202 
increased by keeping over some of the wether lambs 
and fattening them the next Winter. The meat of 
lambs or mutton killed in Winter can be packed in 
snow in barrels, and by placing these in a cold north 
exposure will keep for several weeks, provided the 
barrels are well covered against cats and dogs. In 
England the wethers are often not fattened till the 
second Winter, and then provide the famous “saddles 
of mutton” that the landlords so much prize. 
WOOL-FILLED QUILTS.—Besides the great ad¬ 
vantage of increasing the variety in the home-grown 
meat supply, there is still a place for utilizing the 
wool in the home. Not that we are likely to return 
to the days of “homespun,” but that there is a chance 
to revive an old home industry that has a useful place. 
I refer to the making and use of wool-filled quilts. 
Cotton quilts and “comforters” have mainly taken the 
place of the wool ones, but those who have ever en¬ 
joyed the lightness and warmth of the wool quilts 
would never want to substitute the cotton. Woven 
wool blankets for the full-sized bed will cost $6 to 
$12, while the wool-filled can be easily made at a cost 
for material of from $3 to $4. The greatest draw¬ 
back to the revival of this home industry is the scour¬ 
ing and the carding of the wool into large bats. For 
several years we had our wool prepared by the only 
wool-carding mill of its kind we could find, and made 
into large bats about 18x30 inches in size. Four 
pounds of wool of one of the Down type of sheep 
will shrink one-half in cleaning and scouring, and two 
pounds of the cleaned wool will make a full-sized 
quilt, 2x2^ yards. Any expense desired can be put 
into the covering, but a serviceable covering can be 
made of what is known as “silkaline” at a, cost of 
15 cents per yard. If cotton is used, a much cheaper 
covering can be made. Reckoning the wool at 2s 
cents per pound, and 10 yards of covering as above, we 
have a cost for material of $2.50. To this should be 
added a small expense for thread and trimming, which 
might increase the expense 10 to 50 cents, according 
to the amount of trimming used. The expense of pre¬ 
paring the wool will add about 50 cents per quilt, 
thus making a total expense of $3 to $3.50. The old- 
fashioned “quilting bees” would make the labor of 
making up light, and add to the neighborliness of the 
community. While it may be difficult to find local 
carding mills that will prepare the large-sized bats, 
there are mills that have taken up the making of 
wool-filled quilts, as an industry, that will prepare 
the wool, and by several families combining and send¬ 
ing a lot of wool by freight the expense for preparing 
will be light. 
MUTTON VALUES.—Under our Eastern condi¬ 
tions sheep should be kept primarily for meat, and 
the wool must always be considered as a secondary 
product. The hardy Down breeds are best suited to 
our climate, and at the same time furnish the best 
lamb and mutton. Such breeds as the Southdowns, 
the Shropshire and the Hampshires, or grades of 
these breeds, with a small mixture of the Merino 
blood, are doubtless the best. For quality and early 
maturity the Southdown will excel all others, but if 
one is willing to sacrifice a little on quality in order 
to gain size he should choose the Shropshires or the 
Hampshires. If purebreds are not kept, a first-class 
purebred sire should always be used, and then by 
selection the flocks will improve fast. Sheep should 
never be kept on wet or lowland pastures; under such 
conditions diseases and parasites are sure to weaken 
and reduce the flock and rob the business of its 
profit. No class of live stock, however, will do more 
to build up our run-down pasture. While the droppings 
of cows smother the grass for a year or more, those 
of the sheep do no harm, but rather tend to keep up 
a fresh, green, even sward. By keeping down the 
weeds and smaller bushes they encourage the growth 
of the grasses and clovers. I have seen dry gravelly 
pastures wonderfully improved in both quality and 
quantity of herbage by being rather heavily pastured 
with sheep. 
POOR FENCES AND DOGS.—The two great 
hindrances to rearing sheep in the East are the poor 
fences and mongrel dogs. Unless one is prepared 
to provide an effectual fence he might ns well make 
up his mind at the start not to keep sheep. There is 
no class of live stock more unruly when the habit is 
once encouraged by poor fences. Stone walls, so 
prevalent in New England, are rarely good sheep bar¬ 
riers, except on very dry, gravelly soils; they heave 
out of place and soon show weak spots that sheep 
are certain to find. Many have tried to reinforce 
stone walls with wire or rails, but it is better to 
abandon them and construct wire alongside. The 
best fence is a rather closely woven wire fence, and 
the heavier the wire, up to a certain size, the longer 
it will last. The great weakness in woven wire fenc¬ 
ing has been light upright wires and poor galvanizing. 
tTHBJ RURAL NEW-VOrtKER 
The expense for construction is so large an item in 
the total expense that it pays well to add to the “life” 
of the fence by heavy galvanizing and good-sized wire. 
Not less than No. 10 wire should be used for uprights 
and No. 7 or No. 8 wire for the main strands. A 
three-foot fence is ample for sheep, and if this is 
increased by one or two barbed wires on top will 
prove efficient for cattle. There is no reason why 
small flocks of sheep should not be pastured with 
cattle, and the feed will be better utilized than with 
cattle alone. Around towns and cities the mongrel 
dog nuisance is the greatest menace to sheep raising. 
The keeping of a well-trained collie dog on the farm 
is one of the best means of preventing losses from 
this source. Laws should be made more stringent 
against the “tramp” dog. In Massachusetts I am told 
that it is the business of the dog warden to investi¬ 
gate cases where dogs are harbored and poorly cared 
for, and if they are found to be running at large to 
seek their food supply lie must order them destroyed. 
