1894 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
9>^ feet between the rows of stanchions which is 
rather narrow for feeding purposes. 
A better plan is to build stalls, especially if the cows 
can be watered in the stable, and are to be kept in for 
six or seven months of the year. As before, the walk 
behind the cows may be feet and the gutter 1^4 
feet, and from the gutter to the front of stalls feet 
for cows of medium size. Width of stall 3K feet. 
Length of side of stall feet. The stalls may be 
boarded 41^ feet high, but in front an open space 20 
inches next the floor may be left for feeding purposes. 
The floor between the rows of stalls will be feet 
wide, but this space is protected from the cows by the 
boarding, will be found all right for feeding hay, and 
will do for a narrow car for ensilage.. In my stable 
the feeding floor is feet wide and is wide enough 
for all practical purposes. Good stanchions were 
thrown aside and stalls built three years ago. The 
cows are kept in through the winter, and the stalls 
are thought to be much better than stanchions. The 
floor behind the cows is wide enough so that a sleigh 
or wagon is used and the manure ‘is drawn directly 
from the stable to the field. c. s. rick. 
Lowville, N. Y. 
Handy Way to Clean Out. 
I know of no better plan than the one shown at Fig. 
59. The manure reservoir extends the whole length 
of the barn, and should be at least two feet square 
with the drops behind the cows running into the reser¬ 
voir on the top. To clean the reservoir, have it 
elevated enough at the lower end to drive the wagon 
under ; it will need cleaning only once a week. Have 
a suitable sheet-iron scraper to fit the reservoir with a 
light chain a few feet longer than the trench attached, 
put in a pulley outside of the stable; put the scraper 
behind a load of manure and with the team draw it 
out on the vehicle, whatever it may be. The small 
drops behind the stock can be readily cleaned as often 
as desired and very quickly. The reservoir is to be 
covered with trap doors made in suitable sections of 
two-inch plank, to open against the outside of the 
barn when cleaning and when down to make a walk 
for the stock. If properly made, this manner of hand¬ 
ling the manure saves the whole, liquids and solids, 
and time in handling; these items are of immense 
value in these times of close competition. 
Liberty, N. Y. R. w. Gregory. 
'^AN IDEA IN GRAFTING. 
Here is an idea in grafting that I have never seen in 
print. It is practical and quick, because there is no 
waiting for something to grow. See Fig. 60. I saw an 
article in The R. N.-Y. on grafting Paragon chestnuts 
that made me think my way the quickest. Saw the 
tree to be grafted two inches below the surface of the 
ground ; then with a fine saw cut a V-shape three 
inches in depth perpendicularly tapering to a point at 
the bottom. Cut the scion at the lower end to corre¬ 
spond with the cut in the stump, being careful to make 
the bark of the scion match the inner bark of the 
stump; then pack the soil firmly about the graft 
and cover the stump level with the surface of the 
surrounding soil. Scions should be of the ordinary 
size for cleft grafting. No tying or waxing will be 
needed. The gain by this method is that one year’s 
time is saved, as we do not have to wait for the growth 
of new shoots on which to graft, t. s. 
Altamont Springs, Fla. 
An Onion Experiment. —Last year I reported to the 
readers of The R. N.-Y. two carefully conducted ex¬ 
periments in onion raising by the use of chemical fer¬ 
tilizers alone. That this year’s experiment may be 
more fully understood, a brief statement of facts con¬ 
tained in that paper is herewith submitted : 
1891— One acre in onions. Land too poor for corn ; 
no yard manure ; 1,200 pounds of fertilizers : Number 
of bushels of onions, 360; total expense, $95.70; re¬ 
ceipts, $162 ; net profit, $66 30. 
1892 — Same land. No yard manure ; 1,460 pounds of 
fertilizers: Number of bushels of onions, 300; total 
expense, $120.75 ; receipts, $200 ; net profit, $79 25. 
