Vol. LXIV. No. 2913. 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 25. 1905. 
WEEKLY, if 1.00 PKR YEAR 
SHEEP A CAUSE FOR THANKSGIVING. 
Be Thankful for Sheep. 
A SHEPHERD’S TRIBUTE.—There are three 
things connected with the farm that are not conducive 
to thankfulness. First, lack of fertility; 
second, scarcity of labor; third, weeds. 
The first necessitates on most farms more 
stock. This has usually meant in recent 
years a dairy, which helps the first trou¬ 
ble, while it increases the second; and 
sometimes for lack of help also increases 
the third. I wish I could completely 
solve all three. Then we should be able 
to “rejoice and be glad all our days.” A 
partial solution, and certainly a cause for 
thanksgiving, 1 find in sheep. I have been 
a shepherd all my life. In fact I owned 
my first sheep when a boy of 10. My 
father gave me a pair of cosset ewes, 
which I broke to drive both double and 
single. The first check I ever received 
was one for over $5 for their two fleeces 
of wool. I have been a dairyman for 
about 20 years, and in spite of low prices 
for sheep products (and prices have been 
low with cattle too), I have found the 
sheep to yield more net profit, labor and 
fertility being taken account of, than the 
cows. The product of the cattle must be 
drawn night and morning, Sundays as 
well as week days, and then manufactured 
or carried away daily. The sheep do not 
require this labor, and only have to be 
carried off twice a year, and one of these 
times they will carry themselves. The 
time spent in caring for the cows can 
be expended to good advantage in better 
cultivation of the growing crops; and a 
few hours that are not of necessity tied 
to the cow, may be well spent in mental 
or social recreation. To be truly thank¬ 
ful, we must have profit of some sort, 
and to obtain this, one must have the 
right kind of sheep; mutton first and 
woo] second. The best and most of both ; 
sheep so bred and kept that they will pro¬ 
duce a lamb in Winter that at 10 or 12 
weeks old will bring from $0 to $12; or 
one that will sell for $5 on Fourth of 
July, or weigh 80 pounds in market in 
November at seven months old, or 100 
pounds or more after a Winter’s feeding. 
I hey should shear not less than seven 
pounds of wool, which at 20 cents will 
go a long way toward their keep. 
FEED AND CARE.—They will eat a 
great variety of food, and as weed ex¬ 
terminators are -not to be despised. I find 
it is an excellent plan to let them in the 
pastures after the cattle have been taken 
out, when they will eat many weeds and 
bushes that cows will not touch. The 
same is true of the stubble fields and 
meadows. I keep my flock a good portion 
of the Summer in my orchards. Two 
have been so pastured for over 25 years. 
If there are any orchards of the same age 
and size in Columbia County that have in 
this time, yielded more or better fruit, and the soil of 
which is as full of fertility, I should be glad to go to 
see them. 1 his fertility not only is without cost, but 
made at a profit. 
FOOD VALUE.—When I want a nice piece of meat 
on my table, I do not have to go to the butcher and 
give up 75 cents or $1 for meat that has been some 
time dead, in cold storage, but a fat ewe or lamb is 
always at hand, fresh and appetizing. If I cannot use 
a whole one, there are always those who are glad to 
get a quarter, at less than meat market price. With 
roast lamb, brown potatoes, vegetables of his own grow¬ 
ing, pumpkin or cherry pie, with baked apples and 
cream, all from the farm, at their best and at first cost, 
if a farmer is not thankful any day in the year, he must 
have a hard heart. We want to make the sheep thank¬ 
ful too. Nothing is more conducive to this—in man 
or animal—than a full stomach of appetizing foods. 
PASTURE.—.We cannot expect the best results with 
the English breeds of mutton sheep, unless we approach 
somewhat the Englishman’s feed and care, The old 
adage, “the sheep will live where the ox will starve,” is 
perhaps true, but as the hymn says, it will be “at a 
poor dying rate.” If the pasture is short, a patch of 
rape, sown in the oat stubble or early potato field, 
to which the sheep can run, will be of great value. The 
windfall and cull apples, most seasons will 
find their best paying and most apprecia¬ 
tive customers in the sheep. Pumpkins, 
too, are much relished, and the seeds as a 
vermifuge can hardly be equaled. This 
particularly warm growing Fall has put 
too much top on our rye. Yesterday I 
turned in the sheep. If one wanted to 
see solid enjoyment, then was the chance, 
watching them eat, although they had 
just come off good pasture, benefiting both 
them and the rye. I find it is well to 
have the flock go into Winter quarters 
fat. Not the fat of corn, but that put 
on by such foods as I have suggested, 
lhey will not need grain so soon, or so 
much of it. particularly if they are sup¬ 
plied with plenty of early cut clover or 
mixed hay, supplemented by roots or 
silage. 
GENERAL CARE.—They are thank¬ 
ful too, if kept dry. 1 he cold Fall rains 
saturate their wool, and it must largely 
dry from the heat of their bodies, requir¬ 
ing more food to supply the waste, and 
is also a great drain on their vitality. 
This often produces pneumonia and 
death, too often attributed to grub in 
the head, heart failure and the like. It 
is an easy matter to put them under shel¬ 
ter, and will well repay the little effort 
and thought required. It is poor econ¬ 
omy to let them live on the frozen grass 
—if the ground is free from snow—after 
Winter has set in, and the other thinly 
clad stock are safely housed. True, such 
grass will fill them, but there is a great 
difference between filling and feeding. It 
will also contribute much to their com¬ 
fort, as well as to the pocket of the own¬ 
er, if the dirty wool is clipped away from 
about the tail. If the hoofs have grown 
long on the ends or sides, this growth 
should be pared off with a good sharp 
knife. Then plenty of pure water where 
the sheep can have access to it at all 
times, a box of salt sprinkled with tur¬ 
pentine to which they can run, clean, dry 
bedding to lie on, with all food removed 
that has not been eaten the previous meal, 
and the owner can sit down under his 
own “vine” and figure up the profits with 
safety. edward van alstyne. 
WINTER IN THE GREENHOUSE. 
The Daily Round Under Glass. 
BEGINNING THE DAY.—Winter 
days are short, but there is always time 
to use one's powers of observation, and 
these powers should always be in prac¬ 
tice in the daily routine of the green¬ 
house man. The first thing to note in 
the morning is the outdoor temperature 
and the general condition of the weather, 
because so many of the indoor operations must be ar¬ 
ranged in accordance with these conditions. Then to 
find out the temperature of the greenhouse, and in this 
connection it may be remarked that the thermometer 
should hang at a convenient height from the ground 
for the average man to read it correctly, and should 
be located about the middle of the house, in order to 
show the average temperature, there being i^ almost 
THE FOUNDATION FOR THE THANKSGIVING DINNER Fig. 356. 
“WE HAVE MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR.” Fig. 357. 
