MAY 2 
MOOBE’S BUBAL MEW-YOBKEB 
285 
»hccp guskmlrjr. 
MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. 
An Iowa shepherd advises, through the 
National Live Stock Journal, men disgusted 
with sheep husbandry as follows Build a 
good barn ; or if you have not the means to 
build a barn, then to build a shed, with 
scantling for frame, sided with good sea¬ 
soned boards and good board roof, and racks 
in it for hay. By thus feeding the sheep 
under shelter, one-third of the feed will be 
saved. Let the sheep be kept out of the cold 
rains in the fall, and all storms in the winter ; 
letting them out into the fields on all fine 
days, that they may have as much exercise 
as possible. 
Feed tvs much hay or stalks as they nil! 
eat. up clean. Let them have straw at pleas¬ 
ure ; and be sure to grow roots enough to 
feed twice a week at least. Give plenty of 
good, pure water every day; and if they are 
not doing well, feed grain enough to make 
them do well. As the spring approaches, 
the ewes should be taken from the flocks, 
put by themselves, and fed some oats and 
bran. 
When the lambs begin to drop, see that 
each ewe owns her lamb. Draw the plug 
out of the teat. Never push, jam or jerk a 
a ewe. If the lamb should be weak, take it 
gently, by placing the hand under tho belly 
so that tho Iamb will balance in the hand, 
carefully put it. to the flank of the ewe, rub 
it gently near the tail with t he. fingers of the 
other hand, aud in most cases this will make 
the lamb butt and try to get the teat. Some 
patience and perseverance is required to 
succeed ; but when the lamb Btands and 
sucks, and the ewe, being gentle, owns the 
lamb, all trouble is over. 
But. if the ewe refuses to own the lamb, or 
you wish to give the lamb to a foster mother, 
tic the ewe tip, and take the lamb as above 
described and let it suck, going as often as 
once an hour to assist the little thing to get 
his meal. Perhaps it. may he two or three 
days before the ewe will consent to own the 
lamb, but when she does, you may rest as¬ 
sured it will be well eared for. The ewes 
should have good past.uro during the time 
they are nursing their lambs. 
About the first of September the lamb3 
should he separated from the ewes ; and 
here is where the great error of sheep hus¬ 
bandry is generally committed — to take 
lambs from the ewes and turn them away 
with nothing but grass to feed on. Wheti 
we take the colt from its mother it must 
have grain or it would be a poor thing at 
best. When we take the calf from its moth¬ 
er it must have more nutriment than grass 
supplies, or down it goes. And yet, while 
of all the domestic animals man has to do 
with, tho sheep is so constituted that it will 
not bear the sudden shock that other animals 
of more stamina will, it is almost the uni¬ 
versal practice to turn them from the ewes 
to eke out an existence as best they may. 
At this time many a lamb receives an injury 
it never recovers from, perhaps dying the 
first winter; or dragging out a miserable 
existence for a few years, not having a pay¬ 
ing fleece, never being ready for market, and 
being ready to die if any hardship should 
overtake it. 
When the lambs are taken from the ewes, 
there should be two or three tame, gentle 
ewes taken to pasture with them. Some 
feed-troughs should be placed in the lot, and 
feeding commenced very moderately. The 
lambs will manifest little disposition to eat 
at first—it wants much patience and perae- 
verence to teach them to eat. The. old owes 
eating, will teach the lambs in about ten 
days, so that at rosy morn or dewy eve, 
when the measure of oats is taken to the 
pasture, tho first, call will bring pattering 
feet over the ground, and there will be jump¬ 
ing and froUoing about with bright counte¬ 
nances, the little innocents saying, as plain 
as brutes can say, “ Thank you 1 Thank youl 
I have a kind master and friend ; you may 
have my fleece to keep you warm and hand¬ 
some. The earth may drink my life blood 
that man may bo nourished by my body.” 
Tho end is tragic, but such are the facts. 
I have a few more suggestions to make, 
and a little experience to relate, and then I 
am done. 
Get a good ram from some thoroughbred 
flock, if you pay twenty-five or fifty dollars 
for him. Better do it than use a grade that 
costs two or three dollars. Procure some of 
Dana's labels for marking and registering 
sheep. At shearing time weigli every fleece 
separately. Murk on the register weight of 
fleece, note form, size, constitution, Bee l 
what her lamb is, and if not up to the stand¬ 
ard, mark “For sale.” If tho above course 
is followed no man -will need to change his 
sheep, but he will have plenty of change in 
his pocket. 
