VOL.  LI.  No  2195. 
NEW  YORK.  FEBRUARY  20,  1892. 
PRICE,  FIVE  CENTS. 
$3  00  PER  YEAR. 
Sheep  Breeding  in  Canada. 
WHY  CANADIAN  MUTTON  EXCELS. 
The  demand  in  the  New  England  markets  for  Cana¬ 
dian  lambs  has  given  the  sheep  breeding-  interests  of 
the  Province  of  Ontario  a  strong  impetus.  This  prov¬ 
ince  supplies  the  trade  mostly,  but  the  Maritime  Prov¬ 
inces  also  contribute  a  considerable  number.  In  many 
districts  in  these  provinces  it  is  a  common  custom  for 
the  exporter  to  commission  men  who  know  their 
respective  neighborhoods  well,  to  purchase  lambs  at 
$2.50  and  $3  per  head  on  a  commission  of  10  cents  per 
head.  In  this  way  one  drover  can  easily  get  together 
5,000  lambs  in  one  district.  It  is  usual  for  the  buyers 
to  secure  the  lambs  early  in  August,  with  the  proviso 
that  the  seller  should  keep  them  until  the  time  for 
shipping  them  arrives,  which  is  usually  in  September. 
In  the  Maritime  Prov¬ 
inces,  particularly  in 
Prince  Edward  Island,  the 
lambs  are  bought  for  $1.50 
to  $2.50  per  head.  They 
are  not  lambs  that  have 
been  grain  fed.  Cana¬ 
dian  mutton  has  always 
stood  high  in  the  estima¬ 
tion  of  epicures.  This 
reputation  I  think  arises 
from  a  simple  cause.  Our 
country  has  not  been  in 
anyway  specially  endowed 
with  natural  facilities  for 
successful  sheep  breeding. 
It  is  certain  from  all  ac¬ 
counts  that  the  Southern, 
Western  and  some  of  the 
Eastern  States  possess 
conditions  of  pasture  and 
climate  more  congenial 
for  sheep.  In  some  parts 
of  our  country  foot  rot 
is  more  or  less  prevalent 
and  in  others  the  tape 
worm,  flourishing  in  the 
moist  climate  of  some  of 
our  districts,  yearly  de¬ 
stroys  quite  a  large  num¬ 
ber  of  the  lambs.  Again, 
the  character  of  the  foods 
that  are  fed  here  cannot 
wholly  account  for  the 
high  reputation  of  our 
mutton.  Beyond  a  doubt 
the  food  must  more  or 
less  influence  the  flavor  or 
determine  the  marbling  of 
the  flesh.  Nitrogenous 
foods,  such  as  peas,  oats, 
oil  meal  or  oil  cake  con¬ 
stitute  the  grain  ration 
usually  fed  to  fattening 
wethers.  The  explana¬ 
tion  of  the  good  repute  of 
Canadian  mutton  is  due  chiefly  to  the  fact  that  most 
of  the  sheep  are  descendants  of  the  mutton  breeds, 
while  in  “the  States”  attention  has  been  given  chiefly  to 
fine  wools.  The  Canadian  provinces  have  been  stocked 
with  the  Downs,  Cotswolds  and  Leicesters,  and  the 
grades  of  these  now  make  up  the  foundation  stock  of 
the  country.  In  Ontario  the  Downs  lead,  while  the 
lower  provinces  excel  in  Leicesters.  The  first  sheep  to 
be  brought  into  Canada  were  the  latter,  and  the  com¬ 
mon  ewes  show  their  origin,  as  may  be  seen  in  the 
group  of  roadside  sheep  shown  at  Fig.  68.  The  im¬ 
portation  of  Leicesters  has  decreased  greatly  of  recent 
years  as  they  were  found  too  tender  for  Canadian  con¬ 
ditions.  The  common  Canadian  ewes  of  Leicester 
extraction  make  an  excellent  foundation  for  Down 
top-crossing.  We  are  sorely  afraid  that  when  your 
shepherds  have  shifted  their  policy  and  breed  more 
for  mutton  instead  of  fine  wool,  our  market  will  fail 
us,  for  it  seems  certain  that  we  cannot  compete  with 
the  Western  feeders  and  their  cheap  feed,  with  the 
Eastern  shepherd  and  his  unrivaled  market  facilities, 
nor  with  the  Southerner  to  whom  profit  is  assured  by 
a  salubrious  climate  that  permits  the  sheep  to  browse 
on  luxuriant  pasture  at  all  seasons.  canuck. 
Sheep,  Rape  and  Bones. 
HOW  THEY  SAVED  AN  ENGLISH  FARM. 
A  poor  farm  with  moor  fields  ;  Twitch  Grass  the  chief 
crop ;  one  loft  for  a  12-acre  crop  ;  a  grass  rotation; 
ground  bone  on  roots;  rape  high  enough  to  hide  lambs; 
from  GO  to  170  sheep  ! 
