Sheep on the Prairies—Soiling Cattle. 
177 
the same pasture where sheep would thrive. | 
Mr. Murray‘s sheep clipped 3 lbs. of wool 
per head this season. Cost of importation 
from Vermillion to Chicago 1-2 cent per lb., 
Chicago to Buffalo 1 cent, Buffalo to New 
York 1 cent, making 2 1-2 cts. from his farm 
to this city. The wool is now worth 20 and 
25 cts. per lb. ; it will therefore he seen, that 
growing good hardy sheep on the prairies of 
the west is a profitable business, and what we 
have long and earnestly, in a private way, 
been laboring to promote. 
Land suitable for the purpose can be had 
west for government price, $1 25 cts. to $4 
per acre, dependent upon location and im¬ 
provements. Mr. Murray’s farm is about 
1,600 acres of very fine dry rolling prairie. 
About 300 acres of this is in scattered timber, 
called oak openings, which are much like 
the English parks. When the weather is 
hot the sheep retire to these for shade; 
during the cool of evening they seem to 
prefer the low marshy land along the stream. 
Mr. Murray is partial to many of the natural 
grasses of the prairies, and says the sheep 
thrive well upon them. The milk weed, 
Asclepias , they are very fond of, and fatten 
remarkably fast upon it. 
A simple method is adopted by Mr. Murray 
of seeding the prairies with the cultivated 
grasses, by commencing in June, and burning 
the wild grass gradually through the season, 
in 30 acre patches. White and red clover, 
red top, timothy, and blue grass seed are 
then sown, and immediately after a shower 
the sheep driven over it, which stamps the 
grass seed in, and it then takes root rapidly. 
Early and late natural grasses can a..so be 
secured, by burning the prairies in Sept, for 
early, and from March on to July for spring, 
summer, and autumn. 
The picket fence round the ten acre field 
is 7 1-2 feet high, over which no wolf has 
ever yet leaped; this, with a sufficient num¬ 
ber of sheds to protect the sheep from storms 
in winter, and with hay-racks for feeding, 
cost $263. 
Mr. Murray is now inclosing his farm in 
50 acre lots. Timber is scarce there, and 
he makes his fences 5 1-2 feet high, of posts, 
and hoards, and pickets. Two feet of the 
bottom with boards, then 3 1-2 feet of upright 
picket slats, 4 inches wide. This costs 90 
cents per rod, is cheaper in that country 
than rails, and is neater and more sightly, 
it costs about $1 75 per acre for the first 
breaking up of prairies. He thinks of adopt¬ 
ing the four course system on his farm. 1st 
year, after breaking up, Indian corn. 2d 
year, oats sowed down with clover and other 
grass seeds. Two years then in hay and sheep 
pasture. We are confident that his land 
will improve under this system, and that the 
whole concern will be a good investment. 
We think, however that the fine wooled 
sheep, such as the hardier varieties of Me¬ 
rinos, would be more profitable than the 
black faced Cheviots, or indeed than any of 
the common wools, yielding half to one lb. 
more wool per head, which will he worth 50 
per cent, more in this market, (N. Y.) while 
the cost of transportation would be the same. 
The outlay of capital, in the first purchase of 
a flock, however, would be greater, which is 
the only consideration in favor of omitting 
the introduction of the finer wools at once. 
Soiling Cattle. —We are satisfied many of 
our Stock owners might adopt the soiling 
system to great advantage. When they have 
few animals and pasture is remote, or when¬ 
ever land is high, it may most advantageously 
be adopted. We were particularly struck 
with the economy of this operation in the 
yard of our friend S. L. Hinckley Esq. of 
Northampton, which we intended to have no¬ 
ticed under the farming head of that town- 
The stock at his residence consists of three 
horses and two cows, which instead of send¬ 
ing daily to a distant pasture, he has fed at 
his yard during the whole season, from less 
than one and a half acres of orchard grass. 
The horses while at work were fed with 
cured hay, with a small addition of grain, but 
the cows have derived all their food from the 
grass which is daily cut for them. The sav¬ 
ing by this practice, is the use of three- 
fourths of the land, at least, that would have 
been required for pasture ; a much greater 
amount of manure, which has been made by 
converting it into a compost; and half the 
time that would have been used in sending 
the animals to gather their own food; the 
field from which it was cut, being contiguous 
to the barn-yard, requiring only to be cut 
and thrown over to them. 
Effect of wet and dry summers on the 
succeeding winters.— We predict a cold 
winter, from the reduced temperature of the 
earth when the fall sets in, which will be 
caused by the abstraction of heat from the 
excessive evaporation of the superabundant 
waters which have fallen this season. Can 
any of our readers give us facts from per¬ 
sonal observations on this subject % It will 
be a principle of great practical value if suf 
