1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
371 
HERDING SHEEP IN SMALL FIELDS. 
Would it be a feasible plan to keep 100 breeding ewes 
in a field of two or three acres in extent, all the year, 
Summer and Winter, giving, of course, the necessary 
shade and water and feeding them silage all the time, 
with perhaps an occasional feeding of hay? Would use 
oats and peas for Summer silage and fill the silo in the 
Fall with corn silage to last until I could grow another 
crop of oats and peas the following year. This plan does 
away with fencing, eliminates the danger from dogs, and 
makes it possible to handle more sheep than when pas¬ 
tured :n field. The soiling plan is too expensive to be 
profitable. h. c. m. 
There is no doubt but it is possible to keep a flock 
of sheep in a small lot and by properly feeding them 
keep them healthy, but whether such a project could 
be made profitable is quite another thing. One hun¬ 
dred brooding ewes kept on two acres of land would 
soon make it like a barnyard with not a green thing 
on it and further make it so rich that nothing could 
be grown on it. It would be far better to have two or 
three fields and change the sheep from one to another 
once a week. But such close herding would require 
the most careful watching and management to pre¬ 
vent disease and keep the sheep in perfect health. 
We once had 40 Hampshire ewes imported which were 
landed on our farm in July. On being brought over 
the ocean trip they had been greatly neglected, and 
when received looked so hard we were ashamed of 
them and so put them in two pens 20 feet square in 
one of our basements to the barn, and they were 
never let out of those pens until the next Spring, 
when time to go to pasture. We never had sheep do 
better, and the 40 ewes raised 70 fine lambs. But they 
were very carefully fed and watered and had every¬ 
thing possible for their best welfare. I 
think, however, it would be more prac¬ 
ticable for H. C. M. to fence off say three 
five-acre lots, have one in grass and sow 
the others to Dwarf Essex rape, then 
allow the sheep constant access to the 
five-acre pasture and keep them one 
week at a time on each of the rape fields. 
It might even then be best to give the 
sheep daily a little dry feed like clover 
hay or w'heat bran, and plenty of salt 
should always be accessible. There is 
no question but such a plan would be 
fea.sible with a flock of Merinos or 
llampshires because they take kindly to 
being kept in large flocks, but it might 
be questionable with Southdowns, 
Sliropshires or any of the heavy long- 
wool breeds, for none of these thrive so 
well when closely crowded. But with 
any breeds so kept it would be necessary 
to change the fields often, as by so over- 
stoc^king and feeding the land would be¬ 
come excessively rich and would be 
liable to become infested with parasites 
that would injure the sheep. By using 
hurdles or movable fences the feeding 
ground could be changed fi*om year to 
pounds muriate of potash will give 97 pounds nitro¬ 
gen, 215 pounds phosphoric acid and 200 pounds of 
potash. There are fertilizers on the market with even 
higher per cents of plant food than these. For ex¬ 
ample, the following chemicals are sometimes used: 
Pounds in 100. 
Nitrogen. Phos. acid. Pota.sh. 
Phosphate of potash.. 
38 
33 
Nitrate of potash. 
. 13 
45 
Phosphate of ammonia. 
. 10 
44 
, , 
Sulphate of ammonia. 
. 20 
.. 
If we were to mix 500 pounds each of phosphate of 
potash, nitrate of potash, phosphate of ammonia and 
sulphate of ammonia we should have 215 pounds of 
nitrogen, 410 pounds of phosphoric acid and 390 
pounds of potash, or 50 per cent of the entire weight 
actual plant food. We realize what a concentrated 
mixture this is when we remember that good stable 
manure contains less than two per cent of its weight 
as actual plant food! These chemicals are very ex¬ 
pensive, and could not be used with economy on ordi¬ 
nary crops. They ai'e as soluble as sugar and are at 
once available. Home of the best orange growers in 
Florida are beginning to use these expensive mix¬ 
tures. It may seem strange at first thought that these 
soluble chemicals should be used freely on light, 
leachy sands. These Florida growers have found that 
it pays them best to make several small applications 
of fertilizer through the season rather than to use 
it all at one time. Where they are to use half a ton 
per acre of a fertilizer analyzing eight per cent of 
nitrogen, 12 of phosphoric acid and 15 of potash they 
will make four different applications of 250 pounds 
each, thus keeping the trees constantly supplied with 
soluble plant food. On the leachy Florida sands such 
fertilizing will pay better than using at one time a 
nitrogen. Here we get the nitrogen, 100 pounds 
which is five per cent. Raw knucklebone 24 per cent 
phosphoric acid, tlie 1,000 pounds mentioned above 
gives us the 240 pounds actual phosphoric acid, which 
is 12 per cent, and 400 pounds of muriate of potash, 50 
per cent, gives us the necessary 200 pounds of actual 
potash to make 10 per cent, besides the potash and 
phosphoric acid in the cotton-seed meal.” 
