1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
15 
40 bushels of wheat per acre has been grown by 
farmers in that state. A circular was issued to the 
secretaries of the county agricultural societies re¬ 
questing the names of those farmers who had 
within their knowledge grown 40 bushels of wheat or 
over per acre. From Champaign County five names 
were reported, three of these farmers had grown 
40 bushels, one 45, and one 51 bushels per acre. In 
Hardin County, two names were obtained. Mercer 
County furnished six names ; Morgan County, one; 
Putnam County, one ; Shelby County, three; and 
Sandusky County, three names, one of which was 
that of a farmer who raised 61 bushels per acre. 
With these few exceptions, the yields reported were 
a few_of 30 bushels or more, many of 25 bushels, 
and in many cases the latter yield was mentioned 
as an extraordinary crop. In some cases the yield 
was reported as being little more than the quantity 
of seed that had been sown. It is largely the cus¬ 
tom in Ohio to sow the wheat upon the corn stub¬ 
ble, simply harrowing in the seed or covering it 
with one plowing or cultivating. Where this is 
done, a profitable yield cannot be looked for, even 
upon the rich bottoms of that generally fertile state. 
The few large crops reported are without doubt 
raised in a different manner from this, although we 
have no means of knowing the methods by which 
they were grown. It is the same in other states. 
Forty years ago, forty bushels of wheat per acre 
was very common in western New York and Ohio, 
where now a third of that quantity is an ordinary 
crop, and a half of it a good one. It is doubtful if 
any other state in the whole country could make a 
better showing than Ohio, although the average 
yield of wheat is slowly increasing in the older 
states. It is on the way to a minimum iu the latest 
settled of the western states, California included, 
and will there be some years yet before it will reach 
a turning point. The incentive to a better manage¬ 
ment of the wheat crop is a powerful one. It is the 
necessity for the means of living in comfort. A 
farmer who raises 12 bushels of wheat per acre can 
hardly be said to live, he exists, but cannot live in 
comfort upon such an income, nor can he make life 
upon his farm desirable to his children. Necessity 
must force him to improve his mode of culture, and 
to prepare the ground very much better than he 
has done heretofore. A low price for wheat re¬ 
lieves the American farmer from much foreign com¬ 
petition, and it is hardly probable that we shall see 
the price of wheat advance much above the present 
rates, unless as a consequence of a light yield. But a 
doubled yield is equal to a doubled price, and we 
can safely produce such a crop, inasmuch as with 
the high rents paid by English farmers, and the 
greater profit in grazing, wheat growing in that 
country, which is our best customer for wheat, is 
yearly decreasing in extent. To produce this 
doubled crop is not impossible ; the fact that some 
farmers do it, proves that others may do it also. 
The Effect of Fashion in Stock Matters. 
The results of some recent sales of pure-bred 
stock of different breeds, are well worth more than 
a passing notice. It has never yet occurred that a 
class of stock, however popular it may have been 
for a time, included in itself every possible valua¬ 
ble characteristic. We have never yet had one 
breed of cattle that met every requirement of the 
farmer, dairyman, grazier, or butcher. It is not 
probable that we shall ever produce or possess such 
a breed. When any one breed or class of cattle 
threatens to become so popular as to cause all 
others to be neglected, and to seriously reduce 
their marketable value, past experience would lead 
us to expect that the climax of its popularity has 
been reached. We learned this lesson a few years 
ago, when no sheep except Merinos were consider¬ 
ed worth keeping, and we may be in danger of re¬ 
ceiving another similar lesson before long in regard 
to Short-horn stock of the more fashionable sorts. 
