1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
427 
to call up Glista 2nd, and say: “You are a fraud 
and a humbug 1 . You weigh 1,000 pounds, and there 
is pure blood in your veins. You have eaten $43.80 
worth of my hard-earned food, and I have put $15 80 
worth of honest labor on you. You have given me 
only $51.36 worth of milk, or $48.23 worth of butter; 
what have you done with the rest ? ‘ Behind thee 
stalks the headsman ! ’ Away and let the butcher’s axe 
throw the parting shadow over thy ignoble life. 
‘ Never more be officer of mine ! ’ ” That is what the 
Cornell folks said, for Glista 2nd graduated into beef. 
There are lots of other interesting facts in this bul¬ 
letin, that we would like to give if we had the space. 
The one great truth that we want to bring before 
your mind is that in every dairy herd there are thieves 
and humbugs. Some of your cows are eating a silk 
dress off your wife’s back. You can’t pick out the 
frauds by their personal appearance. Some of the 
greatest humbugs are dressed in the finest clothing. 
Babcock & Scales are the only detectives that make 
a specialty of cow roguery. Won’t you be progressive 
enough to hire them ? 
THE MAKING OF SHROPSHIRE MUTTON MAKERS 
DOGS, LAMBS, PASTURES AND SHEDS. 
Mr. G. E. Brf;ck, of the Willows Stock Farm, Paw 
Paw, Mich., has imported and bred some fine sheep. 
all that we would allow for a week on a five-acre field 
before we changed.” 
“ What kind are your permanent fences ? ” 
“ Some of them are of ash rails with oak blocks. 
We build them eight rails high because we use the 
same pasture for cattle and horses. There is a great 
deal of the pasture thai. would be lost if devoted ex¬ 
clusively to sheep, for the horses and cattle eat grasses 
that the sheep leave untouched. The sheep eat down 
close, and avoid larger grasses that the horses and 
horn cattle eat.” 
“ What kind of movable fences do you use ? ” 
“ They are made in panels of boards 10 feet long. 
The panels are made of six-inch boards, three to a 
panel, and the panels are fastened together with wire. 
They are placed in a zigzag position so that the ends 
support each other. The sheep never try a fence 
at all.” 
“ When do the ewes lamb ? ” 
“ They commence in March and continue until the 
middle of April—a period of probably six weeks.” 
“ What is the greatest number you have on one farm 
at one time ? ” 
“ Last year I had about 350.” 
“ Among these, how many rams did you have ?” 
“ The proportion would be about one ram to 50 or 60 
ewes for breeding purposes.” 
useful in other work when not needed with the shep¬ 
herd. Except in the busy sale season—from August 1 
to December 1—the shepherd cares for ill the sheep, 
cleans the barns and helps get in hay and straw.” 
The Food for the Sheep. 
“ How many months in the summer do you let the 
sheep exclusively on pasture ?” 
“ From May 1 until November i.” 
“ What do you feed during the winter ?” 
“ Ensilage, oats, bran and roots and clover hay. In 
the fall we commence by feeding roots, until they are 
too cold to handle or feed, then feed ensilage and after 
that is exhausted—about March 1—we go back to the 
roots again.” 
“ Ilow much ensilage do you give a ewe ?” 
“ We put in a certain quantity for a lot together and 
feed them together at the rate of 40 pounds of ensil¬ 
age to about 10 sheep.” 
“ How many times a day ?” 
“ Twice—night and morning.” 
“ What kind of coarse fodder do you use ?” 
“ Clover hay, corn stalks and bright straw, changing 
the feed occasionally until lambing time, when the 
ewes get only clover hay.” 
“ What rotation of crops do you follow ? ” 
“ Something like this: clover, roots, corn, oats, seed- 
The “ Scrub ” Sue. First in Fat, Second in Milk. Fig. 150. 
Beauty (Jersey Grade). Third in Fat. Fig. 151, 
I 
Freddie (Holstein Grade). 
