934 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
age and for shelter—or buy all these things al¬ 
ready fitted to his hand—before he is ready to 
purchase a flock of sheep to commence his busi¬ 
ness. All this requires the outlay of much 
capital. The prairie sheep farmer can com¬ 
mence operations without buying anything but 
his sheep. Or, if he does not choose to be a 
pure nomad, he can buy acres for less than the 
annual interest of acres of the ordinary grazing N 
lands of the old States. His principal neces¬ 
sary capital is a decent knowledge of his busi¬ 
ness, and enough energy to persevere in it. 
Thus have started a large majority of the pio¬ 
neer sheep farmers of the new States. The new 
settler builds a little log house for himself and 
wife to sleep in—a rail pen covered with poles 
and prairie grass, for his “ team” and his cows, 
if he is so fortunate as to own these luxuries—a 
high yard for a fold, and then he is ready to 
commence wool-growing! In ten years he can 
count more sheep, and sometimes more dpllars- 
wortli of property, than his Eastern competitor, 
who commenced with everything prepared to 
his hand. The rail pen gives place to the stable, 
and the uncovered fold yard is succeeded by 
the fold yard and spacious sheds. Fine fields 
of domestic grass for spring and fall feed, and 
of luxuriant corn for winter feed, surround the 
comfortable farm-house. Noble flocks of thou¬ 
sands are driven up nightly by his boys and by 
the “hired men ”—who, in five years more, will 
be flock-masters themselves! 
“ Hay made from the domestic grasses—the 
“tame grasses” as they are called in the West— 
or clover, is but little known on the praries. 
The wild grasses make sufficiently good hay, 
but like the preceding, it probably, in most sit¬ 
uations, has a cheaper substitute in Indian corn. 
The remarkable adaptation of most of our prai¬ 
rie soils to this crop is well known. Eighty 
bushels of it to the acre would be regarded as a 
neavy crop anywhere—but an extraordinary 
one nowhere, on the first-class virgin soils. The 
stalks properly cut and secured, yield nearly 
double the feed per acre of the small varieties 
cultivated in the grazing regions of the Eastern 
States. Its cultivation, too, on the mellow, weed¬ 
less, prairie soils can be performed vastly more 
easily and cheaply. With two-horse corn plant¬ 
ers, and two-liorse corn plows or cultivators, it 
is estimated that one man can properly take 
care of fifty acres of it. It should be cut up be¬ 
fore the leaves are injured by frost, and placed 
in shocks, where it remains until it is drawn out 
to be fed to the sheep. It is drawn out twice a 
day and scattered on the ground. One active 
man, with a suitable wagon and team, and de¬ 
voting his whole time to it, can feed about two 
thousand sheep. A firm, sodded field of domes¬ 
tic grass is very desirable to feed on, instead of 
one of wild grass, which soon becomes “ poach¬ 
ed ” and muddy in wet weather. If the field is 
large enough to change the feeding places often, 
very little of the corn is wasted. Some farmers 
in place of cutting up the corn and drawing it 
out in this way, leave it standing in the hill, 
and fold the sheep on it a couple of hours twice 
a day, but it is a wasteful mode, for the frost-bit¬ 
ten fodder is much less valuable than cured. 
“The sheep are generally wintered in the feed¬ 
ing fields without shelter, and even the farmers 
who have sheds do not put their flocks into 
them except in very stormy nights, and at lamb¬ 
ing time. Those who have a sufficient number 
of feeding fields, divide the sheep in the begin¬ 
ning of winter into three or four lots. When 
this is impracticable, the lambs are merely sep¬ 
arated firm the flock, and all the rest run to¬ 
gether. This last is very objectionable manage¬ 
ment, as it leaves the weaker and smaller to be 
pushed about and driven from the choicer por¬ 
tions of the feed by the strong, heavy wethers. 
Most flock-masters aim, however, to draft occa¬ 
sionally from the flock any that become poor 
or feeble, and to make some separate arrange¬ 
ment for them. The object of the prairie farm¬ 
er is to have his sheep consume as much corn as 
practicable; for it is more profitable to convert 
it into animal products than to sell it at ten 
cents a bushel. A good sized grade Merino fed 
exclusively on it will consume and waste from 
three to three-and-a-half or four bushels during 
the winter, and the stalks on which it grew. If 
the corn is good, the proportion of ears to stalks 
is greater than it should be for the benefit of the 
sheep. Some farmers provide for this by mak¬ 
ing enough “tame hay” to give their sheep 
one feed a day; some make a quantity of prai¬ 
rie hay; and others, instead of burning their; 
wheat straw, according to a prevalent, wasteful 
method, thrash and stack it in the feeding lot, 
so that the sheep can get to it at will, or so it- 
can be conveniently fed to them when necessary. 
If the straw should be slightly brined when 
stacked, and the sheep be fed salt in no other 
way, it would prove an acceptable fodder for 
them, and would he sufficiently nutritious to 
meet their wants when accompanied with so 
much corn.” 
