218 



THE GENESEE FARMER, 



HOW TO WINTER ONE HUNDRED SHEEP 

 [•li().\[ TUO ACRES OF LAND, 



\Ve luive been uccu^cd of iuduciiig fanners to try 

 vi.<iunary experiments. We hardly kno'iV what mean- 

 ing those who u>e the word visionary would put to it 

 in this connection, nor do we care. We have faith 

 in the followini;- project of producing fodder enough 

 on two acres of land to winter one h.indred sheep. — 

 But, says \Ir. Doubtful, it must be made very rich. 

 Of coun-e it must. That won't hurt the land in the 

 lea.'it. But how will you do it? In the first place, 

 make the land veiy rich. Manure it generously — 

 p'ow it thoroughly — harrow it fine — roll it smooth — 

 put on the marker, and mark it into rows three feet 

 apart, and sow Indian corn in the drills. Hoe it 

 twice, and, after the second hoeing, take your seed- 

 sower and sow between each two rows of corn a row 

 of flat turnip seed. After your corn has spindled, 

 cut it up; let it wilt, then 'tie it into bundles and 

 shock it up as you do cornstalks which you have cut 

 in the ufeal way and let them stand until dry. It 

 would not be strange if you had six tons of fodder 

 per a"i-e when they were' sufficiently dry to put into 

 the barn. This will be twelve tons (from two acres). 

 Now, to winter one hundred sheep you ought to have 

 twenty tons of fodder. You have got twelve of them 

 and want eight more, or four tons from each acre. — 

 The turnips ought to produce this amount. Let us 

 see. Allowing a bushel of turnips to weigh 60 ibs., 

 in order to have four tons on an acre you shouid raise 

 23.3^ bu.-^hels. AV'ill not your land produce this amount 

 aftei- taking away the Indian corn crop? 



So you will have your twenty tons of food from 

 two acres. But will the sheep eat the cornstalks? — 

 Yes, we have tried that. Just run the stalks through 

 a straw-cutter and feed them out to the sheep, and 

 they will eat them ail up. We have tried it, and sev- 

 eral others have tried it. Then run your turnips 

 through a vegetable cutter, and they will eat them all 

 up clean. The sheep should be young and hearty 

 and have good teeth. Who will try the exijeriment 

 this year? We are bound to, for one.— Maine 

 Farmer. 



CLOVER HAY. 



The making of clover into hay is a somewhat dif- 

 ferent procass from making hay of other grasses. A 

 crop of clover, cut when In bloom, may be ten per 

 cent, lighter than if cut when fully ripe; 'but the loss 

 in weight is compensated by obtaining an earlier, 

 more nutritious and valuable' article, while the next 

 crop will be proportionately more heavy. The hay 

 from old herljage will keep stock ; but it is only hay 

 from young herbage that will fatten them. Stems of 

 clover that have brought their seeds nearly to matu- 

 rity are ol but little more value than an equal quan- 

 tity of good straw. Cut your clover close ; as it is 

 partially wilted turn the swath gently over, but do 

 not spread or scatter it. If the weather is fair and 

 Uie clover cut before noon, the swaths may be turned 

 after dinner; if mown after noon, they may be turned 

 before evening, at which time tho.se turned after din- 

 ner may be put into cocks. The points to be regarded 

 are to cock before the leaves begin to crumble, not 



to sufTer the dew to fall upon the dried surface of the 

 swath, and to build the cocks so as to completely shed 

 rain, should the Aveather be bad. These cocks nu. 

 stand forty-eight hours or more, and should not t 

 opened until there is a fair prospect of having a fe 

 hours of good weather to finish the curing proces 

 When this is the case, open the cocks as soon as tb 

 dew is off, and partially spread them. If the day i 

 good, the spread clover may be turned over sooi 

 after dinner, and an hour or two afterwards gatherec 

 into the barn. When clover is cured by being spread, 

 the leaves and blossoms are dry long before the stems 

 are cured, or sufficiently dry; so that either the stems 

 must be housed before they are properly cured, or 

 made sufficiently dry by long exposure to the sun, 

 when the leaves and blossoms become too dry, crum- 

 ble and are lost. — Selected. 



Thk Potato a Heatiiex. — A correspondent, more 

 hurt than indignant, writes to us upon our recent 

 disparagement of the potato — declaring ^t to be a 

 household god which we have rudely thrown from his 

 pedestal to set thereon the new idol of hominy. This 

 finding of a ficticious yet plausible substitute for so 

 genuine and valuable a .staple of feed, will, he thinks, 

 tend to lessen the interest in the growth and scientific 

 study of it, and so diminish the pros])ect for the one 

 indispensable dish on every table. We sit rebuked. 

 Praised be potatoes for ever. But in claiming any 

 manner of pious standing — household godliness — for 

 this vegetalile, does our correspondent know that he 

 errs, and that the potato is a heathen? Does he 

 know tliat it has been battled against hy the church, 

 as an unworthy infidel ? We must inform him that 

 Scotland at one time made the growth of the potato 

 illegal, because it is not mentioned in the Bible ! Tu 

 an article on the history of it (which we saw some 

 time since in the (Quarterly Journal of ^Agriculture), 

 this fact is stated among the hindrances to its intro- 

 duction into Great Britain. It was first cultivated 

 in the fields of England in 1739. But, for years 

 afterwards, it was not admitted into Scotlan i, from 

 the zeal of preachers in declaring it an unholy escu- 

 lent, bkusphemous to raise, sacriligeous to eat 

 ■' Famine, at last," says the historian, " gave an im- 

 pulse to the innovation, and, during tlie latter part of 

 the eighteenth century, the excellent qualities of the 

 potato became generally understood." — Home Jovr. 



To Fix Carpets on Floors. — The foreign corres- 

 pondent of the JVeivark Advertiser, in writing from 

 Florence, says : " Here iron rings are fastened in the 

 floors when the cai-pets are laid, and they have large 

 hooks in the binding, for which these rings are ej'es; 

 so that there is no taking out and nailing in of tacks, 

 and carpets are raised and laid as noiselessly and 

 easilv as bed-covers." 



To enjoy life, you should be a little miserable oc- 

 casonally. Trouble, like cayenne, is not veiy agreea- 

 ble in itself, but it gives great zest to other things. 



Without innocence, beauty is unlovely, and quality 

 contemptible. 



