443 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
should  be  given  each  lamb  in  four  times  that  quantity 
of  milk.  Treatment  in  this  way  once  or  twice  will  re¬ 
move  the  trouble.  The  ewes  during  the  summer  are 
greatly  annoyed  by  attacks  from  the  gad  fly  ((Estrus 
ovis)  the  larvie  of  which  originate  what  is  commonly 
called  “  grub  in  the  head.”  The  discharge  of  matter 
from  the  nostrils  of  sheep  during  the  winter  season  is 
generally  due  to  the  ravages  of  the  larvae  of  this  fly  in 
the  nostril  passages.  At  that  time  perhaps  the  best 
means  of  getting  rid  of  these  pests  is  to  smoke  them 
out  with  tobacco  smoke  by  means  of  a  pipe  and  hand¬ 
kerchief.  But  the  best  move  can  be  made  at  the  pres¬ 
ent  season  by  smearing  the  noses  of  the  sheep  with 
pine  tar.  A  less  thorough  way  is  to  place  the  tar  on 
the  salting  places  of  the  sheep.  This  trouble  seldom  f 
causes  death,  but  it  is  exceedingly  disagreeable  to  have 
it  in  a  flock.  The  fatal  disease  that  is  often  con¬ 
founded  with  this  is  “  gid  or  sturdy,”  produced  by  one 
of  the  tape  worms  (Tcenia  ccenurns).  This  disorder 
gives  rise  to  giddiness  on  the  part  of  the  sheep,  as  the 
worm  in  time  reaches  the  brain.  It  is  impracticable 
to  combat  it. 
Taking  Out  the  Culi.s. — When  the  ewes  and  lambs 
have  been  separated,  the  former  should  be  reviewed 
to  cull  out  those  that  are  not  likely  to  be  profitable 
another  year.  The  more  one  knows  about  sheep  the 
more  easily  are  differences  found  and  the  greater  do 
these  appear.  It  is  not  fair  to  make  age  the  single 
measure  of  a  sheep’s  utility.  As  long  as  the  animals 
retain  their  teeth  and  are  otherwise  lusty  it  would  be 
unwise  to  condemn  them  to  the  butcher.  Some  shee’p 
will  lose  their  teeth  when  six  years  of  age.  while 
others  retain  a  full  set  of  sound  ones  until  twice  that 
age.  Non-breeders  should  be  at  once  fattened  for  the 
butcher.  It  is  hard  to  do  so,  as  they  are  generally  the 
smoothest  and  straightest  of  the  flock.  The  selection 
of  the  lambs  that  are  to  become  members  of  the  flock 
requires  fine  discrimination  and  good  foresight.  It  is 
safest  to  magnify  the  little  faults,  for  they  will  usually 
grow  into  more  prominent  ones  and  it  is  well  to 
<  n large  the  small  excellences,  for  they  too  will  de¬ 
velop  into  greater.  It  is  very  desirable  for  both 
beauty  and  utility  to  secure  uniformity  of  type  as 
closely  as  potsible.  For  a  small  flock  of  even  ewes  it 
is  easy  to  choose  a  ram  that  will  correct  the  faults  that 
may  exist  among  them.  It  cannot  be  done  if  they  are 
dissimilar  in  tyre.  Further,  a  uniform  flock  of  ewes 
will  produce  lambs  that  will  make  a  pleasing  bunch 
for  the  butcher.  JOHN  a.  ckaig. 
a  Clun  Forest  Sheep. 
The  English  Mark  Lane  Express  says  the  picture 
shown  at  Fig.  195  is  an  excellent  likeness  of  this  breed 
of  sheep.  The  Clun  Forest  sheep  are  found  in  the 
woods  and  hills  of  Wales  and  adjoining  counties. 