1893 — This year having a large amount of well rot¬ 
ted manure, I applied 40 loads, charging 50 cents per 
load, also 1,000 pounds of fertilizer: Number of 
bushels of onions, 375 ; total expense, $190 50 ; re¬ 
ceipts, $225 ; net profit, $34.50. The weeding cost, 
first year, $30.50; second year, $32.05; third year, 
$60.55. This land certainly appeared to need humus ; 
and yet it was not a wise procedure to apply 40 loads 
of manure in place of its cash value in chemical ferti¬ 
lizers. In the latter case the total amount of chemical 
manure (including that which was used) would be 
something over one ton. This, the record indicates, 
would have largely increased the total yield of onions, 
lessened the expense of the crop and certainly in¬ 
creased my net profit. Notice that, with the yard 
manure, the expense of weeding was nearly doubled ; 
besides there was some bad talk—by the hired man of 
course (?) The coming year, I purpose, with 1,000 
pounds of fertilizer, to plant that acre to potatoes and 
make more money with less labor. Can I do it ? 
Cornwall, Vt. n. w, peex. 
THE FUTURE OF SHEEP FARMING. 
FOOD AND CARE VS RI.OOD. 
Free Trade Has No Terrors for Mutton. 
THE SUBJECT CONSIDERED. 
1. The future of the sheep Industry. 
2. Sheep fitted to the conditions. 
3. Food and care t’s, blood In Us production. 
(Concluded.) 
Blood Not Everything. 
Say that I ignore blood ? Far from it. I place great 
value on blood, but blood is not everything. Blood is 
only valuable as it has potency behind it. What I 
contend for is that there is something beyond and 
above blood from which this potency comes. Nature is 
very kind to all her creatures. She is ever ready to 
meet half way all who court her, and she will surely 
and quite rapidly change an animal to correspond with 
its change of food and environment. Where in all 
the world will you find such perfect physical develop¬ 
ment as in the oat-eating Scotchman and English 
horse ? Contrast, if you will, the oat-eating men of 
Scotland with the blubber-eating Eskimo. Contrast 
the English Draft horse with the Shetland pony. All 
originally from the same blood, and yet now how dif¬ 
ferent ! What, then, is the cause of these great varia¬ 
tions ? 
It Is Food and Care. 
By care I mean environment, surroundings. It is a 
well-known fact that the physical, mental and moral 
development of a natim may be accurately judged by 
their food. But do I believe that it would be possible 
to start with our common sheep and by any possible 
system of feeding and care, to develop a sheep of the 
long-wool or Down type ? I answer most assuredly, 
yes. But it would take too long a time and cost too 
much in care, in these days of electricity and steam. 
We would better, by far, start with what has already 
been evolved by many generations of food and care. 
I place great stress upon blood, blood which has been 
enriched by generations and generations of a special 
line of feeding and care. But this blood, not to dis 
A New Wrinki.k in Grafting. Pig. 60. 
appoint us, must have its potency kept up and reen¬ 
forced by the same line of feeding and care that has 
produced it. 
Americans Are Getting Wild. 
Since the paramount importance of mutton has be¬ 
come so apparent, our people are getting wild. They 
seem to think that to buy a few pure bloods of 
some of the English mutton breeds, or a thoroughbred 
ram to turn loose with our common sheep, are all that 
is needed to change our sheep industry into the mutton 
channel. I desire to sound a note of warning. I see 
our people foolishly throwing away millions and mil¬ 
lions of their hard-earned dollars. 
Two Breeds of Sheep in America. 
I said we had two breeds of sheep which had been 
developed in America, the American Merino and the 
common sheep. The one the result of the greatest 
care and most judicious line of feeding. Pastured on 
the very rich herbage of the Vermont hills, supple¬ 
mented by an abundance of nitrogenous food. Care¬ 
fully housed from every rain drop and as constantly 
protected from the sun and rain by an impervious 
blanket, it has developed into a sheep no where 
equaled as a wool producer. The other, by constant 
neglect, has resulted in a race with smaller bodies and 
longer legs ; aativa and reliant; capable of picking a 
183 
living in scanty pastures, and among rocks and 
bushes, and living for weeks with no water but such 
as could be got from the dew-laden herbage. They 
are light shearers but have a constitution and hardiness 
nowhere else found. If we take the special bred and 
special fed sheep of England and subject them to the 
same neglect and want of care that our common sheep 
get, we shall raise only scrubs. The worst of all is the 
thoroughbred scrub. 
