ordsr. He was fortuntite with his lambs that 

 season, and the following fall sold liis wethers to 

 the butcher for four dollars a head. I believe be 

 had a slight covering to protect his sheep from 

 storms. I give no grain of any kind to njy sheep, 

 except to my lambs the first winter, or to a i'cw 

 old oiies that may be feeble ; to these I give at 

 the rate of a quart daily to twentyfive. To my 

 breeding ewes I give half a gill a day for three or 

 four weeks before the yean. 1 keep my stalls dry 

 and airy, and daily brush every straw they leave 

 horn their cribs. For the last three winters I 

 have wintered 247, 367, and 27-5, and have lost 

 but two during the three winteis. My breeding 

 ewes last winter numbered 127 — of which seven 

 proved barren ; I had two lambs killed by a fox 

 — two died by taking cold after castration — one 

 from being trod upon when very young, and one 



came too feeble to live, and died — loss in all, six. 

 1 have since disposed of five, and my lambs now 

 number 109 ; and a more plump, healthy and 

 beautiful flock I think cannot be found in New 

 England. 



1 have lately sold 68 of my old sheep, and my 

 whole flock now numbers 211. I have brought 

 up my flock mostly from merino ewes, and they 

 are now from full blood Saxony to those made 

 nearly so by breeding from the finest Saxony 

 bucks for nine years. My fleeces averaged last 

 June, when sheared, 2 lbs. 6 ozs. and sold at 75 

 cents. My store sheep sell from 3 to $10 a head. 

 Yours to serve, 



Stephen Sibley. 



(From the Fanners' Register.) 

 ON RAISUXtl AND FATTENINfc HOGS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Regi.ster.- 



I promised to give you a detail of my mode of 

 raising and fattening the hog, as communicated to 

 me by an old Virginian, and a little improved I 

 believe, by my own experience and practice. My 

 rotation of crops, and tbe circun)Stances that grow 

 out of it, permit nje to live up to an article in my 

 agricultural creed, to wit : that five hogs inside of 

 a good fence are worth more than ten outside — 

 or, in plain English, " raised in the wofods." But 

 I will here remark, that for a hundred "good rea- 

 sons me thereunto moving," I always include in 

 every field, if possible, water and woodland, es- 

 pecially if marshy, or the heads of branches. 

 With the raising and fattening of hogs, I combine, 

 as far as possible, the fiibrication of manure. For 

 my stock hogs I have a standing pen adjoining 

 my dungstead, for the purpose of occasionally 

 mixing their manure with that of the cattle, hor- 

 ses, mules, &c. This pen is littered with leaves 

 or pine straw, regularly, and as regularly etnptied. 

 Through one enri, a long shed, sufiicient for the 

 standing stock, shelters tliem when they choose to 

 avail themselves of it. That part not covered is 

 d wisely shaded with trees that were topped for the 

 purpose. The whole is what every person of 

 common means and capacity may have. For my 

 breeding s6ws, I take care to have a good rye pas- 

 ture, after they produce pigs, or a 'rich crab grass 

 one ; and for fiill, a plum orchard, ))each orchard ; 

 and for winter range, a field of the black and red 

 tory pea, for about two hoiu-s in the day. This, 

 with ripe cucumbers, melon rinds, cimblins, ])ump- 

 kins, cabbage leaves, turnips of different kinds, 

 &c. secures them plenty. For the ])urpose of 

 securing the progress of the manure heap, all that 

 can convenientlj', and with economy of time, be 

 thrown to them, is so given. A part of every day 

 they are peririitted, unless very wet, or severe 

 weather, to run into the field, and adjoining wood- 

 land, and which latter, 1 conceive, contains what 

 nature may require in that animal, for the jireser- 

 vation of its health — aiding in the formation of 

 manure, as well as health of the animal. Rotten 

 wood is occasionally thrown into the pen, with 

 the remains of coal kilns, tar kilns, &c. The 

 time they are out of the pen docs not embrace 

 more than one third of the day. Every second 

 day, in the evening, or rather near night, I give to 

 every four head one ear of corn, shelled into wa- 

 ter in the morning, and every fourth day, just 

 before giving, drained off", and rolled in fine salt, 

 suffering as nuich to adhere to it as will adhere. 

 Every Monday, I add a sprinkling of powdered 



copperas, and every second Monday, a little brim- 

 stone. The corn I give in narrow troughs laying 

 it down in handfuls, or mixing it carefully in the 

 trough, in the bottom of which, every Monday, ia 

 phiced some dry hickory, or black-jack ashes. 

 At one year old, each hog averages one bushel of 

 corn. At two years my hogs average 200 lbs. of 

 pork each. Whenever time and circumstances 

 will possibly admit, I cut rye and oats, and gather 

 tbe ))eachesand apples, and throw into their pen ; 

 detaining the hogs in it as long as possible. During 

 those days, they get about one hour ont to go to 

 water. 



In the fattening, I pursue the same rule precise- 

 ly, varying only in the time they are allowed to 

 roam abroad, not exceeding one hour in the mid- 

 dle of the day. All the vegetable diet they get, 

 such as pumpkins, ruta baga, sweet potatoes, &e. 

 is steamed, and mashed uj) with eorn meal. Fer- 

 mented drink that has just reached tbe acetous 

 fermentation, is .given three times per day, in a 

 clean trough. For lazy hogs, the salting, by 

 doubling the quantity, is a perfect cure. The ex- 

 citement it |)roduces in the stomach for green food 

 and water, drives them to the woods, and the 

 appetite it keeps up, kesps them going. My hogs 

 have uniform liealth. I have not lost one by any 

 other disease than the knife, for years. They 

 fatten kindly, and my meat has been pronounced 

 by Virginians to be fine. 1 believe that the real 

 fattening disposition of the animal is only kept up 

 by the best state of animal health. There is a 

 fattening disposition. The production of disease 

 and obesity, is the result generally of gorging with 

 improjier food, or ratliei food not altOgethet; cal- 

 culated to produce good animal flesh. 



Pursuing the foregoing, I will insure freedont 



from worms, in every \>a.n, and in every stage ol~ 



the life of tbe liog, and also a fine quantity of 



superior manure, with sound animal flesh for diet. 



Alabama, July 29, 1835. Agricola. 



Mixed Food. — Having been in early life much 

 accustomed to, and a close observer of, Pennsyl- 

 vania farming, I was irmch pleased with the Ger- 

 man economy of increasing forage for their cattle, 

 by the aid of art in mixing food — they being 

 assured that the process adds to the capacity of 

 each ingredient for furnishing nutritive properties. 



The theory they put in practice throughout 

 many parts of the State, in their mode of putting 

 up green clover, as a forage for milch cows during 

 winter ; not only preserving, as they believe, in a 

 superior manner, the fine qualities of the clover, 

 hut augmenting equally the quantity of forage. 

 As fcst as the clover is cut they stack it, mixing 

 equal quantities of well preserved straw, and a. 

 small portion of salt sprinkled regularly over the 

 clover as the layers are completed. The gratifi- 

 cation with which the cattle appeared to feed on 

 this preparation throughout the winter, I early 

 noticed, especially when it was cut up in the box, 

 and served out to them in troughs ; one tin pint 

 cup full of rye or Indian meal, seasoning the food 

 of a day, when confined to their stalls. 



I once had the pleasure of witnessing an exper- 

 iment made by an intelligent German farmer, to 

 ascertain the advantage of steaming this prepara- 

 tion, before feeding, and was much pleased with 

 the result. The milk evidently was increased 25 

 per cent, and the capacity of the food for giving 

 out its nutrition almost the same — Far. Reg. 



