14, 
AMERICAN AG-RICULT URIST. 
[January, 
the dipping apparatus costing from $50 to $100. 
The principal dip is composed of tobacco, sulphur, 
and sometimes arsenic and soap. Three men can 
dip twenty-five hundred sheep a day. Scab does 
not affect the wool itself, but causes the sheep tp 
lose wool, often to a considerable extent. 
While slieep-raisiug presents so many attrac¬ 
tions, it is no child’s play, as many coming here 
from the East learn to their sorrow. Drones can¬ 
not succeed in this better than in any other busi¬ 
ness. Money, muscle, and brains are required to 
achieve success, and the idea that owners can live 
in the East, aud safely trust their flocks to the man¬ 
agement of others here, has been rudely dispelled. 
One has got to be upon the ground, and superin¬ 
tend his own ranching operations, if he expects to 
prosper. Upon coming to Colorado, to engage in 
sheep-raising, a man should hire himself out as a 
herder, in order to learn the details. No man 
should embark in the business, until he has had 
some experience. He should be here during the 
three seasons, that is : lambing, shearing, and dip¬ 
ping. At the end of that time he will have a very 
fair insight into the workings, although it would be 
advisable for him to pass a winter here, and have 
an experience with one of the heavy storms. He 
must not take the advice of any one man, but form 
his judgment after conversing with various sheep- 
raisers. He must expect to invest not merely money, 
but his time and brains. He must expect to give 
his personal attention to the business, not simply 
for one or two years, but for five or ten years, until 
he gets his herd sufficiently well graded, to bring 
in a fair income from wool. He will find the stories 
of ranchmen to differ in many particulars. Two 
years ago five thousand dollars was regarded as the 
usual amount required in purchasing a complete 
sheep “outfit,”—that is—a ranch, horses, dog, 
sheep, and bucks. He should start with about one 
thousand Mexican sheep, which can be purchased 
of dealers at Denver, and almost anywhere else. 
They sold two years ago for two dollars to two and 
one-half dollars each. They can be purchased this 
autumn for from ninety cents to one dollar and fifty 
cents each. The Vermont bucks will cost him from 
twenty to fifty dollars apiece. There should be one 
buck for every fifty sheep. 
He will not be required to pay anything for his 
land, which belongs to the Government. Generally 
the buildings and ranch franchise can be purchased 
of some one, who, for various reasons, wishes to 
make a change. If the new comer locates on a 
new range, he will have to build a dug-out or an 
adobe house, and muss have a wagon, a span of 
horses, and a shepherd dog. The corral with ac¬ 
companying shed, should be built as soon as possi¬ 
ble. If he has his family with him, he should pur¬ 
chase the needed household furniture here. The 
rates of freight arc so high, that as few effects as 
possible should be brought from the East. He 
should employ a herder to watch the flocks, while 
he himself keeps close guard over the bucks. He 
must make up his mind to be absent from the 
ranch only a few hours at a time during any season. 
In selecting a range, wood and water are the 
great essentials. It is for this reason that the 
ranches through Colorado and the other Western 
States and Territories are generally located along 
the streams and river bottoms. Some of these 
streams are very treacherous. Eor example :— 
Kiowa Creek, running by the ranch in which we 
are now writing, contains very little water in 
the summer, and is apparently a harmless river¬ 
bed. There are times, however, when it swells 
into a roaring torrent, carrying everything before 
it One evening, last May, while Col. Raymond and 
his herders were sitting around the big fireside, a 
noise was suddenly heard, outside, like the rushing 
of many waters. Quickly opening the door, they 
plunged into water, and found torrents rushing 
through the corral. They had barely time to tear 
down the boards and get the sheep upon higher 
ground. Nearly all the lambs, amounting to several 
hundred, were carried down stream and perished. 
This water-spout, for such it proved to be, swept 
over the plains for a long distance each side of the 
Creek, carrying off sheep, cattle, ranches, trees, 
etc., and destroying valuable pasture-lands by cov¬ 
ering them with a thick coating of sand and drift¬ 
wood. A short distance below here, the railroad 
bridge over the Kiowa Creek was swept away. An 
unwarned freight train soon after came rushing 
along. The empty cars floated down stream, but 
the engine has not been found to this day. Gangs 
of men are still searching for it in the quick sand 
with long, iron poles. A party of laborers came 
all the way from Lawrence, six hundred miles dis¬ 
tant, to “ fish ” up the ill-fated engine, and expect¬ 
ed to remain only ten days. They are still at work 
now five months after the accident occurred. This 
is as remarkable an occurence as the fall and 
disappearance of a section of the railway bridge at 
Omaha, a year ago. Water-spouts are of rare 
occurrence, but they are one of the things which 
a new-comer should have in view when locating his 
ranch. The little grove of trees seen in the engrav¬ 
ing, are cotton-wood. This is the only thrifty tree 
that grows spontaneously on the plains. In addi¬ 
tion to the wood which they supply, these cotton¬ 
wood groves afford a protection from the snow, and 
break the force of storms. The buildings here are 
made of adobe, viz., sun-baked mud. They are sub¬ 
stantial, comfortable, and supply the place of 
frame houses, which are expensive, owing to the 
high price of timber. The dug-out in the back¬ 
ground, was the original home of the “founder” 
of the ranch. It is not an uncommon thing to find 
a family recently from the East, temporarily occupy¬ 
ing a dug-out, and having with them a piano and 
other evidences of culture and refinement. 