A PROBLEM IN WESTERN FERTILITY. 
We want to raise for seed each year 4,000 acres of corn 
and 2 000 acres of small grain. This will make our short 
rotation two years for corn and one year for small grains 
with 1,350 acres to put in grass and clover to be put at 
rather long intervals into the grain rotation, as under 
our conditions when a good sod is secured it will pay to 
keep it for several years. The soil of the farm is rich 
and from 1,000 to 25,000 steers, 4,000 hogs and 1,000 sheep 
are fed on the farm each year and the manure drawn to 
the fields. To produce seeds rich in protein we must have 
a soil with an abundance of quickly available nitrogen. 
Our rotation is against this. If we can each year seed 
our 2,000 acres planted to small grains with Crimson 
clover, disking the seed in immediately after harvest, 
and the Crimson clover thrives, we have solved the prob¬ 
lem. I should judge that the Winter here is similar to 
that .at Poughkeepsie, N. Y.. except that there is less 
snow. We want to try 100 acres of Crimson clover this 
year as a te.st. Shall we get the seed from Delaware 
growers, or do you know of good seed that is raised 
farther north in a more severe climate? 
While Crimson clover is well worth trying in west¬ 
ern Iowa we fear it will not succeed if sown on disked 
land just after harvest. In our own experience early 
sowing with this clover does best when the seed is 
put in with some other crop to shade the young 
plants. We should try the following plan. As soon as 
possible after harvest disk the ground 
and drill cow peas of the quick-growing 
sorts like New Era or Mount Olive. Put 
the drills four feet apart, using half a 
bushel of seed per acre. Cultivate until 
the peas make a good start, and late in 
August sow Crimson clover among the 
cow peas much the same as you would 
in corn. Broadcast 12 pounds of Crim¬ 
son seed per acre and cultivate lightly 
after sowing. We have in this way ob¬ 
tained all the way from 60 to 90 per cent 
of a full stand of clover after the frost 
kills the pe.as. The clover is more likely 
to live through the Winter and Spring 
with the protection of the vines. Even 
if two-thirds of the clover fails to start 
you will receive greater benefit from the 
cow peas than from the clover seeded 
alone. Varieties like New Era are best 
for this purpose because they grow very 
rapidly and mature in 50 or 60 days. In 
some parts of the South these varieties 
are used between two crops of wheat so 
that large crops can be grown year after 
year. As soon as one crop is harvested 
the land is plowed or disked and 
seeded to the peas. They make a full 
HOPE FARM BEAUTY. Fig. 133. See Hope Fakm Notes, Page 375. 
year so as constantly to improve the 
farm and be-safe for the sheep. j. s. wood ward. 
A TALK ABOUT HiaH GRADE FERTILIZERS 
T have road with much interest yours and your corre- 
•spondents’ articles on commercial fertilizers. On page 
322, in article on testing a soU for fertilizers, your corre¬ 
spondent speaks of using a quality of goods running so 
high ip ammonia, potash and phosphoric acid that I w'as 
prompted to inquire whether there are really fertilizers 
on our American market with an actual chemical analy¬ 
sis running so strong. I have used commercial fertilizers 
for more than 40 years, and do not remember coming 
across any that would grade uniformly so high at our 
State testing station. If one chemical, as, for Instance, 
potash, was high, either phosphoric acid or nitrogen 
would have to suffer, or vice versa. Could some of your 
readers who are familiar with fertilizer preparation give 
the sources from which a manufactured article running 
live per cent of nitrogen, 12 per cent phosphoric acid and 
10 per cent potash, like that mentioned by P. K. Hoadley, 
are obtained? I can understand how one, or even two, 
of these percentages may be obtained, but how make the 
full combination of 27 per cent? We rarely find a ferti¬ 
lizer running above 20 per cent. This question of ferti¬ 
lizers is one in which we farmers are vitally interested, 
as vast sum.s are annually expended on them to replace 
the drain on our soils. I have tried mixing, but not hav¬ 
ing the facilities which manufacturers possess, I am in 
some doubt, at the price of labor, whether there was 
much gained. w. t. s. 
Chester Co., Pa. 
Suppose we take the following mixture of chemicals: 
100 lbs. 
