1875 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
219 
ing to sow it to wheat, or barley, or oats, or com 
every year, and sell all the produce. It would 
require less seed and less labor to raise a crop of 
30 bushels every other year—and the land would be 
cleaner. You raise and sell just as much wheat 
in the one case as in the other. I do not say that 
by summer-fallowing you would be sure of getting 
the 30 bushels every other year, or if you summer- 
fallowed two years in succession, that you would get 
45 bushels every third year. I have only used these 
figures to illustrate my meaning. What I contend 
for is, that we should raise fewer wheat crops, and 
either summer-fallow more, (ou heavy soils), or 
raise more clover or other crops which are consum¬ 
ed on the farm. I want to raise just as much 
wheat as we do now ; but I want fewer acres and 
larger profits. And I want more good beef, mutton, 
wool, pork, cheese, butter and milk into the bar¬ 
gain. I believe all this can be accomplished, and I 
do not think Mr. Geddes should oppose my plan 
unless he can suggest a better one. It is easy to 
say you can not afford to produce good beef in the 
state of New York, or to raise large crops, or that 
we can not make farming pay. It is certain if 
farming will not pay in this country, other business 
interests will not long prosper. 
“ But tell me,” said the Deacon, “if those large 
crops of barley, which you say Mr. Lawes has 
raised for so many years on the same land with ar¬ 
tificial manures, have not cost more than the crops 
raised on the same land without manure, or on the 
plots less liberally manured?”—“No, they have 
not—and if they had, this would be no evidence 
against my views ; for I do not advocate growing 
grain crops every year on the same land. I think 
we can get manure cheaper than by buying arti¬ 
ficial fertilizers.”—“Well, never mind all that, 
answer my question.”—“ I will, sir. For 20 years 
in succession, the whole crop of grain and straw 
being removed each year, the plot without manure 
produced each year on the average 1,133 lbs. of bar¬ 
ley, equal to 23i of off! bushels per acre, and 111 
cwts. of straw. The plot with 3s cwts. of super¬ 
phosphate per acre produced 1,439 lbs., or within 
one lb. of 30 of our bushels, per acre, and 131 cwts. 
of straw. The plot with 3i cwts. superphosphate 
and 275 lbs. nitrate of soda per acre, produced on 
tlie average 2,795 lbs., equal to 581 of our bushels 
per acre, and 30i cwts. of straw. During the 20 years 
there has been removed in grain, straw, and chaff 
from each acre as follows : 
No manure. 48,080 lbs. 
Superphosphate. 58,600 lbs. 
Nitrate of soda and superphosphate. 124,340 lbs. 
Mr. Lawes, in his lecture on “ Scientific Agricul¬ 
ture with a View to Profit,” gives the following 
figures of the cost of growing barley continuously 
on the same land with superphosphate and nitrate 
of soda : 
275 lbs. nitrate of soda. 
2% cwts. superphosphates. 
Sowinar manure.. 
Rent., tithe, and rates. 
Plowing. 
Scarifying. 
Harrowing.. ... 
Rolling.. 
Drilling. 
3 bushels seed, @ 4s. 3 d — 
Hoeing and weeding. 
Harvesting. 
Threshing and dressing.... 
Total cost. 
£2 0s 0 d ) 
. 13 0 V=ab©ut $13.50 
1 6 \ 
. 1 15 0 1 
. 10 0 I 
3 0 
4 0 | 
| ° j-=abont $25.00 
.'. 12 9 I 
10 0 I 
12 0 J 
7 13 0 =abont $38.50 
The results of the three different plots will be 
about as follows, leaving out of consideration the 
extra cost of threshing the larger crop : 
1. No Manure. 
2314 bushels barley, @ $1.25 . $30 37 
11%; cwts. of straw, @ 25c. 2 93 
$32 30 
Expenses. . 25 00 
Profit per acre. 7 30 
2. Superphosphate. 
30 bushels barley. $1.25.$37 50 
13% cwts of straw, 25c. 3 50 
$41 00 
Expenses—about. 30 00 
Profit per acre. 11 00 
3. Superphosphate and Nitrate op Soda. 
58 ‘f bushels of barlev. @ $1.25.$72 81 
30% cwts. of straw, @ 25c. 7 62 
$80 43 
Expenses. 3S 50 
Profit per acre. 41 93 
These are average results , extending over a pe¬ 
riod of 20 years. 'By selecting single years, I could 
make out a still stronger ease. One year the yield 
of the plot quoted above as averaging 581 bushels 
per acre, gave over 751 bushels per acre, and three 
years later 77 bushels per acre. 
I do not say that we can raise 77 bushels of bar¬ 
ley per acre here. But I do say that we should 
furnish sufficient available plant-food to approxi¬ 
mate very closely to the limit of climatic pro¬ 
ductiveness. I have several times grown over 50 
bushels of barley per acre, and have never yet had 
my land too rich. Had it been richer, I think I 
should have had a heavier crop. 
