460 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
tious, a: '1 phosphate of lime, which, though greatly 
in excess of the needs for food, does no harm. 
The albuminoids and oil are especially valuable in 
fish, because (1) they are more easily digested than 
in most vegetable foods; (2) they supply in con¬ 
centrated forms just what poor foods, such as 
straw, corn-stalks, and marsh and late-cut upland 
hay, lack. These latter are inferior to early-cut hay 
or grass, not merely that they contain less nutritive 
materials, but especially because they have not 
enough albuminoids and fats. Hence the utility 
of feeding oil-cake and cotton-seed meal with poor 
hay, corn-stalks, and straw. Oil-cake and meal were 
formerly used for fertilizers, until farmers found 
they were excellent fodder, and that what w r as not 
made into flesh, fat, bone and milk in feeding, was 
worth more for manure, because in more available 
forms than before it had been pulverized and de¬ 
composed in passing through the animal. There is. 
no reason why the same should not be done with 
fish refuse, except the difficulty of making it pala¬ 
table, and this obstacle is not hard to overcome. 
Experiments with Fish for Fodder. 
The earliest accurate experiments on fish as food 
for animals that I have seen, are reported by Mr. 
Lawes, of Rothamsted, England, in 1853. Various 
foods, including bean, maize, and barley meals, 
and dried Newfoundland codfish, were tested. Mr. 
Lawes says : “ In the two series.... where we have a 
comparatively small amount of non-nitrogenous 
matter consumed, the food consisted, in a large 
proportion, of the highly nitrogenous codfish ; and 
in both of these cases we had not only a very good 
proportion of increase to food consumed, but the 
pigs in these pens were very fat and well ripened, 
and hence a large proportion of their increase 
would be real dry substance.... This result is, in 
itself, interesting; and it may perhaps point to a 
comparatively greater efficiency in the already an- 
imalized protein compounds [albuminoids] sup¬ 
plied in the codfish than in those derived, as in 
the other cases, from the purely vegetable diets.”*' 
The high cost of grain foods in Europe—farmers 
there have to look to Russia, India, and America 
for their supply of oil-cake,—has led the German 
Experiment Stations to examine the question of the 
value of animal foods, scraps, dried blood, and fish 
as a substitute. Numerous feeding trials have been 
made with sheep and swine, to test the digestibility 
of dried flesh, blood, and Norwegian fish guano, 
and their nutritive value, as compared with vege¬ 
table foods such as pea-meal, oat-meal, and pota¬ 
toes. The animals were fed during different peri¬ 
ods of two or three weeks each, with different foods 
and mixtures, and careful weighings made of both 
food and excrements. Each series occupied several 
months, and was made with an amount of labor 
and accuracy that would be simply astonishing to 
most farmers in this country. Wolff found sheep 
to digest 92 per cent of the albuminoids, and 97 per 
cent of the fats of JiesA-mea], and concluded, with 
Wildt, that animal albuminoids and fats may serve 
just as well as vegetable for fodder. From several 
trials with sheep, Weiske and Kellner conclude 
that fish-guano may be fed with profit. At first the 
animals did not relish the fish, but when mixed with 
oat-meal they accepted and soon got to eating it 
clear very greedily. They digested 90 per cent of 
the albuminoids and 76 per cent of the fats of the 
fish. It is agreed that these animal foods are as 
nu tritious as the most concentrated vegetable food s. 
A large number of farm trials in different parts of 
Europe bring the same result. An accurate experi¬ 
ment by Professor Farrington, of the Maine State 
Agricultural College, leads to like conclusions. 
On the whole the testimony is unanimous as to 
the high value of fish guano as food for sheep and 
swine. There is no reason why it should not be 
equally good for neat cattle, particularly young 
stock. One important element of the profit from 
such foods is the manure. The transformation of 
fish by birds into Peruvian guano makes it more 
soluble, and worth more for manure. Kellner found 
that the same is true when fish is fed to sheep. 
To make meat-scrap, dried blood, or fish most 
profitable for feeding, the first point is to get a 
* Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society for 1868. 
wholesome product. This can be done by proper 
preparation. Common salt, or, perhaps, better, 
German potash salts, would aid to this end, and in¬ 
crease the value of the manure. The next point 
will be to feed them with poor hay, straw, and 
corn-stalks, and thus save the better hay for use 
where it is most needed. By such economizing of 
fish wastes millions of dollars may be saved to the 
farmers of the country. W. 0. Atwater. 
Wesleyan University, Middletown , Conn. 
How to Tell the Age of Sheep. 
In buying or in selecting sheep for keeping or 
fattening, it is important to know their ages ; this 
can be easily and quite accurately determined by 
Fig. 1.—3 MONTHS. 
examination of the teeth, and there is no other way 
of getting at the age with any degree of certainty. 
Sheep, like cattle, have no upper front teeth, but 
the gum is hardened into a tough pad. The lamb, 
at birth, shows but two incisor teeth, often none ; 
but in about 25 days the full set of 8 “ milk teeth ” 
has appeared, and at 3 months the “ dental arch ” 
(the front teeth) is full and round, as in figure 1. 
