212 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
la this way, I believe that, if I delay planting 
until the ground is well warmed, the corn will 
grow as early as any weeds. At the time when 
the leaf is well spread, there ought to be no 
weeds half an inch high; and the smoothing 
harrow would undoubtedly destroy them all at 
a single operation. This alone would give the 
corn such a start that its subsequent care would 
be a simple matter; but it is claimed that the 
harrow may be passed repeatedly over the field 
until the corn is a foot high, without bruising it 
to any noticeable extent. If this is true, as I be¬ 
lieve, it will greatly simplify the raising of corn, 
and will relieve the farmer of an immense 
amount of labor that must otherwise be done at 
a time when hands are needed for other work. 
We are now getting some tangible reward for 
the winter feeding and management of our 
stock. The manure cellar has been well filled 
with a solid mass containing very little straw, 
and with just enough clay-sand mixed through 
it, to make it handle easily. Precisely what the 
quantity is, we cannot tell until it is all out; but 
there will be not less than 400 two-horse loads, 
and I would not exchange it, load for load, for 
what would cost me $4 per load in stable cellars 
in town. A team and two men will haul out 
from the cellar and spread, from 12 to 15 loads 
per day. The most that I could do in hauling 
from town, would be to get 2 loads a day, during 
good wheeling, and it would be much harder on 
the team. I think that I am within the mark in 
estimating the value of the winter’s manure, in¬ 
cluding that from the hogs and poultry, at 
$2,000. That which has been taken out during 
the winter and early spring and spread upon 
the land intended for corn, has started such a 
growth of grass, as has not been seen before on 
Ogden Farm. 
The value of this manure makes a large de¬ 
duction from the cost of feeding. In so far as it 
has been produced by the consumption of pur¬ 
chased food, it is as certain an addition to the 
intrinsic value of the farm, as though the manure 
itself had been bought and brought on to it. 
On looking carefully over the stock and the ac¬ 
count of produce sold, I am satisfied that the 
increase has repaid all legitimate farming out¬ 
lays, and that the manure on hand has cost noth¬ 
ing. I shall be able, this year, without purchas¬ 
ing to give a heavy dressing to the corn, corn- 
fodder and roots; and it is difficult to foresee now, 
anything that will prevent our getting profitable 
crops from the forty acres that will be cultivated 
this year. The remaining twenty acres have not 
yet been manured (except where sea-weed has 
been used), and I do not expect much from 
them. They were last year seeded down with 
clover,which looked well enough in the autumn; 
but the winter has been a very open one, and 
the present outlook is not brilliant. I cannot 
see that winter-killing has been materially less¬ 
ened where the sea-weed was used. I think we 
made the mistake of feeding too closely in tho 
fall. I shall try the experiment this year of not 
feeding the new meadows at all; and I have 
mixed red-top and timothy with the clover seed, 
hoping that the three will sufficiently cover the 
ground to protect the roots. As this year’s seed¬ 
ing is on land that has been manured, it is 
reasonable to hope for better results. The pres¬ 
ent clover land will be re-sown with the mixed 
seeds, and brushed in with the smoothing har¬ 
row; the whole receiving a top-dressing of plaster 
at the rate of one bushel per acre. Whether this 
will do any good, remains to beseem There is a 
popular idea that plaster has no effect near the 
sea-shore; its use is practically unknown here. 
Sheep Dipping to Destroy Ticks and Scab. 
All kinds of sheep are, at times, annoyed by 
parasites in their wool or skin, which can only 
be removed and destroyed by the application 
of substances which are poisonous to them. 