The recent sales of Shorthorns in Kentucky, and 
of Ayrshires and Devons elsewhere, go to prove 
this unmistakably. In the Kentucky sales it is 
noticeable that Short-horns, of excellent character 
and good pedigree, sold for prices that were equiv¬ 
alent to their value for beef, and no more ; while a 
three month’s calf of a more favored family, unde¬ 
veloped and of no certain promise as to the future, 
brought the remarkable price of $17,500, and has 
since been resold for $22,000. Such an occurrence 
is strong evidence that, so far as regards these fash¬ 
ionable cattle, we are in the well developed stage 
of a decided mania. When $15,000 was offered and 
refused for a Merino ram, not many years ago, we 
were in just such an excited condition, from which 
we goon emerged to find the price of rams fall to 
$50, or in some cases as low as $10, which was 
somewhere about their intrinsic value. Not long 
since those excellent cattle, the Devons and the 
Ayrshires, for some localities and circumstances 
unsurpassed by any breed whatever, bore a money 
value somewhat on a par with their real worth. But 
the past few months some of these cattle, of fault¬ 
less character and high breeding, have been either 
offered without buyers, or have been sold at prices 
below those which could have been realized for 
extra good native stock. Of the Herefords, at one 
time considered to be the peers of the Short-horns 
for the production of cheap and excellent meat, 
upon moderately strong pastures, nothing is 
now heard, and they are almost entirely neglected. 
The owner of a well known herd of Ayrshire cattle 
recently sold his stock for a small portion of their 
value to make room for a herd of Short-horns. 
The excellent herd of Devons owned by Mr. 
Mattoon, of Springfield, Mass., was recently 
withdrawn from public sale on account of the in¬ 
adequate prices offered. The result may be unfor¬ 
tunate for those persons who at this late period of 
the excitement iu regard to Short-horns, go into 
the speculation of breeding them, with insufficient 
capital, or without the nerve to hear possible future 
losses without repining ; and it will be equally un¬ 
fortunate for those who are tempted to neglect the 
improvement of their stock by means of unfash¬ 
ionable breeds, because of the present neglect with 
which these breeds are regarded, or because they 
are dazzled by the more brilliant record of others 
which are beyond their reach. The Short-horn 
may be the most profitable auimal to keep on the 
blue-grass pastures of Kentucky or Ohio, or the 
rich valleys of the Mohawk or the Genesee, or 
wherewith to cross the long-legged and long-horned 
Texan ; hut it cannot be kept with profit where it 
is obliged to climb hills to its pasture, nor where 
the meadows are not always in condition for the 
scythe ; nor can it be profitably fed in stalls upon 
meal. It has its place, and it will fill that better 
than any other breed. But so has the Hereford, 
the placid, gentle feeder which never loses an ounce 
of flesh through ill-temper or nervousness, and 
which thrives upon second-rate pastures, and makes 
a heavy weight of the best beef. So also has the 
Devon, which as a working ox surpasses any other, 
and which on hill pastures will produce most ac¬ 
ceptable beef with profit. Neither can the reputa¬ 
tion which the Ayrshire has acquired in two centu¬ 
ries as an excellent dairy cow, be suddenly destroy¬ 
ed by the Short-bom, which for nearly a hundred 
years past has been losing its dairy qualities by a 
course of high feeding and breeding. It is said 
that the best time for one to acquire a good thing 
cheaply, is when everybody else is anxious to dis¬ 
pose of it, and if this be true, it is certainly a good 
time now to procure excellent pure-bred stock of 
the neglected varieties, while the majority of breed¬ 
ers are pursuing the more promising but more risky 
business of dealing solely in Short-horns. 
A School of Shepherds. —A school of shep¬ 
herds is established at the national sheep farm of 
Rambouillet, France. In this school young men, 
over 15 years of age, are instructed in all the arts 
of sheep husbandry, during a term of two years. 
After passing creditably through this term, and a 
final examination, the graduates receive a “certifi¬ 
cate of capacity,” and the most capable are re¬ 
warded with a prize of $75, the second best receive 
$50. They then become apprentices, and can either 
go to keeping sheep for themselves, or seek em¬ 
ployment from owners of flocks. 
Trap for Sheep-Killing Dogs. 
