1875 .] 
AMKRICAN AGRICULTURIST. 137 
they must have some bran, oats, corn-meal, or 
oilcake placed in small troughs separate from 
the ewes. When the lambs are young, this is easily 
accomplished ; all you have to do is to make a place 
in the yard or held, with a few openings which will 
admit the lambs, but not large enough for the ewes. 
After shearing it is not so easy a matter. The 
lambs soon grow so large, that the small Merino 
ewes can get through as small an aperture as the 
lambs. And so ewes and lambs must be fed liber¬ 
ally, keeping the pen and openings for such lambs 
as are small enough to get through. 
And now your luxuriant grass in the top-dressed 
orchard, comes into play. It will be rich and suc¬ 
culent. If too succulent, the ewes will eat more 
of the clover hay and bran. If they do not need 
the hay, they will not eat it. If convenient, let 
the flock have the range of an ordinary pasture as 
well. They will keep the rich grass on the top- 
dressed orchard cropped close, and the large range 
of common pasture will be good for their health. 
After weaning, the ewes can be sent to a poorer 
pasture, while the lambs have the run of the rich 
grass in the orchard, and their troughs should be 
supplied daily with bran and oats, or oilcake meal. 
It will pay to give them half a pound each of oats or 
of oilcake meal per day, and all the bran and clover 
hay they will eat. The probabilities are, they will 
not eat much, but the more the better, both for the 
lambs and the land. As they get older, they will 
eat more. K&ep up this extra feed until winter 
sets in. Then feed liberally, and do not be afraid 
of the bill for bran, malt-combs, or oilcake. One 
load of the manure will be worth two or three loads 
of the old fashioned article. It will not need to 
be mixed with bone-dust to induce fermentation. 
I will not stop to say what you should do with the 
manure. It will come handy for raising a few acres 
of mangels, or it can be used for top-dressing the 
grass in the orchard. You will, I think, be so 
pleased that you will seed down some more of the 
orchard, and a portion of the manure can be used 
for this purpose. 
The previous seeding should have another dress¬ 
ing of 200 lbs. superphosphate, and 200 lbs. nitrate 
of soda‘ ‘ When would you dispose of the lambs ? ” 
asked the Deacon. 1 think I would shear them 
early, and then'sell them. They ought to average 
100 lbs. each, and are better worth 10 cents a pound, 
than common sheep are worth 6 cents. And sooner 
or latter we shall get what they are worth. They 
should average 7 lbs. of washed wool, worth now 
60 cents a pound. 1 think we can safely calculate 
on getting 8 cents live weight for such choice 
“ lambs.” The account will then stand: 
200 Merino ewes, @ $3. $600 
4 pure bred Cots wold rams, at $40 each. 160 
Cost. $760 
RECEIPTS. 
Wool from 200 Merino ewes, 5 lbs. each, at 43 cts. $450.00 
Wool from 4 Cotswold rams, 8 lbs. each, at55 cts. 17.00 
Wool from 246 grade lambs, 7 lbs. each, at 58 cts. 998.76 
246 grade lambs, 100 lbs. each, @.8 cents. 1,968.00 
200 Merino ewes, @ $4. 800.00 
4 Cotswold rams. 150.00 
Total .$4,384.36 
First Cost. 760.00 
$3,624.36 
I have estimated the Merino ewes at $4 per head. 
Owing to their improved condition, under liberal 
feeding, they will be worth more than this, either 
to keep for another year, or to sell. The receipts 
from the flock are $3,624.36 over the cost. 
I will estimate that the 200 ewes are fed bran equal 
to 1 lb. each, per day, for 100 days, and 1 lb. each, 
of oilcake, for 100 days. This at $20 per ton for 
bran, and 840 per ton for oilcake, is $3 for each 
ewe. I do not, of course, mean to that the ewes 
would be allowed 1 lb. of oilcake, and 1 lb." of bran 
each, for 100 consecutive days. In the winter 
there would be days and weeks, when they would 
have nothing but clover hay, and in the fall noth¬ 
ing but pasture ; and in summer, when the grass 
is good, they would consume very little bran, 
though allowed all they would eat. And so with 
oilcake ; for a month or six weeks before lambing, 
they might be allowed 1 lb. each, per day, and then 
after lambing, increase it gradually to i lb., or even 
to i lb., with 1 lb. of bran in addition. When 
turned out to grass, the oilcake and bran should be 
continued in greater or less quantity, according to 
circumstances. The amount of oilcake, and bran 
that I have stated, will afford a liberal allowance. 
For the 246 lambs I will allow 1 lb. each of bran per 
day, for 200 days, or 24% tons; and 1 lb. oilcake 
each, per day, for 150 days, or 181 tons. 
The account for purchased food, will stand thus : 
200 ewes, 1 lb. bran each, 100 days, $20 per ton $200.00 
200 ewes, 1 lb. oilcake each, for 100 days, @ $40 
per ton. 400.00 
246 lambs, 1 lb. bran each, for 200 days, @ $20 
per ton. 492.00 
246 lambs, 1 lb. oilcake each, for 150 days, ® $40 
per ton. 840.00 
$1,932.00 
I will say nothing about the value of the manure 
obtained from the grass, clover hay, and straw, 
which the sheep consume. It would make a good 
showing. But it has nothing to do with the ques¬ 
tion we are considering. We should have this 
manure whatever stock was kept—or whether it 
was fed to stock or plowed under. We have to do 
only with the food. Taking Mr. Lawes’ estimate 
of the value of the manure obtained from the con¬ 
sumption! of different foods, we have the follow¬ 
ing result: 
44 3 / 5 tons manure from bran, @ $14.36 per ton... $640.45 
28X tons manure from oilcake, @ 19.72 per ton.. 562.02 
Total value of manure from purchased food.$1,202.47 
The account then stands : 
Cost of sheep.$760.00 
Cost of purchased food. 1,932.00 
$2,692.00 
Receipts from sheep.$4,384.36 
Value of manure from purchased food. 1,202.4 7 
$5,585.83 
This leaves $2,893.83 to pay for pasture, hay, 
attendance, etc. 