Study Conditions. 
Before engaging in raising any of the Euglish mutton 
breeds, it is well to study the conditions which have 
produced such splendid results. They are reared in a 
much milder climate than ours, with far more rain 
and that more evenly distributed through the year. 
The season of pasture is longer than our summer and 
the growth of grass is more uniform and abundant. 
The pasture consists of a fine mixture of grasses of 
which Timothy forms no part. 
Notwithstanding the fine character of the pastures, 
nearly all sheep in England have some food supple¬ 
mental to the pasture every day of the year. These foods 
are all of a nitrogenous character, and the sheep never 
pass a day in the year without succulent food. The 
extra food consists of turnips, rutabagas, mangolds, 
sainfoin, vetch, rape, cabbage, beans, peas, linseed 
cake, barley and wheat bran. Indian corn and corn 
fodder form no part. In fact, it never enters into 
their food except for a very shore time in finishing off 
a bunch for the block. Contrast this with the manner 
in which our sheep are fed. Turned away in the 
springtime upon some bleak, rocky hillside or into 
some bush pasture and never seen except on an occa¬ 
sional Sunday morning to be salted, with no water sup¬ 
ply except the dew or an occasional shower. Never a 
mouthful of supplemental food, even though the grass 
be eaten to its very roots. When frost has killed the 
last vestige of herbage, they are brought down to the 
home farm and turned into some eaten-out cow pas¬ 
ture and there compelled to run for the winter, many 
times with no shelter. Their food consists of corn 
stalks or swale or Timothy hay. If they get any grain 
at all toward spring, it is corn. All the succulent 
food they have is what little grass they can paw out 
from under the snow. Is it any wonder that English 
mutton is so much better than ours ? The wonder is 
that ours is as good as it is. I have sometimes thought 
that corn is a curse to the American sheep breeder. 
We grow it here so abundantly, easily and cheaply 
that we lose sight of the fact that it is not a suitable 
food to be given so exclusively to our flocks. 
Mutton is What We Make It. 
The experiments made at Madison in pig feeding, 
and at Cornell in lamb feeding, show most conclusively 
that the character of the meat made on growing 
animals is very largely controlled by the food given. 
That where the carbohydrates form the most of the 
food, the carcass will be very fat and the fat hard and 
crumbly. That there will be little flesh or lean meat 
and that dry and hard. That on the other hand, 
where the food is mainly nitrogenous, a large propor¬ 
tion of flesh or lean meat is produced, and that more 
tender and the fat is much more oily and yielding. 
That where much succulent food is given, the meat 
will be more j aicy. These facts being true, it is easy 
to see that mutton can be made to order, lean or fat, 
and as what produces lean meat also produces a large 
growth of wool, sheep properly fed will give large 
carcasses of lean meat, tender and j uicy, and a heavy 
fleece of wool also. 
Must we continue to import sheep to maintain qual¬ 
ity or can we grow as good at home ? This is a vital 
question to the flock masters. So long as we depend 
upon corn as our main feeding stuff, and make our 
sheep mere walking corn cribs, we shall find a con¬ 
tinual and rapid deterioration. The get of our fat, 
corn-fed sheep are less able to impart to their offspring 
these desirable mutton qualities than were their par¬ 
ents. Each succeeding generation will show an 
acceleration of this trouble, and we shall be com¬ 
pelled to go to the Mother Country and trade our gold 
for blood. But I am an American, proud of my country 
and my birthright, and I fondly hope to see the day 
when we shall be able to do with sheep as we have 
already done with cattle—furnisih England with bet¬ 
ter stock than she has at home. 
We have a better climate than she, one much more 
congenial for sheep development; less diseases and 
parasitic enemies. If our grasses do not grow so 
luxuriously and constantly as hers they are far more 
nutritious. Clover, that best of all forage plants for 
the sheep, grows a hundred times better here than 
there and then we have an abundance of the by-pro¬ 
ducts of which she must import. When we awaken 
to the necessities of the case, and apply our energies 
in doing our best, we shall find food and care more 
potent than blood, and working on this line produce 
the best mutton sheep in th« world, J. s. woodwabd. 