Now I will relate my own experience, 
Some dozen years since, I purchased some 
ewes bred in Vermont, certified to be Infan- 
tadoes. In the lot was one ewe which, when 
in her prime, sheared annually fourteen 
pounds of washed wool. She lived to be fif¬ 
teen years old, and have a family of ten ewes 
of that stock, every one heavy shearers, all 
of robust, strong constitutions. What is 
strange is, that ail the family are living, 
except the old lady. 1 have sold several of 
the rams and all have given satisfaction, 
shearing from fifteen to twenty pounds of 
very nice wool. I relate this to show that 
we have the means in our hands for making 
great improvements in sheep husbandry, 
--♦♦♦ 
STOCK RETURNED FREE FROM STATE 
SHEEP FAIRS. 
In answer to an application of Pres’t Ran- 
dai.i, of the N. Y. State Wool Growers' 
Ass'n, in regard to the transportation of 
sheep to and from the State Fair to be held 
at Canandaigua on the 6th and 7th of May 
next, Vice-pres’b William H, Vanderbilt 
forwarded him the following resolution 
passed by the Directors of the Central Road 
on the 14th day of March last. 
Resn1ve<h That in future all live stock and 
property carried to and from the Slate. Fr ir, 
or an v County Fair, when held on the line of 
this Company’s Road, shall be subject to 
payment, of full freight for carrying the 
same to the place where such Fair may be 
held, and in case said livestock and property 
shall not be soli, this company will upon 
being furnished with a proper certificate 
that, the same have been exhibited at such 
Fair, and have not been sold or changed 
owners, reconvey tho same to the place of 
shipment free of charge. 
coalpit (£i[onomtr. 
LANDLORD AND TENANT. 
In making remarks and comparisons which 
will be necessary to explain the bearing of 
the different systems, it is intended to avoid 
lauding on the one hand and finding fault 
without occasion on the other. In the 
United States the customary renting on 
shares leads to exhaustion of the soil ; and 
it is generally run down a good deal before 
ir, is given over to others, in expectation that 
more can be made from the land. On this 
system the tenant who has the most corn 
and grain for sale is the best, little thought 
being bestowed as to the best means at com¬ 
mand to replace the plant food absorbed by 
the produce sold. 
In England there is a regular course of 
cropping insisted upon, and whenever the 
tenant gives up the farm there is a valuation 
of “acts of husba idry ” which remunerates 
him for cultivation, hauling manure and ap 
plication of purchased ditto, &c., so that the 
time of changing, being usually on the 20th 
of September, the root crop has to pass to 
the incoming tenant, the plowing, harrowing 
drilling of seed and hoeing is all charged in 
the aforesaid “acts of husbandry,” as also 
the grass seeds sown the spring previous. 
However, there is much less changing of 
occupancy there than here. 
The advantages of this payment for unex¬ 
hausted work, seeding, &c., is that the ten¬ 
ant leaving has every inducement to farm 
well ; and it is occasionally the case that 
more labor and expense is incurred the last 
year than ordinarily, for as public notice is 
drawn to the management on account of the 
change of tenants, it is creditable to have it 
seen in what a good state it is left. 
If the farm should not be let to another 
tenant, the landlord has to pay just the same 
as the succeeding tenant would, and although 
rents are high in England, this valuation will 
often amount to a sum exceeding a year’s 
rent. On a large farm there may be nearly 
or quite 100 acres of turnips and other roots, 
the cost of producing which will be from $15 
to 825 per acre ; but it would not do to have 
this crop in rotation omitted, as every other 
crop intervening between it and the next 
turn for roots again would be so much less 
in yield that the loss would far excel $25 per 
acre. 
Sheep eat most of the turnips on the land 
where they' grow, and the great quantity of 
urine as well as dung from them is the secret 
of successful tenant-farming on light and 
dry soils in England. 
Borne system in America which would 
give a periodical heavy addition of fertility 
to the land, thus keeping up good crops 
through the course, would be a gain to the 
coimtry beyond the most sanguine expecta¬ 
tion ; and arrangements between landlord 
and tenant which could bo based upon some 
such grounds, would be a blessing to the 
whole community. A Working Farmer. 
