1875.] 
AMERICAN AG-RICrJLTURIST 
179 
wheat and barley. The Deacon suggested this idea 
two years ago. And I am happy to say that Mr. 
Lawes has given us the results of an interesting 
experiment which shows that the Deacon was right. 
The field on which this experiment was made has 
been cropped as follows: 1864, red clover; 1865, 
wheat, with artificial manures ; 1866, mangles, with 
dung and artificial manures, crop removed from 
the land ; 1867, wheat, unmanured ; 1868, oats, with 
artificial manures ; 1869, ’70, ’71, ’72, barley with 
artificial manures. In 1872 half the field was seeded 
down with clover on the barley. In 1873, the half 
not seeded dowu was sown to barley again, but 
without manure. The other half was in clover. 
The barley yielded 31 bushels per acre. The clover 
yielded 3 tons and 48 lbs. of hay per acre. The 
next year, 1874, the whole field was again sown to 
barley without manure of any kind. The yield 
after the barley was 321 bushels per acre ; after the 
clover, 58 bushels per acre. 
This result pleases the Deacon, and ought to re¬ 
joice the heart of George Geddes. The 3 tons of 
clover hay have taken out of the soil 150 lbs. of 
nitrogen. This hay, fed to sheep, or cows, or 
horses, would give us manure containing about 140 
lbs. of nitrogen, or as much as is contained in five 
or six large crops of wheat or barley. And the 
nitrogen left in the roots of the clover gave an in¬ 
crease of 251 bushels of barley per acre. 
May I not be excused, therefore, for so repeat¬ 
edly pointing out the advantages of growing clover 
and consuming it on the farm ? We get in the two 
years from this field, 631 bushels of barley per acre, 
when barley is sown after barley ; and 58 bushels of 
barley on the other half, and 3 tons of clover hay. 
Surely 3 tons of clover hay is worth much more 
than 51 bushels of barley. But do not sell the clo¬ 
ver hay. I have not time now to say why, but do 
not do it. One more remark and I have done. In¬ 
stead of sowing wheat after barley, as most of us 
here do, seed the barley down with clover. We 
shall never get rich by growing half crops of wheat 
and exporting them to Europe. Better grow more 
clover and raise more beef, pork, mutton, and wool. 
We have had “good luck ” with our lambs this 
spring. I do not like the word, but there seems to 
be more or less “luck ” about getting good lambs. 
There is a cause for it, but it is not always easy to 
find out why lambs come weak in one case, and 
6trong and vigorous in another. I have always had 
the strongest and healthiest grade lambs. I do not 
recollect ever losing more than one during the last 
five years, and that was an accident. But we have 
always had more or less trouble with the thorough¬ 
breds. The grades would in all cases get up in a 
few minutes and take care of themselves. With 
the thoroughbreds it is not unfrequently necessary 
to turn up the ewe and let the lamb lie down, while 
we held his head to the teat and pressed a little 
milk into his mouth before he would suck. These 
sheep are high bred. They have for generations 
had all their wants supplied. The object of the 
breeder has been to get sheep with little offal. He 
wanted as little as possible of the force or energy 
of the lambs to be used for any other purpose ex¬ 
cept to convert the food into mutton and wool. 
He succeeded to an extent which is truly astonish¬ 
ing to any one who has not studied the subject. 
We can easily get a lamb to grow as much in six 
months as many common sheep do in three years. 
If the lambs are a little “stupid,” we must bear 
with them. We have made them what they are. 
If a farmer is not prepared to give them the neces¬ 
sary care, he should not raise “improved” thor¬ 
oughbreds. For my part I like the business. I 
like to feel that these animals are artificial produc¬ 
tions, and that they need intelligent care and at¬ 
tention. I like to see them grow. I like to sell a 
lamb for $50, and to feel that in the hands of a good 
farmer he can be made to bring back ten times the 
money. I have thought of all this when I have 
been sitting up at night with a ewe and “ fussing” 
over a weak or chilled lamb. Randall says lambs 
that will not take care of themselves should be 
suffered to die. This would be a good theory if 
eur object was to get slow-growing, hardy sheep, 
that produce nothing but wool, and little of that. 
