187fi.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



d5 



LIVE STOCK. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL. 



Sheep for Profit. 



In a paper rcconllv reail lieforo tlic Hillsilalc! 

 (Miehlfran) institute, Alexnnder Hewitt^ yave tlie 

 following leasons for Iceejiinir sheep : Init wlille 1 

 advocate mixed Inislmnary as a rule, there are pre- 

 ferences ainonp farmers with regard to tlie kind ol 

 etock most profitable for them to keep, which is 

 very proper ; lor while one man can sec certain sne- 

 cess in the future from hreedin;; good horses, another 

 can see it much more clearly in the production of 

 good cattle. The man who would go aside to kick a 

 sheep has uo business with the care of that inotleii- 

 8ive animal. Sheep give <iiiiekcr returns than cattle 

 or horses. Suppose, for illustration, that a farmer 

 pays S4 per head for twenty-live good sheep soon 

 after shearing, consisting principally of grade .Merino 

 ewes and a lull-liloodcd ram, AlHO, and that he also 

 paj-s the same sum for lour steers, say llftceii months 

 old, and keeps them on his farm for a period ol two 

 years and tliree moni lis. Now at the end of the lirst 

 year his sheep will produce, at six pounds per head, 

 one hundred and fifty pounds of wool, and that 

 at forty cents per pound, which is lielow 

 the average price for the last twenty years, 

 would he SOO; and during the next three months 

 he sells the increase, or a part of the original 

 stock and a part of the lambs, as he shall deem 

 best— say 15 in number— at ••?:! per head, which would 

 be $45 ; this added to the SGO received for wool, 

 makes «105. Continue the experiment another year, 

 with the same result, and wc have ^J-W received for 

 wool and sheep sold, and the original stock, worth 

 *1U0— altogether §310. Now the steers are three 

 years and six months old, and we will estimate them 

 at thirteen hundred pounds each, at five cents a 

 pound, or §65 per head, making for the four SL'lin, or 

 |50 in favor of the sheep, allowing the interest on 

 the $105 first received to pay for shearing, tagging, 

 etc. The question I have for solution is. 'Which 

 has cost the most in time and feed, the twenty-live 

 sheep or the four steers ?' Never having demon- 

 strated an experience of the kind myself, I am una- 

 ble to say, but from general knowledge and observa- 

 tion, should think them about equal . Another point 

 in favor of the sheep is they do not usually die in 

 debt to the farmer, for we see from above calcula- 

 tions that they are a sort of pay-as-you-go invest- 

 ment, which system ought to have a prominent place 

 in all business transactions." Some will object to 

 Mr. Hewitt's estimation in considering twenty-live 

 sheep as equivalent to four steers. Where the ewes 

 and lambs are in pasture during the spring and 

 early summer, we would prefer to furnish pasture 

 for four steers ; but during the winter we think the 

 advantage would be on the side of the twenty-five 

 sheep;, ewes and lambs arc close nippers of early 

 pasture. 



Animal Instinct. 

 The mysterious provision in the life of animals 

 which is called instinct has always challenged the 

 wonder of man, and piiiued his curiosity as to its na- 

 ture and operation. The carpenter-bee— as an in- 

 stance hardly more striking than numberless others 

 —never beholds her young; but, after hav- 

 ing laid her own eggs, she deposits a store of 

 food such as they w ill rc(iuire, of a peculiar kind 

 which she has never tasted since the larva-period of 

 her own life, and dies. In the construction of the 

 cell, too, there is a marvelous forethought shown. It 

 is bored with herculean lalior into wood, and the 

 eggs are deposited, on after the other, in closely- 

 scaled apartments, each with a ration of food. Her 

 wisdom is not balked, even by the necessity that the 

 first-laid eggs, at the bottom of the long tube, must 

 hatch out their larvae before the others ; for she pro- 

 vides a back door for their exit at that end. The 

 common thery is that instinct— apparently so wise 

 and far-seeing— is a blind, mechanical impulse, im- 

 planted at the creation of nninial races for the pre- 

 servation of life ; and, viewing them in the wild 

 state, the answer seems adequate. 

 ^ 



Sheltering Cattle. 



Farmers who look after the comfort of their cattle, 

 but rarely suffer pecuniary loss by disease or death. 

 In the stable cleanliness and ventilation are, witli an 

 occasional currying, the important requirements that 

 promote health. Experiments have proven that 

 cows in milk and old oxen retain their condition in 

 confined and warm quarters during winter, while 

 animals under three years thrive better in a well 

 sheltered yard, with shed attached, the floor of 

 which should be covered with dried leaves, or refuse 

 straw, which would afl'ord them a resting place dur- 

 ing the nights. Leaves make an excellent winter- 

 bedding and every farmer should have a sujjply on 

 hand to renew the beds from time to time. A shel- 

 ter from the rain and snow and northeasterly winds 

 is the only protection the younger animals require 

 during the inclement season, as Iheir blood circulates 

 more freely than that of the oli'.er cattle and possess 

 greater powers of endurance. 



