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94 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER. 



White Beans as a Crop. 



Mr. Editor: — Much of the land on which 

 wheat has been killed out will bring good 

 crops of white bean§. They can be grown 

 on sod land broken last summer, and which 

 ia now clean and in good order. If drilled 

 in the crop would be most certain, but even 

 if sown broadcast, and covered by harrow- 

 ing, and the land rolled, they would be 

 likely to do well. Fifteen bushels an acre 

 would not be a large crop, and they have 

 been selling from last fall to this spring at 

 from $2 to $3 50 per bushel. If raised 

 largely, I do not believe they would by any 

 possibility be lower tlian $1 SO per bushel. 



The small "Yankee bean" would do best 

 oa the poorest laud. For richer lands it 

 would be well to plant larger beans, which 

 would make strong stalks, and would not 

 be so likely to fall and injure the beans. 

 There is the navy bean, larger than the 

 "Yankee bean;" the marrowfat bean, or 

 white cranberry; and the royal white kid- 

 ney. All these produce well and the beans 

 sell readily in market. i*?-;-'. 



Field peas can also be raised to advan- 

 tage. These are sown broadcast, and if 

 of good quality, they sell well in winter for 

 cooking. The usual variety used in this 

 country for that purpose is a small white 

 pea; but in England all our garden peas 

 are sown broadcast and produce good crops. 

 Market gardeners raise them in this man- 

 ner. They run on the ground for a foot or 

 80, then shoot up perpendicularly, and it 

 they do not produce as many peas as they 

 would if "bushed," they produce well. 



I desire to draw the attention of your 

 readers to these subjects. Our farmers 

 have a great space of fine ground to occupy 

 this spring, and it will be well for them to 

 put it into crops that will pay. Large 

 quantises of beans and some peas (the lat- 

 ter hard to be got,) were imported from dis- 

 tant places last winter and even the present 

 spring. BEANS fc PEAS. 



Roosting LADnERS. — The best roost in e 

 poultry house, is the ladder shaped. Make 

 a ladder three feet wide, and of convenient 

 length, to slope at an angle of forty-five de- 

 grees, (that is, the foot of the ladder resting 

 as far from the wall, if the ladder rests 

 against a wall or partition, as the top is 

 above the floor.) The rounds should be 

 two feet apart, that the fowls above, may 

 not foul those beneath, Octagonal roosts 

 are better than round ones. 



Spring Management of Sheep. 

 A. Nichols, of Westfield, New York, 

 gives the following article on the subject in 

 the Genesee Farmer: * ' ; 



Great care must be taken with sheep in 

 the spring. They should be driven to shelter 

 from every cold storm ; grain must be given 

 to them until the pastures get good;. they 

 must have salt once a week during the whole 

 summer, and once in two weeks during the 

 winter. About the first of June in this 

 latitude, or in the south in April or May, 

 according to the climate, the sheep must be 

 washed in running water until clean, recol- 

 lecting that the water must be warm enough 

 to make the men, standing in it to wash the 

 sheep, sweat at their work; if colder, it is 

 abusing both men and sheep. As soon as 

 dry, or in about one week, they mast be 

 shorn by good hands, who do not get angry 

 and handle them roughly while shearing 

 them. The fleece should be folded up, flesh 

 side out, very neatly and packed in close, 

 clean bins or boxes, until disposed of. The 

 ram lambs must be emasculated, and all the 

 lambs should have their tails cut off, at least 

 as soon as they are four weeks old, as they 

 bleed but little, and it does not hurt them 

 so much as when they are older. Before 

 turning out to grass in the spring, all the 

 sheep should be tagged, that is, have all the 

 wool on each side of, and under the tail, 

 and some distance down between the hind 

 legs, sheared close, to keep them from get- 

 ting sickly. After the sheep are shorn, they 

 should be marked with the owner's name, 

 and put back to their pastures. They 

 should be changed from one pasture to an- 

 other as often as once a month. About the 

 first of August, take the lambs from the 

 ewes, and put them into good pasture, that 

 they may not get poor. If you wish your 

 lambs to come in March, put the ram with 

 your ewes in October, (the average gesta- 

 tion of the ewe being one hundred and fifty- 

 two days ) As soon as he has given a ewe 

 one leap she should be thrown out, as more 

 than that injures both the parent and the 

 offspring. Use the best ram you can get, 

 and the lambs will be good. He should be 

 at least four or five years old, for if younger 

 than this, or over ten years old, his lambs 

 will be weak and puny. He should have all 

 the grain he can eat, or he will get poor. 

 As soon as he has served all the ewes, put 

 him in a pasture alone, and it is better that 

 he be kept by himself the whole year. 

 Never use the same ram mor« than two 

 seasons. Never sell the best ewes at any 



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