It ought to be understood that these high bred 
cattle, sheep, and pigs cannot be raised as easily as 
common stock. “Why, then, do we want them ? ” 
We want them to cross with common stock. Take 
a common sow and breed her to a high-bred boar, 
and you will get pigs hardier and healthier than if 
you used a boar of no breed or pedigree, and the 
pigs will be worth at least a dollar a head more at 
weaning time, and from $5 to 810 more, with the 
same feed, at killing time. In a large herd, or if 
the neighbors patronize him, such a boar may be 
the father of a thousand pigs. I do not say it pays 
the breeder to raise such a pig, but I am sure it 
pays to use him after he is raised. And so with 
sheep, I do not want anything better, hardier, or 
healthier than such grade Cotswold-Merinoes as I 
have been raising for five or six years. I do not 
want better mutton, and the wool brings a higher 
price than any other. The Deacon was looking at 
my flock the other day. We have six or eight of 
the old Merino ewes still left. We call them the 
grandmothers. “ There, Deacon,” I said. “ is the 
grandmother; there the mother, and there the son. 
The son is not quite a year old. Let us put him on 
the scales.” We caught him and examined his 
wool. He has two crosses of Cotswold blood, the 
fleece is close and heavy, nearly as long, and some¬ 
what finer than the thorough-breds. The Deacon 
thought he would weigh 150 lbs. We put him on 
the scales, and he weighed plump 165 lbs. at less 
than a year old. 
We then caught a two-year old grade ewe, a per¬ 
fect beauty. Her grandmother was a Michigan 
sheep, with probably some Leicester blood in her. 
A common sheep that cost me 3 cents a lb. Per¬ 
haps she weighed 80 or 90 lbs. The mother was 
sired by a tliorough-bred Cotswold, and this ewe 
also ; so that she has 75 percent of Cotswold blood, 
and 25 per cent of common Leicester-Merino. She 
pulled down the scales at 202 lbs., and she has had 
precisely the same feed as the “ grandmother,” 
which will not weigh more than 75 or 80 lbs. 
A corespondent at Union, Oregon, writes to the 
American Agriculturist, and the editor refers the let¬ 
ter to me. The letter says : “ Times are dull here ; 
farm produce is low, wheat 50 cents a bushel, and 
other crops in proportion. One of the principal 
ways for farmers to raise cash is to breed and fatten 
hogs to sell to Chinamen, who work in the neigh¬ 
boring mining camps. The Chinamen must buy 
the hogs alive, and prefer small ones, from 75 to 
150 lbs. We propose to go into the business of 
raising such pigs, and submit our plan to you for 
your advice. Have the sows come in say first of 
March. As soon as the pigs are old enough to wean, 
put them up and feed them all they will eat of 
milk, grain, etc., until about the 15th of July, or 
harvest time, when they should bring a good price. 
Have the sows come in again early enough in the 
fall for the young pigs to get the benefit of the 
stubbles, where they can run as long as they do 
well. Then shut up to fatten on barley, cooked or 
ground, until about the 1st of March, when they 
bring the best price in the China market. We shall 
use a thoroughbred boar on common sows. What 
should such pigs weigh, and how much would they 
consume, and what do you think of our plan ? 
Farmers say there is nothing to be made in hogs 
at present prices, we think if the common way of 
feeding and breeding will pay, ours certainly will.” 
You d' not say what such choice pigs as you pro¬ 
pose to raise will bring in the “ China ” market. If 
“ John ” knows what good pork is—and we sus¬ 
pect he does—and is willing to pay what it is worth 
as compared with the pork from semi-wild or half- 
neglected hogs, we think there is money in the 
business. But you will want a good man to take 
care of the pigs. Much will depend on this. If 
you keep, say 50 breeding sows, it will require the 
entire time of a man, and in the spring and fall he 
should have a bright boy to help him look after the 
sows with the young pigs. Your March pigs should 
weigh from 75 to 100 lbs. in July. The pigs after 
weaning, will eat, at two months old, about one 
pound each per day of corn, barley, or wheat. Two 
weeks later, they will eat about a pound and a half 
each per day, and the next month or six weeks they 
will probably consume on the average from 2 to 2£ 
lbs. each per day. The more you can get them to 
eat, the better. For this purpose it is desirable to 
cook the food and to feed it with good judgment. 