The  Mark  Lane  Express  says  of  them  : 
'The  Clun  Forest  sheep  as  it  formerly  existed  was  a 
white-faced  breed,  being  one  of  the  many  offshoots 
of  the  Ryeland  breed  of  Herefordshire,  which  mi¬ 
grated  to  the  large  forest  of  Clun,  a  tract  of  20,000 
acres  of  particularly  rich  common  land  in  the  south¬ 
west  corner  of  Shropshire.  The  Ryeland  breed  orig¬ 
inally  roved  on  the  poor  sand  land  forests  which  cov¬ 
ered  parts  of  Herefordshire,  and  on  these  poor  soils 
the  breed  was  diminutive,  but  possessed  wool  of  phe¬ 
nomenally  fine  quality,  and  mutton  of  excellent 
flavor.  When  a  portion  of  the  breed  established  it¬ 
self  on  the  more  favorable  soil  in  Shropshire  it  devel¬ 
oped  more  meat  and  wool,  but  with  that  strange 
instinct  which  is  common  among  sheep,  they  did  not 
associate  with  the  surrounding  breeds,  so  that  until 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century  it  was  still  a 
white-faced  breed.  The  inclosing  of  the  land  and  the 
more  direct  controlling  of  the  animals  caused  Na¬ 
ture's  rule  to  be  broken,  and  the  neighboring  breeds 
intercrossed,  so  that  portraits  taken  in  the  early  part 
of  the  century  represent  the  breed  as  being  white, 
with  a  few  black  spots  on  the  face  and  legs.  The 
crossing  with  the  Radnor  Forest  and  the  Shropshire 
Down  has  been  so  common  of  late  years  that  except 
among  the  carefully  selected  flocks  there  is  little  to 
distinguish  them  from  the  better  of  the  Radnor  Forest 
sheep,  both  now  showing  to  a  marked  degree  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  the  Shropshire  Down. 
Among  the  better  selected  Clun  Forest  flocks  a  type 
is  being  formed,  the  features  of  which  may  be  briefly 
summarized  as  follows  :  A  head  of  medium  strength, 
with  slightly  Roman  nose,  well  covered  with  wool  on 
the  top,  a  bright,  intelligent  face  of  a  tan  or  fawn- 
and-w Rite  color :  ears  from  small  to  medium,  also 
mottled,  not  drooping  ;  scrag  full,  and  brisket  good  ; 
girth  round  the  heart  decidedly  good  for  a  breed 
which  has  received  so  little  encouragement  from  the 
selector  or  breed  maker :  fore-quarters,  generally  also 
heavy  for  a  roving  breed,  contrasting  favorably  with 
the  Iiadnors  ;  loin  good,  and  hind-quarters  generally 
extremely  well  developed  ;  the  tail  broad  and  long. 
'The  wool  on  the  fore-quarters  is  of  remarkably  fine 
texture,  that  on  the  hind-quarters  not  quite  so  good, 
and  inclined  to  breechiness  or  hairyness,  probably 
owing  to  the  crossings  with  other  local  breeds,  for 
the  old  Ryeland  was  exempt  from  breechiness.  The 
legs  are  mottled  black  and  white  or  tan  and  white. 
Besides  this  the  breed  is  particularly  handy  and  pro¬ 
lific,  and  the  ewes  are,  without  exception,  yood 
milkers. 
This  is  a  tough,  hardy  sheep,  capable  of  adding 
vigor  and  quality  to  almost  any  flock  of  mutton  sheep. 
'The  opinio;  in  England  seems  to  be  that  this  sheep 
has  a  great  future.  The  Royal  Agricultural  Society 
of  England  has  made  a  separate  class  for  this  breed 
at  its  annual  exhibition. 
A  Jerseyman’s  Journey. 
Part  II. 
Lessening  the  Cost  of  Production. 
We  Jersey  farmers  are  supposed  to  have  a  great  ad¬ 
vantage  in  being  so  near  big  markets.  Yet,  as  I  have 
said,  I  believe  the  proportion  of  discontented  farmers 
is  greater  with  us  than  in  central  New  York.  We  have 
expenses  and  troubles  that  a  farmer  like  Mr.  Chapman 
knows  little  about.  He  raises  nearly  50  per  cent  more 
of  the  things  used  in  his  family  than  we  do.  Grain, 
meat,  sugar,  even  bread  we  buy  of  the  miller,  butcher, 
grocer  and  baker.  The  baker’s  wagon  is  now  a  com¬ 
mon  sight  among  our  farms.  Many  of  us  do  not  raise 
rye  and  corn  enough  to  feed  the  farm  team.  Our  bills 
“Say  Nothing  but  Saw  Wood.”  Fig.  196. 
for  manure  and  fertilizers  are  enormous.  We  are 
obliged  to  buy  lots  of  nitrogen  for  such  quick-growing 
crops  as  sweet  corn,  Limas  and  melons,  and  many  of 
our  farms  are  so  small  and  high-priced  that  we  cannot 
use  clover  as  we  would  like.  Without  clover  and  live 
stock  our  manure  bills  are  about  the  heaviest  item  of 
expense.  Help  is  poor  and  unsatisfactory.  We  can 
get  plenty  of  stout  hands  in  the  city,  but  they  need 
constant  watching  and  expect  to  be  treated  as  semi¬ 
slaves.  It  is  a  great  rarity  to  see  a  young  American 
hiring  out  at  farm  work.  The  younger  men  strike  for 
the  towns  and  cities— nine  out  of  ten  of  them  content 
to  be  drudges  and  underlings  rather  than  farmers. 