POULTRY. 



Something About Insects. 



An old frienil of mine, an ' enthusiastic philo- | 

 aparian, told me that lieiiig at a fricmrs house one 

 dry summer, when all the field flowers were nearly 

 scorched up, he saw thousands of bees busy in a 

 licid of I'lover then in bloom. 



"I wish my bees were here," said my friend. 



"Probably they arc," replied the gentleiimn. 



"VVliat, at forty miles distance J" 



"Yes," said his friend. "On your return liome 

 dredge the backs of your bees witli flour as they 

 issue from the hives iii the morning, and we shall 



Tliis was done, and his friend wrote him directly : 

 "There are plenty of your while-jacket bees here in 



the clover!" 



But whatever Is the fact with bees, ants follow 

 their noses much more than their eyes. In my gar- 

 den I saw a train of ants ascending an apple tree ; 

 go up by one track, and descend by another. As in 

 ascending they passed between two small shoots that 

 sprung from the bole, I stopped their jiassage with a 

 Iiiece of bark. The anis did not see this oljstruction 

 with their eyes, but ran bump against it, and stood 

 still, astonished. Soon a crowd of them had thus 

 been suddenly stopped, and were anxiously searching 

 about for a passage. By various successive starts 

 forward, they eventually get around the olistruetion 

 and reached the track on the other side. The line of 

 scent was renewed, and thenceforward, on arriving 

 at the barricade they went without a moment's hesi- 

 tation, by the eirciilar track. I then took my pen- 

 knife and pared away a piece of the outer bark on 

 the open bole where the ants were descending. The 

 effect was the same. The scent being taken away, 

 the ants came to a dead stand, and there was the 

 same eoafounded crowd, and the same spasmodic at- 

 tempts to regain the road, which being efleeted in 

 the same way, the scent was carried over the shaven 

 part of the bark, and the train ran on as freely as 

 before.— iri/(i((m HowiU, St. Xkholns for January. 



A New Household Pest. 



The Troy Times tells of the new carpet bug as fol- 

 follows : . 



A new pest has made its appearance in various lo- 

 calities of the State, doing great injury to carpets, in 

 the shape of an insect heretofore unknown to this 

 continent, and bearing the scientific name of Anthre- 

 inis wrophidiiriic. It is not in the least allied to the 

 well-known carpet worm, though the damage 

 it inflicts is much greater, whole breadths of carpets 

 being cut through as neatly as if done with a scis- 

 sorsT If discovered in their habitations un 'er the bor- 

 ders of carpets, their rapidity of movement carries 

 them out of reach beneath the base boards. The or- 

 dinary applications of camphor, pepper, tobacco and 

 turpentine are powerless against it. The free (use 

 of benzine and kerosene has been recommended to be 

 employed in the saturation of cotton with which to fill 

 the joinings of the floors and crevices beneath the base 

 boards, but this is objectionable from the fact that 

 both of these subs aiices give off an inflammable 

 vapor at a point of temperature below that of some 

 of our summer days, and consequently are liable to 

 produce spontaneous combustion. Corrosive subli- 

 mate is said to have been used with success, but the 

 only sure remedy will be found in the powder of 

 I'eretlirnm roxcnm, which is certain death to all in- 

 vertebrates, while it has the surpassing merit over 

 all other insect poisons of being perfectly harmless 

 to the higher forms of life. The cost of this pre- 

 parations should not exceed 75 cents per jiound. The 

 iuseet is described as resembling in form and size the 

 beetle, with wing cases prettily marked in spots of 

 white and black, and wilii a red line bordering the 

 inner margins. 



Poultry and Egg Production. 



We have frc(iut*ntly urged upon fiirmers aial others, 

 the importance of greater atleiition and the devo- 

 tion of more "lime and space," so to speak, to the 

 growing of poultry and the resulting produellon of 

 eggs. As a matter of iileasure or prollls arising from 

 well stocked poultry yards, there can be no very 

 rilausible argument, urgcil on the negative slile of the 

 question. There is no one liraiieli of "lireeding" on 

 the farm with so lilllc care that will produce so good 

 results, or that with greater care and attention, con- 

 sidering the capital reiiuircd for a start, that can be 

 maile to yield such large profits as may he obtained 

 from thc"iioullry yard, by Intelligent and judicious 

 management. Nearly every farmer keeps a larger or 

 smaller number of fowls, and in spite of poor manage- 

 ment, or jierhaps no management at all, many an 

 article that enters inio the economy of the house- 

 hold, is luirehascd from the pioduels of straggling 

 llocks of [loullry. .\ few moineiits' thought, ami 

 very little argurneiit ouglit to convince any person of 

 ordinary intelligence, that their income might bo 

 largely increased and their pleasures much enhanced 

 by making this branch a specialty, or if not a 

 specialty, giving it a proportionate share of attention. 

