JUNE 46 
377 
the flock and broilers. To produce a strong, 
healthy chicken moderate feeding with plenty 
of sunlight and exercise is required. We 
will describe only the method used by Captain 
Day in forcing the chicks to a pound’s growth 
for broilers. For the first week they are 
kept in a brooder at about 83 degrees Fah., and 
allowed to come into the fresh air to feed. 
For about 25 chicks one hard-boiled egg is 
crushed up with an equal quantity of coarse- 
ground or unbolted corn meal, and the meal 
is increased in quantity' to satisfy the chicles. 
They are fed all they will eat every six horn’s, 
the night feeding being as important as any 
other. As the chicks increase in size, wheat 
bran is mixed with the egg and corn meal, 
and, after two or three weeks, pure clean 
wheat is fed at night. No meat, worms or 
green feed is allowed them, and pure water is 
always at hand. This Captain Day has found 
the most successful method of fceding. At the 
end of six weeks the chicks should weigh 
about a pound each, and are ready for mar¬ 
ket. Chicks thus forced are liable to attacks 
of diarrhea, constipation, leg weakness, etc., 
and a certain ppr cent are sure to die, but this 
treatment has always given a satisfactory re¬ 
sult. The Captain has on his place chickens 
hatched, February 1st, that weighed on May 
24, four pounds, and ho expects to produce an¬ 
other set of chickens from these before Feb¬ 
ruary next, making two generations in one 
year. His favorite cross for producing broil¬ 
ers is the Game cook with the Brahma pullet. 
THE CULTURE OF SHEEP. 
GEN. CASSIUS M. CLAY. 
Feed and Water. 
It is useless to attempt the culture of sheep 
without grass Sheep are generally said to be 
costive. This is the case only in largo areas 
where water is scarce and the grasses dry. 
The intestines being long, on dry food the 
moisture is exhausted before the excretions 
are voided. But I find when my sheep are in 
the finest state of culture they ai’e no more cos¬ 
tive than cattle or horses. Sheep will go longer 
without water than any of our other domestic 
animals, because, as they always prefer the 
young, juicy grasses and weeds, there is more 
water taken into the system in their case than 
in that of other stock in feeding. But sheep, 
if allowed, will water each day as regularly 
as cattle or horses. The constitution of the 
sheep is, however, adapted to tender, juicy 
grasses, and honco in England, a moist 
country and full of grasses and succulent 
roots the sheep have attained an improvement 
which can only he rivaled in such places as 
this, where the sheep graze all the year round. 
In the North. where grass fails in Winter, roots, 
such as turnips, beets, etc., should be fed every 
day with hay. straw, fodder and grain, or 
whatever else is used. But here they will paw 
away the deepest snows and grazo, and only 
need a little grain and hay when the grass is 
weakened iu nutriment by excess of cold. 
For nearly thirty years I have eaten sheep in 
every season thus fed. and always find them 
fat enough and at times too fat, even iu Winter. 
There is quite a rage now about silos and en¬ 
silage; but 1 am not at all convinced that this 
system is practically useful. It was no doubt 
known to the ancients, ami its disuse seems to 
be au argument against it, T am of the 
opinion that dry corn-fodder cut. even in the 
North, very fine and fed with beets, grain and 
cotton-seed, or oil-cake or turnips, will be 
cheaper and more wholesome than any en¬ 
silage. I give my opinion. I have never 
tried it, and 1 never will. 1 have never known 
many sheep lost by feeding whole grains of 
maize in bulk to sheep. Hence, my father 
was in the habit of sowing this grain broad¬ 
cast to his sheep; and 1 have followed his ex¬ 
ample. They will in a few minutes pick up 
their rations of a gill or a half a gill as quick¬ 
ly as a chicken, But when eaten in hulk, in¬ 
stead of chewing each grain, they will swal¬ 
low it rapidly, ami colic or diarrhea is the 
consequence. When corn Is fed in barns and 
troughs the grain should bo ground into meal 
or grits, and if some lmy or ground cob or 
other “'roughness” were mixed with it, so much 
better would it be. 
TtlE DISEASES OF SHEEP. 
Anyone looking iuto English works upon 
the diseases of sheep would be deterred perhaps 
from their culture. The sheep has a small brain 
and weak nervous system, and in consequence 
yields readily to disease. It lias therefore been 
ray study to avoid diseases, especially here. 
The consequence has been that to me almost 
all the diseases of sheep are practically un¬ 
known. 