The most common of these parasites are the 
lick or louse, and the scab-mite. The sheep- 
tick, or properly perhaps, the sheep-louse, for 
such it is, is exceedingly annoying, occurring in 
the best kept flocks, and sometimes almost de¬ 
vouring the sheep alive. Figure 1 represents 
the tick magnified; an outline of one of the 
natural size is shown also, for comparison. The 
mode of propagation of the tick is peculiar; 
the egg is developed and the young animal 
passes into the pupa state in the body of the 
female, so that the little sacks attached to the 
wool, shown in figure 2, which are usually 
called eggs, are not eggs but pupae. In this 
state, life is not so easily destroyed as in the 
perfect insect. From time immemorial, dips and 
washes of various kinds have been employed 
for the destruction of these little pests, and we 
might fill half the paper with recipes. The 
bases of most of these have been tobacco, hel¬ 
lebore, arsenic, or mercury, made use of singly 
or mixed, and mingled 
with tar, oils, and 
alkalies, in varying pro¬ 
portions. Now, how 
ever, the best results 
are obtained from the 
use of carbolic acid in 
some form,usually com¬ 
bined with soap, and 
applied in the form of 
strong suds. The skin, 
as is well known, secretes an oily soap, which, 
while it does not permit the wool to be easily 
wetted, is nevertheless itself soluble in water, 
especially in a soapy or alkaline water. 
After shearing, the ticks to a great extent 
leave the ewes and are found upon the lambs. 
In small flocks the labor of dipping is not great, 
and a simple trough 5 feet long, 20 inches to 2 
feet wide, and 3 1 1 4 to 4 feet deep, (see fig. 3), is 
all that is needed. It should be furnished with 
an inclined table covered with slat-work, and set 
so that after the dipping the sheep may be laid 
upon it to drip, while the solution is rubbed in 
to the skin and then squeezed out of the fleece. 
The trough is best made of pine plank, the ends 
being secured in “gains” in the sides. These 
are bolted together, and the bottom being nailed 
on, is made tight by triangular corner pieces well 
pitched. With this trough,three men are required 
to dip; and for each sheep there should be about 
two minutes allowed; the sheep being either 
in the bath, or under manipulation a full minute. 
The other minute will be required on an aver¬ 
age to catch the sheep, and to renew the bath, 
when necessary. When a large flock is to be 
dipped, this requires altogether too much time, 
as only thirty sheep can bo 
dipped in an hour. They 
have a very expeditious way 
of dipping in Scotland, in 
which, by means of three sets 
of dippers,and a man to bring 
up the sheep, 140 to 150 
sheep can be dipped in an 
hour. We illustrate this in 
the accompanying engrav¬ 
ing (figure 4). The trough is 12 feet long, 20 
inches wide, and 3 feet 3 inches to 4 feet 
deep. The sheep are confined near by; and 
some twenty at a time are hurdled close to the 
trough, and passed up an inclined gangway one 
at a time, to the dippers. A little gate opens 
and the sheep is driven or drawn out upon 
an elevated platform at the bight of the tub, as 
shown. One man takes the animal by the ears, 
and the other two by the feet. It is soused 
into the trough, and every part except the 
face thoroughly wet¬ 
ted, care being taken 
that none is swallow¬ 
ed or spattered into 
the eyes. The sheep 
is moved along slow¬ 
ly to the other end of 
the trough, and then 
lifted out or shoved up 
upon a platform capa¬ 
ble of holding twenty 
or more sheep. The 
drips of this platform 
flow back into the Fig. 3.— end of trough. 
trough; and the sheep are left to drip until 
another set comes on. 
The employment of oils to soften the fleece is 
often recommended, and is probably good both 
for the health of the flock and for the wool. 
The best mode of applying oil with the dip is 
probably to pour about a pint of whale oil into 
the trough when each s'heep is put in. The 
wool takes it up at once, and it does not inter¬ 
fere with the efficacy of the dip. In dipping 
a flock, both old sheep and lambs should be 
dipped, and in most cases the operations should 
be repeated at the end of a week to destroy any 
vermin that may have hatched in the mean 
time. A warm, calm day should be selected, and 
after dripping, the sheep should be stabled or 
folded, well fed, and thus kept warm until dry. 
Fig. 1. 
Pig. 4,—SCOTTISII SYSTEM OF DIPPING SIIEEP. 
Fig. 2. 