A Measuring Flume for Irrigating. 
The division of water flowing in irrigating ditches, 
sometimes gives rise to dispute, especially where wa¬ 
ter is the prime necessity of life, as is the case when 
agriculture is wholly dependent upon irrigation. 
To diride a stream flowing into lateral canals, so 
that it may be known exactly how much water is 
flowing on to any field or given area, is also fre¬ 
quently desirable. The following method of divid¬ 
ing and measuring a stream is simple and effective. 
A flume of any desired size, is fitted in the main 
secondary channel, and a scale of inches marked 
upon the sides and the top as shown in the engrav¬ 
ing. A sliding gate, fitted with set screws which 
work in a slot upon each side, regulates the quantity 
of water admitted into the flume. The water is di¬ 
vided by means of a sliding gate, o, which is 
held in place by pegs as indicated, so that it may 
not be moved by the pressure of water flowing 
through it, and diverted by it into the lateral chan¬ 
nel. The sliding gate is set to deliver the quantity of 
water required by means of the scale of inches upon 
the upper bar of the inlet flume. The remainder of 
the top of the frame of the flume. This is shown: 
in the engraving. If the whole of the water is 
wanted in one lateral, the slide is drawn over to the 
opposite side and the whole stream is diverted. If 
no water is wanted in the laterals, both the slides are 
.shut, and the whole stream flows in the direction of 
the arrow. The flume should be made of 11-inch 
plank for a large size, and of inch boards for a smaller 
one. A comer block should be set in each angle of 
the slides to strengthen them. A flume somewhat 
similar to this has been in use at Greeley, Colorado, 
for some years, with much satisfaction to the par¬ 
ties concerned in a just division of the water. 
FLUME FOR EQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF IRRIGATION WATER, 
the water passes directly onwards through the flume, 
or it may diverted wholly or in part by means of the 
gate c, and a second sliding gate, upon the other side, 
made like, and operating in the same way as the 
first. The effect will be as follows. A square foot 
of water, more or less, is flowing through the open¬ 
ing of the flume, which is at the front of the 
cut. By lowering the gate fitted into this opening, 
(shown at one side at d,) the quantity of water may 
be reduced to as many inches as are required to 
pass through. This stream may be equally divided 
into the three channels, by placing the sliding gates, 
one at 4 and the other at 8 inches, as marked on 
Among the Farmers—No. 36. 
BY ONB OT THEM. 
Oow-Peas for Horses. 
We had two patches of cow-peas. The season 
was peculiar. They made less haulm than usual, 
and much fruit. They were sown broadcast to plow 
in as green manure, but I wanted to try the experi¬ 
ment of making “ pea-vine hay,” which we read 
about in Southern papers. So a few square rods were 
mown and cured. The shrinkage was enormous, 
yet the yield of hay probably equalled two and a 
half tons to the acre, on very poor gravelly land. 
..Both horses and cows eat it well. One of the patches 
was plowed in and rye sown ; the other was on land 
which became so hard during the drouth, that we 
could not well plow it, and when the seed began to 
ripen, we let it go, and after a while turned the 
colts upon it. There was perhaps an acre in the 
piece, and the leaves had nearly all fallen off before 
they found out that the peas were good to eat. 
They have had all they wanted and grass besides 
for three weeks, and are as fat as pigs. I have 
never seen young things grow so before. With a 
little painstaking, early ripening kinds might be 
introduced which would give us a crop every year. 
I would like to experiment with different sorts with 
reference to early ripening and to abundance of 
haulm for green manure. Both qualities would 
hardly be found superior in the same variety. That 
which I used this year, was the “ clay ” pea. 
The use of this word “pea,” which is universal 
where the plant is well known, is likely to mis¬ 
lead those not familiar with it, for it is more like 
a bean, and, like beans, is sensitive to spring frosts 
and cold. If sown too early, it will rot in the 
ground, or “live at a poor dying rate,” until hot 
weather comes, and not do well then. So it must 
needs be planted during the last half of May to the 
first of June or later, in the latitude of May frosts. 
Webb’s New Kinver Yellow Globe Mangel 
has everything in its favor except color. It is, 
however, of a bright rich yellow on the out-side.— 
I like a good deal of 
color inside of a man¬ 
gel, which this has not; 
nevertheless it is per¬ 
fect in form—globular- 
top-shaped, I should 
say, with so little top, 
and of course equally 
little neck, or no neck 
at all,that one wonders 
that so little foliage 
can sustain so much 
root and such vigorous 
growth ; for I suppose 
it is as true that the 
top sustains the root, 
in all senses but one, as 
that the root does the top. It is a great cropper, very 
firm, sound, and sweet. Eor a new kind it sports 
very little—wagon-load after wagon-load showing 
surprisingly few specimens which indicated a de¬ 
parture from the normal form. They were sown in 
drills, ridged up over a fair quantity of good yard- 
manure,or superphosphate where the manure failed. 
Sheep and Barbed Wire Fences. 
It seems as if the use of barbed-wire fencing was 
going to make it possible, and if possible—policy, 
for us to keep sheep. It will not do, however, to 
turn the 6heep into fields enclosed in whole or 