The rot, the scab and the foot-rot, the most 
formidable diseases of English sheep-culture, 
are to me strangers. The sheep-fly,at times, kills 
two or three per cent of my flock, and other 
reasons more. This fly, like the CEstrus bovis 
to cattle, is a great nuisance to sheep. As 
soon as the weather gets warm the fly attacks 
the sheep, feeding on the mucus of the nose 
aud laying its eggs there. After it has gone 
through the larval state it falls to the 
ground, and there rests as a chrysalis till 
Bpring when it comes out a fly and again 
attacks the sheep. Some of them making 
their way into the interior bones of the 
head, enter the brain, and late in the Win¬ 
ter kill the sheep. I have cut them from 
the brain as large as an ordinary peach borer, 
say three-quarters of an inch long, thicker, 
with a similar head aud body. It has been 
said that coal-oil poured into the nostrils after 
the symptoms appear, such as stupidity, ver¬ 
tigo, and standing without apparent motion 
in one place, will kill the larv.'e, but T have 
never succeeded in curing a sheep. These flies 
seem to run the sheep almost mad. and they 
will lie a long Bummer day huddled together 
without moving or feeding; at night they 
venture out. Whenever I catch my sheeep I 
put pine-tar on the nose and face, and as long 
as this lasts I think it a security against the 
fly. The same remedy is used by putting 
the tar about, salt troughs so that their noses 
touch it. No doubt tar is good, But the loss is 
so small that I don't care to worry myself and 
the sheep about the fly. Sometimes the sheep’s 
foot grows into too long au outer hoof on soft 
grounds, when it must be trimmed with a 
a sharp knife, but not to the quick. I don't 
find it necessary to wash my sheep with tick 
cures. Fat is a sovereign remedy against ver¬ 
min, though I make the shearer kill what few 
ticks are seen; aud I put sulphur in my salt- 
troughs in the early Spring when they begin 
to rub themselves. 
By putting on bells, a size between the or¬ 
dinary sheep aud cow-bell, in the proportion 
of one bell to every five sheep, I lose but few 
sheep from dogs. Sheep-killing dogs are gen¬ 
erally timid, and the great clatter of the bells 
alarms them; and iu reasonable distances the 
master eau come to the rescue with the shot¬ 
gun. It is a good plan also to put cows with 
young calves among sheep. They will attack 
any dog that appears an J nin him off. If all 
else fails they may lie poisoned with strych¬ 
nine, or caught in pens gradually sloped and 
open at the top: like the old-style wolf-pen. 
But after all, my principal loss, as groat as all 
others put together, has been that the South 
Downs, being short-legged and very broad on 
the loin, get on their backs and, unable to turn 
over, die. When the editor of the Indiana 
Farmer, who visited me over a year ago, was 
told of this, I saw an incredulous expression 
on his face: so without ado. I sent for my 
shepherd and asked him about the fact, which 
he at one© proved. As the value of the South 
Downs has improved of late years, I have 
adopted the rule to have the shepherd visi- 
thern all once a day. count, and turn over 
those lying ou their backs. 
This last year I lost for the first time several 
of my lambs of 1882— none of my old sheep 
being affected—although I turned them to¬ 
gether after the young ones began to die. I 
was told that it was probably the rot, but, 
turning to a full treatise on that, subject I 
found no symptoms of that disease, especially 
no flukes in the liver. The sheep ate well 
euough hut dwindled in flesh, and in a few 
months died. On dissection I found all things 
normal, but some small pimples ou the lower 
intestines; so I attribute it to malaria, similar 
to typhoid fever iu man. The Summer was 
unusually wet, and my lambs I found, being 
separate, bad kept under one tree all the season, 
for 1 had failed to move them iu the pasture as 
they wore well divided into groups; I had with 
them few cattle and great abundance of 
grass. The disease, however, ceased in the 
Fall aud some that were emaciated have re¬ 
covered their usual flesh 1 have thus named 
all the ills of sheep, that have come under mv 
experience; and I attribute my exemption 
from disease to the peculiar climate, soil and 
breed, for the South Down is no doubt the 
most hardy of sheep; and salt and ashes are 
great aids to health. 
i-UisccUotmnis. 
THE RAT NUISANCE. 
Shouldn't our rulers who are always 
trying to make laws to benefit the people, 
offer a reward to whoever can put us 
in a way to abate the rat nuisance. It is a 
serious thing to consider how much they 
destroy on a place in the course of a year. 
Corn, potatoes, fowls, clothes, wheat, peas 
and everything they can gnaw or eat are sure 
to be wasted by them. I have tried every 
remedy that I can think of but have failed 
thus far to dimiuish to a satisfactory extent 
the great number ou my place, and I am told 
that the nuisance is as great everywhere as 
here. Any person who can invent a way to 
clear them out from the face of the earth, 
would be a great benefactor to his race. j. p. s. 
