TI!e GENESEE FARMER. 



837 



S. 'Walkath, of Canton, St. Lawrence county, said 

 they used to grow wheat in his neigboihood. He had 

 sovvn wheat for ten years, but the iiy took it, and he had 

 abandoned wheat culture. Corn and grass and Spring- 

 wheat are now grown, and the hind is increasing in fer- 

 tility. Farmers grow more roots than formerly. Car- 

 rots are preferred. 



G. Miller, of Markhara, C. W., occupies between three 

 and four hundred acres. He grows about twenty acres of 

 roots every year — principally ruta bagas. After the 

 roots are off, "plows the land in the Fall, and cultivates it 

 in the Spring, and sows Spring wheat and seeds down 

 with timothy and clover. Obtains a larger yield of 

 Spring, than Winter wheat. Sows two bushels of Spring 

 wheat per acre, ilanures his land for roots. Never ap- 

 plies it to his grass laud — likes to plow manure under. 

 Has obtained -3'J3 bushels of wheat from seven bushels of 

 seed — about a bushel per acre — say 56 bushels per acre. 



A. B. Dickinson, of S'ieuben county, N. Y., said a dis- 

 tinguished agricultural writer had stated that the wheat 

 crop in the State of New- York had fallen off from 35 to 

 13 bushels per acre, and this statement had been quoted 

 by Prof Liebig, and passed current in European agricul- 

 tural literature. Now he wanted to say to persons who 

 might be present from other States, that the State of New 

 York had never seen such crops as had been grown this 

 season, since the year 1810. The census is not reliable. 

 Our soil is not exhausted. He wanted Liebig to know 

 that the statement he quotes is not true. \V"l.'3u you 

 have good wheat you seldom have good corn. This year 

 it approached nearer to it than he ever knew before. On 

 limestone land Winter wheat was more profitaole than 

 Spring wheat. The largest crop of Spring wheat he had 

 seen was 40 bushels per acre. He had seen a good crop 

 of Winter wheat that yielded 5-1 bushels per acre. We 

 have a good ci'op whenever the midge does not destroy it. 



SHEEP HUSBANDET. 



The hour devoted to the regular subject having expir- 

 ed, the subject of the previous evening was taken up. 



SoLOX Robinson, of New-York, said Mr. Thomas Bell, 

 of N. J., usually kept 100 sheep. He buys common sheep 

 of rather large size in the fall, and crosses them witli a 

 full-blooded South-Down. The lambs are dropped about 

 the 1st ot April. The ewes in the fall cost from §ii.y5 to 

 §3.50 per head. He selects the best, and pays the high- 

 est price. He has good August pasture, and keeps the 

 sheep well, so that they go into winter quarters in good 

 condition. Li the winter, keeps them in yards with open 

 sheds, .')0 in a yard, with feeding racks, and liberty to go 

 under the sheds or lie in the open air, as they see ht. 

 Feeds them almost entirely upon cornst;Uks, cut up at the 

 ground as soon as the corn is hard enough to ripen in the 

 shock. He does not chaff the cornstalks. The sheep eat 

 oti' the leaves, and the butts serve for bedding. A few 

 weeks previuus to lambing, the ewes that are heavy are 

 drawn out by themselves, and fed with good hay and a 

 little grain. He seldom loses a lamb. By the end of 

 July, he has his lambs, which are strongly marked by the 

 Soiith-Dowu characteristics, all sent off to the butcher. 

 This year he obtained g;4.75 per head for them. After the 

 lambs are weaned the ewes get fat, and are sold to the 

 butcher in time to take on a new supply. They have just 

 been sold this year, and he netted, fj'om lambs, wool and 

 Old sheep, a profit of ."57.50 per head, over the tirst cost of 

 the sheep. The year before he made a profit of .^7 per 

 head. Besides this, he finds that the sheep are enrich- 

 ing his land. 