These figures have put the Deacon to sleep, and 
so I am not able to record his comments. When 
he sees them in the Agriculturist, he will do his 
best to pull them to pieces. My opinion is that 
they will bear investigation. The subject is cer¬ 
tainly an important one, look at it from whatever 
point you may. We want more combing wool; 
we want better mutton ; we want to. cultivate our 
land better; we want more manure. We are told 
this kind of high feeding will not pay; we are told 
that the fertility of our apple orchards can not be 
maintained. 
I know I am talking too long on this subject. 
But on the latter point I want to say one word. If 
you aim merely to maintain the fertility of the 
orchard, it is doubtful whether it can be accom¬ 
plished with profit. You must increase the fertility. 
My land will produce 100 bushels of potatoes per 
acre. Now if I want to make or buy manure 
enough to merely keep up the land to this degree 
of productiveness, I know not how to do it with 
profit. But if I can make my land clean, and at 
the same time produce clover sufficient to enable 
me to keep good stock, that will consume with 
profit bran, and oilcake, and malt-combs, and thus 
give me rich manure enough to produce 300 bushels 
of potatoes per acre, I can see my way out of the 
difficulty. You figure up the profits from 100 
bushels of potatoes per acre, after deducting the 
rent of land, cost of plowing, manuring, planting, 
cultivating, hoeing, and digging; and then the 
profits from a crop of 250 or 300 bushels per acre, 
and you will see the point I wish to make. 
With the orchard the result is the same. We 
must make the land rich enough not merely to 
give large crops in favorable seasons, but good 
crops in unfavorable years, when the price is high. 
Furthermore we must make it rich enough to pro¬ 
duce apples of good size, and free from specks. 
We must look more to quality. It makes a great 
difference in the profits of an orchard, whether you 
get 200 bushels of small, knotty fruit, worth 30 cts. 
a bushel, or 250 bushels of fine, fair fruit, worth 
$1.00 per bushel. And there is fully this difference 
between a neglected orchard, and one in the high¬ 
est state of fertility. 
I believe the grass on my orchard has more than 
paid me for all the manure I have put upon it. 
And it is paying better and better every year, as 
the land gets richer. If I had used only half the 
manure, it would not pay half as well. It would 
have given me a quantity of poor, watery grass, in 
a “ growing season,” when pasture was abundant; 
but when other pastures failed, it would have failed 
also. Now, no matter how severe the drouth, the 
grass in the orchard is always green. And I need 
hardly say that the grass which grows on rich, dry, 
upland, in a dry, hot summer, is very nutritious. 
It is this rich grass that will enable you to turn off 
lambs weighing from 100 to 125 lbs., at twelve or 
thirteen months old. In addition to this, you must 
take into consideration the fact that the land 
will produce large, fine fruit, even in unfavorable 
seasons. I hope my readers will excuse me for 
talking so much about thorough cultivation, good 
stock, liberal feeding, and high manuring. It is not 
easy for a farmer short of capital, to get started, but 
it is worth an effort. It becomes easier every year. 
-■■ I m - 
Baling Hay for Market. 
TBe production of hay for market promises to 
become a remunerative business over a wide ex¬ 
tent of the country. The great demand for it is in 
the large cities, and the cost of packing and freight 
will determine from how great a distance this de¬ 
mand may be supplied. If by an economical mode 
of packing, the great eastern cities can be profita¬ 
bly supplied from Ohio or Michigan, a vast advan¬ 
tage will result to both consumer and producer; to 
the one the source of supply will be extended, 
and the hay cheapened or rendered more certain 
in times of scarcity ; while to the other the market 
will be extended, and the sale more sure, although 
the price be not increased. Hay costs less in labor 
to produce it, than any other farm crop. By proper 
cultivation, and the use of appropriate artificial 
fertilizers, and in some cases by convenient irriga¬ 
tion, hay can be cheaply raised upon a great variety 
of soils. It is the cost of transportation that is in 
the way of its being a profitable crop. This cost, 
however, is now reduced to a minimum, by a 
method of packing in compact bales, by the Deder- 
ick Perpetual Press. Packed in these bales, 8 tons 
of hay can be put into a 
common box freight car, 
and by using cars especially 
provided for this traffic, 
Pig. g. as is now done upon the 
N. Y. Central E. K., 10 
tons can be carried in a car. This then greatly 
extends the area from which hay can be profitably 
shipped to eastern, or even to local western mar¬ 
kets. The press is shown at fig. 1 (see next page) ; it 
is operated by a one or two horse-power, and is built 
upon an entirely new plan. The hay thrown into 
the hopper, is pressed down by the beater, and. 
forced forwards by the follower, (see fig. 2), in the 
shape of a compact folded layer, (fig. 3). This 
layer is held in place by a spring of steel around 
the pressing chamber, which permits the hay to 
pass it, but closes upon it when it has passed, and 
retains it in the chamber, while the follower is 
withdrawn for another charge. The action of the 
spring is shown in figure 4. In this way the cham¬ 
ber is filled by a succession of layers. The bales 