-- 
ECONOMICAL NOTES. 
Runniny a Threshinfj Machine by Wire 
Cable, etc. — Will you or some of your read¬ 
ers tell me if it would bo possible to run a 
threshing machine hv steam, using a wire 
cable in place of a belt—the cable to lie of 
sufficient size to give it the requisite strength 
anil 200 feet in length. If the cable could be 
used, where could one be obtained ? Would 
there be any trouble in running a rubber 
belt, five inches in width and 200 feet, single 
length, or 100 feet when doubled f Are not 
the improved agricultural steam engines, as 
now built, exhausting their steam into the 
smoke stack and provided with fine wire 
spark arresters, safe, more economical, ami 
preferable to horse-powers ?—A Rearer. 
We ask our mechanical readers and others 
having practical experience and facts, to 
answer our correspondent’s questions. 
Tannery Refuse, on Land .—“ Would the 
application to land of tannery refuse, con¬ 
sisting of fleshings, hair scraped from hides, 
&c., be detrimental or beneficial ?” Deci¬ 
dedly beneficial; bub if applied directly to 
the land without composting, it should be 
plowed under. 
Wool Wank for Grass Lands .—A farmer 
at North Vassalboro, Me., is reported as 
using the liquor left, in the tanks at a woolen 
factory, after washing Cape and Australian 
wool (which is very dirty), to sprinkle over 
his grass lands, and it proves a valuable fer¬ 
tilizer, he securing largo crops of hay thereby. 
THE PRICE OF BROOK TROUT. 
“ Don’t you believe that brook trout will 
soon be cheaper than at present !” This 
question is very freqently asked me, and, as 
I have never seen it satisfactorily answered, 
I will vouchsafe a reply. They cannot be 
raised for less than one dollar per pound, the 
present market value, and in all probability 
the price will advance to such an extent that 
none but the epicure will bo found to indulge 
in this luxury. Now for tho reasons Evei-y 
year which passes curtails the water in which 
this fish will thrive. Every settlement made 
up the stream is one step toward the extinc¬ 
tion of brook trout in their wild slate ; and 
every tree which is foiled by the side of 
tho water lessens the boundary for their cul¬ 
tivation. Out of tho forest, trout culture is 
confined to the heads of streams where the 
cold water gushes from the hill or mountain 
side or boils up from the depths below. In 
the forest, where the water is kept cool by 
the shade, but little beyond the natural food 
can be obtained bo increase the stock. A- 
the population of the country increases the 
demand aiso increases while at the same 
time the chances for this fish to flourish must, 
decrease. 
Among the thousand attempts in this conn 
try to raise trout, but very few have been 
successful and the difficulty is found to be 
more in local causes than in any fault of the 
operator—such as lack of water in dry times 
or too much surface water in time ef heavy 
rains, &c., &c. To make trout culture a 
success, one must have a regular flow of cool 
water with quite an even temperature, gravel 
and sand bottom, and live in a country’ where 
animal food can he obtained at a low pries ; 
added to this, eternal vigilance to protect 
them from thieves, mink, fish-hawks, &c. T 
shall not be surprised if in ten years from 
the present tipie brook trout will bring two 
dollars per pound and be scarce at that. 
A. B. Sprout. 
Muncy Trout Ponds, Apr. 9,1874. 
PISOIOULTURAL NOTES. 
Fish Culture in Maryland.—We observe 
by the Maryland papers that a Fish Commis¬ 
sion has been established in ihat State and 
that $6,500 has been appropriated to ascer¬ 
tain the cause of tho decrease of fish in their 
waters, and to determine upon the best way 
to restore them. One who claims to know 
something about fish culture says if the peo¬ 
ple would spend one dollar to till the water 
for every $1,000 they spend to till the land it 
would reduce the price of all kinds of food 
one-half. 
Shad, in the Connecticut.—Seth Green says 
that there are more shad in the Connecticut 
River this spring than there were in 1843 — 
when shad were plentier than ever before. 
IJomalagintl. 
BARTLETT AND FLEMISH BEAUTY 
PEARS. 
Will you please inform me. thrmurli the 
columns of the Rural New Yorker, wheth¬ 
er the Bartlett succeeds well in all localit es, 
especially in Central New York ? Also, does 
the Flemish Beauty prove a success, or is it 
of late years a failure, as I have been told? 