Mr. Petti-boxe, of Vermont, had no doubt about the 

 profits of a breed of sheep as related. His sales of wool 

 last June from his Spanish Merino flock amounted to over 

 §2 per liead ; and his flock for fifteen years had averaged 

 4| lbs. of wool, such as this year sold at 50 cents per 

 pound. He had picked out 20 wethers that sheared 8 lbs. 



er head, and two were sold for mutton at $3.50 eack. 



e usually selects out eight or ten wethers in tlie fall, and 

 gives them grain through the winter, and then kills them 

 througli the summer for his own use. They dress from 

 10 to 15 lbs. per quarter, and not unfrequently have 10 or 

 12 lbs. of tallow in them. When you cannot keep over 

 50 sheep he would kees the mutton sheep. 



A. B. Dickinson has sheared 11,000 sheep in a season, 

 bu*. would leave every man to decide for himself which 

 was the most profitable sheep for him to keep. If mutton 



is the principal object he would keep the big sheep, the 

 larger the better, because the larger the carcass the more 

 the mutton sells, for per pound in market, though he 

 would not jiay as much for it himself for his own eating. 

 For wodI the fine wools are the most profitable. He does 

 not like (ju:^mij sheep, wants a thick fleece bvit no gum. 

 Select ewe.s whose fleeces have little gum, breed froa' 

 these, and the manufacturers will soon find it out and 

 ])ay a higher price for it. He washes his sheep in vats. 

 Don't let them run in the dust afterwards, as some per 

 sons do in the west on purpose to increase the weight ol 

 the fleece. Has tried the experiment and knows that 

 m-ature animals consume food in proportion to their live 

 weight. 



ON CROSS BREEDING. 



^ 



W. C. Spoonek, a well-known veterinary surgeon, 

 has written an interesting article? on '' Cross Breed- 

 ing," for a recent Journal of the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society^ from wLich we make a few extracts : 



The maxim "Z/Z,'e legets llTcc'''' is a rule having 

 very extensive sway, yet, as propagation is the 

 work of two parents, the respective influence of 

 one or the other is a matter involving considera- 

 ble diversity of opinion, and prevents anything like 

 a certain conclusion being arrived at. AVe can not 

 do better than consider, on the very threshold of 

 our subject, tlie respective influence of either par- 

 ent; fur on this the merits of pure or cross breed- 

 ing must principally depend. The must probable 

 supposition is, that propagation is done by halves, 

 each parent giving to theoti:spring the shape of one 

 half of the body. Tlius the back, loins, hind-quar- 

 ters, general shape, skin, and size, f(dluw one parent; 

 and the fore-quarters, head, vital and nervous sys- 

 tem, the other : and we may go so far as to add, 

 that the former in the great majority of cases go 

 with the male parent, and the latter Avith the 

 female. A corroboration of this fact* is found in 

 the common system of putting an ordinary mare 

 to a thoroughbred liorse ; not only does tlie head 

 of the otfspring resemble the darn, but the forelegs 

 likewise, and thus it is fortunately the case tiiat the 

 too-frequenfly faulty and tottering legs of the sire 

 are not re-produccd in the fnal, whilst the full 

 thighs and hind-quartei'S wliich belong to the blood 

 horse are generally given to the oft'spring. There is, 

 however, a minority of cases in which the o]iposite 

 result obtains. That size is governed more by the 

 male parent, there is no great difficulty in showing; 

 — familiar examples may be found in the oft'spring 

 of the pony-mare and the full-sized horse, wliich 

 considerably exceed the dam in size. Again, in the 

 flrst cross between the small indigenous ewe and 

 the large ram of another improved breed — the otf- 

 spring is found to approach in size and shape very 

 much to the ram. The mule offspring of the mare 

 also very much resembles both in size and appear- 

 ance its donkey sire. These are familiar examples 

 of the preponderating influence of tlie nuile pai-ent, 

 so far' as the external form is considered. We are 

 of the opinion that, in flie majority of instances, 

 the size and contour in animals is influenced much 

 more by the viale than the female parent; and, on 

 the other hand, that the constitution, the chest and 

 vital organs, and the forehand generally, more fre- 

 quently follow the female. 



Pureireeding, which, when carried to excess, is 

 called in-and-in breeding, has its advantages as well 

 as its disadvantages. Its friends observe with great 



