1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
419 
long-wooled sheep eight or nine months old, 
averaging 100 lbs., would eat 3 lbs. of clover 
hay per day and 1 lb. of grain, and gain from 
two to three lbs. each, per week. If such sheep 
were to be kept for breeding purposes it would 
not in all cases be desirable to feed so high; 
and straw and bran might replace a portion of 
the hay and grain ; say 2 lbs. hay, 1 lb. straw, 
and 1 lb. bran per day, or l‘| 2 lb. hay, l 1 1 2 lb. 
straw, '| 2 lb. bran, and 1 | 2 lb. grain per head 
per day. Such sheep should gain from one to 
two lbs. per week. Three lbs. of clover hay 
per day alone would keep them through the 
winter, but they would weigh little or no more 
in the spring than in the fall, and this is wretched 
management with mutton sheep. If young 
sheep are to be kept through the winter with¬ 
out gaining anything, better keep Merino sheep. 
They will stand such treatment better than well- 
bred Cotswolds, Leicesters or South-Downs. 
Mr. Taylor also asks: “Will it do to feed 
clover hay alone to ewes up to within a week 
or two of lambing and then feed bran and hay ?” 
It is not usually desirable to change the food at 
this period. Better commence to feed bran or 
a little grain six weeks or two months before 
lambing. The great secret in the successful man¬ 
agement of sheep, as of other animals, is in fur¬ 
nishing a steady supply of food. To feed lib¬ 
erally at one period and lialf-starve the ani¬ 
mals at another is unwise. If the breeding 
ewes are getting too fat, reduce the quality of the 
food gradually; or if it is found that they are 
not doing well raise the quality of the food 
gradually, not suddenly. And in all cases the 
sheep should have all the food they will eat 
of some kind. If the amount of hay is re¬ 
stricted let them have all the straw in the 
racks they will eat, and let it be supplied to 
them regular!)''; and when they have picked 
out all they will eat, scatter the remainder 
about the yards as litter. 
Stallions for Common Labor. 
An article on page 337 (September), which 
/alls attention to the use of stallions as horses 
of all work, has attracted the attention of many 
horse breeders, and elicited a communication 
from Mr. Joel Henry Wells, publisher of the 
Chicago Commercial Express, enclosing an ar¬ 
ticle based upon the results of his experience, 
which we copy below, and most heartily second 
Ids suggestion for the gathering of facts to sub¬ 
stantiate, by direct testimony, our views upon 
this subject. We shall be glad to hear from 
our readers of their experience whether it is for, 
or against, the use of stallions. Mr. Wells writes: 
“I have had six stallions in my family sta¬ 
bles during the last live years, and have three 
in family use now, for carriage and saddle. 
They are of my own raising and training, and 
we like them better than any geldings we have 
ever had. They are kind, quiet, faithful, intel¬ 
ligent in a superior degree. My experience is 
only that of hundreds whose management in 
this respect has been similar. Cannot we do 
more than merely suggest—can we not gather 
detailed facts for more convincing generalization 
on this topic ?”—The following is the article 
referred to from the Express: 
Any one observant of the value and useful¬ 
ness of horses during the last ten or fifteen years, 
must have noticed among owners and drivers, 
a change in regard to the general opinion about 
the employment of stallions in ordinary work, 
in harness or under the saddle, for business or 
for pleasure, which is manifested in the in¬ 
creased number so employed. The old prevail¬ 
ing opinion was that stallions were really fit for 
one purpose, and unless a colt showed promise 
as a stock progenitor, he was sure to be made a 
gelding in his second summer. But the fact 
that stallions when properly trained and pru¬ 
dently handled have proved valuable in harness, 
superior in all respects to geldings of the same 
general qualities, is becoming more known. 
The popular belief has been and still is to a 
large extent that stallions in harness in ordina¬ 
ry work are both disagreeable and dangerous; 
but better knowledge proves that if they are so, 
it is the result of injudicious treatment, or the 
development of a vicious disposition. A stallion 
is one of the most intelligent animals in exist¬ 
ence, and may be taught anything that his mas¬ 
ter desires within the range of animal intellect. 
Taken in training at two or three years of age, 
before disagreeable or vicious habits are ac¬ 
quired, he need never make any such manifes¬ 
tations, and will not under proper care, unless 
he comes of a very bad race; for dispositions are 
transmitted by horses as well as by men. 
It is well known that the Percheron stallions 
in work in France are handled with ease and 
safety by women and children. Kindness and 
affection belong to many races of horses, and 
are developed in stallions more than in either 
mares or geldings. Nearly all the great feats of 
endurance have been performed by stallions. 
The best trick horses o* 1 the arena have been 
stallions, in fact, it is next to impossible to teach 
a gelding tricks involving superior intelligence. 
In the large cities teams of stallions are found 
to be able to do more work and show less fa¬ 
tigue than geldings, and to be equally quiet and 
safe in the street. Some of the handsomest 
single horses and teams driven for pleasure in 
the parks and on the avenues are stallions; no 
mare or gelding, other things being equal, ever 
shows the fine coat, the proud style, the splen¬ 
did action, of the stallion. 
