i899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Mr. Ward got us very much interested in sheep, 
think, from his appearance, it must be a healthful 
vocation. I think he is up to date in his plan of feed¬ 
ing the year around, not on weeds, but with first-class 
pasturage, and forage crops for dry weather. Can’t 
we have some of these farmers portrayed in Tiie R. 
N.-Y. ? w. w. c. 
Erie County, N. Y. 
THE SHROPSHIRE SHEEP. 
This breed has been long and favorably known in 
England, but is comparatively new in this country. 
The first importations were not much more than two 
score years ago, but it is within less than half that 
time that the breed has atti acted marked attention 
on this side the water. The breed originated from the 
polled sheep of Cannock Heath, and the old black or 
spotted-faced breed of Morfe Common, The Journal 
of the Royal Agricultural Society gives this extract 
of a report more than a century old, relating to the lat¬ 
ter breed. 
“ On Morfe Common, near Bridgnorth, there are 
about 10,000 sheep kept during the Summer months, 
which produce wool of a superior quality. They are 
considered a native breed, are black-faced or brown, 
or spotted-faced horned sheep, little subject to either 
rot or scab.” 
The sheep of Cannock Heath were hornless with 
grayish faces and legs, and are described by Youatt 
as attaining great weight. From these two hardy 
native breeds, the Shropshire has been gradually im¬ 
proved, possibly by outcrossing with some other 
breeds, until it stands well in the front rank of mid¬ 
dle-wool breeds. 
Curtis gives this description of the breed: “The face 
is dark grayish or brown, wool coming well down to 
the eyes, with no trace of horns. The legs are darker 
than face—almost black; head longer than in the 
South Down and ears larger, while the wool is close 
set, finer and longer in staple.” 
When the shepherds of this country turned their 
attention to mutton sheep because of the depression 
in wool, the Shropshire came rapidly to the front. It 
has, probably, distanced all other breeds of middle or 
coarse wools, and is more in demand to-day than any 
of the others. It is a good breed, and its friends 
have recognized it and have worked for it vigorously 
and successfully. 
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piece of paper.] 
Evaporating Black Raspberries. 
A. R. B., Dexter, Me— In The R. N.-Y. of October 29, is the article 
headed, A Successful Raspberry Grower, which I read in hopes 
of finding out what price was obtained per quart. I am, also, in¬ 
terested in the evaporator idea. I would like to know how evap¬ 
orating is done. What will a quart of fresh fruit weigh when 
evaporated ? How is the evaporated fruit put up, and at what 
price does it sell ? I have red raspberries only. 
Ans. —Black raspberries are evaporated in many 
different ways, the simplest method being to dry them 
outside in the sun, spread upon broad platforms made 
for the purpose. Another method sometimes used by 
those who have glass houses is to spread them upon 
the benches in the greenhouse. In this position, they 
will dry somewhat quicker than outside, and are pro¬ 
tected from rain without extra trouble. By far the 
greater number are dried in evaporators. These vary 
widely according to the amount of work to be done 
and the method of applying the heat. There are 
two general classes, the hot-air machines and the 
steam driers, steam being confined to large commer¬ 
cial establishments. The essential condition in all is 
a strong draught of dry heated air passing over the 
t fruit to absorb the moisture and take it away. The 
temperature should average about 180 degrees F. 
The time required for drying, in a good evaporator, 
varies with the conditions of the fruit and of the 
weather, perhaps averaging about five hours. The 
fruit is taken from the machine while still soft, and 
the curing is finished in the curing room by shoveling 
it over daily for some time afterward. The yield of 
dried fruit per bushel of green varies with the season 
and the time of season, averaging from 9 to 10 pounds 
per bushel. At the prices obtained for evaporated 
fruit in years past, the industry has been a profitable 
one, but at the prices quoted at the present time (see 
market report) the profits cannot be large. It is 
usually put up in barrels, or in boxes holding 50 
pounds. 
Red raspberries are seldom evaporated, not from 
any inherent difficulty in doing the work, but because 
they have never attained a position in the markets 
which will warrant the undertaking. The shrinkage 
is greater than with black raspberries, and the fruits 
dry to a dull, unattractive color which is against their 
sale. A heaping quart basketful of fruit will weigh 
about four ounces when dried, varying, of course, 
with seasons and other conditions. 
The Shaffer is a better variety for evaporating than 
the true reds, giving a more attractive color, a better 
yield and a product of excellent quality. With a good 
market for fresh fruit, there is little reason to evap¬ 
orate red varieties. If a special market could be ob¬ 
tained for the dried fruit, which would pay a price 
corresponding to the cost of production, it might be 
made a profitable undertaking ; but to evaporate them 
with the expectation of depending upon the whole¬ 
sale market, would be likely to prove disappointing. 
