1864. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMER 



47 



to give us also the names of his fruit ; because the 

 fruit has been, and can be again produced in our 

 latitude. So at the State Fair, if you award to 

 C. H. R. the first premium for the best late grape, 

 why not toll us it is the "Concord," when you 

 name the award, and so through the catalogue. 

 The benefit derived from Fairs in this direction is 

 small unless publicity is given to such matters of 

 general interest. — Rockford Register. 



Management of Sheep in Winter. 



The different ideas on the manner that sheep 

 should be treated in winter are about as numerous 

 as flock-masters. As a wool-grower I would say a 

 few words on the management and treatment of 

 sheep in winter. 



As soon as your flocks fail to improve in the 

 meadows or pastures in the fall, then commence 

 feeding. Do not wait for snow, to feed your sheep ; 

 neither let them run, even if they are "holding their 

 own," and not improving. To have a sheep come 

 out well in the spring, it is necessary that they are 

 improving in the fall or commencement of winter. 

 As a sheep is doing in the fill, just so they will 

 do all winter. If they go into the yard in the fall, 

 improving, they will continue all winter, and vice 

 versa. I begin to feed grain to my sheep now once 

 a day — say half a pint each daily, and that in the 

 morning. When I get up in the morning and find 

 it cool and raining a little, I take a few cornstalks 

 and throw into their racks, and leave them after 

 they are fed their grain until noon, unless the rain 

 is over and the air is dry. If so, I let them out. 

 When it rains all day I feed grain and cornstalks in 

 the morning ; hay, with a few pumpkins, at noon, 

 and a very little grain with hay at night. I have 

 water in the sheep barn so they can drink any time 

 when they want it. This latter arrangement is of 

 no small consequence in winter when sheep want 

 to drink every hour, and only a swallow or two at 

 a drink. If sheep have to go out in the weather on 

 stormy days for their water, they will wait just as 

 long as they can stand it, and then go out and drink 

 so much that they will stand all humped up for half 

 an hour with the cold. 



It is very essential that you have good racks for 

 your sheep — almost as much consequence as the 

 feed. I use one that is very convenient. It is 

 made with three scantling for the corners, two 

 boards nailed on about ten inches or a foot apart, 

 clear around, then three inch slats of inch stuff put 

 on up and down, about six inches apart. In fact 

 very much like the one in your last paper, only I 

 have" the grain trough inside the rack, and consider 

 it quite important to have the trough fixed in such 

 a manner that the sheep cannot crowd each other 

 as in feeding hay in racks. Another thing, I can 

 get into my rack and feed the grain, and not be 

 jostled and run oyer by the sheep. Frequently you 

 have your grain upset while pouring it into the 

 trough in the other way. I feed com unground 

 mostly; sometimes corn meal, with a few oats mixed, 

 to give the sheep something to make a mouthful, 

 80^ they can chew it. A little sulpher once a week 

 mixed with their «orn, keeps them in a healthy con- 



dition, while the salt once a fortnight keeps their 

 appetite sharp. 



Keep them warm if they lamb early, and feed a 

 few turnips or potatoes two weeks before lambing 

 until two weeks after. Be careful not to feed too 

 many potatoes, so as to scour and lose your lambs ; 

 a bushel to fifty sheep a day is my rule. Be care- 

 ful not to let the lambs get too much salt when 

 young, as it is very injurious while young. 



I consider good clover hay the best for sheep in 

 winter. — Country Gentleman. 



—%*- 



Setting Fence Posts. — ^In the winter of 1838 I 

 moved to Iowa. In drawing logs to the mill to 

 build my first house, I had a log fifteen feet long 

 and four feet at the stump, so large I could not 

 draw it. I made lengths of it for fence posts, as 

 timber was very scarce in this part of Iowa. I got 

 it sawed to the halves. It was sawed four by four 

 at one end and four by two at the other, which re- 

 versed one-half of the posts, bringing one-half of 

 the posts in building my door yard fence, and let a 

 neighbor have some for the same purpose. In ten 

 or twelve years some of the posts rotted off in my 

 fence. My neighbor's place changed hands, and 

 the present owner four years ago, built a new pick- 

 et fence in the place of the old one. I was present 

 and examined the posts. About one-half of them 

 were rotted off, and had been for some years ; the 

 other half appeared quite sound, so much so that 

 he reset them in the new fence. The carpenter 

 that was building the fence and I examined the 

 posts to see the cause of the difference, and we 

 found by the notches near the heart that the sound 

 posts were set with the top or upper ends down. 



Thus writes a correspondent of an agricultural • 

 paper. We have seen many proofs of posts lasting 

 longer with the small ends set in the ground, the 

 cause being, as we believe, that the pores of the 

 wood turn the water off, like a shingled roof, when 

 posts are thus set, while they conduct the water in- 

 to the wood, like a reversed roof, when set with 

 the butts down. — Rural American. 



So fully hare we been impressed with the value 

 of settng posts top end down, that for the past fif- 

 teen years we have been careful to practise it. We 

 have hundreds of posts thus set that were set dur- 

 ing the winter of 1839, twenty-five years ago, and 

 which are but little decayed — they are of burr oak. 

 We prefer to cut posts in June or July, but this is 

 not always convenient. In getting out stakes for 

 vineyards we shall be carefal to sharpen the top 

 end, and only set this winter what we must have 

 early in spring; leaving the remainder for summer 

 cutting. — Ed. 



-<«•- 



Squeaking Boots— a Crying Kuisance. 



Messrs. Editors : — ^I wish to call your attention 

 to what I consider a grievous annoyance, for which 

 I suppose the bootmakers are responsible. I al- 

 lude to the disturbance produced at lectures and 

 other meetings (where silence is essential), by those 

 who enter late with creaking boots. If they made 

 other wearers of them as nervous as they do me 

 when aflaicted with a pair, I think some remedy 

 would be adopted. It seems to me, however, that 



