to sell. Come and see our silo. Here are stoved 300 
tons of ensilag'e, which is fed to all the stock except 
the horses. I would not know how to do without 
it. In fact, I could not do without it in my 
management of the farm, for it affords the bulk 
or coarseness of the heavy feeding. It allows me to 
sell Timothy hay and buy the cheaper grains.” 
“ Then you sell hay ?” 
“Oh, yes; a great deal of Timothy hay which is 
nearly worthless to feed lambs.” 
first-class mutton and are not good feeders. I like 
best the grade Shropshire and Hampshire Down, but 
as I am not able to get all I want of these, I buy me- 
dium-wooled lambs of other crosses of 60 or 70 pounds 
weight.” 
“ I am greatly interested in your method of feeding 
so many so successfully, for their appearance indi¬ 
cates that they are doing well.” 
“ Yes, they are doing well. I have not lost over 15 
lambs from the lot. I estimate a loss of one per cent 
in bringing them from Buffalo. I calculate a gain of 
two pounds a week per head. There is a lamb there 
that will dress 50 pounds now. There is another that 
will do as well. I do not, however, expect to begin 
to put them cn the market before the middle of Feb¬ 
ruary, and the last will be gone before May 15. The 
men are giving 4.hem their dally feed of clover hay— 
what they will eat up clean. Come this way and see 
what comprises the principal part of their daily ration. 
Here, in this pile, is a bottom layer of ensilage, then 
a layer of equal parts of bran, pea meal and corn which 
are mixed thoroughly together and fed two parts of 
grain and three parts of ensilage by weight. Of this 
I give a light feed, and by the time they have been 
fed around, the first are ready for more. This opera¬ 
tion is repeated night and morning. No more is fed 
than will be eaten clean.” 
“ But did you make no mistakes in learning how 
successfully to feed and handle such a flock ? ” 
“Oh, yes; 1 once fed several bags of cotton-seed 
meal that cost me at least $50 per bag. Several times 
hay may go to the barn all right if the weather has 
been fair. 
As for machinery for haying, a few loaders have 
been introduced, but have almost entirely been laid 
aside, “ side-tracked,” by our cheap labor (40 cents to 
60 cents per day). The common horse mower and 
hay rakes are the rule on the larger farms, but thou¬ 
sands of tons of hay are now saved and well and 
cheaply handled by hand mowers and the horse rake. 
This cheap labor can be profitably utilized in hay¬ 
making at times, especially in the intervals between 
the making and harvesting of crops. The greatest 
question in Southern agriculture yet to be answered, 
is why the South purchases more hay than all the rest 
of our country, and yet we have a hay season prac¬ 
tically reaching over seven moi.ths of the year with 
not a week’s interval that some sort of the dozens of 
hay plants may not be harvested. All our hay comes 
from a region where the hay-producing crops are con¬ 
fined principally to the three 1 inds of grass, and 
where there are only about three to four weeks in the 
season for haying. If drought came to reduce the 
hay crop of one or even three months of our hay sea¬ 
son, we yet have left four more months to gather 
from, while our less fortunate neighbors of the North¬ 
west have but one chance during the year for haying. 
If the old text is true, that “all flesh is grass,” the 
South, especially the Piedmont belt, ought to be the 
fattest land in America instead of the leanest. We 
don’t need any better or cheaper labor or better 
land or seasons of sunshine and rain, or even more 
capital in money. More capital in brain 
development and practical agricultural 
education, will solve this problem. Hay¬ 
making in the West is simple and short, 
but at the South it is a varied and com- 
plextask. J. c. STKim.ixe 
I’endleton, S C. 
Potato Culture ; Little Nitrogen Bought. 
“You said that one of your cash crops is potatoes. 
Wbat is your method of growing them?” 
‘ I grow from 12 to 15 acres of potatoes yearly, 
getting a yield of 200 bushels or more per acre. I use 
a home-mixed fertilizer without any stable manure. 
The mixture is made up of tankage, acid phosphate 
and muriate of potash and will analyze about 3 per 
cent of ammonia, 10 per cent of available phosphoric 
acid, and 10 per cent of actual potush ; it costs about 
$22 per ton. A ton of this mrixture per acre will grow 
a big crop of potatoes, but I usually apply more.” 
“ Do you use any labor-saving tools in growing 
your crops ?” 
“ Yes, we use the Aspinwall planter for potatoes 
and corn Breed’s weeder pays its cost two or three 
times over every season. I have a Hoover digger. I 
think it best on my land to use four horses on it 
although, in different soil, one half the team might be 
sufficient. It digs the potatoes as clean as the average 
hire d man will. Foe corn, I apply dur¬ 
ing the winter, a light dressing of sheep 
manure. After the corn is planted, I 
sow on top of the drills, 500 to 1,000 
pounds per acre of a mixture of acid pho«- 
phate and muriate of potash in the pro¬ 
portion of four to one. This is har¬ 
rowed in before the corn comes up. You 
will notice that we^buy very little ni¬ 
trogen. I buy my fertilizer, as well as 
gJ*ain, by the car-load. I find it is better 
for me, even though I have a little left 
over. With the cash in hand, I can get 
__ very near bottom prices for car-lots.” 
“How much fertilizer do you buy or 
———\ use annually?’* 
“The last two years I have bought 140 
—““s to 150 tons each year. I use 30 to 50 
tons on the farm, and the rest I sell to 
neighboring farmers. One great advant¬ 
age in my rotation and management, is 
§i that the work is distributed quite well 
throughout the year. Each month has 
its work, and while it fits nicely to the 
next, does not usually crowd severely. 
The lambs are disposed of when spring 
work comes, and all our energies are 
devoted to putting in and caring for our 
growing crops. Later comes hay har- 
vesting, and then the potato crop is in 
order; after which the ensilage is se- 
cured. Then comes the winter business 
—marketing the hay and potato crops, 
and feeding the lambs.” 