First in Milk, Second in Fat. 
Fig. 153. 
Puss (Holstein Grade). First in Looks, but Third in Milk. Fig. 152. 
In a recent interview he gave us the following facts 
about his method of handling sheep. 
“Do you breed animals for any other than for breed¬ 
ing purposes?” 
“ I have never sold an animal except for breeding 
purposes—never for the butcher.” 
“ How do you keep the dogs away ? ” 
“ I fold the sheep every night, especially the ewes 
that have lambs with them, but in addition to that I 
give my shepherds and the men on the f< rm $1 each 
for all the strange dogs they will kill on the farm. 
They used to get quite a good many, but they don’t 
get so many now. Their income has been quite re¬ 
duced. The vagabond dogs are getting shy, or scarce.” 
“ Have you had any interference with dogs at all 
within recent years ? ” 
“ It has been a year and a half since we had any 
disturbance at all, but we did have considerable at the 
start, and some we killed, but since then we have not 
had any trouble with them at all. Our men keep 
pretty close watch on them during the day.” 
“ Are the sheep kept in one large run, or are they 
fenced off in different pastures ? ” 
“We use permanent and movable fences ; that is to 
say, we have one great boundary fence, and then we 
move the fences inside this inclosure. We don’t leave 
the animals very long in any one field, preferring to 
change frequently. Forty sheep would probably be 
“ What kind of structures do you house them in at 
night ? ” 
“ We have both sheds and barns, and then we have 
several open yards with high board fences, and wire 
fences around them so the dogs can’t get in at night.” 
“ Are the sheds and barns any great distance from 
the pasture ?” 
“ Only about half a mile from any pasture that 
we use.” 
“ When do you begin to market the lambs and how 
old are they at the time ?” 
“I begin to sell at weaning time when they are 
from four to five months old. I don’t care to sell 
lambs, as I prefer to keep them until they are year¬ 
lings when they command a better price ; but I am 
ready to accommodate a customer when he insists on 
having a lamb.’ 
“ Do you make any effort to keep the sheep separ¬ 
ated in different lots or herds ?” 
“ Rams and ewes are kept separate and yearlings 
and younger sheep are kept by themselves. I don’t 
like to put over 40 or 50 together. Sheep will not bear 
crowding as much as other animals.” 
“ How about your help? Do you have a man for 
every 40 sheep ?” 
“ I have one man that does nothing else but take 
care of the sheep. He has an assistant who gives him 
help as occasion requires. This man makes himself 
ing to clover with the oats. We use a great many 
roots. We have permanent pastures seeded to many 
different varieties of grasses, so as to insure a good 
succession of pasture all through the season. We grow 
no wheat at all, and put all the corn in the silo, re¬ 
serving none for dry feeding. Oats are the only grain 
we grow, and we buy bran and oil meal. In our busi¬ 
ness we have no need of any fattening grain. We want 
only the foods that promote growth and vigor.” 
“ Where do your sheep come from ? ” 
“ I get them mostly from Shropshire, (County Salop) 
England. I keep nothing but imported purebred 
sheep and their progeny.” 
“ What are the features of the Shropshires ? ” 
“Early maturity, fine-flavored meat, with lean and 
fat in proper proportion, good, medium-length wool, 
and a reasonably heavy fleece. My breeding ewes 
average 11 pounds of wool. The animals are very 
hardy and have a strong, thrifty constitution. They 
thrive in almost any climate. I seldom have an animal 
off its feed. They are always ready for a ration. The 
average weight of the best Shropshire ewes in breed¬ 
ing condition is 185 pounds, and 20 to 40 pounds more 
may be put on when fitted for show. We are not a 
mutton-eating people, for the reason that we don’t 
know what good mutton is, and we won’t know until 
these mutton breeds get to be so numerous that we 
can afford to sell them for mutton purposes. At pres- 
