186 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[i)ecember, 



ished, it is tlie habit of many farmers to allow 

 their horses to run down, to give them less 

 care and little or no grain, not infrequently 

 turning the team out to grass until heavier 

 work is resumed. There are many excuses 

 given by the average farmer for following tliis 

 practice, yet there are many solid reasons for 

 its discontinuance. Keeping a team on grain 

 is expensive, especially if the home supply 

 runs out, as is often the case after a hard 

 spring's work. The feed, however, need not 

 be so heavy during the summer, yet a few 

 oats or a little mill feed should be given daily. 

 If hay runs short cut clover, or the richer 

 grasses by the roadside, let it cure in the 

 sun and be drawn to the barn. The feeding 

 of this cured clover seed and grass will be 

 a change that the horses will appreciate, and 

 such a feed will not work the injury sure to be 

 occasioned through turning them out to fresh 

 green grass. Occasionally a city horse is sent 

 to the'country to spend the summer. When 

 he arrives his flesh is firm and his muscles are 

 strong, yet after a few weeks on grass he be- 

 comes, unless judiciously fed, weak and flabby, 

 and it requires several months of careful 

 feeding and grooming to restore him to good 

 working condition. Yet this is tlie same ex- 

 perience to which many thousand farmers 

 unwittingly subject their farm horses after 

 working them steadily through the spring, 

 and getting them in just the trim to continue 

 hard work daily without injury, so long as 

 well fed and cared for. It is with horses as 

 with most other specimens of animate nature, 

 it is better and cheaper to maintain them in 

 good condition rather than to attempt restora- 

 tion after derangement has been caused 

 through bad management.— A»»crican Culti- 

 vator. 



ABOUT SHEEP. 

 The sheep (Ovis) has been domesticated 

 from the earliest times known to history. It 

 is found on prehistoric monuments, and was 

 mingled in the personal representation of 

 Jupiter and Osiris, and other gods. The goat 

 is near enough in structure to be classified by 

 some naturalists as in the same genus as the 

 sheep. It, however, does not breed with the 

 sheep, whose many marked varieties may 

 suitably constitute a genus of themselves. 

 The five prominent species are : Ovis Musi- 

 mon, O. Ammon, O. Tragelaphus, O. Mon- 

 tana and O. Aries, or domestic sheep. Of 

 the O. Aries there is a vast number of varie- 

 ties, but the best are thought to have been, 

 from England's large commerce, concentrated 

 in the three kingdoms of Great Britain. Of 

 these the three favorite breeds are now the 

 Merino, the Cotswold and the South-Down. 



The wild sheep is provided with horns in 

 both sexes; but, being [no longer of use in 

 domestication, they have gradually disap- 

 peared, except in the Merino and other breeds. 

 The sheep seems to flourish best in temperate 

 climes, but is found in almost all latitudes. 

 In the least cultured state their skins are 

 covered with hair or wool mixed with long 

 hair protruding through the wool ; and the 

 legs of all the genera are covered with hair; so 

 are mostly the faces and bellies. These parts 

 being mostly exposed to abrasion in move- 

 ment, would not be so well able to maintain 

 wool, which, from its structure, is easily torn 



off. We may lay it down as a fact that cul- 

 ture diminishes the horns and the hair, as 

 there seems to be a law of Nature that the 

 things not needed to animal security are 

 gradually lost. And in my own experience 

 of nearly a third of a century the wool has 

 increased on the foreheads, the legs and bel- 

 lies of my sheep. 



The sheep is a ruminant with double stom- 

 ach and enlargement of the upper intestine so 

 as to appear to have more stomachs. The 

 intestines are the longest of any known domes- 

 tic animal ; they are about twenty-eight times 

 as long as the whole body, hence sheep pro- 

 duce more flesh for the food consumed than 

 any other animal. They have eight large 

 teeth at maturity on the front of the lower 

 jaw ; none on the upper ; and twelve molars 

 on each jaw. This structure of the sheep en- 

 ables them to eat very short grass, pressing it 

 between the lower teeth even in the ground 

 and the gristled bones of the upper jaw ; 

 while the cow thrusts out the tongue on alter- 

 nate sides and gathers in the grass ; and the 

 horse nipping it with both upper and lower 

 jaw fronts cuts not so closely as the sheep. 



As a general rule, animals live five times as 

 long as the period of maturity, that is to say, 

 if sheep mature in two years, they should 

 live tea years ; but they go much above that. 

