•406 
[NoVJiMBKK, 
of the good seed that has been so mi in these 
pages. Yet the outflow from the farm goes on, 
and about as many boys are strapping their 
trunks and saying good-bye to the farm, this 
fall, as ever. Some few of the number baye their 
faces turned in the right direction, but many, we 
know, are making a great mistake, and have 
before them much less of thrift and happiness 
than they could find in the calling of their fa¬ 
thers. This restless spirit is owing somewhat, 
doubtless, to the general ditfusion of education 
among tlie masses, to that love of adventure 
which is a characteristic of the Yankee race, and 
to the apparent profitableness of other callings. 
But with all due allowance for these things, 
there are causes still at work upon the farm tliat 
early alienate the afl’ections of the boys, .and 
drive them to other pursuits. The boys catch 
new ideas much more rapidly than their fathers, 
and, with the impulsiveness of youth, want to 
test them. They go to the fairs, and see the fine 
stock, the new tools, the premium fruits and 
vegetables. They read the papers, if they have 
them at home, and if thej^ have not, they borrow 
them. Agricultural papers are greatly multi¬ 
plied, and no religious or political paper quite 
does its duty without furnishing a column or 
two, weeklj^, of agricultural matter for its read¬ 
ers. People who read at all cannot very well 
keep themselves in the dark in regard to the 
changes that are coming over our husbandry. 
If the father keeps up wdth the times,' has agri¬ 
cultural papers and books, reads, thinks, and 
practices, he retains the confidence of his boys, 
and can readily guide them. But if he is a man 
of routine, and keeps in the ruts, the boys soon 
become disgusted with farming. They do not 
want to break their backs over the scythe, when 
a mowing machine can do the work better, and 
at a tithe of the expense. Tliey want tedders, 
horse-rakes, and horse hay-forks. They want 
subsoil plows, tile drains, and barn cellars. 
They wmut blood stock in the stable, and in the 
st 3 ^ They want to move a little faster, and to 
do business on a little larger scale. The boys 
have the facts and. tliQ .argument on their side, 
and if you want to retain them upon the farm, 
jon must keep up Avith the times, and make 
farming a live business. The subsoil plow has 
spoiled the ruts for this generation. 
Another thing, the boys want an interes 
the business, and the sooner you give them 
investment in the farm or its stock, the m 
likely you tvill be to make farmers of tin 
It is true, the laAv gives j^u a right to the av 
of their labors until they reach their major 
It may be true that these services are no m 
than a fair compensation for the expenses 
their childhood. The intercourse of parents f 
children should not always be graduated by 
legal scale. You do not Avaut your son for a s 
A ant, but for a companion, and a support in ju 
declining years. You Avant to attach him by afl 
lion and interest to the soil that he cultivai 
Begin, then, early to identify his interests aa 
your business, as if he Avas under no obligation' 
you. If he fancies stock, give him what he lil 
and let the increase be his. Especially enco 
age him to plant orchards or vineyards of 
finest. A^arieties of fruit. Teach him to b 
graft, prune, ripen, and market, all the fruits 
your climate. Furnish him Avith all the bo( 
and facilities that he needs to study and topi 
tice pomology and horticulture. If properlv 
couraged, he will take an interest in these thii 
very early, and before he is old enouo-lx to tlii 
of leaving your roof, his tastes will "be form 
and his course in life will be determined ] 
AMERICAN AG-RICUETURIST. 
heart will go doAvn into the soil Avitli the roots 
of every fruit tree that he plants, and the or¬ 
chards and gardens of the old homestead, or 
of another close by, Avill be his paradise, from 
AAdiich nothing but necessity can drive him. 
Walks and Talks on the Farm.—No. 47. 
Sheep can be bought in this section for nearly 
half Avhat they could be sold for at- this time last 
year. And yet, Ioav as avooI is, it is Avorth nearly 
as much as it was a year ago. Then the depres¬ 
sion in the avooI market was thought to be merely 
temporary, and avooI groAvers hoped for remun- 
erath’e prices in the future. NoAAq liOAveAmr, 
there is a general feeling that wool will rule Ioav 
for some years, and many farmers are selling 
their sheep at any price that is offered. Butter 
and cheese pay better than avooI groAving, and 
thousands will quit the business in disgust. Ob¬ 
serving men predicted such a result during the 
sheep fever, and Avere laughed at as old fogies. 
If the best time to engage in a business is Avhen 
others are leaving it, the present is a good time 
to buy sheep. ItAvould be strange if the United 
States, with its almost uniiinited extent of terri¬ 
tory, should not raise its OAvn wool, and if Ave 
are to raise Avool, A\m can hardly expect to see a 
time Avhen sheep can be bought at lower rates. 
The duty on wool is noAV as high as we can reas¬ 
onably ask for, and if there is any business in 
which Avm can compete Avith the cheap labor of 
foreign countries, it is in wool-groAving. There 
is less labor required to raise a dollar’s Avorth of 
AVOol than to raise a dollar’s AVorth of any other 
farm product. It is not so much the cheap labor 
of other countries that the AAmol-groAver has to 
fear, as the cheap land, and the low rates at 
AAdiich so concentrated an article as wool can be 
transported. And this competition Avith cheap 
land we cannot escape from. Those of us Aidio 
have farms that cost flOO to |150 per acre must 
compete with the farmer on the prairie, who 
paid only |1.25. If we cannot compete with him 
in groAviug avooI, we must groAV something else, 
the freight on which affords us sufficient protec¬ 
tion. Buffalo skins are high, but I do not think, 
when land is worth $100 an acre, Ave can raise 
buffaloes, and feed them for four or five years 
simply for the skins. If Ave Avisli to engage in 
this kind of business, Ave must seek cheaper land. 
