1882 ,] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
355 
they will have a greater variety of food, and thrive 
better with an access to a pasture with pond or 
brook, while they are receiving full feed for market. 
All that the fattening animals will eat up clean, is 
a good rule for the last month of feeding. 
Whitewash the Out»I£uiIdings. 
There is no more healthful method of keeping 
the stables, sheds, and pens clean, than to give 
them a good coat of lime-wash. The wash is easily 
and quickly made as follows: Slake a bushel of 
fresh lime in a pork, or other barrel, with water 
enough to make a thick paste, after which fill up 
the baerel with hot water, and let it stand for a few 
hours. This wash may be applied in various ways. 
It may be spread upon the walls with a large white¬ 
wash brush, and no pains need be taken to do a 
neat job. Whatever wash falls upon the floor in 
the operation, is not lost, but helps to sweeten the 
stable or stall. The quickest and most satisfactory 
method, is to use a force pump, by which the lime- 
wash can be thrown into every crack and corner. 
More Mutton-Sheep. 
The breeding time for sheep is just ahead, and 
flock-masters should be planning for early lambs, 
to meet the wants of the market next season. We 
need more fine-wooled sheep, more long-wools, 
but especially more mutton-sheep. The manufac¬ 
turers can get wool to suit their purposes, if they 
have to import it; but good mutton for the mil¬ 
lion, if had at all, must be raised within easy reach 
of the local markets. There is a lamentable dearth 
of good mutton in the village and rural markets, 
as we know from a personal experience of thirty 
years and more. Lamb is quite plenty in the sum¬ 
mer months, at the retail price of twenty to twenty- 
five cents, and mutton in the fall months at a little 
less price than good beef, but the rest of the year 
it is hardly to be had at any price, as if it were a 
thing out of season, like strawberries in December. 
We ought to have mutton the year round, so that 
delicate stomachs that eschew veal in spring and 
fresh pork in winter, can have a change from beef 
and poultry to mutton-chop at their convenience. 
Good dog laws have been passed in some of the 
States, so that sheep-raising is possible, and the 
owner gets damages when his flock is worried by 
the dogs. There is improvement, but it is very 
slow, and there is great want of information as to 
the best breeds for mutton, and the best way to 
improve the flocks of common sheep. The pure 
Southdown is the mutton-sheep of all other breeds, 
unquestionably. Then, after this, the various 
other families of Downs, as the Hampsliires, and 
other English shires, taking the names of the 
counties in which they are bred. A Southdown 
ram, running with a flock of Merinos or common 
sheep, will bring grades giving an excellent quality 
of lamb and mutton, though not equal in flavor to 
the purely bred. If these grades are put with a 
Cotswold ram, we have a sheep much increased in 
size, with an excellent quality of mutton. This 
cross gives a carcass from one-quarter to a third 
larger than the grades, and sometimes one-half. 
The lambs mature early, and are great favorites 
with the butcher. We have found no better cross 
than this in our sheep breeding. It is not neces¬ 
sary now to pay fancy prices for good breeding 
rams, either of the Southdown or Cotswolds. 
They are quite widely distributed, and can be had 
at prices within the reach of any thrifty farmer. 
To get the best service out of the ram, he should 
not be left to run loose with the flock, as is the 
common practice, but should be kept by himself, 
on generous feed, and led out when the ewes are in 
heat. Kept under this restraint, he will serve a 
larger number of ewes, and the offspring will be 
more vigorous. Mutton-sheep are so easily raised, 
and the flesh is so wholesome an article of diet, 
that every owner of a good grazing farm ought to 
cultivate them for the supply of his table and the 
local market. The export of mutton carcasses to 
England has become a large business, and cannot 
fail to stimulate this industry. Get more South- 
down blood into your flock. 
Harvesting; the Corn Crop. 
