THE GENESEE FARMEPw. 



241 



mothers, aud good milkers, and the females are 

 consequently in demand. Mr. Ciusp has a herd of 

 about 2,000 breeding ewes, to which he puts a 

 Leicester or South l3own tup. The lambs it is 

 his practice ta sell, the autumn after they are one 

 year old, or indeed at any time during that season, 

 according to circumstances, and the price received 

 for them varies with age and quality, from $7.50 

 all the -^vay up to $15 per head. The lambs are 

 dropped about March, and when they are ready to 

 wean after harvest, are put out upon the stubbles 

 to eat the 'seeds' that were sown in the spring, 

 and at night perhaps folded upon a turnip field, as 

 soon as the latter is ready. But Mr. 0. keeps a 

 great uiany sheep out a-boarding, as we might 

 express it; that is, there are many smaller farmers' 

 who do not have the means of keeping a large 

 flock the year round, and who are glad to take in 

 those of their neighbors both upon their stubbles 

 and to eat their turnips. For lambs thus sent out 

 on stubbles on other farms,. about three cents per 

 head per week is paid. • The price for turnip land 

 is in the neigliborhood of sis cents a week for each 

 head, though it varies with the character of the 

 crop, etc.; when it does not exceed this price, Mr. 

 C. considers that there is room for profit to the 

 owner of the sheep. Sometimes he has flocks at a 

 distance of fifty miles or even more, and a great 

 advantage of this method to the small farmer, 

 arises from the fact that while the few slieep he 

 would want to keep might be all winter in eating 

 his turnips oft; if he can get five or six hundred on 

 to his fields at once, they are all cleared bv Christ- 

 mas and ready for plowing. *' 



We walked througli a field which produced a 

 crop of wheat last year. Mr. 0. had also obtained 

 t'njni it what is called a stubble or ' stolen crop ' of 

 iurnips, — seeds drilled in rows eigliteen inches 

 xpart as soon as possible after harvest, and the 

 •oots folded otf this spring. He calculates the 

 /alue of such a crop at about $7.50 per acre; for a 

 air yield will keep twenty sheep six weeks — an 

 iquivalent at the rate paid for turnips elsewhere to 

 §7.20, while their manure upon the land is rated 



IS worth about three hundred weight of guano 



uore, pi-nbably, than the cost of sowing and culti- 

 /ation. The latter consists in the use of Garrett's 

 lorse hoe five or six times, according to the neces- 

 lity of the case, and in one thinning and hoeing 

 )y hand, followed by a forking oft' of the weeds, 

 lostiug about fifty cents to the acre. This spring, 

 ifter^the- turnips had been fed oft", the field was 

 icarified and plowed. Beets were sown about the 

 irst of May, after a manuring of from eight to 

 welve loads of farm yard dung per acre, — the sheep 

 bids having furnished the additional fertilizing ma- 

 erial, which, without their intervention, would 

 lave been purchased in the shape of ai-tificials. 



"VVe have thus seen two crops in the system of 

 ■otation, the wheat and beets, with an extra bite 

 >f turnips for the sheep intercalated. On land 

 vhere tlie last is not taken, the second year's crop 

 vould be turnips instead of beets. In either case, 

 be roots are folded oft' along from autumn until 

 "priug, or otherwise harvested— the mangolds bear- 

 ■ug the frost better, aud lasting later in the season 

 'hau the turnips. 



Sometime in March of the third year, the land 

 s scarified for barley, with additional manure, if 



the sheep have not already supplied enough. Mr. 

 Ckisp drills in six to eight pecks per acre, and sows 

 also twelve to fourteen or sixteen lbs. of ' small 

 seeds,' with rye grass, pretty much in the following 

 proportion : 



8 lbs. red clover, I 2 lbs. white clover, 



4 lbs. trefoil, ) i to 2 pecks rye grass. 



The trefoil, or yellow clover as it is also called, 

 is considered very valuable for sheep. If this 

 _' layer crop' is far enough advanced in autumn, it 

 is fed oflf that season a little ; the next spring, at 

 any rate, it is ready either for grazing, or to come 

 on for hay, yielding of the latter an average of 

 about two tons per acre, thus comjaleting the rota- 

 tion, as we have before seen it, in the ordinary 

 ' four-course shift.' In October the land is plowed, 

 or earlier if necessary, having previously received 

 a coating of manure. Wheat is then sown, coming 

 forward as the first crop in the succeeding quad- 

 rennial series. 



. Mr. Tore's farm in Lincolnshire, a well known 

 breeder of Short-horns, contains about 2,100 acres 

 — 500 acres of which are in permanent grass, 500 

 wheat, 250 barley, 100 oats, 415 roots, and 335 

 seeds, (clover, etc.) In 1858 the wheat crop was a 

 very good one, and averaged throughout this large 

 surface nearly forty bushels per acre ; Mr. T. esti- 

 mates his average, bad years with good, not far be- 

 low this figure — perhaps at thirty-six to thirty-eight, 

 while he considers the average of all Lincolnshire 

 as varying from thirty to thirty-two. Two adjoin- 

 ing fields of his best wheat, aggregating sixty-seven 

 acres, averaged, all through, full forty-eight bushels, 

 and of barley, there were twenty-eight aci-es which 

 produced 183 quarters, that is six and a half (fifty- 

 two bushels) to each. 



Mr. T. annually shears about 2,000 sheep ; but 

 they did not comprise his whole flock at the time 

 of Mr. Tcckee's visit, as it then included about a 

 thousand breeding ewes, the same number each of 

 yearlings and of lambs, and perhaps a hundred 

 tups. 



Last year Mr. Tore paid about $10,000 for arti-' 

 ficial manures. He is an advocate for deep drain- " 

 age, and considers "the introduction of deep drain- 

 age one of the greatest agricultural improvements 

 the last few years have seen." He has 300 acres 

 of fen land drained four feet deep, at a cost of 

 about $25 per acre. This drained fen land pro- ' 

 duces immense crops of wheat; 200 lbs. of salt 

 per acre is sometimes applied for the purpose of 

 strengthening the straw. 



Cure for the ScRAxcnEs. — Take fresh slaked 

 lime, and dust the alfected parts well with it, twice 

 a day. It will not cause the horse any uneasiness, 

 and will be sure to effect a cure in a few days.— . 

 Maine Farmer. 



