6S 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
From the Genesee Farmer. 
SHEEP. 
Late in the summer of 1830, I borrowed $100, and went into the 
neighboring towns and purchased sixty-eight sheep, at the average 
cost of $1.30 per head, which lefi me remaining on hand $13 of my 
borrowed money. At this time I had on hand twelve sheep ; which, 
with those I bought, made me a flock of eighty head. The next 
winter I kept them on good fine hay, without any grain, until the 
first of March, when as the ground was bare, I quit feeding hay and/ 
turned them out upon my old pastures and commenced feeding a 
little corn. The winter of 1830-31 it will be recollected, was one 
of uncommon severity ; but notwithstanding its length and coldness, 
I lost but one sheep, and that iy casualty. I continued feeding grain 
until the tir.-t of May, when, as the grass had got a considerable 
growth, I thought it unnecessary, and quit entirely. That season 
1 raised 38 lambs, which increased my flock to 115. In June I sold 
the wool produced by my old sheep, for $150.06. I went and re¬ 
deemed my note, and had left of money I received for wool, $44. The 
winter of 1831-32, I fed my sheep as beiore, but lost three head ; 
consequently, in the spring, had but 112 to shear, which produced 
three hundred pounds; this I sold at the very low price of 35 cents 
the pound, or $105 for 300 pounds. Toe same season I raised 45 
lambs, and sold 60 head of my old sheep for $78 60, making the amount 
of sales from my flock that season $181.60. In the winter of 1832-33 
I lost G sheep, in the spring sheared 91 ; but in conseqnence of the 
great proportion of lamas, the produce of wool was small. I retain¬ 
ed a number of fleeces for home use, and sold the remainder (176 
pounds) for 50 cents the pound, or $88 for what I had to sell. 
Thus it will be seen that my flock for three years has averaged 
94 head, and that the actual salt s from it have amounted to $419— 
The last summer I raised 30 lambs and sold none of my old sheep ; 
consequently in August last, when the three years had exp’red since 
my purchase, I had on hand 119 sheep, which is 25 above the ave¬ 
rage for three years past, and which 25 sheep were worth at that 
time $2 the head—making $50 for 25. This added to my sales, 
would make $469 for the produce of 94 sheep for three years, or 
$156.33 for one—equal to $1.68 per head annually. 
I have made the following estimate of ihe expense of keeping 
100 sheep for one year. I may be incorrect, if so, I hope some of 
your correspondents will correct me. 
Twenty acres of good land, well turfed, will keep 109 sheep a 
year, viz : five acres of meadow, producing two tons of hnv to the 
acre, will winter, and fifteen acres of good pasture land will sum¬ 
mer the p. Twenty acres of land at $40 per acre would cost 
$800; and 100 sheep, at $2 the head, $200; making the cost of 
land and sheep $1,000. 
Interest on $1,000 one year, is......$70 00 
Cutting and securing 5 acres of grass,. 5 00 
Thirty bushels of corn at 4s....... 15 00 
One barrel of salt, at 16s..... 2 00 
Washing and shearing 100 sheep... 5 00 
$97 00 
If the above estimate be correct, it will be seen that I have re¬ 
alized from my flock a nett profit of more than 50 per cent for three 
years together. W. G. B. 
Genoa, March 31, 1834. 
AGE OF SHEEP. 
The age of a sheep may be known by examining the front teeth. 
They are eight in number, and appear during the first year all of a 
small size. In the second year, the two middle ones fall out, and their 
place is supplied by two new teeth, which are easily distinguished 
by being of a larger size. In the third year, two other small teeth, 
one from each side, drop out and are replaced by two large ones; 
60 that there are now four large teeth in the middle, and two 
pointed ones on each side. In the fourth year, the large teeth are 
six in number, and only two small ones remain, one at each end of 
the range. In the fifth year the remaining small teeth are lost, and 
the whole front teeth are large. In the sixth year, the whole begin 
to be worn ; and in the seventh, sometimes sooner, some fall out or are 
broken .—Mountain Shepherd’s Manual. 
Hints to Graziers .—A heifer or cow will make beef earlier than a 
steer. An old cow, or an old sheep, will not fatten nearly so well 
with hay as with grass. The longer the straw of any kind, the worse 
as fodder; short straw is said to be, invariably, the most nutritious. 