FRED W. CARD. 
Building a Henhouse. 
Several Subscribers inquire about plans for henhouses. One, 
evidently, knows nothing about the subject, and has no ideas to 
offer. The others all have plans of their own. One wishes to build 
10x40 feet, 554 feet high on one side, 8*4 on the other, with a low 
room excavated from bank on east end. Another wishes to build 
for 500 hens. He plans to build house 29 x 90 feet, with three-foot 
central alley, and five pens on each side, 13 x 18 feet, each to con¬ 
tain 50 hens. He would have one window on the roof for each 
pen, and two others near the ground. He would have a yard 
30 x 165 feet for each pen of 50 hens. He wishes to know whether 
these would furnish grass enough for the hens. 
Ans —Unless in a climate where the hens can run 
out during the entire year, and use the house only for 
roosting, we would never build with a central alley 
with pens on each side. The hens need the sunlight 
direct. It is not enough simply to have the house 
light enough. Such houses have been built, and with 
all inside partitions of wire, and some of the windows 
high upon the south side, answer fairly well. We 
would like to hear from our readers who have had ex¬ 
perience with this style. A house of whatever length 
or style should face the south or southeast, with all 
the windows on that side. We would have an alley, 
say 3 feet wide, along the north side; from this alley, 
tbe hens can be fed and watered, eggs gathered, 
roosts cleaned, etc. The house should be divided by 
means of wire netting into pens. Not more than 50 
hens should be kept together, and a smaller number 
would be still better. It is generally considered that 
each hen should have about 6 feet of floor space, 
though some allow less. 
We would not build a house less than 15 to 18 feet 
wide, which would leave 12 to 15 feet for the pens. 
We would build, preferably, a roof sloping both ways, 
and would build a house high rather than as low as 
many do. Some of the best authorities say that plenty 
of air space overhead is more necessary than floor space. 
Among some of the White Leghorn farmers in central 
New York, a loose floor is laid to the attic, and this 
space is stuffed with dry wheat straw, which absorbs 
the moisture when the house is tightly closed during 
cold weather. 
In the North, we would build a house with double 
walls, covered outside with good building paper. 
Farther south, single boarding, well papered, will do. 
This paper answers for roof, but must be well laid on 
a smooth board foundation, well nailed and battened 
down, and kept well painted. The Neponset Red Rope 
roofing is excellent for this purpose. The roof needs 
a heavier paper than the sides. The Neponset paper 
is used on Fisher’s Island Farm, and an excellent and 
cheap paint is made of a mixture of metallic paint, 
Venetian red and linseed oil. The paper should be 
painted as soon as put on. Where shingles are cheap, 
they make as good a roof as can be found, and should 
be underlaid with paper. 
As for windows, too many are as bad as not enough. 
One large window to each pen is sufficient. Double 
glazing is advisable in the North. Too much glass 
radiates too much heat at night. Wooden shutters 
over the windows cold nights save much heat. 
The scratching shed is a good thing. Many de¬ 
tached houses are built with one end open on one side 
for this purpose. The main point is to have it dry and 
sheltered from wind. The three essentials in a poul¬ 
try house are warmth, dryness and light. There must 
be no dampness or drafts. Everything must be kept 
clean and free from vermin, Nest boxes should be 
dark. Boards under the roosts should be cleaned fre¬ 
quently. The house should be floored, unless on per¬ 
fectly dry, light soil, and the floor should be kept cov¬ 
ered with dry earth, road dust or coal ashes, all to be 
cleaned out frequently. 
The yards specified might give grass enough for the 
hens, if well seeded, and the grass have a good start 
before the hens begin on it. The chances are, how¬ 
ever, that they would need additional green feed. 
The Result of Burning Bones. 
F. E., Sheboygan Falls , Wis .—In the burning of green bones, is 
any fruit-plant food destroyed, and if so what ? 
