SHEEP HUSBANDRY 163 



of manure, and barnyard manure is the best of all fer- 

 tilizers. Good commercial fertilizers are very useful when 

 properly applied, but barnyard manure, and especially 

 sheep manure, will show its good effects for many years. 

 About twenty-five years ago I left my parents' home for 

 the purpose of trying to make my way in the world, and 

 just before I left^ an old barn that stood in a field near my 

 father's house, where a man had kept sheep in the winter, 

 was burned down. A year ago last fall, when I went back 

 to revisit the scenes of my childhood, I found the old house 

 standing there as of yore, humble, yet beautiful to me. I 

 looked again upon the orchard in front of the house and 

 upon the green meadows and pastures around ; I trod once 

 more the old familiar playgrounds ; I slaked my thirst at 

 the everflowing spring on the hillside, and I found that what 

 was left of the old barn had been removed, and there the 

 aftermath was growing ankle deep, in strange contrast with 

 the grass in the rest of the field. I found upon inquiry 

 that the man who had lived there when I left was still the 

 owner of that field. I sought him out. I found he was the 

 same simple countryman that he was when he gave me 

 apples and cherries in my youthful days. He had grown 

 old with the wear and tear of life, his hair was white, and 

 as he talked with me about the old times he seemed to be 

 looking into futurity, and I fancied he could almost see the 

 "river of the water of life" in the eternal world. After 

 some conversation with him, in which he reminded me of 

 many boyish pranks, I asked him how it was that the grass 

 in that part of the field where the old barn used to stand 

 was so much better than the rest of the field. He said : 

 " That old barn was where I kept my sheep in winter, and 

 from that field I have taken a crop of grain or hay every 

 year since the barn was removed. I have manured the 

 other parts of the field, l)ut I have never put any on this 

 place, because it seemed to be rich enough without it." 

 That was twenty-five years, a quarter of a century ago ; 

 but that sheep manure has kept that soil productive. I 

 may be wrong in my opinion, but I l)olicve if I should go 

 back there twenty-five years from to-day I should still see 

 the good efiects of that sheep manure around that barn. 