—W. F. B., Oneida Co., N. I”. 
The Bartlett pear is one of the most uni¬ 
versally successful varieties that we have. 
Tho young trees in the nursery are rather 
tender in some Northern localities, hut thoso 
which survive until two or three years old 
usually continue in good health where any 
other sort will succeed. We would as soon 
risk the Bartlett as any other variety—at 
least as to health and productiveness, 
The Flemish Beauty is evcti a more hardy 
variety than the Bartlett, but in some locali¬ 
ties tho fruit cracks before maturity ; but 
wo do not think tills is a very general fault. 
There is, however, another peculiarity of 
the Flemish Beauty that, (t is well to remem¬ 
ber. and it is its very bad habit of sometimes 
rotting at the core without showing the least 
signs of decay on the outside. It is certainly 
quite provoking to think you have a fine lot 
of very handsome pears ready for market, 
but upon examination find that the center of 
each specimen is a rotten mass of pulp. Of 
course, this rotting of the Flemish Beauty is 
not a general fault; but it appears far too 
frequently, either through neglect in gather¬ 
ing at the proper time or from a natural 
fault of the variety. It is, however, a val¬ 
uable variety, and in some localities one of 
the most profitable. You must nob expect 
to find perfection and no faults even among 
good pears. 
-- 
POMOLOGICAL NOTES. 
Flavor In ff Fruit.—Tho Maryland Farmer 
gives the following, translated from the 
French “ In l lie researches on the proper¬ 
ties and the essence of t he juice of fruit trees, 
a horticulturist has succeeded not only in 
giving to fruits the most exquisite flavor but 
in introducing artificially into the body of 
all fruit growing on the tree, a liquid which 
transforms the taste thereof. Take an apple ; 
with a large needle several deep holes are 
made in it ; it is then dipped into a cup con¬ 
taining the liquor whose flavor it is desired 
to impart to tho apple; in a low seconds 
the holes take in the liquid, which is retained 
in the interior of the fruit, ; the operation is 
renewed two or three times at intervals of 
ten days, anti the fruit, is left to ripen. By 
this method, really remarkable off: cts are 
obtained on all kinds of fruits, in a variety 
of navel's heretofore unknown. 
New Fruit h in France.—The French Porno- 
logical Congress of 1878 admitted as worthy 
the following fruits Cherry—Fourfee Na¬ 
tive of tho Black Heart cluss; very large ; 
stalk long and slender; a productive and 
very early sort. Raspberry— Fastolf Sur- 
pnsse ; a commendable variety producing 
two crops. Pear -Beurro do Nlvilles ; an 
excellent late variety ; also Jules d’Airiles, a 
seedling from Leon do Clere, delicate, juicy, 
tender ; ripens in December. Apples — 
Boughe Frouve, a late-flowering variety cul¬ 
tivated around Marseilles ; also Rose de 
Provence, a good apple cultivated in tho 
south of Franco. Grape—Tschavuch Usum ; 
handsome bunches ; very large white ber¬ 
ries ; introduced from Turkey. 
California Apples.—A correspondent of 
the Fruit Recorder at Ban Jose, Cal., says : 
“The Jonathan apple is a great, favorite here 
for table use in San Francisco. It sells from 
$1.25 to $1.75 per box of 60 pounds, box rs- 
turmjd free by railroad. The Yellow New¬ 
town Pippin stands at the head of the list as 
a winter apple, although the Nick Fleck is 
called for, being a showy apple and a good 
keeper for the Chinn market. The White 
Astracan Is a very salable apple for summer ; 
being tart and very large, sells for $1.50 pet- 
60 pound box, when the market is full of 
small fruits and peaches for cooking ; also 
Yellow BolJeflower sells well, Baltimore Red 
and others.” 
Early River's Peach .— Brebaut, a well 
known and reliable English Pomolegist, says 
that tins peach “ Promises to rival Early 
Beatrice in precocity. In 1872 it was the ear¬ 
liest peach of all to ripen, Tt is a magnificent 
fruit in every respect, of good size* showy 
and delicious.” 
The Wagoner A pple, C. F. G. is informed 
according to the best testimony, originated 
at Penn Yun, N. Y., in a nursery originally 
owned by G. M. Wheeler, in 17ttl, 