Catile always prefer that which is fresh ihreshed, a day even making 
a difference —Lawrence upon Cattle. 
Science of Agriculture. 
OF THE FERMENTING, PRESERVING, AND APPLYING OF MANURES OF 
ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE ORIGIN. 
On the management of organic manures depends much of their va¬ 
lue as food to plants. The great mass of manures procured by the 
cultivator are a mixture of animal and vegetable matters, and the 
great source of supply is the farm or stable yard. Here the excre- 
mentitous matter of horses, cattle, swine and poultry, is mixed with 
straw, haulm, chatf, and various kinds of Jitter. To what degree 
should this be fermented before it is applied to the soil 7 And how 
can it best be preserved when not immediately wanted? 
A slight incipient fermentation is undoubtedly of use in the dung¬ 
hill ; for, by means of it, a disposition is brought on in the woody 
fibre to decay and dissolve, when it is carried to the land, or plough¬ 
ed in the soil; and woody fibre is always in great excess in the re¬ 
fuse of the farm. Too great a degree of fermentation is, however, 
very prejudicial to the composite manure in the dung-hill; it is but¬ 
ter that there should be no fermentation at all before the manure is 
used, than that it should be carried too far. The excess of fermen¬ 
tation tends to the destruction and dissipation of the most useful part 
of the manure ; and the ultimate results of this process are like those 
of combustion. It. is a common practice amongst farmers to suffer 
the farm-yard dung to ferment till the fibrous texture of the vegeta¬ 
ble matter is entirely broken down; and till the manure becomes 
perfectly cold, and so soft as to be easily cut by the spade. Inde¬ 
pendent of the general theoretical views unfavorable to this prac¬ 
tice, founded upon the nature and composition of vegetable sub¬ 
stance, there are many arguments and tacts which show that it is 
prejudicial to the interests of the farmer. 
During the violent fermentation which is necessary for reducing 
farm yard manure to the state in which it is called short muck, not 
oniy a large quantity of fluid, but likewise of gaseous matter is lost; 
so much so, that the dung is reduced one half, or two-thirds in 
weight; and the principal elastic matter disengaged, is carbonic acid 
with some ammonia; and both these, if retained by the moisture in 
the soil, as has been stated before, are capable of becoming a useful 
nourishment of plants. In October, 1808, Sir H. Davy filled a large 
retort capable of containing three pints of water, with some hot fer¬ 
menting mauure, consisting principally of the litter and dung of cat¬ 
tle ; he adapted a small receiver to the retort and connected the 
whole with a mercurial pneumatic apparatus, so as to collect the 
condensible and elastic fluids which might rise from the dung. The 
receiver soon became lined with dew, and drops began in a few 
hours to trickle down the sides of it. Elastic fluid was likewise ge¬ 
nerated ; in three days thirty-five cubic inches had been formed, 
which, when analyzed, were found to contain twenty-one cubic inch¬ 
es of carbonic acid ; the remainder was hydrocarbonate mixed with 
some azote, probably no more than existed in the common air in the 
receiver. The fluid matter collected in the receiver at the same 
time amounted to nearly half an ounce. It had a saline taste, and a 
disagreeable smell, and contained some acetate and carbonate of 
ammonia. Finding such products given off from fermenting litter, 
he introduced the beak of another retort, filled with similar dung, 
very hoi. at the time, in the soil amongst the roots of some grass in 
the border of a garden ; in less than a week a very distinct effect 
was produced on the grass ; upon the spot exposed to the influence 
of the matter disengaged in fermentation, it grew with much more 
luxuriance than the grass in any other part of the garden. Besides 
the dissipation of gaseous matter, when fermentation is pushed to 
the extreme, there is another disadvantage in the loss of heat, which 
if excited in the soil, is useful in promoting ihe germination of the 
seed, and in assisting the plant in the first stage of its growth, when 
it is most feeble and most liable to disease : and the fermentation of 
manure in the soil must be particularly favorable to the wheat crop, 
in preserving a genial temperature beneath the surface late in au¬ 
tumn and during the winter. Again, it is a general principle in che¬ 
mistry, that in all cases of decomposition, substances combine much 
more readily at the moment of their disengagement, than after they 
have been perfectly formed. And in fermentation beneath the soil 
the fluid matter produced is applied instantly, even whilst it is warm, 
to the organs of the plant, and consequently is more likely to be ef- 