“ I judge that you are well satisfied 
on a Connecticut farm ?” 
“Why shouldn’t I be ? Of course, I 
have a good deal to think of, but so does 
any successful business man. It is a pleasure to 
me to see the crops grow ; to see the farm growing 
better and more productive year by year. There is 
no better place to rear our boys and girls than on 
the farm. If you have any boys for whom to choose 
a vocation, make farmers of them. It will be the best 
business there is, soon, even if not so now.” j. n. b. 
New Haven County, Conn. 
A CONNECTICUT STOCK FARM 
I’KOFIT ON “ THE OLD HOMESTEAD 
Brain Analyzes Better Than Brawn. 
Farming in Connecticut has teen con¬ 
sidered for some time bv many an uphill 
business, and perhaps, justly so, wnere 
the son still plods on satisfied to stay in 
the ruts made and traveled by his fore¬ 
fathers, wholly indifferent to the pres¬ 
ent or changed conditions and oppor¬ 
tunities existing around him. I venture 
the assertion that no better place exists 
for the energetic and well-informed 
farmer to get a good living, and, at the 
same time, enjoy the advantages of an 
old settled country, than portions of 
Connecticut. The Lyman farm, of which 
Charles E. Lyman is jfint owner and 
the manager, is situated in Middlefield, 
Middlesex County, Conn., and comprises 
both hill lard and valley, naturally 
good grass land. Formerly, on the hill 
lands of this section, fattening beef on 
the natural grasses, was extensively car¬ 
ried on. The time of my visit was early 
in February. 
“ Do you practice a regular rotation ?” 
I asked. 
“ I endeavor so to manage that each 
year finds the farm, as a whole, more fertile than before. 
For strictly cash crops, I grow potatoes and Timothy 
hay, but in the rotation clover hay is grown and also 
large quantities of corn for ensilage, which constitutes 
the principal coarse feed for the lambs. Much of the 
corn would yield 100 bushels per acre if husked.” 
“ Are you feeding many lambs this season ?” 
“ I have about 1,700 which were bought in Buffalo 
last November, costing, delivered here, about 4)^ cents 
per pound.” 
“ But how do you manage to house so many prop¬ 
erly ?” 
“ Come and see. I house them all under one roof. 
They are divided into flocks of 100 to 400 each; the larger 
number seem to do as well together as the smaller. 
I keep rock salt by them always, of which, during the 
winter they consume 1,500 to 2,000 pounds. As you 
see, they have running spring water by them. When 
at pasture, sheep drink very little water, as they feed 
when the grass is wet with dew ; but confined and fed 
as we feed them, they drink much water.” 
“ I see that you have sheared them. Do you always 
do that ?” 
“ As soon as the lambs are brought into winter 
quarters, they are sheared, for experience has taught 
that they do 'better without their fleeces than with 
them. Everything is so arranged that in the coldest 
weather, they do not suffer from the cold.” 
“ I see you have apparently different breeds here. 
Which do you like best ? ” 
“ I avoid the wrinkled Merinos, as they do not maka 
N94 
NOZZLE 
TWON?!. IM02. 
nozzle 
AND LOOP. 
^ FRONT 
PIECE ?,STRAP 
FOR WAIST. 
All the Pakts of the Parvb gbeen Gun. Fig. 91, 
I have been at the point of despair in feeding ensilage 
to them, but I was determined to learn how, and now 
I think I have learned how to feed it to the best ad¬ 
vantage. I have made a thorough study of how to 
manage this business successfully, and it has cost 
something, but I have learned how to keep the lambs 
in a healthy, thriving condition upon a heavy grain 
ration until ready for the butchers.” 
“ How much grain are you feeding per day ? ” 
“ About 2,700 pounds. I expect to work up to 3,000 
daily.” 
Competition and Other Business. 
“Do you not have to compete with the lambs 
dressed in the West, the same as farmers have done 
who made beef and have been driven out of the busi¬ 
ness ?” 
“ My lambs are better than any that come from the 
West. Butchers say that they cut up better. They 
are kept growing from start to finish, and their feed 
makes meat of the very best quality—nearly equal to 
genuine spring lamb. All my lambs are sold to 
wholesale butchers, who have worked up a good mar¬ 
ket for them as “Lyman’s lambs,” and they bring sev¬ 
eral cents per pound more than ordinary lambs.” 
“ I see you have a large pile of wool here. I suppose 
that you do not expect to get much for it if wool 
comes in free ?” 
“ There are about 7,000 pounds in that pile. I do 
not expect any severe shrinkage in price permanently 
on account of tariff reduction, but I can keepy^ a 
while if the price is too low temporarily to tempt me 
NOTES FROM A DRY COUNTRY. 
Before the traveler reaches the center of Nebraska 
he sees many indications of the want of sufficient rahi- 
fall. Although the soil is deep and dark in many 
places, the trees give unmistakable evidences that 
they have had a struggle. The hardships endured by 
reason of frequent droughts, high winds and extreme 
cold, have made all vegetation cautious about making 
any bold attempts at doing large things. The eastern 
third of Nebraska is a most beautiful and productive 
country, as is also the eastern third of Kansas ; but 
the western parts of these States are a part of the dry 
and windy tablelands of that vast district which em¬ 
braces more than one-third of the United States. 
True, in this vast area cattle and other kinds of live 
stock may be reared, and a little hay and grain may 
be raised in the canons and narrow river valleys, but, 
notwithstanding this, the territory between the west¬ 
ern portion of Nebraska and Beno traversed by the 
Uoioxx Pacific, is one vast semi-barren, windy steppe, 
much like those found farther north in Russia. With 