Between a year and 18 months the two middle milk 
teeth are replaced by broad permanent ones, as in¬ 
dicated in figure 2. Towards the age of two years, 
Fig. 3.-2 yeabs. Fig. 4.-3 to 31 years. 
the teeth next on each side of the middle drop out 
and their place is taken by broad teeth, as shown 
in figure 3. At this stage the jaw shows four broad 
teeth in the middle and two narrow ones on each 
side. Figure 4 shows very nearly how the teeth 
look at 3 to 3>£ years old, there being two more 
broad teeth, or 6 in all. Now the last remaining 
milk teeth are so small 
as to be hidden behind 
the broad ones, and 
scarcely visible, when 
looking at them on a 
level and in front (fig. 
5). At 4 to 434 years 
Fig. 5. — front view of these last milk nippers 
figure 4. are re p] ace d by the 
permanent ones (fig. 6); but not until 5 years or 
after do they attain full size. After this age the 
teeth gradually wear away, and at nine years are 
much worn, as in figure 7. 
There is considerable variation, however, in the 
teeth, according to breed of the sheep and the way 
in which they are kept, but a little practice will 
enable one to estimate their ages quite accurately. 
Fig. 6.—4 to 4i years. Fig. 7.—9 years. 
An illustrated chart has recently been published, 
giving the ages of the horse, cow, sheep, pig, and 
dog, that is of great value to farmers, every one of 
whom might recover its cost many times a year by 
its use. It is an instructive, attractive and valua¬ 
ble chart to post up in the stable or office.* 
* “ Chart of the Age of the Domestic Animals.” Pub¬ 
lished by Orange Judd Company. Price. $1.80, by mail. 
More Pleasant Figures to Read. 
“We owe a Thousand Million Dollars to foreign 
countries for money borrowed to carry on the war, 
to build railroads, and for articles imported for use 
and consumption here,” was the statement only 
three or four years ago, and the actual amount of 
indebtedness was even greater. At least sixty mil¬ 
lion dollars had to be sent abroad each year, to pay 
the interest on this sum. What more pleasant read¬ 
ing, than to learn that, while supporting ourselves, 
and even reducing the aggregate of home indebt¬ 
edness, individual, municipal, and national, our 
people are rapidly wiping out this foreign debt by 
economy in luxuries and in the expenses of living, 
etc., and by producing more and more to send to 
other lands—by increased effort, by developing the 
agricultural resources of our great country, and by 
the blessing of Providence in giving us magnificent 
crops.... .In the American Agriculturist for Septem¬ 
ber, we showed that during the year ending July 1st, 
our country exported of its products $261,744,579 
more than we imported ; in two years, an excess of 
$428,284,596; and in five years, $057,218,405. 
In our October number, we presented the figures 
showing that from Aug. 1866, to Aug. 1878, we had 
reduced our National interest bearing debt, $571,- 
852,395 (or from $2,381,530,291, to $1,809,677,900), 
and our annual interest payment in the same time, 
from $150,977,698 to $95,1S1,007, an annual saving 
of nearly $56,000,000 ; and our annual taxation from 
$488,274,465, to $240,753,305, or more than half. 
The good work still goes on ; our former figures 
were made up to June 30. We now have the official 
statistics to Oct. 1st. Exclusive of specie, the ex¬ 
ports during September were $57,924,808, and the 
imports only $37,399,541, a gain during the month 
of over Twenty Million Dollars ($20,525,267). The 
total exports from January 1st to October 1st, 1878, 
were $533,729,118; the imports during the same 
time, were only $324,598,631, a gain in 9 months of 
$208,808,527. At the same time, the large 
products of our gold and silver mines are being re¬ 
tained in the country, by so much not only increas¬ 
ing our solid wealth, but adding to the reserve for 
resumption of specie payments. The yield of the 
mines for our last fiscal year was about $94,000,000, 
or $46,226,106 of Gold,‘and $46,726,214 of Silver. 
(About $2,500,000 of gold and $3,000,000 silver are 
consumed in the arts and manufactures. The total 
stock of gold and silver in the country July 1 was 
estimated at $332,443,947, an increase of about 
$90,000,000 during the year, to which $26,000,000 was 
added from the mines from July 1st to October 1st.) 
The un-official reports show that the gain is still 
going on, though temporarily lessened a little in 
October by the Scotch Bank failure and consequent 
financial disturbances in Great Britain, which, for 
the time being, checked orders for breadstuffs. 
The business is reviving again now. Great Britain 
has still large requirements for breadstuffs, with ex¬ 
traordinary small supplies to come from Hungary, 
India, and Australia. From Jan. 1 to Sept. 27, 
British India exported only 1,193,706 bushels of 
wheat against 10,485,158 bushels in the same time 
last year. France is also a large buyer this year, 
her imports of wheat during September alone being 
2,339,520 bushels this year, against 638,824 bushels 
last year.—The cotton crop is the largest ever pro¬ 
duced in this country, and despite the retardation 
by yellow fever, which has now happily disap¬ 
peared, the exports in ten weeks from Sept. 1 were 
this year 493,887 bales against 341,751 bales during 
the same period in 1877.— 
Surely there is a hopeful outlook for all classes. 
While very high prices for corn and wheat can not 
be expected, it is satisfactory to learn that there will 
be a demand, at some price, for all the immense pro¬ 
ducts of the past two harvests, so that the country 
will be cleared, and a demand exist for the next 
year’s harvest. Our agricultural readers can with 
hope and confidence lay out their plans during these 
leisure winter days for putting in a good area of 
spring crops. Let them not forget that the best 
paying crops are those in which the largest yield is 
obtained from the smallest area. We will do our 
share in showing how this is to be accomplished. 