[We find cats a good remedy.—E ds.] 
-*-M- 
Niagara and Other Grape Seeds. 
We soaked the Niagara seed in warm water 
48 horn’s; froze them two evenings in succes¬ 
sion ; then planted them in a four-inch pot and 
placed it on the window near the stove: fifteen 
plants are about two inches high; some are 
showing their fourth leaf. 
We planted at the same time and treated in 
the same manner, Prentiss, Lady Washington, 
Early Victor, Duchess and others. None of 
these has shown as many seedlings as the Ni¬ 
agara in proportion to the seed planted. They 
all look healthy and thrifty. We have grape 
seed treated in this same manner early last 
Soring which have been exposed to the frost 
last Winter that are just, coming up, remaiu- 
i ng over a year in the soil before sprouting. 
Leavenworth, Kansas. J. s. 
Sheep Husbandry in Kansas. —William 
Booth says, in the Kausas Agricultural Re¬ 
port, that he became convinced that the 
sheep for profit, for Kansas, were Merinos, 
for two reasons: First, he found by constant 
inquiry of those exteusi velv engaged in the busi¬ 
ness—raising for wool and mutton—that fully 
nineteen-twentieths used Merino rams in their 
flocks, for the reason they improved the wool, 
as well as the size of the carcass; second, Mer¬ 
inos herded better in larger numbers, which is 
a very important item to those owning large 
flocks. From Jan. 1. 1882 to Jan. 1, 1883, his 
sheep cost him 78 cents per head—this includes 
shearing. His flock averaged 10.13 pounds of 
wool, and netted 28L» cents, or an average of 
$3.48 net per sheep; and of lambs, out of 92 
ewes bred a year ago, he had on March 8,76 
lambs, all nlxmt equal. 
H. O. Gifford says, for a foundation of a 
flock in Central or Western Kansas, he pre¬ 
fers thoroughbred or high-grade Merinos—the 
higher-bred the better. 
He thinks from experience the past season* 
that sorghum is to be the sheep feed of the fu¬ 
ture—the most certain crop to be raised, and 
the most valuable. He thinks an acre of sor¬ 
ghum worth more than an acre of corn. 
Should cut part when ripe, and pile on the 
ground; the balance let stand and feed by 
turning iu the flock. The flock should not be 
allowed iu the field hut a short time, till they 
become accustomed to it. 
On the Plains they have no diseases to contend 
with except the scab. That he has never failed 
to cure bv two applications of the following 
remedy; A strong decoction of tobacco, one 
and three-fourth pound of cinde arsenic and 
two pounds of sulphur, to the 100 head. The 
arsenic should be boiled by itself aud added to 
the liquid as wanted. 
Fayette Holmes thinks stock sheep from one 
year old and upwards, should be fed at least 
one-half bushel of com to the hundred head 
per day (st». That, with a few corn-stalks or 
cane that they can run to and eat of some two 
hou>’« a day, will do well. Early-sown rye or 
wheat makes very fine, feed, if a sufficient 
growth for grazing can be obtained. From 35 
years’ experience he has come to the conclu¬ 
sion that the producer who sells his wool at 
home makes the most money, ne has, within 
the time mentioned sent his wool to commis¬ 
sion houses four or five times, and usually had 
returns in nine or ten months, at reduced 
prices. From his own experience aud obser¬ 
vation, from 30 to 50 per cent*, net can be made 
yearly with a good grade of sheep, handled 
reasonably well. 
G. A. Wadsworths puts out some 50 acres of 
millet and sorghum (the more the better) for 
each 1,000 head of sheep, in order that they may 
have plenty of rough feed to do them through 
bad weather iti the Winter. He also provides 
from 800 to 500 bushels of com for the same 
sheep, which, in his judgment, is ample for 
1000 sheep, to keep them in tine condition until 
grass grows iu Spriug. In addition to this, he 
aims to sow at least 100 acres of rye by the 
middle of August, so he can have green feed 
to weau his lambs upon about the first of Octo¬ 
ber. He thinks it very important that sheep 
should have plenty of water: he believes that 
thousands of sheep die every year from lack of 
it. He would rather be short of feed than 
short of water for any kind of stock. 
- -- 
Buckwheat. —A writer in the Sim gives 
timely notes as to the culture of this much- 
neglected plant: “As a farm crop it has 
many excellent qualities, some of which are 
not possessed to the same extent by any other 
grain. It has the great advantage of being a 
eparate crop, coming on when the press of 
Spring work is over, so that there is abundant 
time to put it in. Buckwheat requires dry land; 
whereas it often gets soil too wet for the 
Spring crops, and which continues more or 
less moist; then, when plowed, it gets baked 
by the sun, which spoils it. It also demands a 
mellow and clean soil, and, more than any 
other crop, it will keep it mellow and clean. 
