1846 , 
THE CULTIVATOR 
57 
render them profitable articles to the farmer. The best 
sheep for these purposes are the South Down, Leicester, 
and Cotswold. The former give the most delicate mut¬ 
ton, but the latter have the advantage of greater weight 
of fleece, which, latterly, is of about the same value per 
pound in market. 
One of the most important considerations in reference 
to sheep-husbandry is the amelioration of the soil. In 
this respect sheep have an advantage over all other 
stock, as none improve the land so much. The herbage 
of sheep-pastures frequently improves for many years 
with no other manure than that dropped by the sheep— 
the wild plants dying out, and the cultivated ones, par¬ 
ticularly white clover, and several varieties of poa or 
bent grasses coming in. The increased yield of grain 
crops, particularly wheat, on broken-up sheep pastures, 
is another evidence of the improvement of the soil. 
Hence a profitable alternation is grass, depastured by 
sheep, and grain. The land remaining in pasture three 
or four years, or as long as circumstances may render 
expedient, and is then for a year or two put to such 
kind of grain as may be most profitable. Under 
this course the crops seldom fail to improve in quanti¬ 
ty. Very heavy crops of wheat are often produced on 
sheep pastures—thus proving the adaptedness of wheat 
and sheep-husbandry to each other. 
Wet lands are thought to be less benefited by sheep 
than others; but as sheep are known to be unhealthy on 
such lands, they should not be kept on them. 
Some have entertained the strange idea that sheep are 
injurious to the land—that they ee poison out,” as the 
phrase is, the cultivated plants. It is true that ground 
may be so over-stocked with sheep that to procure a 
subsistence they are obliged to gnaw the grass to the 
very roots. In such cases clover and some other plants 
may be bitten so closely that they are injured. But in 
ordinary cases we are perfectly satisfied that the gra¬ 
zing of sheep is beneficial to the land and not injurious 
to the herbage of pastures. Indeed we are confident 
that most mowing grounds or meadows would be bene- 
fitted by being moderately fed every autumn, by sheep. 
We have seen and experienced abundant proof of this, 
and can bring the testimony of many of our best far¬ 
mers to establish the point. 
Scmdy lands are particularly benefitted by sheep— 
their tread impressing the soil to just the degree that is 
desirable. Cattle are often too heavy for the land, but 
sheep never do injury from this cause. Instances could 
be cited of soils which were naturally so light that they 
were blown about by the wind, having become, by a 
rotation of root crops with clover, pastured by sheep, 
very productive in various kinds of grain and grass. 
After the land has been in clover, and the sheep have 
pastured on it for two seasons, it becomes much more 
tenacious, and instead of being moved about by the 
wind, it may be turned over ins mooth and sufficiently 
compact furrows. We would name the farm of Mr. J. 
McD. McIntyre, on the pine plains, near this city, as a 
good example of this kind of management with a sandy 
soil. 
It is probable that the principal cause of the improve¬ 
ment of lands by sheep, is the manner in which their 
manure and urine is distributed—being dropped in small 
quantities, and usually quite evenly scattered over the 
ground. The manure, from being finely divided, falls 
at once around the roots of the grass, and the first rain 
drives its salts and valuable properties immediately into 
the earth, where they are made available to the growth 
of plants. The urine, the most stimulating of all ma¬ 
nures, is not, as in the case of horses and neat cattle, 
dropped in so large quantities as to kill the herbage 
where it falls, but promotes directly the growth of 
grass. 
BARLEY AND FLAX GROWN TOGETHER, 
An experiment has been tried the past summer by 
some gentlemen of this town in raising barley and flax 
together, and has been attended with success, as appears 
by the following statements of Col. Stibbins. He pre¬ 
pared an acre of ground for barley, after sowing two 
bushels on the ground, he then sowed one bushel of 
flax-seed on the same acre. In the fall he threshed the 
barley and flax out together with a machine, (it was 
cut and secured together,) and on cleaning it up he 
had 30 bushels of barley and 15 bushels of flax-seed. 
The sale of the crop stands thus: — 
Thirty bushels of barley, at 50 cts. per bush., $15.00 
Fifteen « flax-seed, at $1.00 « 15.00 
$30.00 
Col. S. Says, the flax-seed was a clear nett profit, as 
he thinks the ground produced as much barley as if no 
flax had been sown, for he had sowed barley on a few 
acres adjoining this acre which produced only 30 bu¬ 
shels to the acre, and the land equally as good. 
Earlville , N. Y., 1846. G. W. B. 
CULTURE OF WHEAT. 
RUST—SUITABLE MANURES. 
L. Tucker, Esq. —In the January number of the 
Cultivator, (present vol.) there is a communication by 
“ A Farmer of Tompkins County,” upon rust on wheat , 
upon which I offer a few remarks. In 1838, Mr. Col- 
man, (then Ag. Commissioner of Mass., by order of the 
Senate, prepared a report on the cultivation of spring 
wheat. Mr. C., in speaking of the “ situation and as¬ 
pect,” says:—“ The aspect of lands, whether high and 
airy, or low and confined, is of considerable moment. 
Various theories have been suggested in regard to the 
origin of rust and mildew in wheat. The prevalent 
opinion of the French naturalists of the present day, is, 
that they, like smut, consist of small parasitical plants 
designed to be nourished upon the wheat plant. What¬ 
ever may be the fact, the appearance of these diseases 
bears as near a relation to certain states of the weather 
at the time the wheat is maturing its seed, as the courses 
of the tides to the changes of the moon. These diseases 
usually occur in the damp, hot, steamy, foggy weather 
of July. In low and confined situations, wheat is much 
oftener blighted than in situations which are elevated, 
and where the air circulates freely.” 
Mr. C. forwarded me a copy of his report when pub¬ 
lished, and I was particularly interested in the above 
extract. Sometime in the following July, we had for 
two or three days frequent light showers with bright 
sunshine between them, and the weather was what we 
call close and muggy. Soon as the sun appeared be¬ 
tween the showers a light fog would be seen arising 
from the plowed fields. I then seveval times observed 
to the persons in my employ, that this would test Mr. 
C.’s theory of rust or mildew upon wheat. There was 
within sight three fields of wheat, and on different, 
farms; two of them were sown about the 20th of May, 
the other just one week later—(sown thus late to es¬ 
cape the ravages of the weevil,) soil similar—previous 
crop, corn—elevation of the several fields above the 
river about the same. Within four days after this 
•'•'spell of weather,” the two first sown fields were 
brown with rust, and at harvest the straw was brittle, 
and rusted from top to bottom, the grain light and shri¬ 
velled, and not more than half a crop. The third field, 
sown a week later, was uninjured, and at harvest the 
straw was bright, and the berry plump and full. 
Had this showery weather happened a week or ten 
days later, my belief is, that the first two pieces would 
have escaped, and the other would have suffered, for I 
have witnessed similar results since that time. 
It seems to be the critical time when the wheat is in 
the milk, and such weather occurs. 
Your correspondent says, “My (his) belief is that 
the rust plant or fungus, whatever it may be, always 
exists on the stalks of the wheat, but its growth is not 
such as to injure the plant unless warm weather and 
moisture unite at a particular period during the growth 
of the plant, and prior to that period it is not visble to 
the naked eye. 
Others entertain a different opinion from the above 
