298 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[August, 
to thrash each year, it would certainly seem better 
to have a machine of one’s own, than to hire a 
traveling machine. 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 140. 
[COPYRIGHT SECURED.] 
I noticed a fact this spring that might be quoted 
to sustain the views of Prof. Atwater. One of the 
worst pests on my farm is Red-root or Pigeon-weed. 
The seed germinates in the fall on the winter wheat. 
It goes to seed next summer before the wheat is 
cut. The seed falls to the ground and germinates 
in the fall, and the plants grow among the clover 
aud go to seed in June before the clover is cut for 
hay. Whatever plans we adopt for checking its 
growth in the winter wheat will fail to clear the 
farm of this weed, until we can destroy it also in 
the clover. A heavy crop of clover, of course, has 
a tendency to smother the red-root, but there is 
more of it in the hay than most of us suspect. If 
the clover is light, as mine was this year, the red- 
root shows itself in full force. I once asked John 
Johnston if sheep would not eat it ? He replied in 
substance, that possibly they might be starved to 
eat it. He once had a neighbor who undertook to 
clean his foul farm by keeping a large flock of sheep 
and compelling them from sheer hunger to eat the 
weeds. He partially succeeded in his object, but 
he killed a good mauy sheep also, and so weakened 
the others that his flock was almost worthless. He 
advised me not to try the experiment. 
I have a flock of pure-bred Cotswolds, kept for 
breeding purposes, and I feed the ewes and lambs 
liberally. This spring I hit on a new method of 
feeding them which works to a charm. I feed no 
grain or oil-cake, my object being, not to get the 
ewes fat, but to secure a large flow of milk for the 
lambs. Formerly I fed bran for this purpose, to¬ 
gether with mangels and clover hay. This spring 
I fed malt-combs instead of bran. At first I fed it 
dry, but it occurred to me that when we want cows 
to give a large flow of milk we “ slop them ” And 
I thought I would try slopping my ewes and lambs. 
We were cooking malt-combs for the pigs, and I 
told the shepherd to put some troughs and half¬ 
barrels in the sheep-yard, and carry them a pail or 
two of these warm slops, and see if they would eat 
them. At first the ewes did not know what to 
make of them, and only drank a very little. But 
the next day they drank more, and more the 
day following, and the next day more still. “ Give 
them all they like to drink,” I had said, “it will 
not hurt them.”—And it did not. But it seemed 
impossible to give them all they wanted. We car¬ 
ried over 100 pails a day to a flock of sixty ewes. 
This was more work than I had bargained for, and 
so I gave up the idea of cooking, and adopted a 
new plan. I put a large linseed-oil barrel, holding 
about 150 gallons, in the sheep-yard near the pump. 
Into this we put a bag, (50 lbs.), of malt-combs, 
and filled up the barrel with water, and stirred up 
the malt-combs, and let them soak twelve hours. 
Then we filled up the troughs with the slops, and 
let the sheep drink all they would. This was but 
little more labor than if we had given the sheep 
nothing but water. But it was a vast improvement 
over the ordinary manner of feeding dry foe ‘ and 
clear water. 
We continued to let the sheep have all they would 
eat or drink of these malt-combs, even after they 
were turned to grass—allowing them at the same 
time some dry malt-combs in the troughs. And 
now comes the point of my story. There was con¬ 
siderable red-root in my clover pasture, just in 
blossom, and it worried me a good deal to know 
how to prevent it from going to seed. That ques¬ 
tion was soon settled. The sheep nipped off every 
green head and branch of the red-root. 
I think Prof. Atwater would explain this result 
as follows : Malt-combs are rich in albuminoids, 
and it has been shown that when sheep are furnish¬ 
ed with the necessary amount of nitrogenous food, 
that they can then digest cellulose or woody fiber. 
If you feed a sheep on straw alone, it will not di¬ 
gest as much of the straw as if it had grain iu ad¬ 
dition. And so with this red-root or pigeon-weed ; 
ordinarily the sheep will not touch it. It is un¬ 
doubtedly a poor food. But when you give the 
sheep rich concentrated food, they will then eat 
more or less of this poor innutritious food. 