The best way to harvest corn, is no doubt to cut 
it up at the ground (see fig. 1,) the closer the bet¬ 
ter. The lowest joints of the corn stalk are much 
stronger than those higher up, and it is an object to 
set up the stook so that the valuable portions are 
as far as possible above the ground. There is no 
gain in cutting so as to leave these tough ends of 
the stalks in the field (see fig. 2.) They are not 
eaten by cattle, and will be turned under at the 
next plowing ; most farmers think that they save 
a good deal of labor in not hauling them to the 
yard, and back in the form of manure ; but there is 
a positive loss : 1st, because there is more danger of 
the stooks getting down, and the corn and fodder 
becoming wet and decayed ; 2d, because it is better 
to have this inedible portion of the stalk, become 
partially decayed and soiled by the ground than a 
portion where the leaves are attached ; 3d, because 
it is best to cart to the barn-yard or compost heap, 
all such rubbish, potato-vines, and much that 
farmers are in the habit of leaving to rot, and to be 
plowed in on the field. It is an easy matter to go 
to the field with a corn knife, and cut up the crop, 
setting it up around a center “ hill,” which remains 
uncut, or about 
two “ hills,” with 
their tops twisted 
together, and to 
finish the stook by 
binding the tops 
with a band of 
limbered suckers, 
or weakly stalks. 
Such stooks will be 
sure to fall over, 
and much of the 
com will be dam¬ 
aged as well as the 
fodder. It is much better to go prepared to make 
a first rate job of it. A stooking-horse is almost 
indispensable to putting up stooks that will stand. 
The common corn knife is good enough for cutting 
com by hand, but a light steel field-hoe, well 
sharpened, having a handle 12 to 14 inches long, 
to which a strap is attached as shown in fig. 3, is 
better for cutting close to the ground. It needs 
only a single blow to cut up a “ hill.” The ques¬ 
tion as to the number of “ hills ” to the stook, may 
be settled by the size of the corn, and preference 
of the farmer. In general the fodder will be better 
if the stooks are large—say containing 36 hills each. 
The accompanying diagram, fig. 4, shows the posi¬ 
tion of the stook in the center of 24 hills, of 25 hills, 
of 30 hills, and of 36 hills. The difference in the 
distance one has to carry the out-side hills is not 
great. In the 
case of 25 hills, 
the stook is 
built around 
the center hill, 
which may 
either be cut 
up or left 
standing; and 
in the case of 
30 hills, two 
hills may be joined by their tops. The addi¬ 
tional security against blowing over, is so little, 
that it is usually best to cut up these center hills. 
If properly set around a “ horse,” and well bound, 
corn stooks stand firm long into cold weather. 
Willow or other tough withes are the best bands, 
but to use them with greatest satisfaction, one 
needs a binding winch, fig. 5. The withes should 
be prepared beforehand, twisted or wrung so as to 
separate the fibres throughout the whole length of 
the withe. To bind a stook, the pin is run through 
one eye of a small rope three feet long, having an 
eye spliced in each end; then holding the winch 
in the right hand, the rope is thrown around the 
stook and caught by the left hand. The pin is driven 
into the stook. where the band should go, and the 
free loop slipped over the short end of the crank-bar 
of the winch, when by turning the crank the rope 
is tightened, and when tight enough, the band is 
put on, and then the winch is taken off. A stook 
so put up will stand up in good shape all winter. 
Feeding 1 to Enrich tlie Soil. 
It is now time to pay special attention to the fat¬ 
tening of swine, beeves, etc. Other things remain¬ 
ing the same, the larger the number of animals fat¬ 
tened, the better it will be for the farm. To this 
end it is usually best to buy oil-meal, and other 
rich, concentrated foods, and feed them liberally 
with the hay and other fodder obtained from the 
farm. Should the soil be poor, or partially ex¬ 
hausted, this is one of the best methods of enrich¬ 
ing or restoring it. In the fattening of farm stock, 
but a small portion of the essential soil elements of 
plant food is retained by the animal, so that there 
is a double gain by the operation. There will be 
x x :< * X x 
«■-x- k -v -x- y. 
Eig. 4.— THE POSITION OF THE STOOK. 
a handsome profit on the animal that is sold, and a 
large supply of good manure that is left, with 
which to enrich the land for future crops. 
Selecting Seed Com. 
The importance of sowing or planting good seed, 
can not well be over estimated. The law of “ Like 
produces Like,” is forcibly illustrated in the case 
of corn. There are instances where a difference in 
the seed made all the difference between a paying 
and a losing crop. In selecting seed corn, great 
care should be taken that it is the best. It is not 
always an easy matter to decide which are the best 
points. For example, some farmers may prefer 
two medium sized ears, instead of one large one 
upon a stalk. We are content with one good ear 
to the stalk, but it must be long, sound, well filled 
out, heavy, early ripened, and one that is husked 
with ease. We ask for only one such ear, and it is 
asking enough of any single corn-stalk. An 
equally good ear with a nubbin on the same stalk, 
is not preferred. In the latter case, the product 
may revert to the poor ear, to which it is so closely 