By referring to the American Agriculturist, of Jan¬ 
uary last, page 14, it will be seen that Mr. Geddes 
got 34 bushels of barley, and 27i bushels of Claw¬ 
son wheat afterwards. His wheat on the summer- 
fallow, part Diehl and part Clawson, he thought, 
had it been all Clawson, would have been 50 bushels 
per acre. And he thinks this shows that it is bet¬ 
ter to grow barley than to summer-fallow. Perhaps 
it is. But it should be understood that I am not 
arguing in favor of summer-fallowing for wheat. I 
am simply desirous of showing that it is better to 
raise fewer grain crops, until we get our land rich 
enough to produce a higher yield per acre. I have 
sowed 15 acres of barley this spring on land ma¬ 
nured last year for mangels. It would be very 
likely to grow 27i bushels of Clawson wheat after 
the barley. But this does not satisfy me. And so, 
instead of sowing wheat after the barley, I have 
seeded it down with clover. I have another field 
of 17 acres, a clover sod, plowed last fall, and sown 
to barley this spring. This I have also seeded down 
with clover. My object is to get the land richer. 
I am practicing what I preach. I do not want, as a 
rule, to sow land to wheat that I do not think rich 
enough to produce, in a favorable season, 40 bushels 
of Diehl wheat per acre. 
-—- 
Sheep Shelters in Kansas and Virginia. 
Noles of Successful Experience. 
The experience of the past winter in keeping 
sheep on the western plains, has been of great 
value. It has shown that with proper protection 
and comfortable shelter, any breed of sheep— 
those even which require very great care in the 
east—may be kept with very little expense for 
feed. The open pasture is sufficient to keep them 
in fair condition during fine weather, and it is only 
when the occasional short storms prevail, that hay 
need be given to them. But the heavier breeds of 
sheep, that have been used to better fare than pas¬ 
ture alone, while they may be kept in ordinary con¬ 
dition on this fare, can be kept increasing in weight, 
and made to yield a heavier and better fleece, by 
the daily ration, in the winter, of a pint of corn per 
head. The experience on this point the past win¬ 
ter, of Mr. George Grant, of Victoria, in Ellis 
Co., Kansas, is very pertinent. This gentleman 
informs us that his flock of 7,000 sheep, consisting 
mainly of native ewes, with rams of pure Leicester, 
Lincoln, Cotswold, Southdown, Shropshire, and 
Oxforddown blood, and half-bred lambs, of last 
year, have passed through the winter very success¬ 
fully, under the rational treatment given to them. 
The shelter or corral provided for them is a build¬ 
ing with stone walls, covered with a peaked 
roof. It is square in shape, with sides about 570 feet 
long. A commodious bouse of two stories is 
built at one corner, for the shepherds. The corral 
drawn from a sketch furnished by Mr. Grant, is 
shown in the engraving (figure 1) given on the 
following page. The flock is brought into the 
corral every night, and is kept inside during stormy 
weather. At these times the sheep are furnish¬ 
ed with hay, and a pint of crushed corn per head. 
At other times they are turned out to pasture in 
the morning, upon the prairie, and are brought 
back in the evening. As an experiment, a flock of 
2,500 head has been kept separate from the rest, 
and each sheep of this flock has received a pint of 
crushed corn every night on their return from the 
pasture. The improvement in this flock has been 
marked, and as might have been expected, the 
extra feed has been profitably expended. Mr. 
Fig. 2, SHEEP-SHEDS OF W. B. SHAW, SYRACUSE, HAS. 
Grant’s success has been so encouraging, that he 
is permitting his flock to enlarge by natural increase, 
until his extensive tract of land shall be well stocked. 
Another enterprise in this direction, has been set 
on foot by Mr. W. B. Shaw, of Syracuse, which is 
about 200 miles south-west of Victoria, and near 
the eastern boundary of Colorado. I 11 both these 
places the buffalo grass furnishes the chief pastur¬ 
age, and the “blue joint” the hay. Mr. Shaw 
began with 220 sheep, a mixed flock of Ootswolds, 
Leicesters, Southdowns, and Merinos, which ar¬ 
rived on the ground in October last, and up to 
January 1st, grazed without interruption on the 
open prairie. From the first to the twenty-first of 
January, a succession of cold days with snow on 
the ground, kept the flock in the fold. During 
this time about 600 pounds of hay was fed daily, 
which was an ample supply for the whole flock. At 
this period, too, the lambs began to appear, and 
three or four of them were lost, through inexperi¬ 
ence rather than from the inclemency of the season. 
After January 21st, the sheep were again turned 
on to the pasture. Mr. Shaw’s experience has been 
equally favorable with that of Mr. Grant. His 
shed is made of cotton-wood poles, and coarse hay 