 Early ebiikens always find ready sale at high flgurcs, 

 and with eggs anywhere from fifteen to thirty cents 

 per dozen the margin of profit is large. 



As an article of food Iheiy is no more toothsome 

 viand, than a iirojierly cortked chicken ; and as for 

 eggs, how few tlieri^ are who do not regard them as 

 a luxurv, from a semi-raw to a hard-boiled state, as 

 the taste or fancy of the consumer may dictate. 



Improve, then, your breeds and increase your stock 

 of poultry, and our word for it, you will never have 

 occasion to regret 1 he care or expense requisite to the 

 accomplishment of the object. 



We shall have more to say on this subject hereafter. 



Circumventing the Turnip Beetle. 



In conversation with a neighbor, a few days ago, I 

 chanced to make a remark respecting coal tar to 

 catch the grasshoppers in the Western elates, when 

 he told me that in the part of Yorkshire where he 

 came from they resorted to that expedient to save 

 their turnips from the ravages of the turni|i beetle. 

 A wide board, about ten or twelve feet long, was tar- 

 red on one side, and a rope fastened to either end, 

 and a man holding the ropes over his shouliicrs so as 

 to keep one end of the board off the ground, would 

 draw it with the tarred side downward over the 

 turnips. One edge of the board would, of course, 

 rest on the ground and disturb the beetles, and in at- 

 tempting to hop away they would stick in the tar and 

 be caught. Still it would be as well to sow every 

 third o'r fourth drill about three times as thick as the 

 others, to serve as a decoy drill. Wherever the 

 turnips come up thickest there the beetles congre- 

 gate • if the weather is at all showery the other drills 

 will soon be in the rough leaf, and perhaps enough 

 will be left in the decoy drill to make a crop. 



If every reader of The Farmer would send us one 

 subscriber, it would place us on a sound basis. 



Give the Fowls Pure Water. 



The careless w ay in w hiih fowls arc ordinarily pro- 

 vided with drinkiiig water on farms throughout the 

 country is undoubtedly the cause of some of tlic dis- 

 eases which have proved so destructive. How often 

 do wc find a flock of valuable birds, birds that Iheir 

 owner has expended considerable m< ney in improv- 

 ing, obliged lo drink I he di,t.- i n vholcsome water of 

 drains an.l the pools standing in the liarnyard, or the 

 water of melted snow. There is nothing worse for 

 them, yet how 'ew f irmers apfrcciate the fact. 



Again, MiJiilc many provide drinking vessels In 

 Iheir henneries, and till them when they are emi)tie<I, 

 they do not realize that after cold water has stood 

 for several hours in the midst of the odors so preva- 

 lent in even the beat managed coops, it absorbs the 

 vile gases and becomes so polluted that it is unlit to 

 drink. 



Let any one turn out a vessel of water that has 

 stood twenty-four hours in a hennery, and while it is 

 flowing take a sniff of it ; if he can wonder why the 

 bens refuse to drink it until they arc very thirsty, in- 

 deed, his sense of smell is a weak one. The drinking 

 vessels for fowls ought to be cleansed and filled at 

 morning and early afternoon. Wc have often seen 

 fowls stand about a newly replenished water vessel 

 in the afternoon and drink copiously when they had 

 five minutes previously refused water that had been 

 standing. 



Something for Poultry Men. 



Poultry, it is staled, cannot be kept in large num- 

 bers in confined areas w ilhout detriment to theircon- 

 stitution. Colonel Taggart, of Northumberland, Pa., 

 provides food and exercise for fowls at the same time. 

 Inhispoultrv yards are several beds about thirty 

 feet square each, in which the colonel buries oale, 

 several bushels to the bed. The grains begin, of 

 course, at once to swell and germinate, and the fowls 

 have free access, scratching and eating the tender 

 siuouts to their hearts' content. While the fowls are 

 I bus busy on one bed a new one is iirepared, which is 

 in readiness for them by the lime it is required. The 

 idea is a good one. 



Cabbages for Fowls. 



At this season of the year when the natural supply 

 of grass and other green food is cut off, fowls need a 

 daily meal of some sort of green food. What it is 

 docs not appear to be of so much moinciit, provided 

 they get scuncthing. Wc have tried mangolds and 

 turnips and cabbages, all with good results, but of 

 the three, ealibages decidedly are the most valuable. 

 We cut them up into pretty fine pieces at about the 

 rate of a cabbage to fifteen fowls, and in a short time 

 not a scrap is left. Hens thus fed pay by an increased 

 supply of eggs much more than the extra cost of 



foo<l . 



'^ 



Buckwheat. 

 Buckwheat is one of the staple articles of poultry 

 food. It is very fattening, an excclleni egg producer, 

 and much relished by poultry. It is not, perhaps, 

 used so extensively here as in F.urope. In England, 

 France, and especially in Germany, it forms not only 



