66 
Tecoma grandiflora is a splended 
species from China and Japan. Its flowers 
are shorter and more open than those of T. 
radicans, and hardly so dark-colored, but 
they are very showy and produced in quan¬ 
tity in large terminal panicles. It is a much 
finer species than our native one, but un¬ 
fortunately not nearly so hardy. Against 
Mr. Barlow’s house near here, there are some 
fine old plants that bloom abundantly every 
year, and the plants of it on our summer¬ 
house bloom prettily; but there is no use 
disguising the fact that it is too tender 
for general cultivation out-of-doors north 
of New York. From Philadelphia south¬ 
ward, however, it is one of the finest of all 
hardy vines. At Arlington, in Virginia, 
last summer I saw it in splended bloom; 
also, near by it, a handsome form almost 
intermediate between this and the Amer¬ 
ican species. 
Tecoma Thunbergii has not yet bloomed 
with us, but Parsons describes it as “ re¬ 
sembling T. grandiflora, but less vigorous, 
with flowers of a deeper tint.” 
farm Craaami}. 
FLOOD GATES. 
L. D. SNOOK. 
Flood Gates are constructed by only a 
few farmers in a proper manner and many 
are compelled after every freshet to rebuild 
the fence crossing the stream. This should 
not be so and need not be if the plan 
shown at Fig. 29, be followed. Forked 
Fig. 29. 
posts are firmly set or driven near the 
edge of the stream : in the prongs at the top 
is laid a long pole r, in which have been 
previously bored two-inch holes, and split 
strips n n n long enough to reach the 
surface of the water in a dry time are in¬ 
serted in these holes. To these strips are 
firmly nailed other strips, g g, making the 
whole gate firm and very substantial. Im¬ 
mediately above the supporting pole r at 
each end, wire is attached to the forked 
parts, as shown at a a. This keeps the 
whole apparatus firmly in position. It is 
plain that as the water rises and presses 
against the bottom of the strips nn, they are 
pushed down stream and all flood wood or 
even stumps when the current carries them 
against the strips are not retarded in their 
progress, as the bottom of the gate swings 
down stream and of its own gravity comes 
in position again as soon as the freshet sub¬ 
sides. This is certainly a cheap, serviceable 
affair and the most rapid current will not 
destroy it. 
Yates County, N. Y. 
SHEEP FEEDING IN SOUTHERN 
MICHIGAN. 
Extent of the business; purchasing the 
stock; cost of pasture; winter ac¬ 
commodations and feed; the introduc¬ 
tion of self-feeders; watering; market¬ 
ing; amount and sources of profit. 
IT will not, perhaps, be uninteresting to 
the readers of the R.N.-Y. to hear some 
account of the sheep-feeding industry as it 
is carried on in Southern Michigan to-day. 
The increased consumption of mutton in 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
our large cities, especially in the East, and 
the consequent increasing demand for it, 
have been productive of two results, name¬ 
ly, the gathering together of large flocks of 
sheep in the fall to be fattened for the city 
markets, and the rapid introduction of 
black-faced or mutton breeds to be crossed 
with our Merinos. 
As would naturally be expected, the bus¬ 
iness is limited to those farmers who can 
a a a cc cx ct 
Within the past two years anew method 
of feeding grain to the sheep has come into 
use, which consists of an arrangement of 
what are known as “self-feeders,” whereby 
the sheep help themselves to grain at will. 
A very simple contrivance for accomplish¬ 
ing this object, is made by setting a box, 
that will hold enough for several days’ feed, 
upon the farther end of the rack and con¬ 
ducting the grain to within an inch of the 
bottom by a spout. About four sheep can 
eat from the end of the spout at once. 
Water is supplied by hand pumping and 
by wind power, but in either case the most 
convenient receptacle for the separate pens 
has been found to be large tobacco or candy 
pails, that can be readily emptied of dirty 
water and refilled. Where a wind-mill is 
used, a large tank is placed on the upper 
floor of the barn and surrounded by hay 
to prevent freezing, the water being drawn 
by a hose-pipe as desired. 
So much for the arrangements for feeding. 