400 lbs. 
Nitrogen. Phos. acid. Potash. 
sulphate of ammonia... 
20 
• « • 
• • • 
nitrate of soda. 
o6 
• • • 
lino ground bone. 
21 
dissolved bone black.... 
99 
. . . 
muriate of potash. 
•• 
... 
2f!0 
97 
249 
200 
Ihis gives a ton with nearly five per cent nitrogen, 
12 ^/i per cent phosphoric acid and 10 per cent potash. 
The mixture often suggested of 500 pounds each ni¬ 
trate of soda and bone, 600 pounds bone black and 400 
full ton of fertilizer analyzing four per cent of nitro¬ 
gen, .six of phosphoric acid and 7% of potash! Our 
experience has convinced us that a farmer should buy 
the highest grade of fertilizers that he can reasonably 
find. It will not pay to buy such chemicals as phos¬ 
phate of potash for northern fruit growing, but it will 
pay to buy the most quickly available of the ordinary 
chemicals. We are pretty well convinced that about 
the best way to fertilize an orchard, especially one in 
sod, is to use muriate of potash and acid phosphate, 
or fine ground bone late in July and three or four ap¬ 
plications of nitrate of soda through the Spring and 
Summer. Nothing could show the great difference in 
methods of fertilizing more than this plan of using 
these great quantities of soluble fertilizer on sandy 
soil compared with the plan advocated by Mr. Hitch- 
ings. He has a rich soil, which holds moisture well. 
He plans to stuff all the vegetable matter he can get 
into tliat soil and then let this feed the trees as it 
slowly decays. The light soil farmers have little if 
any organic matter in their soils and make little 
effort to obtain it. They aim to feed the plant with 
the most soluble food while Mr. Hitchings aims to 
feed the land and let it digest the food for his trees. 
Both sy.stems are profitable, but it would not pay to 
change them about. 
We asked Mr. Hoadley, who wrote the original note, 
to tell us just what chemicals he uses. Here is his 
reply: “In order to get five per cent of nitrogen in a 
ton we must have 100 pounds of actual nitrogen; for 
12 per cent of phosphoric acid 240 pounds actual; 10 
per cent potash 200 pounds actual potash. Perhaps 
the following table will illustrate the matter: Nitrate 
of soda, 16 per cent, 175 pounds, gives 28 pounds actual 
nitrogen; cotton-seed meal, ly^ per cent, 425 pounds, 
gives 32 pounds actual nitrogen; raw knucklebone, 
four per cent, 1,000 pounds, gives 40 pounds actual 
growth in time to be plowed under be¬ 
fore seeding another crop of wheat and this can be 
kept up for years if acid phosphate and potash are 
used on the cow peas. We would use the Delaware 
Crimson clover seed. No matter how strong that soil 
is if seed grain and stock continue to be sold from 
it for years there wiil in the future be need of phos¬ 
phoric acid. 
THE “TREE PRESERVATION SHIELD” is ap¬ 
parently a modification of or a development from the 
“expansive tree protector” which was extensively ad¬ 
vertised in western New York a few years ago. Prof. 
Ivochhead, the well-known Canadian entomologist, has 
recently reported that he had had an opportunity of 
inspecting many of these “tree protectors” in different 
Canadian orchards. He says: “In nearly every case 
they failed to give satisfaction, and in some instances 
were positively harmful. In the first place they are 
difficult to fit to the trunk of the tree; secondly, the 
sticky substance with which the under side of the 
protector is coated did not hold the caterpillars, and 
other forms of Insect life, or prevent them from 
crawling over it; thirdly, the cloth band which is sat¬ 
urated with a poison liquid and placed between the 
collar and the trunk of the tree did not kill the in¬ 
sects which crawled beneath the collar; and, fourth¬ 
ly, the bark of the tree immeiliately beneath the band 
was frequently severely injured.” In the light of 
these observations I would not invest very heavily in 
“tree preservation shields.” Another of these schemes 
for protecting trees from insect ravages has recently 
been put on the market, under the name of the 
“Arndt tree protector.” It consists of a metal band 
bearing many sharp teeth. This is placed around the 
tree and the theory is that any insect which attempts 
to crawl over it will be pricked or prodded to death 
by these sharp teeth. In my opinion this theory is 
pure nonsense. No insect that I ever saw crawl would 
deliberately allow itself to be prodded in this way. 
On the other hand the rough surface afforded by the 
teeth would give the insect a much better chance to 
crawl over the protector than if the metal were per¬ 
fectly smooth. M. V. SIANGERI,AXD. 
