1880.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
303 
finds ” he chances upon, as the gold miners would 
say—though he understands the region so well that 
■fee knows where the best “ lodes ” are to be found. 
This manure is brought to the covered manure 
deposit, where it is mixed with dry earth, and some 
plaster and salt, to about double its bulk. Applied 
at the rate of say 10 bushels of the mixture per 
acre, to com, and indeed to all other crops, it pro¬ 
duces grand results, at less than one-fourth the 
cost of Guano or the best Superphosphate, and 
even at far less cost than the best and cheapest 
barnyard manure. Brains do pay in farming ! 
Farms of Charles Keep. o 
A variety of items were noted during a visit to 
the farms of Charles Keep, about two miles east of 
Lockport, Niagara Co., N. Y. Mr. Keep has been 
in business many years, and recently turned his at¬ 
tention largely to agriculture. He has some 500 
acres in adjoining farms, which are “worked on 
shares ” by two or three experienced men, but the 
owner, we judge, takes a lively interest in the di¬ 
rection and management, as he seemed to thorough¬ 
ly understand every item, and but from his own ac¬ 
count, we should have supposed he is himself the 
farmer. First we noticed the windmill, which has 
been doing effective service for three years, and 
very satisfactorily too, in supplying all the water for 
a large amount of live stock, and other purposes. 
The wings somewhat resemble an old-fashioned 
bonnet, with the lower or back half of the crown 
cutoff. It is named the “ Nysewender’s Turbine 
Windmill,” made in Ohio, by Mast, Foos & Co., all 
the parts being of iron. The cost, the self-regulat- 
ing, etc., are similar to other good forms of wind¬ 
mills. Mr. Keep prefers the iron wings, because 
less liable to the action of the sun and moisture. 
[There are at least seven or eight good self-regu¬ 
lating windmills, any one of which will do excellent 
service, such as the “ Halladay Mill,” made by the 
U. S. Wind Engine and Pump Co., Batavia, Ill.] 
Cement-floored Horse-stalls. 
The floor of the horse-stables, stalls, and car¬ 
riage room, is made of a thick layer of small stones, 
gravel, and sand (at the top), all bound into a solid 
stone-like bed, with hydraulic lime. Under the 
stalls it inclines sufficiently to carry the urine to a 
broad but shallow gutter, and this falls enough to 
take the urine and washing-water off at one side. 
The vehicles stand upon the same kind of flooring, 
a little higher than the stalls. Under the horses, 
for them to stand upon, 2-inch-thick plank are laid 
half an inch apart; the openings serve as gutters 
to carry the urine over the cement below to the rear 
gutter. As this cement extends to the walls all 
around, there are no hiding places for rats. 
Fattening Lambs for Spring Mutton. 
In December of 1879, Mr. Keep, with his lessees, 
bought some 900 lambs from the farmers in the 
country around, at an average cost of about $2.50 
each. About 400 of these were kept in the high 
basement of a large barn, surrounded with heavy 
stone walls, with windows to admit moderate light 
and for ventilation as needed. This basement was 
all in one room in the form of an i_, the two longer 
sides being 130 feet each, one arm 30 feet wide, and 
the other 40 feet wide, furnishing 7,900 square feet 
of floor room. There are six ventilators from each 
sheep-room, 15 to 18 inches square, running up 
through the barn, to carry off foul air, surplus 
heat, etc. The flooring is of cement, the same 
as the horse stables, with suitable depressions for 
carrying off water if needed. About 500 of the 
lambs, with some sheep, were kept in the basement 
of another barn cm an adjacent farm,—a single room 
160 feet long and 56 feet wide, giving about 9,000 
square feet of flooring—cemented like the other. 
The lambs were separated into lots of 15 to 25 in 
pens, formed by movable feeding racks (described 
and illustrated below.) Water troughs, supplied 
through pipes from the windmill pump, were placed 
at convenient points. 
Portable Sheep-Hacks and Pens Combined. 
Those in Mr. Keep’s Sheep-room (the barn base¬ 
ment room) are constructed thus : Corner posts,a,a, 
of 34x2 inch strips, 34 feet high. A 6-ineh board, 
6 , b, all around the top. About 20 inches from the 
ground a 6-inch board, c, is nailed on in front aud at 
the ends, and an 8-ineh board, d, along the back. 
A board 6 inches wide, e, is fastened underneath 
along the front. Back of this a 16-inch wide board, 
/, stands inclined against the back. This slides the 
com or roots down into the trough formed by the 
front and end boards, the narrow bottom piece, 
and the inclined board.—In front, perpendicular 
strips, s,s, about 4 inches wide, are nailed on, leaving 
the openings between them about 7 inches wide— 
but further apart if for large and full-grown sheep. 
—These racks are about 18 inches from front to 
rear and generally 16 feet long, but vary in length 
to suit the divisions required. In use they are ar¬ 
ranged to form sheep-pens oblong or square—the 
walls of the room forming one side of the outside 
rows of pens. The general form is a 16-foot rack set 
parallel with the walls, and two others 12 to 15 feet 
long forming the other two sides, or one of them 
shorter to leave a passage to a water trough. The 
backs of the racks 
of two sets of 
pens are set 3 to 4 
feet apart, leaving 
a passage way for 
carrying in the 
feed—hay, roots, 
and corn. The 
manure is taken 
out two or three 
times during win¬ 
ter, when the 
ground is frozen, 
so that it can be 
taken on to the 
fields. When not 
in use these por¬ 
table racks are 
piled up at one 
end, leaving the 
room free for 
driving in teams 
to haul out the manure. Two men can handle them 
readily. To reach the sheep, or let them out or in, 
the ends of the racks can be swung round like a 
gate. They are made by contract at a neighboring 
shop, at the cost of 15 to 16 cents per running foot. 