The sheep are put into the barn and care¬ 
fully graded at the time of or just before 
the first heavy snows. The feed is usually 
shelled corn or corn with a little oats, and 
hay, straw or corn-fodder or, more often, a 
ration of each at different times. The com¬ 
mon practice is to feed twice a day, both 
fodder and grain, where self-feeders are not 
in use, the racks being swept out clean and 
the grain fed first, by spreading evenly 
though the rack from half to three-fourths 
of a pound to the head. The sheep are usu¬ 
ally sent to market from the last of Febru¬ 
ary to the first of May, and, as a rule, are 
contracted to local buyers long before they 
F'j.5 
Fig. 30. 
command means to buy the sheep, and who 
have accommodations for them in the way 
of shelter during the feeding season. It is 
but a few years since the industry was con¬ 
fined almost entirely, in this section, to the 
fattening of wethers and a few ewes that 
breeders wished to get rid of by reason of 
their age or inferiority; but at present, 
through the introduction of the black-faced 
sheep, the feeding of good, thrifty lambs 
is a paramount part of the industry. The 
business of buying these sheep begins im¬ 
mediately after shearing, and is carried on 
till cold weather, when the sheep are ready 
to go into the barn. They are bought both 
by weight and by the head, but by far the 
larger part in the latter way. The prices 
paid vary considerably; but of late years 
they have been governed to some extent by 
the shipping trade, as many have been mar¬ 
keted during the summer and fall months. 
At present, perhaps three to three and one- 
half cents per pound for wethers, and four 
to four and one-half cents per pound for 
lambs would be a fair estimate. The gath¬ 
ering of these large flocks together (.say from 
200 to 1,000), into the hands of single indi¬ 
viduals, necessitates the hiring of much 
pasture during the fall months, and this has 
come to have, with few exceptions, a regu¬ 
lar price of two cents per head for each 
week. 
Having the sheep purchased, the next 
consideration is a proper place and suitable 
arrangements for feeding them. Those 
who have engaged most extensively in the 
business have built or remodeled their 
barns in such a way as to have a large 
place for storing hay and coarse fodder 
overhead, and the lower part, where the 
sheep are, has no floor and is divided into 
pens from 10 to 12 feet wide extending to 
the outer walls of the barn on each side of 
a central alley. Fig. 30 illustrates the ar¬ 
rangement of the lower story of such a 
barn. The racks in the center of each pen 
and abutting upon the alley are open at 
the ends so that one may step from the 
alley into them to distribute the grain or 
hay. 
These racks, so far as I know, are all 
built after one pattern about as follows: 
Take three pieces of 2x2 or 2x4 stuff, three 
feet long, and nail to them two boards six 
inches wide and of any length desired for 
the rack, as in Fig. 30. This forms one 
side, and the other is made in the same way. 
The two sides are then held together by 
boards nailed to the upright pieces or legs 
under the lower board in such a way that 
the two sides shall be just 18 inches apart 
from inside to inside. The bottom consist¬ 
ing of two boards, one 12 and the other six 
inches wide, is then laid in; a narrow end- 
piece is nailed to each end to keep the 
grain from scattering out and the rack is 
completed, with the exception of nailing 
strips of six-inch board vertically to the 
side, so as to make feeding holes, as shown 
in Fig. 30. 
go. 
In estimating the cost of feeding it will 
be seen that each sheep will consume from 
two to three bushels of grain, according to 
the length of time it is fed. The amount 
of hay or coarse fodder consumed is more 
difficult of estimation, but in a general 
way it may be put at one-half the value of 
the grain. 
Lambs will gain more flesh in the same 
time and upon the same feed than will ma¬ 
ture sheep—in my own experience as much 
as two to one. Twenty-five to 30 pounds 
per head is a good gain for lambs during 
four months’ feeding and 12 to 15 for 
wethers. The profit, of course, as in every¬ 
thing else, depends largely upon the price 
realized, though the cost of feeding varies 
considerably in different years. While the 
profit is not often large, yet considering 
the season of the year, the large production 
of very valuable manure, and the rapid 
conversion of large quantities of coarse 
fodder, we must think those farmers wise 
who having means to do so,devote the winter 
months to the feeding of sheep for market, 
as a valuable adjunct to their farming 
operations. A. M. B. 
Schoolcraft, Michigan. 
Facts About Trees. 
WOULD YOU PLANT A GROVE ? 
A number of nervous people are greatly 
concerned every spring about the supposed 
decline in the number of maple trees suita¬ 
ble for making sugar and sirup. Many go 
so far as to say that unless steps are taken 
to'plant new groves, the supply of maple 
sugar may be seriously curtailed in the near 
future. Maple products come near to being 
the ideal “ money crop.” They take little 
or nothing from the soil: the work neces¬ 
sary to produce them is done at a time when 
other work cannot be done, and the market 
is sure and profitable. The R. N.-Y. has 
sent a series of questions to some of its 
readers who deal in maple sugar. The fol¬ 
lowing replies will be of interest to those 
who have anything to do with the busi¬ 
ness : 
FROM EMMONS POND. 
