' 24=0 
AMERICAN AaRIORLTURIST. 
[June, 
Treatment of Scab in Sheep. 
HENRV STEWART. 
The prevalent disease everywhere known as scab, 
is at times troublesome to western sheep men, 
whose flocks run on the range, and the universal 
tick is here, as elsewhere, a great annoyance. As 
a remedy for these pests, it is usual to dip the 
sheep. A system of yards and pens is laid out for 
the easy handling of the sheep, and these all lead 
from a large enclosure outside. It opens towards 
R The gate C, being open, the yards are filled in 
succession, the central one and the first one being 
last filled. At Fare boilers and store vats, S, filled 
with hot liquid to supply the vat D. All being in 
readiness, four sheep are put into the decoy pens, 
F, P; these have wire fences so that they are plainly 
seen by the other sheep. The first pen is then 
opened and the sheep run towards the decoys, 
where they stand on a drop or tilting stage, made 
between the decoy pens. This stage holds ten to 
or with its nature otherwise changed, a correct ac¬ 
count of its value may be kept by reckoning it at 
the market price at the time. 
A crop should be charged with the following 
items: Plowing of the land; preparing land for 
seed; fertilizers; value of seed; cost of seeding; 
after cultivation, if any; harvesting; market¬ 
ing ; interest on value of land occupied, or 
rent; tax, unless rent includes tax ; interest on 
stock, machinery, implements, etc.; repairs, 
and wear and tear on implements, machinery, 
etc.; insurance. The items will 
vary slightly with each crop. All 
labor should be estimated at what 
it costs, or what it would cost if 
laborers were hired. The value of 
seed and land, tax, rent, interest 
on land, implements, buildings, 
etc., and many other items may be 
definitely computed. Some items 
must be estimated approximately, 
but a substantial degree of ac¬ 
curacy may be attained. A farmer 
can make a pretty close estimate 
of the number of acres a plow usu- 
Fig. 1.— TAEDS ANB PENS FOE DIPPING LAEGE NDMBEES OF SHEEP. 
Drawn and DngraveO. for the American Agriculturist, 
to a point where a dipping vat is provided, to which 
are annexed, boilers lor heating the dipping fluid, 
and draining pens for collecting the dripping from 
the dipped sheep. A plan of the yards and pens 
is shown in figure 1, and another, which may be 
more suitable in some cases, in figure 2. The for¬ 
mer plan is laid out as follows: The large yard, 
marked 1, tapers gradually to a lane, 2, guarded by 
a gate, 3, which swings either way to turn the sheep 
into the pens 4, or 5, as may be desired. This plan 
is devised so as to be made available at shearing 
time, when the sheep are turned into the pen 5, 
which has a boarded floor, that it maybe swept and 
keep the sheep clean, and from which they may be 
taken into the shearing yard or shed marked 6. 
This arrangement thus serves both purposes, and 
every ranehe where more than a thousand head are 
kept, should be provided with something of this 
kind. It is always best to dip the sheep immediately 
after shearing, as the dip then has more effect upon 
the skin; but a dipping should have been given 
two weeks previously, to cleanse the wool from the 
mites, which would otherwise infest the yards and i 
pens, and make them a constant 
source of infection. The yard,4, 
is intended lor the lambs, which 
are thus spared a good deal of in¬ 
jurious crowding among the sheep. 
From pen 5, pens 7 and 8 are 
filled, and as the sheep are crowd¬ 
ed to the narrow part of the pen, 
a man takes one by one and drops 
them into the vat 9. Each sheep is 
completely immersed in the dip, 
and is guided by a shepherd by 
means of a crook, back and forth, 
so as to force it to remain until the 
W'ool is saturated with the med¬ 
icated fluid. When the sheep has 
been guided up to the bar 10, it is 
pushed completely under the sur¬ 
face, and under the bar, where it 
reaches a sloping barred floor, 11, up which it passes 
on to the draining floor, 12. The work thus proceeds 
uutil this floor is filled, when the sheep are passed 
into the next one, 13. The floors of these pens slope 
a little, so as to carry the drip from the wool back 
Into the vats, and prevent waste. The temperature 
of the liquid in the vats is kept up by means of a 
supply in a boiler near by, from which hot liquor 
is dipped as it may be required. When pen 13 is 
filled, the sheep are then dry, and are turned loose 
through the gate into the open ground. The pens 
on either side of the lane 2, are intended for lambs 
which are able to escape through the bars of the 
fence. The other plan, figure 2, consists of two 
circular fences, the space enclosed between them 
being divided into pens by cross fences and gates. 