However object ion able the practice is of ex¬ 
posing sheep during northern winters, to rain, 
sleet and snow, the general freedom of these 
flocks from disease argues in favor of the prac¬ 
tice. Many lambs are unavoidably lost and se¬ 
vere colds and influenzas occasionally prevail, 
yet on the whole, the sheep are very healthy. 
The better the barns or sheds are, under which 
yeaning ewes and young lambs are protected, 
the less will be the loss of lambs and the great¬ 
er the profits. The prairies of the West offer 
rare inducements to young and energetic for¬ 
eigners who have a little capital and aim to be¬ 
come good citizens of the Great Republic. The 
thousands who are forced to occupy almost or 
quite servile positions in our Eastern cities 
might soon become property holders and, if 
possessed of good principles, respected citizens. 
A Grand Manure Pile. 
We saw a few days since apileof many loads 
of muck covering the carcasses of 100 horses. 
The farmer on whose land it is, gives a small 
price per head to a man who removes the old, 
worn out horses from this city, takes them upon 
his farm and kills them, retaining their hides, 
hoofs, and shinbones. The rest of the carcass, 
left upon the ground, is cut up somewhat and 
covered liberally with muck. Little odor which 
can be noticed at a distance of a few rods, arises 
from this heap, and none at all which a slight 
addition of soil or muck will not arrest;— 
this at the heat of summer. In the cool weath¬ 
er of autumn the heap will be worked over, 
mingled with more muck, the undecomposed 
bones thrown out, and the rest laid up for a fin¬ 
ishing fermentation. We are interested to know 
accurately the results of some similar experi¬ 
ments, to come at the best methods of managing 
this valuable and commonly wasted material, 
—namely, how much muck to use; the quan¬ 
tity of soil, in case muck can not be got; the 
amount and value of the manure made from 
a certain number of animal carcasses, or a cer¬ 
tain weight of the same, compared with an 
equal quantity of good stall manure. At pre¬ 
sent we only know that dead animals furnish a 
very excellent manure at a very low price. 
The “ Rescue ” Grass—Don’t get Caught. 
The French have a new agricultural hobby; 
this time it is a grass which comes all the way 
from North America—“ Rescue grass.” M. La- 
valle has presented to the Imperial and Cen¬ 
tral Agricultural Society of France, a '•'Memoirt ” 
upon Brome de Schrader or “ Rescue Grass,” in 
which it is set forth that the amount of green 
feed^produced per acre is something wonderful, 
and that cattle fed upon it have the quantity of 
their milk greatly increased, though nothing is 
said of its quality. The “ memoire ” is said to 
have made quite a stir in the agricultural circles 
in France, and the French seedsmen have al¬ 
ready sent over; here for a quantity of the seed, 
which they probably will not get, as the grass 
is not known to the northern States. The plant 
in question is Bromus mioloides, and Brome de 
Schrader is the French for Bromus Schraderi , 
another name for the same grass. How the 
name “.Rescue grass ” came to be attached to it, 
it is difficult to say. (It should not be confound¬ 
ed with Fescue, which belongs to an entirely 
different genus.) This grass grows sparingly iii 
Texas and the adjacent parts of Mexico, and we 
had a specimen sent some years ago from Geor¬ 
gia, but doubt if it is a native of that State. If 
this Bromus is worth cultivating it is the only 
one of the genus that is so. At any rate it will 
probably be puffed and be sold at a high price. 
Willard’s Bromus came out about ten years ago 
and some people who paid large prices for the 
seed found out that it was only chess, a cheat in 
a double sense. This newly talked of grass is 
own brother to chess. It may prove valuable, 
if it does so we shall find it out and let our read¬ 
ers know it, and meanwhile they are advised 
not to invest much in “ Rescue grass.” 
-— «——--- 
Wagons and Wagon Wheels. 
This subject which was touched upon a few 
months since in this journal, has brought out 
several communications. From one of these 
from Elliott H. Angell, of Ingham Co., Mich., 
we condense the following, which describes a 
wagon in use in his vicinity, some parts of 
which are patented. 
“For the benefit of the readers of the Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist , and t@ induce others to tax 
their inventive minds for still greater improve¬ 
ments in wheel vehicles, allow me to name some 
of the advantages in a wagon built on a plan 
invented by a citizen of this County. The 
wheels moves straight forward; the face of the 
tire lies flat upon the ground and is parallel 
with the centre of the axle. It has four separ¬ 
ate cast steel axles; each tight in a cast iron hub 
of the wheel. These axles bear upon as many 
friction wheels, one foot in diameter, thus dis¬ 
pensing with nearly all of the friction. The 
wheels are larger than ordinary wagon wheels, 
giving greater leverage. The wagon-box (and 
load) is considerably lower, and the draft is 
lower than in common wagons. There is no 
“gather” to the wheels. A self-acting break is 
attached. The wagon is light and strong and 
there is no “ shake ” to the tongue, yet a slight 
side pressure upon the tongue will guide the 
vehicle readily. There are no skeins or boxes 
to wear out; it can be made at less expense 
than ordinary wagons of the same capacity. 
Carriage makers set the wheels on the axles 
with what they call a “ gather,” that is they set 