For instance, you will probably be short of milk, 
and you must use the little you have to induce the 
pigs to eat an extra quantity of food. My own plan 
is to feed all the cooked corn meal and middlings 
the pigs will eat, and then after they have taken all 
they will of this food, give them some more cooked 
mush mixed with a little milk. You should get a 
very fine boned high-bred boar, such as the Suffolk, 
Essex, or small Berkshire, and probably it will re¬ 
quire two or three crosses from your common sows 
before you get pigs as fine as the Chinamen have 
been accustomed to. But even the first cross will 
be a vast improvement on the common hog. The 
improved breeds of pigs owe much of their early 
maturity, smallness of bone, and offal, and fattening 
qualities, to an infusion of Chinese blood. It re¬ 
duced the size, but improved the quality of the 
coarse old fashioned English hog. 
The Farm Blacksmith-Shop. 
A well appointed blacksmith-shop for farm work 
can be procured for about $50. This may consist 
of a portable forge, an anvil, a vise, and the usuai 
hammers, tongs, etc., which form the kit of tools. 
With these a farmer may make a bolt, or a nut, or 
mend a chain, or do any of those small repairs 
which are continually needed upon a farm. Now 
that machinery is coming into such extensive use, 
the means of repairing any trifling break, or re¬ 
placing a lost bolt or nut, must of necessity be at 
hand. To have a mower, a reaper, or a threshing 
machine, break down when the hurry of work is at 
the greatest, may frequently occasion a loss equal 
to a large portion of the cost of the appliances for 
making an immediate repair at home. We have 
known a farmer in such a case to mount a horse 
and ride several miles to get a bolt made, that 
could have been made at home in ten minutes, if 
the means were ready, meanwhile a dozen men 
and eight or ten horses were idle for half a day. 
The same will apply to country mills, both saw and 
grist mills, which are often disabled for half a day 
or more by some trifling mishap, the real cost of 
which is nothing as compared to the indirect 
damage from delay. Some years ago portable 
forges were introduced chiefly for army use, but 
they were found of such great value that they were 
speedily adopted by mining explorers, railway en¬ 
gineers, lumberers in the back woods, and others 
who needed light work done at a moment’s notice, 
and liqve also found their way into farm work¬ 
shops. At least, having found their value in all 
the first mentioned cases, the writer found one in¬ 
dispensable in his farm work-shop, and certainly 
saved its cost in one year’s use. Within the past 
year or two great improvements have been made in 
these forges; a rotary fan, instead of a bellows, 
has been affixed to them, and our illustrations (figs. 
1 and 2) exhibit them as they are now made by the 
Empire Forge Company, of Troy, N. Y. That 
shown in fig. 1 costs but $27, and is a very con¬ 
venient one for farm use, or for light mechanical 
work. It is of such obvious value to the farmer 
that we apprehend it is because they, as well as their 
low cost, are not widely known, that almost every 
farm work-shop has not one. This cheap force 
(No. 10) is made very light but strong, with wrought 
iron legs, and can be readily lifted and carried from 
place to place. It weighs 90 pounds. The blast is 
supplied by a geared rotary blower, and a welding 
heat can be got up in a very short time. There are 
no belts or leather to become hardened, cracked, 
and useless, by exposure. It may be carried into 
the field along with the reaper, or into the quarry, 
or the clearing, where drills have to be sharpened, 
and may be left out of doors without injury. The 
wearing parts are made of bronze, and have not re¬ 
quired replacing after many years of work. Fig. 2 
is a larger forge (No. 11), made of cast-iron, with 
closed top and doors to shut around the fire, and 
to which a stove-pipe may be affixed to carry off 
