215 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DEC. 25, 1839. 



From the Farmer's Monthly Visitor. 



THE BROWSING OF SHEEP DURING THE 

 CONTINUANCE OF SNOW. 



Two of the most successful wool growers within 

 the ImowleJge of the writer are Stephen Sibley and 

 Joseph Barnard, Esquires, living in the immediate 

 neighborhood of each other in the adjoining town 

 ofHopkinton. These gentlemen, from the choice 

 flocks which they possessed, have been able to sell 

 their wool at their own doors at high prices, when 

 the ordinary wool could hardly be disposed of at 

 any price. Mr Sibley has a mountain pasture, ex- 

 tending over the back of old Kearsage, which he 

 has recently cleared : from ten acres of it the last 

 season he had a fine crop of rye, which he carted 

 fifteen miles in the straw to his own homestead. 



Below is presented a letter from Mr Sibley, 

 which we find in a Maine agricultural paper pub- 

 lished three years ago, and in which he describes 

 at length his method of feeding sheep on browse 

 in the winter. We have no recollection of before 

 having seen this letter, although we have had a 

 similar description from the mouth of Mr Sibley. 

 This gentleman may be relied on as a safe adviser, 

 because he has had many years' successful practice 

 in the rearing and keeping of sheep. His system 

 of browsing, we believe, is continued at the present 

 time. His letter contains valuable hints to wool- 

 growers. 



Hopkinion, jY. H., Od. Q.5, 1835. 

 My Dear Sir: — On the return of your uncle I 

 was told you wished to know iny method of brows- 

 ing sheep. * * As soon as the ground 

 is covered with snow I browse my sheep daily. I 

 go to the woods and make one of nfiorc temporary 

 cribs by placing two poles parallel 18 or 24 inches 

 apart, upon two handfuls of brush or billets of wood. 

 Between the poles I place or set my boughs of hem- 

 lock or hard pine — (probably spruce, fir, or cedar 

 will do as well) — thrusting the butt ends into the 

 snow and liaving them lean the same way. I e.\- 

 tend my cribs till they well accommodate the num- 

 ber ofsheep I wish to feed. I then tread down the 

 snow about the cribs so that sheep can easily pass 

 by those that have reached the browse and are 

 feeding. I then turn my Hock to the cribs, atid 

 my work is done. In the latter part of the winter, 

 when the snow is sufficiently hard to bear up the 

 sheep, I thrust the boughs, when cut off, into the 

 stiff'snow, in rows without poles, but so close to- 

 gether as to prevent the sheep passin" through 

 them. 



Three winters ago when I began to browse my 

 sheep, I cut my browse and threw it about at ran- 

 dom; but I soon found my sheep too nice to feed 

 in that slovenly manner. They would run over it 

 and leave it. I took the hint of arranging in the 

 way I have mentioned, from nature, fori have ob- 

 served where boughs pendent from the trees were 

 sufiiciently low to he reached by the sheep, tliev 

 would go directly to them and feed mo'-e freely 

 than in any other way. Sheep are not pleased with 

 having their food touched even by the hand of man. 

 The advantage of browsing sheep is no longer 

 doubted here. It gives them exercise, fresh air 

 and green food during the v/hole winter. I drive 

 my sheep in flocks of from fifty to one hundred, 

 nearly a mile every day, unless the weather is very 

 tempestuous, and they heed cold weather as much 

 as the deer or moose that range about the White 

 Mountains, 



A farmer in this town wintered about s_eventy- t know my plan of liming, and also that I would coi 

 five sheep wholly on browse and a gill of corn a municate the same for the Register. I 



day to each. His flock were not at the barn dur- 

 ing the winter, and they come out of the woods in 

 the spring in fine order. He was fortunate with 

 his lambs that season, and the following fall sold 

 his wethers to the butcher for four dollars a head. 

 I believe he had a slight covering to protect his 

 sheep from storms. I give no grain of any kind to 

 my sheep, excepc to my lambs the first winter, or to 

 a few old ones that li.ay be feeble ; to these I give 

 at the rate of a quart daily to twentyfive. To my 

 breeding ewes I gise half a gill a day for three or 

 four weeks before they yean. 1 keep my stalls 

 dry and airy, and daily brush every straw they 

 leave from their cribs. For the last three winters 

 I have wintered 274, 3(i7, and 275, and have lost 

 but two during the three winters. My breeding 

 ewes last winter numbered 127, of which seven 

 proved barren. I had two lambs killed by a fox — 

 two died by taking cold after castration — one from 

 being trod upon when very young, and one came 

 too feeble to live, and died — loss in all, six. I have 

 since disposed of five, and my lambs now number 

 109 ; and a more plump, liealthy, and beajitiful 

 flock I think cannot be found in New England. 



I have lately sold 08 of my old sheep, and my 

 whole flock now numbers 311. I have brought up 

 my flock mostly from Merino ewes, and they are 

 now from full blood Saxony to those made nearly 

 so by breeding from the finest Saxony bucks for 

 nine years. My fleeces averaged 2 lbs. 6 oz. and 

 sold at 75 cents. My store sheep sell from 3 to 10 

 dollars a head. Yours, &c. 



STEPHEN SIBLEY. 