Weeds have their greatest enemy in buck¬ 
wheat. After the land is carefully plowed, 
use cultivator and harrow to loosen and mel¬ 
low it. If manure is needed, mix it well with 
the surface soil by harrowing. Then sow' the 
seed, and cover evenly with the smoothing 
harrow or some other light, fine-toothed har¬ 
row, as buckwheat does not need to be cov¬ 
ered deep. Do not sow too thick. The usual 
quantity—ODe bushel per acre—is too much. 
Half the quantity is decidedly better, as, with 
the ground well prepared, a strong, well- 
branched stalk will be developed which -will 
admit enough 3un, tempered with shade, to 
help the lower branches, thus deepening and 
enlarging the space for llie development of 
the grain, and increasing the yield. The 
strong stalks will also withstand the heavy- 
rains better, while the reverse is the case with 
thick sowing, which produces a close growth 
of weak, slender stems, imperfectly developed 
in the dense shade, with few branches, and 
these eoufined to the surface and exposed di¬ 
rectly to the sun and frosts. U nder such cir¬ 
cumstances the entire growth is brought readi¬ 
ly to the ground by the rains, because it has 
not strength enough to resume its upright 
position, the result being not unfrequently 
that the crop is ruined. The time of sowing 
depends upon the length of the season, and 
must be decided by the experience of each 
locality, the aim being to have the period of 
full bloom anti development of the grain occur 
when there is least danger from the frost on 
the one hand and the heat of the sun on the 
other—a point reached in the latitude of Cen¬ 
tral New York (43 c j by putting in the seed 
about the first of July. With this treatment 
buckwheat can be made a comparatively safe 
crop, realizing an equal profit with the other 
crops of the farm, and in a favorable season 
surpassing them, the yield being often enor¬ 
mous. Besides, it leaves the ground in better 
condition than any other crop. It only needs 
the cultivator anil harrow in the following 
Spring to put the ground in the best condi¬ 
tion for sowing. 
Osier Willow. —Nothing could be simpler 
or easier, says the Michigan Farmer, quoting 
from “a N. C. paper,” than the culture of the 
Osier Willow. All that is necessary to be 
done is to clip from a tree as many twigs, 
limbs or branches as may be desired, stick the 
same in the ground, press the earth around 
them and leave them to paddle their own 
canoe. If the soil be damp, the cuttings wil 
take root in three days’ time, will grow off 
at once, and by July or August (if planted in 
the Spring) will have attained the bight of 
several feel. 
A writer in our esteemed contemporary, 
the Kansas Live-Stock Indicator, says that it 
looks foolish for men to keep laud worth from . 
$25 to $50 per acre seeded down to Timothy, 
cutting from a half to one ton of hay per 
aero when sorghum will yield from three to 
five tons more hay. It can be planted with a 
two-borse planter. When seed is ripe, cut and 
shock as coni is cut and shocked; care must 
be taken if land is moist enough to sprout seed, 
not to plant too deep. It may be sown broad¬ 
cast from the middle of May to the middle of 
June. Some stockmen in his vicinity are 
going to try the plan of mixing one peck of 
common millet seed with a half-bushel of 
sorghum sown broadcast or with a wheat drill. 
He has a neighbor that has one hundred sows 
and pigs, who intends to fit them for market 
(as stock hogs) on sorghum alone. He ad¬ 
vises farmers that are raising fine cattle or 
horses to give sorghum a fair trial if they 
want to see sleek-coated animals. 
One of Dr. J. R. Nichols's (Mass.) experi¬ 
ments reminds us of the Rothamsted Experi¬ 
ments. He has a field that has been tinder ex¬ 
periment for a fifth of a century—a field that 
has grown large crops of corn, wheat, barley, 
oats, hay and rye during the successive years, 
and which, the present year, gives promise of 
as fine a crop of the latter grain as can be 
found in the State; and these results are due 
solely to new methods of fertilization, without 
the application of a spoonful of animal excre¬ 
ment. His object has been to demonstrate in 
this country what Dr. Lawes lias demonstrated 
in England, that our fields can be kept in fine 
tilth by artificial manures for any period of 
time and that land does not become sterile 
when barnyard manures are entirely withheld. 
This plot (one acre) has in the crop products 
paid a net profit of 10 per cent, annually, 
reckoning the cost of the land at $200 per 
acre, which must be regarded fair farming. 