I do not say that Ave cannot keep sheep on 
land AVorth $100 an acre, simply for their wool, 
for the probabilities are that the profits cannot 
be very large. Take one of my three year old 
Merino wethers that I sold the other day for $2.75, 
and how much do you suppose it has cost to feed 
him ? He sheared four pounds the first year, 
and five pounds the next, and five pounds this 
year—say fourteen pounds. I sold the first tAvo 
clips for 60 cents. The last clip is not sold, but 
Avould not bring more than 40 cents. This sheep 
therefore has brought me in, say $2.40 for the 
first year, $3.00 for the second year, and $2.00 
for the third year— $7.40 in all. The sheep sold 
for $2.75, so that the gross receipts for three and 
a half years’ keep amount to $10.15. Washino- 
shearing, tying up the wool, and marketing the 
three clips, would cost 50 cents, and it Avill be 
liberal to say that I have received $9.65 for feed 
and attendance. Now, such a sheep Avould prob¬ 
ably consume in three years and a half, a ton of 
hay, or its equivalent. Of course he AA'as not fed 
exclusively on hay, and I only put it in this form 
to enable us to get some idea of the amount of 
food such a sheep would eat. An acre of good 
clover would furnishfood enoughfor half a dozen 
of such sheep for a year-part mown and part 
grazed. To keep a sheep three years and a half, 
therefore, Ave should need as much food as seven 
twelfths of an acre Avould produce in a year. In 
other words, this sheep Avhich has brought me 
$9.65, has eaten food equal to Avhat could be 
obtained from a little over half an acre of good 
clover. This makes a better shoiv for the profit 
of Avool-growing than I expected, and Avhen wc 
take into consideration the fact that the manure 
Avill do nearly as much good as if the clover had 
been ploAAmd under, I am not sure that there is 
any kind of stock Avhich, for the care and labor 
bestOAved, Avill pay much better. 
The time has arrived in our agriculture, how¬ 
ever, when Ave must bestoAV more care and la¬ 
bor in feeding stock, and enriching our laud. I 
think farmers are becoming convinced of this. 
Higli prices are a great incentive to improve¬ 
ment. We can all see that if our farms Avere in 
condition, we could make monej'. I was on a 
farm, the other day, where the Avheat crop Avent 
87’|2 bushels per acre, and being Amry clean and 
nice, Avas all sold to the neighbors for seed, a' 
$2.75 per bushel. Most of us, on land naturallj 
just as good, only raise 15 bushels per acre, and 
that not of the best quality. In a ride of some 
tAventy-five miles, through tAvo of the best 
towns in this county, in search of some good 
seed wheat, this was the onljr Avheat I found that 
was clean ! It maybe that I did not happen to 
fall in with the right men. One farmer, who 
has alAvays been noted for careful culture, and 
Avho, I Avas told, Avould have clean.seed if it Avas 
to be found, had Avheat no better than my OAvn. 
“I have had such dirty Avheat,” he said, and I 
do not doubt it, for, on going to the barn, AA'here 
he had been cleaning some thirty or forty bush¬ 
els for seed, there Avere Ijfing on the floor fiAm or 
six bushels of stricken grains and foul stuff 
that had been cleaned out. This Avas on one of 
the best Avheat fiirms in the State. Unfortunately 
such cases are not rare. Where one farm has 
improved during the past five years, ten have 
run down. Uncertainty in regard to future 
prices, and the scarcity and inefficiency of la¬ 
borers are among the chief causes of this deplor¬ 
able state of affairs. I did not see during the 
Avhole ride a smgle dean jnece of corn. Most of 
the corn AA’as cut up, and in CA^ery case the roAvs 
could be traced by Aveeds running to seed, and 
not unfiequentlj’- the AA’hole land AA’as covered 
Avith Aveeds from six inches to three feet in 
hight. In a dry season, like the present, it is 
not easy to understand hoAV land could get so 
foul, AAheie even nothing more than ordinary 
cultivation is employed. Next spring, this land 
will be sown with barlejq followed by wheat in 
Uie fall. Is it to be Avondered at that clean wheat 
is so scarce? Many farmers ploAV their laud 
tAvice for Avheat after the barley is off, and har- 
roAA’, roll, and cultivate their land very nicely, in 
order to get it clean and melloAV. But this does 
comparatiA’'ely little good. The time to clean 
laud for AA’heat is while it is in corn. If it can¬ 
not be made thoroughly clean Avith one corn 
crop, plant it tAvo years in succession, and culti¬ 
vate it every Aveek or ten days from the time 
the roAvs can be traced till the corn is set. You 
will then have clean AA’heat. 
There are two objects in Avorking laud. First, 
to kill Aveeds, and second, to enrich it by pro¬ 
moting decomposition, and rendering it capable 
of absorbing ammonia from the atmosphere. 
These chemical changes require time. If you have 
two heaps of manure piled up last spring, and 
one heap has been turned over three times during 
four or fiA^e months, and the other has not been 
