105 



This sum. is nearly eighty- three ger' 

 cent, on the capital invested, and by sub- 

 stituting ten lambs annually for the oldest 

 sheep, the entire flock is renewed in six 

 years, and therefore .subject to no deteri- 

 oration. In the above calculation it will 

 be observed we have made no account of 

 the keeping of the flock, an important 

 item it must 'be admitted; but the best 

 figures we could give would only be prox- 

 imate, and inapplicable to many localities. 

 We, therefore, leave that for each farmer 

 to determine for himself. Within any 

 reasonable bounds the above margin leaves 

 ample room for profit, and we have no 

 doubt our farmers will assent to the pro- 

 position when we say, that rearing lambs 

 for the butcher, taken in connection with 

 the fleece of the dam, is a profitable em- 

 ployment where the soil and other cir- 

 cumstances render it available. There 

 are other pecuniary considerations worthy 

 of note in this connection, viz., the rapid- 

 ity with which a return is obtained, and 

 the regular annual period of its receipts. 

 In the rearing of horses, for instance, 

 several years must be awaited for a full 

 development of the animal, and the in- 

 terest of the money lost through all the 

 intervening time. Again, the individual 

 instances of casualty and loss will not be 

 so severe. There is a wide difference 

 for instance in the loss, say of half a do- 

 zen sheep at three dollars each, and that 

 of a valuable colt woith two hundred. 

 Other considerations might be mentioned 

 equally cogent, but with the above sug- 

 gestions, we leave the subject at present 

 to the consideration of our readers. 



ENCOURAGEMENT OF SHEEP 

 HUSBANDRY. 



The principal articles of profit resulting 

 from the rearing of sheep, or at all events 

 that one which is chiefly taken into ac- 

 count by the farmer, viz., wool, has not 

 for the past two years brought a price in 

 the market quite so satisfactory as many 

 other articles of farm produce, particularly 

 grain. While the best staple of wool 

 raised among us would, with difficulty, 

 find a market at forty cents per pound, 

 prime wheat has commanded in cash, from 

 two dollars to two dollars and twenty-five 

 cents per bushel. Reckoning the weight 

 of fleeces at three pounds each, which is a 



high figure for the average of fine-wooled 

 sheep, and then multiply the price ob- 

 tained by the number of sheep an acre 

 will ordinarily sustain, it will be seen that, 

 on comparing the value of the product 

 with that of an acre of good wheat, say 

 twenty bushels, the balance will be vastly 

 in favor of the latter. 



Theoretically then, so far as profit is 

 concerned, it would be much more bene- 

 ficial for a farmer to sell off all his sheep 

 and other stock, put in every acre of his 

 farm to wheat, and repeat it every year. 

 But in practice, such a course of proce- 

 dure would be the worst possible economy. 

 A farm so treated \\ ould become impov- 

 erished in the first ten years; the twenty 

 bushels of wheat which might, if all things 

 favored, be produced the first year, would 

 speedily dwindle down to nothing, and a 

 long and expensive system of manuring 

 would have to be resorted to in order to 

 restore to the land its original fertility. 

 But the experience of our farmers in the 

 raising of wheat comes in again in opposi- 

 tion to this theory of profit; The casual- 

 ties that attend its culture, and the injury 

 to the crop from its many enemies, both 

 animate and inanimate, all combine to 

 render its profits doubtful. The Hessian 

 Fly, the Midge, the killing effects of 

 frost in winter, and the disastrous blight- 

 ing of the rust in summer are heavy draw- 

 backs to the certainties of a good crop. — 

 There is no moment of safet} r from seed 

 time to harvest, nor even then. The 

 brightest hopes of the wheat grower last 

 season were blighted at the latest moment 

 by untimely rains. We do not intend 

 here to maintain that wheat raising is un- 

 profitable, but merely to say that actual 

 experience does not come up to the theo- 

 retical profits of its cultivation. 



Other grain crops are more certain of suc- 

 cess, but not so profitable in individual in- 

 stances. Corn is generally a sure crop, but 

 that finds enemies in vernal and autumnal 

 frost, the crow, the cut-worm, excessively 

 cold wet summers, and other drawbacks. 

 Oats is one of thesurest grain crops, but it 

 is at the same time the lowest in price and 

 among the grains yielding the least profit, 

 when at the same time it is very exhausting 

 to the soil. 



The great branch of farming, aside from 

 the cultivation of grain, is the rearing of 

 domestic animals. In many portions of 