A correspondent from Spencer Co., Ind., sends a 
sketch and description of a trap for catching sheep¬ 
killing dogs, which may be useful to owners of 
sheep that are subject to depredations by those 
animals. In many places the losses by dogs are so 
great as to prevent the keeping of sheep alto¬ 
gether ; thus this profitable and argeeable industry 
is made impracticable over the greater portion of 
the country, unless such precautions are taken, as 
will add greatly to its trouble and cost. With small 
flocks only, this extra cost and trouble are too 
onerous, and it is only where sheep are kept in 
large flocks that it will pay to employ shepherds to 
constantly watch them, or take other necessary 
precautions. In several of the states—West Vir¬ 
ginia and Tennessee more particularly—very strin¬ 
gent laws have recently been enacted for the pro¬ 
tection of sheep against clogs, which will go far to 
encourage the raising of flocks. In other states, 
where the influence of the owners of dogs Is of 
more weight than that of sheep-owners, these lat¬ 
ter are obliged to look out for themselves, and pro¬ 
tect their sheep as they may be able. For such the 
contrivance here described and illustrated, may be 
useful. It is made as follows : In the meadow or 
field, where sheep are pastured during the day, a 
small pen, eight feet square, is made, and fenced 
strongly with pickets or boards. This pen is di¬ 
vided into two parts (A, B, in the engraving) by a 
cross-fence. The pen is wholly covered over on 
the top with strong lath. Two gates ( a, b) are 
made so that they will swing open of their own ac¬ 
cord, and remain so, unless held closed or fastened. 
The gate, a , is furnished with a latch, by which it 
is fastened when closed. This gate is intended to 
admit the dog into the part of the pen, A, when he 
is attracted to it by a sheep confined for the pur¬ 
pose in the other part of the pen, (3). In the part 
of the pen, A, is a heavy hoard, reaching across it 
One edge of this board rests upon the ground 
against two pegs, which keep it from slipping 
backwards. The other edge is kept up by means 
of two shaky slender supports. A rope is fastened 
to the upper edge of this board, and to the gates, 
so that one half of it, when the board is propped 
up, allows the gate a to swing open, and the other 
half holds the gate b shut, and thus keeps the 
sheep confined. The trap is now set. A dog, 
prowling in search of mutton, finds the 6heep, and 
seeks an entry into the pen. He finds the open 
gate, and rushes in, over the board set upon its 
edge, and knocks this down. This closes the gate 
a, which is at once latched and fastened. The gate 
b is allowed to swing open, and the sheep is liber¬ 
ated, and, of course, proceeds homeward without 
delay, while the dog is imprisoned. We need not 
suggest any method of dealing with the prisoner, 
as there are many, more or less effective, which will 
suggest themselves. We think it would be an im¬ 
provement upon this plan, if the sheep be confined 
in the pen, where it can be seen by the dogs, and 
an additional apartment, if not more than one, 
made, in which other dogs could be trapped. Sheep¬ 
hunting dogs usually go in couples, and if only one 
dog were trapped, the sheep escaping from the pen 
would be caught by the other, before it could reach 
home. With two or three traps all the dogs could 
be caught, and in a short time the locality would 
be rid of them, or, being identified, their owners 
could be made responsible for their trespasses. It 
would be necessary to have the pen made very 
strong, so that the dogs should not tear their way 
out of the trap, or into the pen in which the sheep 
is confined. Stout wire-netting would make a safe 
fence. So far as regards what are called dog-laws, 
it would be well if these should provide, amongst 
other things, that every dog must wear a collar, 
hearing its owner’s name ; that the owner of any 
dog which is caught in pursuit of sheep upon the 
property of any person other than the owner of the 
dog, should be held liable for damages for the tres¬ 
pass, and that any dog caught trespassing, and be¬ 
ing without a collar bearing its owner’s name, 
should be destroyed by the person capturing it. As 
any citizen has as much right to keep a dog as an¬ 
other has to keep a sheep, without being taxed for 