These  are  some  of  the  disadvantages  met  by  farmers 
near  large  cities.  These  circumstances  add  to  the  cost 
of  growing  our  products.  A  man  near  a  big  city  must 
be  a  special  farmer  or  a  drudge.  Special  farming  re¬ 
quires  a  nerve,  a  courage  and  intelligence  that  not 
over  10  per  cent  of  us  as  farmers  can  muster  up. 
Now,  the  farmers  in  central  New  York  while  they 
cannot  get  our  prices  or  grow  our  special  crops  suc¬ 
cessfully,  get  the  cost  of  production  so  far  below  ours 
that  they  can,  with  judgment,  beat  us.  In  the  mat¬ 
ter  of  food,  the  farms  supply  twice  the  family  wants 
that  ours  do.  Their  farms  are  larger  and  of  better 
shape  than  ours.  They  can  use  clover  systematically 
and  many  of  them  do  not  use  fertilizers  at  all.  The 
farm  labor  problem  is  not  so  serious.  Foreigners  have 
not  yet  driven  out  American  labor  as  they  nearly  have 
with  us.  At  Ithaca  I  saw  for  the  first  time  in  two 
years  a  gang  of  American  laborers  working  in  a  ditch. 
In  this  part  of  the  country  the  Italians  monopolize  all 
such  labor.  The  result  is  that  farmers’  boys  stay 
longer  and  more  readily  on  the  farm  than  with  us,  and 
farm  work  has  more  dignity  about  it.  A  smart  boy 
doesn’t  like  to  put  himself  at  the  side  of  one  of  these 
filthy,  ignorant  Italians  except  as  a  “boss,”  and  I 
don't  much  blame  him. 
In  the  long  run,  therefore,  I  think  a  skillful  farmer 
in  Central  New  York  has  as  good  a  business  show  as 
one  who  is  close  by  a  city.  I  speak  of  the  average — 
not  the  one  out  of  ten  who  seems  fitted  by  nature  to 
become  a  gardener  or  small  fruit  grower.  One  trouble 
lS  that  lots  of  natural  gardeners  are  trying  to  do  gen¬ 
eral  farming  buck  in  these  rural  couuties  while  others 
are  trying  to  do  general  farming  within  an  hour’s  ride 
of  New  ’’l  ork.  Both  are  disappointed;  one  because  he 
cannot  get  the  other’s  price  for  small  fruits  ov  vege¬ 
tables,  and  the  other  because  hisgrain,  grass  and  pota¬ 
toes  cost  too  much  to  grow  on  natural  garden  land. 
1  he  Tompkins  County  farmer,  selling  butter,  eggs,  hay, 
potatoes,  wheat  and  apples  can  make  as  much  money 
as  the  farmer  near  a  big  citjq  if  he  will  study  the  best 
ways  of  cutting  down  the  cost  of  production.  My 
judgment  is  that  most  of  them  keep  too  much  stock. 
I  would  keep  fewer  cows  and  sell  more  hay — spending 
the  money  now  spent  for  Western  grain  for  high-grade 
chemical  fertilizers.  Unless  a  cow  can  get  300  pounds 
of  butter  out  of  her  food  every  year,  it  will  be  hard  to 
get  market  prices  for  hay  and  grain  and  day  wages 
for  labor  out  of  present  butter  prices.  Unless  some¬ 
thing  is  done  to  stop  the  sale  of  bogus  butter,  dairy 
prices  are  bound  to  be  low,  and  only  those  dairymen 
who  do  business  enough  to  warrant  them  in  using 
every  modern  convenience  can  cut  the  cost  of  produc¬ 
tion  down  so  that  there  is  money  in  the  business.  The 
man  who  keeps  25  or  30  cows  and  makes  a  specialty  of 
dairying  can  do  this,  but  the  farmer  with  only  half  a 
dozen  cows  is  at  a  disadvantage,  and  in  most  cases 
I  think  it  would  pay  him  better  to  measure  the  number 
of  cows  he  can  keep  by  the  grain  feed  he  can  grow 
or  nearly  so.  Or,  if  he  buys  grain  let  the  hens  work 
it  up  rather  than  the  cows.  I  know  it  is  dangerous 
business  to  talk  about  selling  hay  to  these  farmers; 
but  I  still  think  many  of  them  would  have  a  larger 
balance  in  cash  if  they  would  buy  less  Western  grain 
and  more  Eastern  fertilizers,  and  have  more  wheat, 
hay  and  potatoes  for  sale.  I  may  be  wrong,  but  “them’s 
my  sentiments.” 