During  as  long  a  period  as  my  memory  covers,  rape 
has  been  grown  as  a  regular  and  recognized  crop  in 
rotations  on  the  carboniferous  limestone  soils  of  Der¬ 
byshire.  In  the  year  1836,  my  father  became  tenant 
of  a  farm  called  Low  Fields,  which  at  that  time  was 
in  a  worn-out  and  woe-begone  condition,  the  arable 
portion  of  it  having  been  exhausted  by  repeated  crop¬ 
pings  under  careless  cultivation,  and  by  the  absence 
of  fertilizers ;  the  permanent  pastures  were  stricken 
with  poverty  for  want  of  phosphates  that  had  been 
carried  away  by  centuries  of  stock-raising  and  milking, 
without  any  return ;  and  the  meadows  yielded  small 
crops  of  inferior  hay,  because  no  manure  had  been  ap¬ 
plied  to  them  except  that  which  had  been  made  by  the 
consumption  of  the  forage  which  the  farm  produced 
from  year  to  year.  No  cake  or  corn  or  manures  were 
purchased  in  those  days,  save  by  a  few  plucky  farmers, 
who  may  now  be  regarded  as  the  pioneers  of  modern 
progressive  agriculture,  which  was  just  then  commen¬ 
cing.  In  the  first  third  of  the  current  century,  indeed, 
farms  were  still  self-sustaining,  just  as  they  had 
always  aforetime  been,  when  superphosphates  had  not 
been  made,  when  the  value  of  bones  as  manure  was 
only  half  under-stood,  and  when  guano  and  nitrate  of 
soda  were  lying  undisturbed  on  the  islands  of  the 
Pacific  and  the  plateaus  of  Peru. 
The  Low  Fields  Farm  was  320  acres,  or  half  of  a 
square  mile.  But  it  was  not  rectangular,  or  even  com¬ 
pact.  The  homestead  was  in  the  valley,  with  meadows 
and  pastures  around  it ;  the  latter  stretching  away  up 
to,the  moor,  where  all  the  arable  land  lay.  It  was  a 
“mixed”  farm,  well  adapted  to  the  purpose,  and  the 
stock  it  would  carry  at  the  first  were  25  dairy  cows, 
and  about  60  breeding  ewes,  with  a  relative  number  of 
young  stock  of  both  kinds,  and  the  necessary  horses 
for  working  the  arable 
land,  which  was  about 
half  of  the  area  of  the 
farm.  The  whole  of  the 
arable  soil  rested  imme¬ 
diately  on  the  limestone 
rock,  which  in  many 
places  came  through  to 
the  surface  ;  but  most  of 
the  fields  in  the  valley 
rested  on  clay  or  on  shale 
as  the  subsoil,  and  most 
of  the  land  was  naturally 
wet  in  consequence.  But 
all  the  arable  land  was 
naturally  dry  and  sound, 
though  of  a  fairly  reten¬ 
tive  nature,  and  readily 
responded  to  good  treat¬ 
ment.  The  whole  of  the 
arable  land  was  full  of 
Twitch  Grass  (Triticum 
repens)  ,a  pestiferous  weed 
in  most  parts  of  England. 
Well  do  I  remember  hear¬ 
ing  my  father  say  that,  in 
the  first  year  of  his  ten¬ 
ancy,  the  oat  crop  off  a  12- 
acre  field  was  readily  put 
away  in  a  loft  over  a 
“shippon”  containing 
eight  cows  ;  and  this  was 
land  which  afterwards 
grew  40-bushels- to- the- 
acre  crops  of  oats,  and 
straw  in  proportion. 
The  subject  of  “rape,” 
suggested  this  article  to 
my  mind,  when  I  read 
Prof.  Shaw’s  interesting 
and  valuable  article  on  the 
same  topic,  on  page  18  of 
The  Rural.  Rape,  how¬ 
ever,  was  the  crop  by 
means  of  which  my  father 
raised  the  stock-carrying 
capacity  of  his  farm  to  45  dairy  cows,  and  170  breeding 
ewes,  with  young  ones  in  proportion  !  When  he  came  to 
the  farm  there  was  nothing  like  a  regular  or  systematic 
cropping  rotation,  but  all  land  laid  down  to  grass  was 
laid  down  with  an  oat  crop — that  is,  the  grass  seeds 
were  sown  when  the  oats  were  coming  through  to  the 
surface — and  the  land  remained  under  grass  until  it 
was  wanted  for  plowing  again,  or  until  it  was  fit  to 
grow  two  or  three  more  crops  of  oats.  During  the 
time  it  was  in  grass  it  was  grazed  by  sheep  and  young 
cattle,  and  was  supposed  to  rest  and  become  tolerably 
fertile  again. 
My  father  at  the  outset  established  a  definite  rota¬ 
tion  as  follows  :  1st  year,  oats;  2d  year,  oats ;  3d  year, 
roots  ;  4th  year,  rape  and  grass  seeds  ;  5th  year,  grass. 
Indeed,  thi  land  commonly  lay  about  three  or  four 
A  GROUP  OF  CANADIAN  ROADSIDE  SHEEP.  Fig.  68. 