P. S. — Since the foregoing article was put in 

 type, Mr Barnard has exhibited at our office a beau- 

 tiful silver medal of the New York American Insti- 

 tute with this inscription on one side: 



" Awarded to Barnard and Sibley, for the best 

 Jlmerican Wool, 1838." 



cheerfully do so, but that I am a plain, and fa 

 would be a practical farmer, and have never wr 

 ten any thing of the ki.id. But, however, for t 

 sake of being of any benefit to agriculture, if a 

 benefit may be derived from the few hints thai 

 may advance, I will now attempt to comply as f 

 as my feeble efforts are capable of doing. 



When I took possession of my farm, I found it 

 a very poor and worn out state, so inuch so that 

 became almost discouraged, and would have en 

 crated to some other one, had I the means to ha 

 done so without making a sacrifice ; and not wi 

 ing for that; I came to the conclusion that I wou 

 remain where I was, and see what I could do 

 way of improving my poor and worn out land, whii 

 I commenced by raking and scraping all the manu 

 I could fall in with ; and coming across a treati 

 in some one of your volumes upon liming, I fell u 

 on that to see what I could do with it. The fii 

 part or cut of my field that I commenced 'imini 

 was of a kind of stiff and sour soil, subject to ti 

 most (I may say) every kind of insect; and it w 

 with great difficulty I could get corn to stand on 

 But as soon as I commenced liming I found th 

 there was a great difference in the nature of tl 

 soil as well as the quantity of the grain, which i 

 duced me to procure all the shells I could get, ai 

 put them upon my land; and T can now say tliat 

 have improved my land, from liuiing and otht-r m 

 nures, of which lime is the prominent part, from ' ; 

 to 50 per cent. My plan is to burn the shells jc 

 so that they will crumble. 



I prefer putting them out on the land in t 

 spring, say the last of March, upon land that I i 

 tend putting in corn; spreading the lime broadca; 

 and about the last of June or by the first of July 

 sow the same land in peas, which is the last wor 

 ing I give my corn. As soon as the corn will i 

 I take the fodder off. As soon as that is g 



rr<u lu -1 I ■ .1 c ii. c'i. ^ c throucrh with, I proceed to weed all down betwe 



The other side contains the arms of the State of '•"'"^= , , ,■ , 



New York, surmounted with the words " American 

 Institute." 



It is much to the credit of Messrs Barnard and 

 Sibley, and honorable to the Granite State, that 

 these gentlemen should have exceeded the wool- 

 growers of any other State in the quality of their 

 wool ; that they should give to our St-te the name 

 of producing, at the extensive exhibition of the 

 New York American Institute — which has become 

 an Institute' for the whole United States — "the best 

 American wool." 



During the year 1837, Me Sibley disposed of 

 about one hundred and fifty of his fine wooied 

 sheep for exportation to Buenos Ayres in South 

 .America, some of which were sold after their arri- 

 val as high as seventy dollars each. These sheep 

 were about 7-8 Saxony blood, crossed on fine wool- 

 ed Merino: they were sold at a time of great de- 

 pression in the price of sheep in June, when the 



the rows, peas and every other vegetation, which 

 soon as done, I proceed to gather the corn and so 

 wheat upon the same, taking care to run a furrc 

 each side of the ridge in the row with a sing 

 horse plough before sowing, so as to cover t 

 ridge Up as near as possible ; the balance of t 

 row I break up wi'h the same plough. But befc 

 I sow my wheat, I soak the quantity I want for se 

 in strong lime water, say 24 to 30 hours ; afl 

 which I strain it through a basket or colander, a; 

 as soon as that is done, I roll it in slacked lime l 

 til every grain is perfectly saturated with lime, 

 that it parts, in which state I let it go to the groui 

 taking care that the seedsman uses a little gree 

 of some kind on his hands to prevent the lime fn 

 injuring them. This process I think, and am a 

 tain, is a preventive from the smut, and putting 

 on limed land I think is an obstruction against t 

 rust, or at least I have not been troubled with ei 

 er since I tried the soaking and liming. Thequ! 



prospect for wool was poor indeed, Mr S. obtain- i . „,. t i, ^ i ■ /• 



, J ,,!<., ,, ,- I t , 1 titv of lime 1 generally put on mv land is irora 



ed five and a halt dollars for the unsneared, and | ^ i;ri k.,=.i.o1o »„ »i,q „„,.n ..rto,.,,,., ,.,!■> =^„Mno. ,], 

 four dollars each for the sheared sheep. His finest 

 wool that year was sold at fifty cents the pound. 



BENEFIT OP LIMING AND GREEN MANU- 

 RING WITH PEAvS. 

 To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Beaufort Co., M C, Oct. 11, 1839. 

 I learn by your communication to me some time 

 since, that it is your wish that 1 should let you 



.to 50 bushels to the acre, after«;^ards sowing do 

 in peas as above stated; and I can say this yi 

 that I never was more gratified ; for I never sav 

 more flourishing crop of wlieat-on the ground 

 all life, (and my neiglibors certified to what 1 m 

 say,) for I raised 25 bushels to the one sowed ; a 

 T had the same piece of ground in wheat thi 

 years ago, and I am certain I did not raise ten 

 one. A Fbiknu to Agriculture. 