It so happens that the sheep are having rich ni¬ 
trogenous food, but I am by no means sure that 
they would not eat the red-root if they had corn in¬ 
stead of malt-combs. It is not the nitrogen they 
need, for dry young clover contains more nitrogen 
than dry com, and yet they will not eat tae weeds 
if they have nothing but clover. What seems to 
be needed is richer and more concentrated food, 
and it will probably make very little difference 
whether this rich concentrated food is what we call 
a highly nitrogenous food like peas, beans, oil-cake, 
or malt-combs, or whether it is a rich carbonaceous 
food, so-called, like com. 
The important fact, (and I thank Prof. Atwater 
for bringing it out so clearly), is this : If you want 
animals to eat poor food, do not starve them to it, 
but give them sufficient rich food to enable them 
to digest the cellulose or woody fiber. It is a les¬ 
son which thousands of farmers need to learn. 
The drouth still continues. We shall have light 
crops in this section. Winter wheat on many fields 
will not return more than the seed. Barley and 
oats will be far below an average yield. It is too 
soon (June 15) to say anything about corn, but the 
indications are favorable. I hope we shall have a 
great crop. The country needs it, and I suppose 
an unusually large area has been planted. The 
scarcity of pigs will give us good prices for choice 
pork, and the “ hog crop ” next fall will prove a 
profitable one. And this is the real point. Busi¬ 
ness men and financiers talk about the money 
which we get for wheat, corn, etc., but what the 
country needs is more profitable agriculture. We 
need better crops per acre and better prices. I pre¬ 
dicted the present depression in business, I knew 
that farmers were not making money. I knew they 
were selling nearly all their products at less than 
it cost to produce them. It is not the aggregate 
amount of money we receive for our products that 
determines our prosperity , but the margin of profit 
left after deducting our expenses. Our expenses 
have been far too great, and we have been 
obliged to curtail them—hence the depression in 
business. What the country needs to-day is bet¬ 
ter farming. I think we shall have a higher range 
of prices, but that alone will not insure prosperity. 
We must have larger crops per acre. This will les¬ 
sen the cost of production. We must have better 
stock and feed more liberally. 
“ But will it pay ?” again asks the Squire. “ I got 
a Cotswold ram from you and bred him to a lot of 
long-wooled ewes that I got in Canada, and I am 
sure I could have done better with common sheep.” 
—“There is no doubt on this point,” I replied, 
“ but you overlooked the essential point in regard 
to‘feeding liberally.’ You half starved them. The 
poor things have had barely enough food to sustain 
the vital functions, and nothing to grow with.” 
John Pierce, a successful fine-wool sheep breed¬ 
er, was here to-day (June 15), and we put three of 
our lambs on the scales. The first one we caught 
was a ewe lamb, born March 19. She weighed 75 
lbs. The next»was a ram lamb, born March 13. He 
weighed 854 lbs. May 11, the latter weighed 59 
lbs., and has gained 261 lbs. in one month and four 
days. These are thorough-breds. We then caught 
an average grade Cotswold-Merino ewe, two years 
old, with a lamb by her side. She weighed 148 lbs., 
and the lamb, bom March 17, 65 lbs. This lamb, 
on May 11, weighed 46 lbs., and has gained in one 
month and four days, 19 lbs. This ewe and her 
lamb is a fair representation of what we may ex¬ 
pect from this cross when the ewes and lambs are 
fed liberally. I could select heavier grade sheep 
and heavier grade lambs. Now I will not stop to 
answer the Squire’s question, “will it pay.”—We 
do not get anything like as much for good mutton 
as it is worth, when compared with poor mutton, 
but even as things are now, I can figure out a very 
respectable profit from this system of breeding and 
feeding. 