Home  of  the  “Business  Hen.” 
I  went  to  see  Mr.  Wyckoff,  and  had  a  look  at  some 
of  his  famous  White  Leghorns.  There  is  no  doubt 
about  Mr.  Wyckoff’s  success  with  hens.  The  evidences 
of  it  are  all  about  him.  He  has  about  75  acres  of  land, 
and  grows  about  the  same  crops  as  other  farmers. 
There  is  a  herd  of  eight  cows  that  will  average  300 
pounds  of  butter  a  year  !  1  hese  cows  are  big,  strong 
animals,  some  of  them  with  Jersey  blood,  but  most  of 
them  with  “native”  or  Short-horn  predominating. 
Mr.  Wyckoff  says  he  likes  the  Jersey  blood,  but  not  so 
much  of  it  that  the  animal  will  be  small  and  delicate. 
From  the  looks  of  his  herd,  I  should  say  his  “  business 
cow”  is  a  big,  stout  Jersey  grade,  with  luhgs  and 
stomach  enough  to  make  a  hearty  eater.  Mr.  Wyckoff 
is  a  good  judge  of  cows.  He  buys  what  suits  him,  and 
gives  the  animal  a  careful  test.  If  she  makes  butter 
enough,  she  is  kept  ;  if  not,  off  she  goes.  The  milk 
is  now  set  in  small  pans,  but  a  “  Baby  ”  separator  will 
make  its  appearance  before  long. 
Mr.  Wyckoff,  like  the  other  farmers,  doesn’t  believe 
in  selling  hay.  “  There  is  not  much  money  in  15-cent 
butter,”  he  says,  “  but  feeding  cows  keeps  hay  and 
stalks  all  on  the  place,  and  I  save  the  manure.  Of 
course,  with  his  flock  of  chickens,  he  finds  a  profitable 
use  for  his  skim  milk,  and  such  cows  as  he  keeps  can 
get  about  all  the  fat  there  is  into  the  butter  tub. 
But  the  hen  is  the  mistress  of  his  farm.  The  R. 
N.-'V .-  has  told  all  about  these  White  Leghorns  and 
how  they  are  fed  and  bred  for  layers.  The  flock  of 
600  averaged  nearly  200  eggs  apiece  last  rear.  Think 
of  handling  over  10,000  dozen  eggs,  wiping  and  pack¬ 
ing  them  one  by  one,  and  you  get  an  idea  of  one  small 
job  in  the  hen  business.  Somebody  has  said  that  a 
man  to  succeed  in  the  hen  business  must  be  a  hen  liim- 
self.  Mr.  Wyckoff  is  “  all  hen.”  He  has  watched  and 
studied  his  Leghorns,  to  learn  just  what  will  please 
them  best,  until  he  has  become  a  naturalist  in  this 
line.  He  is  a  student  of  hen  nature,  if  there  ever  was 
one,  and  the  hen  has  rewarded  his  studies  with  the 
degree  of  M.  P. — mortgage  payer. 
There  is  no  use  trying  to  write  about  Mr.  Wyckoff’s 
methods  without  taking  a  whole  page  of  The  R.  N.-Y. 
People  write  him  from  all  parts  of  the  country  asking 
him  to  tell  them  all  about  the  business.  He  can’t  do  it. 
Could  Tennyson  tell  you  just  how  to  write  another 
poem  like  Enoch  Arden  ?  Could  Jay  Gould  send  you  a 
letter  telling  just  how  to  make  a  fortune  in  Wall  street  f 
No  !  No  !  And  you  can’t  learn  how  to  court  the  Busi¬ 
ness  Hen  so  that  she  will  cackle  off  the  mortgage 
without  boarding  and  lodging  with  her  in  the  hen 
house  and  learning  from  her  own  bill  and  comb  what 
will  please  her.  Not  one  man  out  of  a  dozen  has  the 
faith  and  pluck  needed  to  become  the  accepted  lover 
of  a  hen  ! 
Mr.  Wyckoff  says,  “  I  have  no  secrets  about  my  busi¬ 
ness.  Anybody  can  lea^n  it  who  is  willing  to  spend  as 
much  time,  labor  and  patience  as  I  have  on  it.  With 
the  proper  help  and  facilities  I  could  increase  my  egg 
business  to  $50,000  a  year.  In  every  township  east  of 
the  Mississippi  there  is  a  chance  for  10  or  12  good 
farmers  to  do  just  as  I  have  done  without  injuring 
their  neighbors  or  ruining  the  egg  business.  Take 
