1908. 
THIS RURAL NRW-YORKER 
663 
SHEEP AND A FARM ROTATION. 
If one has plenty of pasture and can raise clover 
hay there is nothing that will pay for as little labor as 
a flock of good sheep, and here 1 think is where the 
labor question can be partially solved. Ordinarily they 
will average seven pounds of wool each, and raise 
nine lambs to each 10 ewes. They would at five to 
six months old weigh about 75 pounds each, and at 
present prices for wool and lambs bring about $4.75 
for each sheep kept. Some flocks will do better than 
this, others will not do as well, depending on the 
sheep, season and management. 
I count the cost of wintering at about $2 per head, 
leaving the balance as pay for the labor and pasture. 
I allow one ton of hay for each four sheep, and a 
little grain toward Spring. Oats or 
wheat bran is good and will lessen the 
amount of hay required. There are al¬ 
ways a number of small potatoes sorted 
from the potato crop; feed them in April. 
1 he sheep like them and will pay a good 
price for them. 
I like to have lambs come about the 
first of May, just as the ewes are about 
to go on grass. Take the lambs away 
from the ewes in September and they 
are ready to sell in October or Novem¬ 
ber to shippers or feeders. Keep a few 
of the best ewe lambs each year and 
sell an equal number of the poorest 
sheep. The labor of looking after them 
during the Summer and keeping the 
weeds down along the fence rows with 
the scythe is less than keeping the weeds 
down along where there are no sheep 
kept, and the labor of taking care of 
them in the Winter is less than would 
be the case with any other kind of stock. 
The best hay for them is of a grade 
that docs not sell readily in the market, 
in fact I look upon the sheep as a 
first-class “home market” for the fod¬ 
der consumed. They pay well for it in 
wool and lambs which bring the money, 
and in addition they furnish a few loads y< )(j\( 
of a high grade manure that all our 
land needs. The pasture works in well 
with a rotation of crops. Mow a field once or twice; 
pasture one or two years; plow up; take off two 
crops, seed down, and do so again. But one should 
have a care not to get too large a flock, for in case 
of a drought the pasture will dry up and unless 
provision has been made for such an emergency there 
will be trouble and loss. Bear in mind that the 
lambs nearly double the flock each Fall, requiring 
the pasture to be doubled. Shear the sheep in April 
before the lambs come and, if one could have a port¬ 
able shed in the pasture where the sheep could run 
in out of a storm or out of the sun and where a box 
could be kept filled with salt, so much the better. 
Will some one tell us what would be the matter with 
a rotation of crops as follows; would it keep the 
land up; would it improve it, or would it run it 
down? In case of a farm of about 100 acres, 50 of 
which would raise potatoes, divide that 50 into five 
hay each five years and would receive one dose of 
a complete fertilizer. My experience is that the extra 
yield of potatoes would pay for the fertilizer and 
there would still be enough left in the soil to benefit 
the oats the next year and the hay the year after. 
Bath, N. Y. m. r. w. 
OLD-FASHIONED LIMING IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
Stories are often told of the heavy use of lime 
formerly made by Pennsylvania farmers. Why has 
the practice changed? 
The practice of liming the soil with heavy applica¬ 
tions, 40 to 50 bushels of unslaked lime to the acre, 
which was always the custom in Chester county. Pa., 
30 to 50 years ago, has been entirely abandoned since 
DITCHING MACHINE). PROP. VOORIIEES AT RIGHT. 
Fig. 299 
lots of to acres each. Plant one lot to potatoes, using 
800 pounds of a high grade potato fertilizer to the 
acre. After digging the potatoes broadcast rye over 
the ground and harrow it in. The next Spring plow, 
sow to oats and seed down to clover, Timothy, Red- 
top and Orchard grass mixed. The third year mow 
a crop of hay which would be mostly clover. Pasture 
it with sheep the fourth year and the fifth year; then 
commence over again. Thus the 50 acres would be 
occupied each year with 10 acres potatoes, SO acres 
oats, 10 acres hay and 20 acres pasture. The 20 
acres ought to pasture (50 sheep if additional pasture 
could be furnished for the lambs in the Fall. Each 
lot would be pastured two years out of the five, would 
raise one crop potatoes, one crop oats and one crop 
I PLANT Ob' NFW SNOWBALL HYDRANGEA. I 
See Rural isms, Page (5(5(5. 
the advent of commercial fertilizers. As a conse¬ 
quence our soil has become more or less acid. There 
is. a deficiency of humus and a marked tendency to 
wash in gulleys after plowing. There are many 
farmers, the older men especially, who would return 
to the ancient custom were it not for the fact that 
the quarries have been abandoned. The eight-mule 
teams that used to haul the lime from those quarries 
in the Chester Va'ley are seen no more on the roads, 
and now we have to pay from 30 to 50 cents a 
bushel lor lime for building purposes or for white¬ 
washing, when we used to have it delivered on our 
farms for 12 cents. Common clover has proved al¬ 
most an entire failure since the practice has been 
abandoned, and we have substituted Alsike, which in 
wet seasons is an excellent substitute, but an entire 
failure when the Spring is deficient in rain, as often 
occurs. The old method was to apply the lime fresh 
slaked on the sod before planting corn. We fol¬ 
lowed a five-year rotation and this was the only fer¬ 
tilizer used except the manure produced on the farm. 