The entrance gate. A, opens from a long tapering 
lane, into which the sheep can easily be driven 
twelve sheep, and they are thus plunged into the 
dip and completely immersed. They are guided to 
the sloping floor at the other end of the vat, from 
which they are turned into the draining yards, each 
of which is filled alternately, thus giving ample 
time for the sheep to dry, before they are turned 
out. This is necessary, as the sheep have lambs at 
this time, and the dip is not very agreeable to the 
lambs. When both yards are filled, the first one is 
emptied and immediately filled again, while the 
sheep in the other are draining. The dip consists 
of an infusion of tobacco, mixed with sulphur. 
The Cost of Crops.—Keep Accounts. 
Not one farmer in five hundred keeps books of 
accounts. No other class of men with the same 
amount of capital conducts business at such loose 
ends, and is one of the modern wonders that 
farmers do not all become bankrupt. It shows 
how sure and safe farming is, for we should expect 
nothing less than failure on the part of the mer¬ 
chant or banker who kept no accounts. Without 
accounts, the farmer can know but little about his 
business. He can not tell what a single crop costs 
or what he realizes for it, which crop pays and 
which does not, what class of farm-stock is to him 
profitable or otherwise, or what field has brought 
in more than has been expended upon it. 
He does not keep accounts, because he thinks the 
work too difficult, but it is not necessary for the 
farmer to be an expert accountant. If possessed 
of only average intelligence, a fair supply of good 
common sense, a blank book and a pencil, he can 
do all that is essential. The transactions of each 
day can be set down at night in a few minutes. 
Among the leading advantages of book-keeping is 
an accurate knowledge of the cost of each crop. 
When sold as harvested, the amount to be credited 
to a crop is easily determined. WTien fed to stock. 
ally turns before it wears out. Di¬ 
viding the cost of the plow now in 
use by this number of acres, will 
give in cents the wear and tear of a plow per acre. 
Multiplying this by the number of acres in each case 
will determine the amount to be charged in this item 
against each particular crop. In the same way the 
wear and tear of other implements can be deter¬ 
mined. The work may be made to include this 
item. Thus, the farmer may get three dollars per 
day for every day he plows for others. Then mul¬ 
tiplying the number of days employed in plowing 
for a certain crop by three dollars, will include in 
the product labor, interest on implement and stock, 
wear and tear of same, etc. For so much per 
acre, the man with a self-binder will cut and bind 
your wheat. This again will include several items 
in the cost of harvesting. 
Wear and tear of land and value of fertilizers must 
be approximated, and are both considered together. 
The cost of fertilizers is a matter of certainty, but 
the amount to be charged against the crop to which 
they are applied is not, for it will not appropriate 
all of them. If the fertility of the land is main¬ 
tained by the use of fertilizers, nothing for wear 
and tear of land should be held against the crop, 
for it is charged with the cost of the fertilizers. 
It is apparent that the amount to be charged in 
this item each farmer must determine for himself, 
for it will depend upon the character and quantity 
of the fertilizer, whether it has been applied to 
that crop, or the preceding one. Tet, with a little 
thought, the farmer can estimate these very correct¬ 
ly. If part of the crop is reduced to manure, the 
value of this should be credited to it. 
Encourage the Birds. 
War is being waged by farmers against all birds, 
except a few popular songsters, and most boys are 
taught that birds and birds’ nests are their rightful 
prey. These little creatures do some damage it 
must be admitted. They will pick up seed that has 
not been well covered, but that ought to teach the 
farmer to sow his seeds more carefully. They will 
feast upon the ripe grain, and sometimes destroy 
more than they eat; but the farmer seldom considers 
that he might not have had any grain to harvest, were 
it not for these same feathered intruders. During 
the time between sowing and harvesting, birds must 
live upon something besides grain, and 1 fancy 
that farmers seldom think that that something is 
principally insects, and the eggs of insects. They 
rear their young on these, and one can hardly esti¬ 
mate the immense number of insects thus des¬ 
troyed. Were it not for this safeguard that nature 
has kindly furnished us in the form of the feathered 
race, the world would, according to the best calcu¬ 
lations, be completely overrun in a few years of 
uninterrupted propagation, with crawling, stinging 
pests. Birds have an important work to do, and 
Fig. 2.— A SECOND METHOD OF SHEEP DIPPING. 
