218 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



««*! 



English farmers that the wealth and success of a 

 farmer maybe pretty well calculated by the amount 

 of his sheep stock." He asks another question, 

 and gives the answer: "What shall we do to im- 

 prove our worn out pastures ? When sheep were 

 universally kept, this question was never asked, 

 because sheep are ever improving the ground on 

 which they feed." It is said, that man is a uni- 

 versal benefactor who makes two spears of grass 

 grow where only one grew before. What must 

 we say of sheep that make four spears of grasr 

 grow where only one grew before, and two blades 

 of grain, where before but one was raised, which 

 clothes us with its fleece, and feeds us with its 

 carcass ! 



The manure of sheep, if not equal to guano 

 and the droppings of fowls, ranks next as a ferti- 

 lizer, and if not rich in ammonia, it is richer in 

 phosphates. 



Thirty-six pounds of sheep manure are consid- 

 ered equal to one hundred pounds common barn- 

 yard manure. We well remember the time before 

 the introduction of guano, when we collected the 

 droppings of sheep, and put them in a barrel with 

 a quantity of water, and after giving them a good 

 pounding, as some do clothes, till they were thor- 

 oughly macerated, the liquid was used to force 

 vegetables, shrubs and plants, and sometimes 

 fruit trees, with results about equal to guano of 

 the present day. 



But sheep have another element of fertilization 

 which 1 have not seen referred to in any report or 

 essay on the subject. There is always exuding 

 from the pores of the sheep an oily substance 

 called yolk ; this contains a large amount of pot- 

 ash and other alkaline matter. The amount 

 thrown off in the course of a year is large, and is 

 one of the best fertilizers known. This is to some 

 extent washed off in heavy rains, hence the adage, 

 that the sheep fertilizes the ground it lies upon. 



The committee on sheep husbandry, as published 

 in their report in the Agricultural Report of 1860, 

 say : "That to the question proposed in our circu- 

 lar, whether sheep improved pasture land, there 

 has been from every return but one unequivocal 

 yes, especially on those pastures where the coarse 

 grasses, briars and bushes are coming in. 



J. E. Wight, Esq., in answer to the often asked 

 question, Are sheep as beneficial to the soil as cat- 

 tle ? says : "This question, I think, will meet, with 

 those who have had the experience of the culture 

 of both cattle and sheep, with a ready answer, 

 that the fertility of the soil can be better kept up 

 with sheep than any other stock." 



Mr. Joseph Reynolds says : "A gentleman writ- 

 ing from Plymouth county, in 1859, remarks: 

 'Some of the finest examples are afforded here of 

 the effects of feeding sheep upon pastures that 

 have become exhausted of nutritious grasses, and 

 grown to bushes, briars, brakes and moss. I have 

 seen pastures to-day that had become almost 

 worthless, but now green and smiling as a lawn, 

 with every inch among the rocks covered with the 

 richest pasture grasses, and not a single blackber- 

 ry vine, wild rose bush, mullen or other useless 

 plant in sight. The sward does not seem bound 

 and compact, but loose and porous, and filled with 

 the most healthy and vigorous roots. ' " 



While Mr. Reynolds himself says : "Experience 

 shows that sheep walks, instead of becoming ex- 

 hausted, uniformly grow better and more produc- 



tive, and then one of the most effectual means of 

 destroying the bushes and mosses, and bringing 

 back the sweet grasses to an exhausted pasture, 

 is to turn upon it a flock of sheep." 



While R. S. Fay, Esq., then Secretary of the 

 Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agri- 

 culture, and who has owned a large flock of Ox- 

 fordshire Downs, for the last ten years, in a very 

 able essay, says : 



"We have constantly had under 6ur eye a hun- 

 dred acre lot upon which cattle a few years ago 

 could not live, that maintains in good condition a 

 large flock of sheep ; and the improvement of the 

 pasture has been so great that a dozen head of 

 cattle beside the sheep do well upon it. 



"The reasons for this are obvious to any one 

 who has observed the habits of sheep ; they are 

 more indiscriminate feeders than cattle ; they nip 

 the shoots of almost every shrub, as well as weed, 

 extirpating many kinds in the course of two or 

 three years ; they make room in this way for the 

 grasses to come in where they have been shadowed 

 out or otherwise displaced ; the white weed, the 

 broom, or wood wax, as it is commonly termed, 

 the golden rod, the blackberry vine, the blueberry, 

 with many other similar plants, disappear before 

 them, and the finer grasses and white clover take 

 their place. 



"This, however, is only one of the advantages 

 which sheep possess over cattle upon pastures 

 which are impoverished — they scatter manure in 

 the way to produce the largest benefit, besides it 

 possesses in the highest degree the requisites es- 

 sential to restoring to the land the phosphates 

 which it loses by. long depasturing with cattle. 



"The manure of the sheep suffers no waste, be- 

 ing in a highly concentrated form, and at the same 

 time is minutely divided and evenly distributed 

 over the surface of the ground. So good and 

 economical a distributor of manure is the sheep, 

 that experienced farmers in England are feeding 

 them, when in pasture, with oil cake, for the addi- 

 tional benefit of the manure." 



The report of the committee on sheep, for 

 Worcester North, published in the report of the 

 Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture for 

 1863, says they made the following inquiries of 

 the principal sheep raisers of their acquaintance : 



1. Is it better for pasture lands to have sheep 

 kept on them, than any other kind of stock ? 



2. Do you know of your own experience that 

 sheep will eradicate bushes, or in any way im- 

 prove the pastures in which they are kept ? 



In answer to these questions, Mr. H. M. Cas- 

 well says : "I notice sheep always rest on the high- 

 est parts of the pasture, and spend more of their 

 time upon the hills than cattle, consequently the 

 manure is more evenly distributed. Sheep also 

 require such a variety of food they will even kill 

 out hardhacks and thistles." 



James Mclntire says : "There is no stock like 

 sheep to renew old pastures. I know clover to 

 come in, and bushes to die out in pastures where 

 they have been kept." 



Mr. Joel Hayward says : "I am well satisfied 

 that sheep do materially improve pasture lands, 

 not only from my own experience, but from what 

 I have observed of pasture lands in this vicinity. 

 I have had sheep for nearly twenty years in one 

 pasture, and am confident that it will keep one-third 

 more, and keep them equally well as when first 



