230 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



of unwashed wool at fifty-five cents per pound, 

 three dollars and thirty cents, — making a total of 

 thirty-two dollars in three years. Two such ewes 

 as this would be a match for a pretty good cow. 



Last August a friend of ours killed a wether 

 sheep sixteen months old, a Cotswold with a little 

 Merino. The carcass weighed 126 pounds, for 

 which he received ten cents per pound ; he ob- 

 tained four dollars and fifty cents for its fleece, 

 making a total of seventeen dollars and ten cents, 

 leaving out hide and tallow. Where can the farm- 

 er be found who can equal these examples for 

 profit by raising stock ? 



We are not in possession of sufficient data to 

 make comparisons with dairy stock, but we are 

 satisfied that it would be found largely in favor of 

 sheep, while those farmers who keep cows and sell 

 their milk at four cents per quart, would find it 

 greatly in their favor to keep at least one sheep 

 for every cow in order to replenish the pasture, 

 with the phosphates, of which the milk cows de- 

 prive it. 



When our estimate of the weight of sheep and 

 value of lambs and wool are compared with the 

 following statement, we think it will be allowed 

 that we have been very moderate in our state- 

 ments, and left a wide margin in favor of the sheep. 



Mr. Lawrence Smith, of Middlefield, writing of 

 his new Oxfordshire flock, a cross of the Leicester- 

 shire and Cottswold, says : "My yearling ewes will 

 weigh in store condition from 125 lbs. to 175 lbs., 

 fat wethers at three years old from 175 to 250 lbs. 

 My heaviest breeding ewe last winter weighed 211 

 lbs. ; my flock of store sheep and breeding ewes 

 usually shear from five to seven pounds of wool. 

 My ram fleeces weigh ten pounds unwashed, and 

 will sell in that condition for twenty-five cents per 

 pound. I never feed my store sheep and lambs 

 with grain, but give them early cut hay, and oc- 

 casionally a few roots." This statement was made 

 previously to March, 1859, when wool was low. 



O. C. Felton, Esq., in his report of the Berk- 

 shire Agricultural Fair, mentions a Cottswold 

 buck that weighed 264 pounds. 



Mr. Hiram Barbus, in his report for the same 

 year, mentions a Leicester buck exhibited by O. 

 S. Moore, of Southampton, five and a half months 

 old, that weighed ninety pounds. 



Mr. Charles G. Davis says, that the butchers 

 paid him in June, 1861, for his Oxford Down ewes, 

 eight dollars per head after the fleece was off. 

 He sold his lambs for ten dollars, and buck lambs 

 for twelve dollars to breeders. 



Mr. Richard S. Fay says, that his lambs of the 

 same breed often reach 100 pounds in five months 

 on nothing but milk and grass. A yearling ram 

 from Mr. Fay's flock gained 15 pounds in three 

 weeks ; and a ram lamb weighing 85 pounds at 

 five months, weighed at six months 105 pounds, 

 on nothing but grass. A five years' old ram of 

 this breed weighed in the spring of 1859, 360 

 pounds. Mr. Fay's ewes weigli from 150 to 180 

 pounds. In 1859 his flock averaged over seven 

 pounds of unwashed wool per sheep. 



We might quote from others concerning differ- 

 ent breeds and crosses, but we have quoted suffi- 

 cient to show, we think, that our figures are placed 

 at the lowest point, and if they prove the keeping 

 of sheep profitable, what must these statements 

 prove ? They certainly cannot prove less than 

 that it will pay to make fences, if not such as we 



describe, such as Mr. Putnam says Mr. Pierce, 

 of Topsfield, has upon his farm, small posts placed 

 by the side of the wall about twenty-five feet apart, 

 set leaning so that a wire fastened to them will be 

 over the wall about six inches above it, and then 

 another wire ten inches above that. This, it is 

 said, is durable and cheap. Tyro. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 MAKING BUTTER. 



I have read all the pieces upon making butter 

 and cheese, published in the goodly columns of 

 the Farmer, but have as yet (much to my disap- 

 pointment) found nothing really applicable to us 

 farmers on a small scale. I suppose writers think 

 we that keep one or two cows, the same number 

 of sheep, a pig and a horse, must reduce the ad- 

 vice to suit our case, but that we don't like to do, 

 and the thought entered my mind that perhaps 

 if I should give a bit of my experience, others 

 might follow my example and thus enlighten me. 

 We have one cow, a common milker, good as 

 farmer' cows average, no better. She gives about 

 eight quarts at night, and between four and five 

 in the morning. We have no nice cool place to 

 keep the milk, and use common tin milk pans, 

 which we have no trouble in keeping sweet and 

 clean ; strain the milk in two at night, and after 

 saving out a quart or more in the morning, strain 

 the remainder in one. The cream rises pretty 

 well, and we churn it once a week, always. The 

 cream is very thick, the butter comes in about 

 twenty minutes, and we call it sweet and nice ; 

 the average amount is five pounds a week. We 

 salt it with our hands, then let it stand twenty- 

 four hours, and work it over with our hands, let 

 it cool and press it through a mould into nice lit- 

 tle yellow cakes, just large enough for the butter 

 plate, with a well-defined strawberry leaf upon 

 them. You see our method is simple and plain. 

 Now the question is, do others make butter as 

 we do ? 



The best way to deal with milk pans, pails and 

 cream pots, is to wash them out first in warm wa- 

 ter and soap, then scald them with boiling water 

 and wipe dry. Many wash pans that have con- 

 tained sour milk with hot water ; that is very 

 wrong, as it will spoil them, by causing them to 

 smell sour. 



If this should prove interesting, I will at some 

 future time, speak of making cheese, upon a small 

 scale. Sakah. 



Remarks. — We shall be glad to get your ac- 

 count of making cheese. 



DRAINING. — The Canada Farmer well remarks 

 that in such a spring as this the benefit of drain- 

 ing the land is most striking : "We saw two large 

 fields adjoining each other yesterday, of precisely 

 similar soil ; one thoroughly drained and the 

 other not ; the drained field was quite firm and 

 dry, and the crop (peas) peeping promisingly 

 through the ground ; while the other is full of 

 water holes, and will require at least a week's fine 

 weather before a team can be taken on it. The 

 difference in the temperature of these two other- 

 wise similar soils six inches from the surface was 

 found by careful experiment to be more than 

 seven degrees !" 