Maple trees have never been planted in 
this vicinity, except for shade, and probably 
never will be. New groves are formed 
FEB i 
principally on waste land where bushes 
start up. By judiciously thinning these 
out, one soon has a maple orchard of young 
trees which are considered better than the 
old trees in the woods. Many of these old 
trees have been tapped 100 years and are 
apparently as healthy as those that never 
have had the sap drawn from them. Draw¬ 
ing the sap injures the tree very little, if 
any. The greatest danger apprehended by 
sugar-makers is that the supply of wood 
may fail as it requires a very large amount 
to boil the sap. But the new evaporators 
coming in use economize very much in the 
use of wood, and the majority of sugar- 
makers can manufacture sugar and sirup 
for many years. This is the principal 
sugar-making district of the State. 
Jewett, N. Y. 
FROM R. B. CUTTS. 
It has not yet become necessary to take 
any steps to keep up the supply of Sugar 
Maples in their natural groves, as the 
young trees grow up fast enough to more 
than supply the place of those that nat¬ 
urally die of old age or that are blown 
down or destroyed by other natural causes, 
for in the proper season the Sugar Maple is 
always loaded with seeds with a wing-like 
attachment and the seeds are blown from 
the tree when ripe, and scattered far and 
wide over the fields in the vicinity of the 
trees, and they grow by thousands on 
plowed fields and among the grass, and if 
farm stock were fenced out of the groves, 
the undergrowth would soon make it im¬ 
possible to gather the sap from the mature 
trees, so there is an increase of trees in 
many camps. I know of several “ camps ” 
hereabouts the owners of which began 
with 50 buckets and have increased the 
number year by year until now they use 
from 300 to 600 buckets and all camps are 
yearly getting new buckets in this imme¬ 
diate vicinity as fast as the young trees are 
large enough to tap. 
I have known of only one grove that was 
expressly set out for the purpose of form¬ 
ing a sugar orchard, and that was in Hiram 
township near where I live. It was planted 
by a man nearly 70 years old and he got 
the idea from a row his father had 
set along the road the whole width 
of the farm for shade, and as the 
trees had become large he used them for 
making maple sirup, and as they extended 
half a mile they made quite an addition to 
the income of the farm, having been set out 
in every corner of the old-fashioned rail 
fence. He died soon afterward; but the 
trees are growing nicely, and as they are on 
a stony part of the farm and his children 
still keep the old homestead, they will get 
the benefit of the orchard as he expected 
they would. 
Probably I shall never plant any trees for 
maple sirup production alone,as I have no va¬ 
cant land that I wish to devote to that pur¬ 
pose. I have seen trees that have been bored 
for sap every year for 30 years and they are 
large and thrifty yet and bid fair to last 
many years longer, and I do not doubt that 
there are many trees in this vicinity that 
have been used for sap constantly for more 
than 50 years, there being on the farm that 
I have rented the last three years trees that 
are over three feet in diameter. I use two 
buckets on each of them and find them 
always running over when there is a good 
run of sap, and the trees have been bored 
until they are a mass of scars all around 
the body. A maple orchard will last as 
long as one man will live to work and 
gather the sap unless destroyed by some 
cause besides old age or natural decay, 
though of late years there has been some loss 
by the maple-tree borer, which works in 
the same way as the apple-tree borer. 
I do not think there are any signs of the 
supply failing in this neighborhood, but 
I know that twice asmany buckets are now 
used in this county as there were 15 years 
ago and many of these are used on trees 
that were not large enough to tap at that 
time. Farmers here are learning the value 
of the maple product and would as soon cut 
down a thrifty fruit tree as a’good, thrifty j 
growing maple even of very small size, for 
they look upon them as a source of ad¬ 
ditional profit as soon as large enough to 
produce sap. In many camps there is not 
enough of other timber to furnish fuel to 
boil the sap, and the owners use coal for 
that purpose and also for fuel in their 
hous's, rather than cut down the'maples for 
fire-wood unless they are dead or dying 
and by these means the supply is rather 
on the increase or at least it holds up well 
at present. 
Garettsville, Ohio. 
FROM T. H. HOSKINS. 
The maple groves of Vermont attached 