'Flic cost was about $(5 per acre once in five years, 
not counting the labor of spreading. Since the prac¬ 
tice has been abandoned 1 am convinced that the 
farms in Chester county have deteriorated in value. 
We cannot raise the same crops of corn we used to, 
75 to 100 bushels of shelled corn to the acre, and we 
have had to resort to commercial fertilizers to get 
any kind of return in hay or grain ; in fact, we cannot 
raise wheat at all without the use of at least 400 to 
500 pounds per acre of commercial manure. 
I have no doubt whatever that the lime contained a 
certain amount of available phosphoric acid besides 
being a strong alkaline reagent, and assisted in liberat¬ 
ing the phosphate in the soil. The practice extended 
all through the adjoining county of Lancaster and is 
still followed there more or less, although the whole 
valley is a limestone basin and the rock occurs on 
almost every farm. Lancaster, you know, is the banner 
county of the United States. I have always believed 
that one of the principal benefits of lime in large 
quantities was either as a carrier or liberator of phos¬ 
phoric acid, secondly as correcting the acidity of the 
soil it gave us a chance to grow clover, which supplied 
the nitrogen. I can well remember the worry we 
used to have over our wheat fields from an excess of 
nitrogen in the manure tending to throw the wheat 
down; now our worry is to get any to stand on the 
ground at all without we invest $4 to $5 an acre in 
phosphate for every crop. This is the best explanation I 
can give to your inquiry after a retrospect of 50 years’ 
acquaintance with our methods of farming, j. h. b. 
FALL CROPS FOR GARDENERS. 
The question with most small farmers and market 
gardeners is what can I raise that will pay a fair 
profit for the least labor and expense. A large num¬ 
ber of farmers in southern Connecticut who live near 
cities and large towns have found that there is a very 
good market for all kinds of vegetables, and are now 
asking what crop will bring them in cash early next 
Spring. After an experience of 25 years on a large 
farm on the western end of Long Island, I know of no 
crop that will pay better in the early Spring than Fall- 
sown spinach. Tt is one of the easiest crops to raise, 
and if given proper care it is a very sure crop. 
It requires a well-drained, rich soil; a sandy loam 
with a southern slope is best, but if that cannot be had, 
. any soil that is drained will do, but 
don't sow it where the water will stand 
on it in the Winter. A piece of land 
from which a crop of early potatoes, 
cabbage, peas, lettuce or green onions 
has been taken makes a good place for it, 
if the ground was well manured for the 
first crop. It will grow the spinach, but 
a good coat of manure plowed in will 
help the crop very much if the manure 
is spread on the ground. It should not 
be plowed very deep, just enough to 
cover the manure, then it should be well 
.worked until the ground is fine and 
level. Seed is sown here September 1-10 
in drills 12 to 15 inches apart, using 
seven or eight pounds of seed per acre. 
Cultivate thoroughly, and when the 
ground freezes cover lightly with straw 
or something of that sort, and leave un¬ 
til Spring. Then hoe lightly and scatter 
100 pounds nitrate of soda per acre. It 
will be ready for market about April 1, 
cutting close to the ground with knife 
or sharp hoe. For Bridgeport market it 
is washed and put loosely in bags. Last 
Spring it sold from 60 cents to $1.25 per 
bushel. Tor late Fall use spinach should 
be sown now. There is still time to 
’ig. 300. plant a number of other small crops and 
market them before Winter. Early peas, 
if sown by August 15, Mohawk beans, 
lettuce, radishes, endive, kohl rabi, etc., will mature 
if given proper care. c. m. 
Connecticut. _ 
A NEGLECTED ORCHARD.—Noticing the fre¬ 
quent discussions on different cultures for orchards 
in the East, I will say that a seven-acre lot on the 
brow of a hill, which is underlaid with limestone rock, 
as is the style of all bluff land in the State, has been 
planted mostly to peaches, some pears, apples, plums 
and cherries and small fruit between the rows. Being 
out of our range in going to town, and not good 
roads to it, I did not pay any attention to it except 
ORCHARD TOOL FOR TASMANIA. Fig. 301. 
when fruit was ripe. I think the fruit has been as 
good in color, in flavor, and possibly a little less in 
size when too full. It has been a better success than 
trees we had on the home place where we gave them 
more attention. The land on this hill piece has not 
much depth—rocks in most places, or near by. I have 
been so crippled with rheumatism that I have done as 
little getting about as possible, and each Spring in the 
past word was sent in that the peach trees on the hill 
were dead; once I partly believed, and had Kieffer 
pears planted between part, but they have not yet 
been needed, as the peaches are all right yet with a full 
crop. No cultivation has been practiced in this hill 
field for 10 or 12 years. a. ii. griesa. 
Kansas. 
