136 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 



<;liafF from it, but should sow both together. 

 Time for sowing herdsgrass, from the 10th of 

 Aug. to the 1st of Sept. : some sow after the 

 3d hot'ing of corn ; also with turnips in August. 

 The soil should be well prepared for seeding. 

 He gave an instance of a piece of worn out land 

 that a farmer ploughed 7 or 8 times in one sea- 

 son, sowed it to rve and seeded it down to clo- 

 ver, and got heavy ci-ops of both rye and clover. 

 lie advised to use 300 lbs. of Peruvian guano 

 per acre on thin soils, or about twenty bushels 

 of ashes. He would use a bush and roller after 

 seeding down, but preferred the bush if but one 

 is used. ]\Ir. Stedman of Chicopee preferred 

 the roller to the bush. 



J. M. Smith of Sunderland, said he cared 

 not to cover hay seed at all — preferred to bush 

 before rather than after sowing it : the fall of 

 rain covers it sufficiently for vegetating : the 

 danger, he remarked, is of covering it too deep. 

 He said red-top runs out clover. 



Mr. Taylor of Montague, said he stocked 

 down in the fall, manured with composts, about 

 half as much as in growins; corn, say 5 cords 

 per acre, and covered the seed with a horse- 

 rake ; he puts sand in his hogpen, and regards 

 muck as good for nothing until put in the barn- 

 yard : oats smother grass — wheat and barley he 

 deemed the best grains to seed after. He 

 thought clover winter killed worse by leaving a 

 rank growth uncut, than by mowing and remov- 

 ing it. 



Mr. Soverins of So. Deerfield, used a larger 

 number of kinds of seeds than farmers usually 

 do, Avhether for meadow or pasture : herdsgrass 

 stools, hence open spaces that should be filled : 

 to seed down for one or two years he would use 

 only clover : on moist land he would use red- 

 top and fowl meadow ; till the soil well as for 

 tobacco beds ; would bush after seeding: pre- 

 ferred a clod crusher to a roller. 



N. A. Smith of Sunderland, regarded herds- 

 grass as an exhausting crop. 



T. K. Brown, of Bernai'dston, recommen- 

 ded fall seeding, whether the ground be moist 

 or dry. He thinks farmers err in not sow- 

 ing more red-top ; he thought he had tons 

 more of hay the past season for having seed- 

 ed with red-top, as it is not liable to freeze 

 out, and produces from 2i to 3 tons per acre ; 

 it grew with lierdsgrass from 4 to 5 feet in 

 height ; in seeding he sowed from 8 to 10 lbs. 

 of clover seed per acre, with from 8 to 12 

 quarts of herdsgrass and the same of red top : 

 preferred to seed with wheat : seeds also Avith 

 turnips al)out the 1st of August, and would 

 neither bush nor roll wet land : would feed off 

 or mow a fiill crop of clover rather than let it 

 remain on. 



— W. C. Flagg, of Madison Co.. 111., the owner of 

 a large and prodtablc farm, estimates tliat, by the 

 use of mowers, hay-rakes, and horse-forks, lie can 

 cut, cure and stack hay at a cost of from $1.00 ,o 

 $1.50 a ton. 



"WINTEK FEED AND CAKE OF SHEEP. 

 , . ,' II K farmer, duriiiir a 



considerable portion of 

 the year, has the whole 

 care of the food of sheep ; 

 selects and lays it before 

 them. It has been dried 

 and stored away for 

 winter use, and is fed 

 to them at stated times, 

 so that they have no 

 choosing to do, but must 

 eat such as they can get 

 or go without. 

 When in the pasture they have a choice ; 

 certain plants they reject and modify the quan- 

 tity of others as their appetite requires, — ^but 

 during the winter this is entirely under the 

 control of man. In order to produce healthy 

 sheep and good wool, roots are essential in ad- 

 dition to hay and grain. Good muscle-produc- 

 ing food is necessary for wool. Sheep like the 

 jOTtato, turnips of various kinds, beets, carrots, 

 parsnips and mangold wurtzel. A prejudice 

 exists against the use of these roots, which 

 grows out of the erroneous idea that it is very 

 expensive to raise them, and that they are not 

 very nutritious. The argument is, that be- 

 cause the potato contains 80 per cent, of water 

 it is not nutritious and cannot be economical. 

 The same reason may be urged against grass, 

 or against the beef-steak for our ovra eating. 



Numerous experiments show that all stock, 

 even poultry, fed partly upon succulent roots, 

 thrive better and at less cost, than when fed 

 entirely upon hay and grain. "There is some- 

 thing more required in the animal economy 

 than mere nutrition. In some inexplicable way 

 roots are either capable of enabling the animal 

 to extract more nutriment from its other food, 

 or of economizing that which it does extract." 

 Our own practice through many years, satisfies 

 us that, with the aid of modern implements, 

 roots can be raised cheaper than Indian corn, 

 cereal grains or beans as part food for sheep. 



Sheep like variety and should be indulged 

 in it. Not to feed a few days or a few weeks 

 on one kind entirely and then change to some- 

 thing else, but to feed a variety every day. 



Mr. T. L. Hartwell, of West Cornwall, 

 Ct., writing us, says : "There arc none of our 

 domestic animals whose nature seems to re- 

 quire so gi'cat a variety of food as the sheep. 

 They will grow restive and uneasy if confined, 