 So man ought to live by the rule to an hund- 

 red years ; and he will when the laws of Na- 

 ture shall be better observed from generation 

 to generation. The first year the sheep has 

 eight small teeth, which at the end of that 

 time show two large teeth in the center, re- 

 placing two small ones ; and so on, losing two 

 small and gaining two large teeth until the 

 mouth is full, with eight teeth at four years 

 and upwards, for I find that these results are 

 only approximate. After a few years the 

 teeth begin to wear away, and are finally 

 lost, when the sheep, unless fed upon pulver- 

 ized feed, must die. When sheep are bred 

 simply for mutton at so much per pound, the 

 old sheep should be culled and fattened for 

 the butcher. But with sheep having fancy 

 prices if they have a lamb and die, they thus 

 bring more than when fattened that year and 

 sold to the butcher.— Cctssiits M. Clay in 

 Rural New Yorker. 



WHITEWASHING TREES. 



As we ride through the country we occa- 

 sionally see orchards that the trunks and 

 larger limbs of the trees have been covered 

 with a thick covering of whitewash, but this 

 practice is being gradually abondoned. The 

 more intelligent the farmer becomes the better 

 he understands that the growth of vegetation 

 is retarded and its health injured by any 

 covering which shall in any degree prevent a 

 free circulation of air. While it may be some- 

 times advisable to wash the trunks and larger 

 limbs of the trees for the removal of insects, 

 the work should be of a character to leave a 

 clean surface. Whenever the surface is cov- 

 ered with any substance that remains on the 

 tree it does more or less injury, because it is 

 not natural to have the air shut out from the 

 bark of the tree. We never pass an orchard 

 that has been well whitewashed without feel- 

 ing that the owner has made a mistake, if he 

 has any idea that he has either improved the 

 appearance or the condition of his trees. As 



to appearance, it does not improve it to the 

 eye of an experienced •rchardist aiiy more 

 than it would improve the appearance of a 

 drove of hogs to the eye of a stock-grower by 

 whitewashing them ; and as to making the 

 trees grow better it is a mistake. But it is 

 claimed that it kills many insects ; no doubt 

 it may some, yet the number of insects on the 

 trunk of a tree in the spring is not large : the 

 few that are on the tree can be killed much 

 easier by washing with strong soap suds, 

 which if washed ofl' immediately with clean 

 water, will do no harm. In washing young 

 trees with soap suds, unless it is washed off, 

 it may sometimes be so strong as to change 

 the color of the bark. When potash is used 

 instead of soap there is always danger of get- 

 ting it too strong unless at once washed ofE 

 with water. Wliatever wash is to be used 

 that is strong enough to kill insects should be 

 washed ofl' at once with water about the same 

 temperature as is the atmosphere. 



The idea that the trunk and the larger 

 limbs of a tree should be covered with any- 

 thing which in the least interferes with the 

 free circulation of air should be abandoned. 

 The orchardist who has to resort to this prac- 

 tice to keep the insects off has much yet to 

 learn. — ilassaclmsetts Ploughman. 



WARMTH IN THE STABLES. 

 Before an animal can increase in weight it 

 must first have supplied the heat and renewed 

 particles of bodily waste. This is done with 

 the food, but if it requires all the food given 

 to keep up the healthy standard a loss occurs. 

 We can easily see, then, that the warmer and 

 more comfortable the quarters are, the smaller 

 the amount of food required for creating 

 natural warmth. If more than a sufficiency 

 for warmth is furnished, the stock is at once 

 stored up in the body of the animals until 

 needed should the supply of food at any time 

 become insufticient. We call this storage of 

 food in the system fat, and although animals 

 do not provide for themselves in the manner 

 of the bees and ants, yet there is, neverthe- 

 less, a providential storage in times of plenty 

 in order to compensate for those periods in 

 which the opportunity is not present. We, 

 feeding for the same purpose, rely on the ac- 

 cumulation of flesh and fat by having the 

 quarters warm, and thus economize in the 

 food demanded. Every ounce of food over 

 and above that which should supply heat, if 

 not converted into a portion of the body, is a 

 waste, and we can be extravagant by neglect 

 ing the winter quarters. Now is the proper 

 time to make all needed repairs and other pre- 

 parations, and a little time devoted to that 

 object not only ensures a profitable return for 

 the expense of labor and time, but adds ma- 

 terially to the comfort and hapiiiness of the 

 stock. , 



THE WHEAT BELT AND WHEAT 

 PRODUCTION. 



It occurs to us that we hear a good deal 

 less nonsense now than formerly about the 

 "Wheat Belt." It is only a few years ago 

 that learned disquisitions on the shifting of 

 the wheat belt were as common as editorials 

 on the "Causes of the Late Defeat" have 

 been during the past month. This journal 

 always combated the idea that climn.tic or 