Ans.—B ones contain chiefly two fertilizing sub¬ 
stances, nitrogen and phosphoric acid. The former 
goes into the form of a gas, when heated, escapes into 
5 
the air, and is thus lost as plant food. The phos¬ 
phoric acid exists in the form of phosphate of lime, a 
solid which is not converted into a gas by heat. When 
you burn bones to a powder, you drive away all the 
nitrogen, but leave the phosphoric acid in the form of 
bone ash, in which form it is easy to distribute, al¬ 
though not so valuable for fertilizer as the raw bone 
crushed or ground into fine pieces. The nitrogen in 
bones gives one-third or more of their fertilizing 
value, and you lose all this by burning. This opera¬ 
tion is often practicad, however, because it is the 
quickest way to reduce the bone to a powder. Fer¬ 
tilizer dealers employ expensive machinery for steam¬ 
ing, smashing and grinding bones. It is hard to re¬ 
duce green bones on the farm with ordinary appli¬ 
ances. Perhaps the best way is to pack them in boxes 
or barrels in layers, with layers of unleached wood 
ashes between them, then keep the whole thing moist 
by pouring water on the top. In about 90 days, the 
bones will be soft enough to smash with a heavy 
shovel or sledge, but they will not be fine enough to 
work through an ordinary fertilizer drill. 
Leasing Farm Lands for Oil Wells. 
A . JV., Hedgesville , N . Y . —The other day, I met a man who claims 
to represent a company which wishes to lease a large tract of 
land for the purpose of drilling for oil and gas. He says that the 
company will give $50 for a gas well, all the gas necessary for 
the house free, and one-eighth of the oil, if oil be found. 
Ans. —The plan of leasing land has been in vogue, 
with more or less variations, for some time ; the lessee 
agrees to drill a certain number of wells within a cer¬ 
tain time on a specified number of acres, paying 
therefor a fixed price per year for each well while gas 
is piped from the premises. Some pay $50 to $100 per 
annum for each gas well, and others $200 or $300 for 
a well regardless of the life of it. Some pay a price 
proportionate to the pressure of gas—a certain price 
per year if the well will produce a 100-pound pressure 
in three to five minutes. While this plan is not prac¬ 
ticed in this part of the country, the most equitable 
way would be for the lessor to have a fixed price per 
thousand feet for the gas his farm produces ; then the 
lessor whose farm produces a large amount of gas 
gets more than the one who has light gas territory. 
Land owners can afford to lease their lands to par¬ 
ties who will test the territory, as they are to no ex¬ 
pense, the lessor taking all the risk, consequently 
should have a lease on favorable terms. The laud- 
owner should have free access to the wells at all times 
when operated upon, which privilege the lessee is 
usually willing to grant. W den a well ovvner ceases 
to pay a royalty on a well, the lessor should have the 
privilege of purchasing the same for the market value 
of the material in the well, as the land-owner might 
make use of it when the lessee could not; if a gas 
well, the gas might be of value on the farm when its 
production would be too small to be piped away. 
A. B. COTTRELL. 
Sheep in an Orchard. 
C . N . R ., Canton , Pa —Would sheep be liable to injure an apple 
orchard that was set about 12 years ago ? The trees have made 
a good growth, and branch about 2*4 or 3 feet from the ground. 
I would like to overstock and then feed so as to improve the 
orchard. 
Ans. —I have orchards on heavy clay loam, and also 
on light sandy loams, and find the system works 
equally well on both. The fact is, sheep do not 
poach up the ground like cattle, and even when the 
land is wet, do not tread deep. The key to the prob¬ 
lem is in the overstocking and high feeding on bran. 
C. N. R. may well put in so many sheep that he has to 
give them a daily feed of clover hay, or better still, 
in Summer, green clover, or rape, by having racks in 
different parts of the orchard in which to feed them. 
In any country where the price of pasturing 100 sheep 
is $2 or more per week, by sowing a field to rape con¬ 
tiguous to the orchard or where the rape can be cut 
and hauled to the orchard, and feeding wheat bran in 
connection with it, they can be kept for less money, 
and at the same time no other course would do the 
orchard so much good. The number of sheep that 
may be kept in an orchard of a given size, is only a 
question of bow much feed is given, and of course, all 
the manure resulting from the feed will be scattered 
over the ground. 
If the trees are large, say six inches and over in 
diameter, there is but little danger of the sheep eat¬ 
ing the bark, providing they have plenty of fresh 
water always accessible. Sheep first learn to gnaw 
trees for water, but when they once get a taste of the 
sweet bark, they like it, and then it is hard to stop 
them eating the trees. But if he fears injury, he can 
get common poultry netting three feet wide with two- 
inch mesh, and by putting this loosely about the 
trunks of the trees and twisting the ends of six or 
eight wires together, it will last until the trees out¬ 
grow it, and no sheep will even rub against it. But 
he must be careful to put these protectors on very 
loosely, as when the orchard is so treated, the trees 
will make a very rapid growth, and wires will soon 
cut into the trees. If any man who doubts the efficacy 
of this way of feeding will once try it, he will never 
abandon it. jr. s. woodward. 