“C. S.," Pittsburgh, Ind., writes : “I sold to-day 
eighteen hogs, just ten months old, that averaged 
286 lbs., after driving six miles. They were of 
Magie-Poland China-Berkshire-No Breed of this 
section, and considered something extra by my 
neighbors, but they were rather coarse, and not uni¬ 
formly good feeders. Could not the 6ame weight 
be made on well-bred pigs, in the same or less 
time, with less expense ? ”—Mr. S. has purchased 
a thoroughbred Essex boar, which he proposes td 
use on his large sows. This cross will certainly 
improve the quality of the pork, and I think, give 
him a greater weight in proportion to the food con¬ 
sumed. The above hogs were fed “ bran and ship- 
stuff ; on clover pasture in the fall, corn in the 
winter, and clover pasture in the spring.”—This 5s 
good management, and the pigs must have been a- 
good lot. But there is no necessity for keeping the 
“ large breeds ” to get pigs of 300 lbs. live weight. 
So far as I have observed, the quality of western 
hogs is rapidly improving. And this is the great 
point for us to aim at. We want better pork and 
better prices. We ought to produce the best pork,, 
bacon, hams, and lard in the world. I do not like 
to see the following quotation in the English papers 
every week : “ Bacon. —Market very firm, Irish 
fully maintains late rates. Waterford singed, sin- 
able sides, 84s. per cwt. ; Limerick, 76s. to 80s. 
Hambro bacon .has risen in value, and is now 
quoted at 70s. to 74s. per cwt. ; American sides, 
62s. to 63s. per cwt. ; scalded 6hort middles, 54s.” 
All we need to add from 3 to 5 cents per pound 
to the price of our own hams, and bacon, and pork,, 
is a little more attention to quality. 
I do not think I have ever known farmers feel SO’ 
“ blue ” as at the present time. And in truth it is 
not to be wondered at. The times, and seasons,, 
and crops are discouraging. But let us not be cast 
down. Let us keep on working and hoping. There 
is light ahead. We have less to complain of than 
any other class. The duty of every farmer who can 
afford it, is to push forward improvements. Labor 
and materials are comparatively cheap, and it is a 
good time to spend money—if you do it judiciously. 
We have a German farmer in this neighborhood, 
who sets us all a good example. He commenced 
life as a hired man. He has now one of the best 
farms in the town, and is adding acre to acre. 
Whatever he does is done well. He never seems to- 
be in a hurry. But he commences to plow in the 
spring before some of us begin to think about get¬ 
ting the plows ready, and he has ten or twenty 
acres of barley sown before some of us have plow¬ 
ed a furrow. He is always ahead. Every thing is 
in its place ; everything in good repair and ready 
for use at a moment’s notice. His land is getting 
cleaner every year—and I was going to say richer,, 
but I am not so sure on this latter point. I have ■ 
sometimes thought he was running his land rather 
hard. But there is certainly no diminution in the 
crops. His farm would sell for 50 per cent more 
than he paid for it, while other farms have not 
increased in value. The secret of success, in his 
case, is first in the man himself—in his industry,, 
sobriety, and good judgment. And in the next 
place I think it is due principally to the fact that 
he plows early, and plows late, and plows well, and 
plows often ; and he uses the harrow and the roller 
until his soil is mellow and in good order for the 
6eed. Then he cultivates his corn and potatoes 
and beans the moment he can see the rows, and 
he suffers not a weed to grow and go to seed. I. 
ought to add that he has five energetic sons to help 
him, and while he hires little or no labor, there is a 
large amount of work done on the farm. In fact, 
say what yoii will, there is, never has been,- and. 
never will be, good farming without the expendi¬ 
ture of considerable labor.—“I have always employ¬ 
ed a good many men,” said John Johnston, and all 
really successful farmers, I think, would be obliged 
to 6ay the same thing. 
We have a steam thrashing machine just intro¬ 
duced for the first time into this neighborhood. I 
have long wanted to thrash by steam. Two or 
three days thrashing hurts my horses more than a 
month’s ordinary work. They have to go round 
and round, the right hand side and legs of the 