The Lambs were Sheared in December. 
The warm room, with the heat of the flock, kept 
them from being cold, and they maintained a healthy 
condition. Abundant straw was daily supplied, to 
thoroughly absorb all liquid and solid droppings, 
and furnish dry warm bedding. As it accumulated, 
the feeding racks were raised to stand upon it. It 
was believed that the lambs would grow and fatten 
faster, with the wool thus removed, while the wool- 
clip sold for nearly enough to pay the purchase 
cost of the animals—owing to the extraordinary 
advance in price last winter. (The farm account- 
book shows the sales from 500 lambs of 2,733 lbs. of 
wool, unwashed, for $1,071, or about 39 cents per 
lb.) These lambs were mainly grade Merinos, esti¬ 
mated to average about 50 lbs. each, when bought. 
Feeding- and Profits. 
The lambs were supplied all the clover hay they 
would eat, and they nibbled somewhat upon the 
fresh straw as it was daily supplied for bedding. 
They also had corn in the kernel (unground^begin¬ 
ning with one bushel per day for each 100 lambs, 
and gradually increasing until they finally had all 
they would eat. They also had daily rations of 
turnips (mangels); the 900 lambs and 200 sheep con¬ 
sumed 8,000 bushels—say 74 bushel each—during 
the winter. After three months feeding, they had 
increased to an average of 97 lbs. each (varying 
from 80tol30 lbs.): they were in high condition, 
and were taken by dealers, in two large lots, mainly 
for the New York market, at five and five-eighths 
(54) cents per lb., live weight, or over $5 per head. 
The price received for the wool, with the final sale, 
left just $5 per head for three months feeding and 
care. No account was kept of the cost of the feed 
or of the value of the manure ; the feed being all 
grown upon the farm, the profits went into tfee 
general profits of the farm for the year. (In 
another conversation we learned that the sales from 
130 acres, divided between the Owner and Lessee, 
after deducting the cost of 500 lambs, amounted to 
$4,400, or $33.84 per acre—$16.92 per acre going to 
the owner for the use of the land, with the soil in an 
improved condition, and the large supply of sheep 
manure to enrich it still further for future crops. 
Mr. Keep gives large credit to the Lessee, Seneca 
B. Foot, for the successful results obtained.) 
Soiling Stock—Hiring Sheep Pasture. 
Mr. Keep believes it more profitable to have all 
his arable land constantly growing crops. Clover 
seed (with no Timothy) is sown freely every spring 
upon the wheat fields, with 100 to 160 lbs. of plas¬ 
ter per acre, sown broadcast. The meadows are 
usually mown twice a season, and the cattle are kept 
in yards, but allowed the range of the wood lots 
in hot weather. He supplements any deficiency of 
clover to furnish a full supply of hay, by using Hun¬ 
garian grass, sowing 3 pecks of seed broadcast, on 
well manured land, and cutting and curing the crop 
just like other hay. The stock sheep are hired out 
to pasture on neighboring farms at 24 to 3 cents per 
week each, during summer, where they have a par¬ 
tial range of woods, and they are fed during winter 
on clover and mangels, with corn if to be fattened 
off for spring mutton.—All the wheat and other 
straw is housed in the large barns, and used freely 
enough to absorb the entire solid and liquid ma¬ 
nures from all farm animals. Both cattle and sheep 
pick it over and eat more or less of it with their 
richer clover and Hungarian grass. The amount of 
good manure thus secured from the live stock 
keeps the fields up to a high state of fertility. 
Phosphates Producing no Effects. 
While some farmers in the vicinity have found 
Superphosphates of much benefit, this has not been 
Mr. Keep’s experience. He asked us to go through 
a wheat field which had received 200 lbs. per acre 
of Lister’s Superphosphate, and pick out the strips 
left without Phosphates for comparison. We were 
utterly unable to select them or to find any differ¬ 
ence in the growth of straw, or size and plumpness 
of the heads, though we passed back and forth 
across the strips with and without phosphates. 
Before giving it up, Mr. K. will try another brand 
of phosphates, to see if the lack of effect upon 
the grain crop be not due to poor quality. 
Wheat after Wheat. 
The field of 22 acres above referred to is mostly 
a heavy clay, drained only by ridging and deep 
dead-furrows. In 1878, it was an oat stubble, with 
little vegetation upon it. After summer-fallowing 
it was sown to wheat: the dead-furrows were too 
shallow, and it drowned out so as to yield only 10 
bushels per acre, and the clover did not catch. 
After cutting the wheat, 250 sheep were turned in, 
and they ate up about every green thing, including 
a considerable supply of Canada thistles, of which 
they even ate the plowed up roots, so that none are 
visible this year. As it was plowed, the soil turned 
up in large clay lumps. These crumbled in the 
sun and rain by the last of August, when the har¬ 
rows and clod-crushers were kept on until the sur¬ 
face was fine. Five heavy loads per acre of well- 
rotted manure were harrowed in, and the first 
week in September wheat was drilled in with 200 
lbs. per acre of phosphate above noted, except on 
the test plots. The dead-furrows were cut deeply 
and clover sown last spring, which shows a good 
catch.—To-day (June 15) the whole field shows 
good for 25 to 35 bushels per acre, the latter on the 
dryes.t portions. It goes against the opinion of 
those who predicted a failure in wheat after wheat. 
But this is a strong clay soil, and it was finely 
manured, besides the previous crop was poor. 