It is a disgrace to the statute-book of several 
States, that they make it penal for farmers to 
allow a colt to run the second summer in pas¬ 
ture unless as a gelding. The best development 
of the young animal is thus prevented. Young 
stallions will remain perfectly quiet in pasture 
with fillies or with mares that have been stint¬ 
ed, with the same fence that confines other 
horses. They may be put to light work at three 
years, always remembering that a stallion or a 
mare at three is more capable of work than a 
gelding at four years. With proper care in 
handling as colts, their habits may be made per¬ 
fectly secure, and when they have reached five 
or six years, their superior intelligence, spirit, 
and endurance will amply repay the little addi¬ 
tional trouble. 
Let the stock raiser reflect for a moment how 
many valuable stock-getters have been lost to 
the breeder by castration before the qualities of 
the animal had been developed. Dexter as a 
gelding is worth over $50,000—at least that 
money cannot buy him—and who can say what 
price he would bring but for the blunder that 
destroyed his sexual organization. Some per¬ 
sons who have thought much on this subject 
have concluded that a stallion will not do well 
in work unless the sexual instinct is gratified by 
reproduction, that he will become ugly, violent 
and intractable; so he may, if pampered by 
high living and indolence, or teased by foolish 
or villainous keepers, but with proper feeding, 
sensible handling, and regular work, his nervous 
energies will be expended in his muscular ef¬ 
forts, and the balance of the system be preserved. 
Only vicious, incorrigible brutes should be 
subjected to an operation which is a destruction 
of their finest animal qualities, and a disgrace 
to human civilization. 
Keep the Small Potatoes tjntil Spring. 
-—Farmers frequently feed their small potatoes 
to fattening pigs in the fall. It would be much 
better to keep them until spring, and then cook 
them, mix them with a little meal and feed 
them to suckling sows and young pigs. In the 
spring, before the clover is ready to turn into, 
we are generally short of succulent food, where¬ 
as in the autumn w r e have apples, pumpkins, 
cabbage leaves, and a variety of vegetables that 
will not keep until spring. The value of pota¬ 
toes as food for stock does not lie so much in 
the mere nutriment they contain as in their giv¬ 
ing tone to the stomach; and they wdll prove 
much more useful when fed out to young pigs 
and breeding sows in the spring, as is usual, 
than when fed to fattening pigs in the fall. 
Rats and Mice—Vermin-proof Walls. 
ET A. B. ALLEN, TOM’S ItIVEIt N. J. 
[The greatest annoyance from rats and mice 
is usually felt in the autumn, and the following 
interesting letter will doubtless be read with 
appreciation, and remembered with profit by 
many of our readers.—E d.] 
Constant complaints are made through the 
press of the increase of rats and mice throughout 
the country. The only way to get rid of them 
effectually is to so construct our houses, barns, 
and other buildings, that they cannot harbor 
them. To insure this, cellar bottoms should be 
cemented, and the w T alls also, unless they are 
solidly laid up with brick or stone and mortar. 
Every basement of a house where the sleepers 
are close to the ground should be filled up be¬ 
tween these to a level wdth their tops with ce¬ 
ment or grouting, and the boards or plank then 
nailed on, leaving not a hair’s breadth, 'f possi¬ 
ble, between the grouting and the floor. Neither 
rats nor mice can then get under. We built a 
set of stables in this way fifteen years ago, and 
no vermin have ever found harbor under the 
floor nor have gnawed through it. Sometimes 
they have got in through a door or window, 
but by removing any thing standing against the 
walls, behind which they have found temporary 
shelter, so that a small terrier dog could pass 
around, he immediately caught them, and there 
was at once an end put to the nuisance. 
If the walls of a house be of wood, before 
lathing and plastering inside, lay a coat of mor¬ 
tar and small stones or cement four or five inch¬ 
es thick, level with the floor of each story, be¬ 
tween the studs and flush with them, or what, 
perhaps, would be better, fit in pieces of two- 
inch, hemlock plank. Neither rat nor mouse 
can gnaw through hemlock, for it immediately 
fills his mouth with sharp slivers on attempting 
it. Then if they ever get into the cellar or base¬ 
ment through a door or window, they cannot 
ascend to the upper stories and find shelter and 
breeding places between the lathing and siding. 
If the walls be made of brick, they ought to 
be built up hollow; the plaster inside can then 
be laid directly on to them, which leaves no 
harbor for vermin. If the walls be solid, as is 
generally the case, they must be furred out, 
lathed and plastered; but before doing this, fill 
up the space between the mop-board and wall 
with cement or strips of hemlock, and this will 
keep out mice. The space here, as houses are 
commonly built,is not wide enough to admit rats. 
Rats and mice are destroying millions of prop¬ 
erty every year among us, and besides are very 
filthy and loathsome. But yet we continue to 
go on and make nearly every building we erect 
a perfect warren , shelter, and home for them. 
---• --- 
Hunting in the Far West. 
The destruction of the larger kinds of game, 
already alarmingly rapid, is likely to be acceler¬ 
ated by the several railroads opened or being 
opened in the far West. It will not be long be¬ 
fore the buffalo will be as rare upon the great 
ranges, as are deer in our older settled States. 
Many parties equipped with destructive weapons 
go out for the purpose of slaughtering buffalo, 
