Vol. LXV. Mo. 2935. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 28, 1906. 
WEEKLY. <B1.00"PER YEAR. 
A TALK ABOUT SHEEP . 
A Conservative View of the Induslry. 
Men in many respects are like sheep, which will re¬ 
main contented in rather poor pasture for a long time, 
but let one get through the fence into another field, and 
no matter what is on the other side, the whole flock will 
follow, even though they leave considerable wool stick¬ 
ing to the rough and untried places. Sometimes there 
will be a broken leg. and now and then a dead sheep as 
a result of the mad rush. Farmers have let the sheep 
go off the farms, for various reasons, and have con¬ 
tented themselves with the returns from unprofitable 
cows, or from fields increasing in weeds and decreas¬ 
ing in fertility. Now that sheep have begun to boom, 
and wool is bringing fair and mutton high prices, and 
those who have had sheep to sell have made money, 
there is beginning to be a rush into the sheep business 
not at all dissimilar to that of the sheep into a new 
field. I am glad to see the 
sheep coming back to the 
farms, for I believe they are 
and will be, as they always 
have been a source of profit. 
I would encourage rather 
than discourage sheep keep¬ 
ing, yet it has been im¬ 
pressed on my mind this 
Winter that there should be 
a danger signal hoisted. There 
is always danger at any time 
in going into any new enter¬ 
prise, particularly when such 
enterprise is on the crest of 
the wave. With mutton 
lambs selling by the carload 
at over $8.50 per 100, as they 
have done this Winter, that 
surely means the top price; 
that is too high in comparison 
with other things to be per¬ 
manent. Such prices for mut¬ 
ton mean high prices for 
store sheep. Last November 
I sold the cull ewes out of 
my flock, right off the grass, 
in the New York market for 
better than $5 per head. One 
can easily see where this 
brings good breeding stock. 
Buying at these high prices, 
one must have such continue, 
and have the best of success 
all along the line to make 
any money. The decline in 
price of over $1 per 100 at 
a time when the tendency is usually upward shows 
that prices were too high. One who has had no ex¬ 
perience with sheep cannot expect the best of success 
until he has learned the business. Under present con¬ 
ditions education is likely to be costly. Again, one 
whose experience with sheep was confined to the fine 
wool breeds of a generation ago, and who now starts 
in—as most do—with the English mutton breeds, will 
probably meet with a greater failure than he who had 
no knowledge of sheep at all; because he will be apt 
to give the same sort of care (?) to these as he gave 
the fine wools; the mutton sheep must be looked after 
much more closely and be better fed. 
I have never known of so many complaints about 
the various ills that sheep are heir to than during the 
past season. I know of no climatic conditions or other 
reasons that would produce this state of things. I be¬ 
lieve in the majority of cases the trouble results from 
a lack of knowledge of a comparatively new business. 
What do I advise? That with sheep, as with every¬ 
thing else, we should make haste slowly. A healthy 
growth is always a slow one. It takes but a short 
time for a willow to become a large tree, and it is of 
little value then. An oak may be 30 years in reaching 
the same size, but it has a value that will repay the 
waiting. Know what is wanted before starting in. such 
as the purpose for which they are to be kept; the 
breed best for this purpose; the land on which they are 
to pasture, and the kind of feed and care they should 
have. These things can all be learned by studying the 
methods of some successful neighbor and by reading 
some up-to-date works on the subject, such as “Sheep 
Farming in America,” by “Joe” Wing, a most prac¬ 
tical work written by a practical and successful shep¬ 
herd. Don’t pay extravagant prices for sheep for the 
sake of having them. If one cannot buy as many as 
he would like at a fair value, then buy a less number 
and grow up a flock. Don’t get discouraged by a few 
losses or failures, or by a drop in prices. One who 
is always changing from one thing to another, with 
every up or down in prices, is generally out too soon 
and in too late. Then with intelligent care and abund¬ 
ance of good feed one should be reasonably sure of a 
moderate profit from the start. 
What of the outlook for the industry? Excellent. 
The last census shows, and they who have been on the 
ground tell us, that the number of sheep in the United 
States, particularly on the ranges, is annually growing 
less. In many cases the sheep have followed the cattle, 
and after they have eaten what the cattle left and 
trodden the roots into the damp ground there is no more 
pasture for anything. The population is rapidly in¬ 
creasing, particularly in the cities. With good in¬ 
comes people are eating more meat; the increased 
price of beef and improved quality of mutton mean 
a growing consumption of the latter. I see no reason 
why mutton should not bring good—not high—prices 
for a long time to come. Wool is bringing a good 
price, and likely to continue at such. I have it on 
good authority that one-half of this season’s clip of 
wool is engaged while yet on the sheep’s backs. The 
price in the ,East for the medium wools seems likely 
to be about 30 cents, as it was a year ago, all good 
healthy signs. No shepherds are likely to have a sur¬ 
plus large enough to establish libraries to unload their 
accumulations; but they should be able, if they con¬ 
servatively and intelligently carry on their business, to 
have enough to educate their children and now and 
then to buy a book for themselves. On the other 
hand, if they rush into the business without knowledge 
and pay high prices for their stock, they will be able 
to die poor, without any effort to dispose of their 
wealth in any philanthropic way. 
EDWARD VAN ALSTYNE. 
MELONS ON LIGHT SANDY SOIL. 
The first crop of watermelons I ever raised was 30 
years ago on just such soil as I. W. A. describes on 
page 285. I had sold the piece of land to a speculator. 
After he had bought the land 
he proposed I should plant it 
in watermelons. He would 
furnish all the manure I 
asked for. Being a new crop 
I questioned every water¬ 
melon raiser I came across, 
and finally settled on the fol¬ 
lowing: I turned everything 
under with a three-horse plow 
12 inches deep, and let it lie 
till Spring; when harrowed 
and put in condition made 
the hills 11 feet apart. My 
partner wanted them 12, so 
II was a compromise, I laid 
off the rows with a two-horse 
plow, two bouts to the row, 
as deep as I could plow, then 
cleaned out the hill as deeply 
as I could with the hoe. I 
had well rotted stable manure 
two years old. At the bottom 
of the hill I put four ounces 
of Peruvian guano and one- 
half bushel of the manure; 
covered the manure over, let 
it stand for five or six days. 
I then made the hills and 
planted about five seeds every 
six days three times. I got a 
perfect stand; when they had 
about four leaves I noticed 
the squash bug on them. I 
at once gave them a dusting 
with land plaster with a slight 
touch of Paris-green in it and 
I saw no more bugs or insects of any kind. I never saw 
a more rapid growth, nor better weather for melons. 
When the crop matured people came from far and near 
to see it. The first cutting I got 6,500, for which I had 
chartered a vessel carrying 9,000; 0,500 was all she could 
take. There were over 200 that would weigh from 65 to 
75 pounds each, some of which sold at wholesale in New 
York at $S0 a hundred. I have never seen a crop like 
it since. My partner paid for the land on this shipment 
after deducting all expenses and $24 besides. e. b. d. 
Suffolk, Va. _ 
A RURAL MAGAZINE CLUB. 
The Rural Magazine Club was organized five years 
ago with 11 members and, as stated in its by-laws, 
“Its object is to promote the mental and social welfare 
of its members by the circulation of good literature 
and by occasional discussions of current topics.” Its 
officers consist of a president and secretary, the duty 
of the secretary being to keep the records of the club, 
carry on its correspondence and have charge of the 
SHEEP PASTURED IN AN OLD APPLE ORCHARD. Fig. 143. 
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