Around factory •villages and towns the “tramp” dog 
is more or less common. We should take pains to 
guard against him. just as we would against petty 
thieves,. Such dogs usually roam at night or in the 
early morning, and where flocks run at large, un¬ 
protected, are hard to guard. The best protection I 
have used is a dog-proof paddock. If a few acres, 
connected with the main pasture, are enclosed in a 
dog-proof fence, and the sheep are enclosed here at 
night, losses will seldom occur. One of these dog- 
proof paddocks which I constructed has been in use 
for eight years, and during that time the flock has 
METHODS OF WHIP GRAFTING. Fig. 61. 
never been disturbed, although on one or two occasions 
hunting dogs have been seen in the larger pastures. 
The land covered by the paddock was originally a poor 
gravelly area, affording practically no feed, but is 
now covered with a luxuriant turf affording rich feed. 
If the flock is to be kept thrifty during the Winter, 
clover hay and roots should always be provided, or 
Alfalfa, where it can be grown, is even better than 
clover. Fine Red-top hay will not keep sheep thrifty 
without it is supplemented by grain feeding. But 
good clover or Alfalfa with mangel beets are all a 
late-lambing flock will require during the Winter. 
Turnips are useful, but are not equal to mangel beets 
either in yield or quality of feed. chas. s. phelps. 
Connecticut. 
LOW QUALITY APPLES 
For a good many years The R. N.-Y. expressed its 
opinion of the Ben Davis apple. The tree is a good 
grower and early bearer, and the fruit keeps well. 
There you stop, for the Ben Davis is of poor quality 
—a fraud carrying under its handsome coat a dry, 
well-nigh tasteless flesh. We did our best to show, 
as we felt sure, that the production of this apple 
would injure the general trade in fruit. We were 
told that the Ben .Davis “sold well.” We did our 
best, but it seemed as if old Ben were too strongly 
entrenched. It appears now, however, that with all 
his toughness Ben Davis was hard hit. From all over 
the country come reports showing that the demand 
for trees of this variety is falling off and that con¬ 
sumers have found out what he is. Ben Davis has 
seen his day as a rival with Baldwins as “leading 
variety.” The coming generation demands more juice. 
Several seedlings of Ben Davis are very promising. 
It will be fine if some of his sons can really tuck 
more flavor under father's handsome coat. 
February 15, 
TREE AGENTS AND COLLECTORS. 
On page 118, in your “Publisher’s Desk” column, 
you publish the following note: 
Enclosed you will find a proposal for the delivery of 
goods from - Company. Are they a reliable com¬ 
pany, and also why do they not have their agent deliver 
the goods, as he lives in town and has a horse? G. n. n. 
We are writing this to correct an erroneous impres¬ 
sion that your answer might convey to the reading 
public. There are several reasons why we as well 
as other firms selling through agents do not have 
our agents deliver. One of the reasons is that quite 
a percentage of nursery salesmen are not financially 
responsible and cannot always be trusted to handle 
other people’s money and make proper returns of 
same. We know from experience that the temptation 
to take money that does not belong to them is quite 
strong with many people. Many times a sale amounts 
to several hundred dollars, and we like to feel sure 
that the man who handles our money is responsible 
and that we will get all that he collects. We know 
also that many times agents make promises that they 
are not authorized to make, so to make sure that the 
customer may understand what the contract is, as 
soon as we receive a batch of orders from a sales¬ 
man we notify each customer whose order amounts 
to $5 or more that we have received his or her order 
for nursery stock amounting to so much to be paid 
for in cash on delivery, and if that is not as he under¬ 
stands it to advise us at once. This is done so that 
the customer may know what the conditions of the 
sale are, and to avoid any mistake in the amount of 
the order that the agent may make. If people who 
give the orders would take the trouble to read the 
order before they sign it, or read their duplicate 
which the agent is instructed to leave with each cus¬ 
tomer, they would avoid any unpleasantness at the 
time of delivery. The conditions of the order are 
printed plainly in the order blank, and as stated if 
the customers would take the trouble to read the order 
blank they would know at once that something was 
wrong if the agent had made any promises other 
than what was named in the contract. We have 
many agents selling for us who do their own deliv¬ 
ering, but they are responsible men, and we have 
had quite a number of agents in the past who deliv¬ 
ered for us, and everything was all right for several 
seasons, and then they would make a delivery and 
we would only get part of the money due us, and we 
would not only lose the balance but we would lose 
a good salesman, for the reason that he would not 
work any more for us, knowing that he would have to 
make up the shortage. the hawks nursery co. 
New York. 
R. N--Y.—Here we have the boldest statement of the 
case of the tree agent we ever heard. If a man can¬ 
not be trusted to handle money he must be a star 
performer to turn loose upon the public to sell nur¬ 
sery stock! Think of a business which depends for 
its sales upon men who cannot be trusted to make 
collections! That is the worst knock the tree agent 
has had yet, and coming from an authority it must 
be true. 
“HIGH-PRICE” COMMISSION MEN. 
I enclose quotations on live poultry from - -. 
Tbeir prices are one to two cents per pound more than 
other houses, and do not say anything about commis¬ 
sion. Do you know anything about them? I have some 
live fowls to sell. o. e. 
New Hampshire 
The firm mentioned is rated as having small capital 
and limited credit. There is no reason in sight why 
they should be able to obtain higher prices than 
others. Here is a copy of their printed letter—evi¬ 
dently a form sent to hundreds of farmers: 
If you have been satisfied with our dealings with you, 
we would esteem it a great favor if you will recommend 
us to some of your neighbors who ship poultry. If you 
have not been satisfied, we wish you would let us know 
so we can rectify any mistake. Our business has more 
than doubled the past year and we are hoping through 
satisfying our shippers to increase it much more next 
season. We thank you for past favors and hope we may 
continue to receive your shipments. If you wish quota¬ 
tions sent through the Winter, drop us a line and we will 
be pleased to send them. We advise you to ship poultry 
alive. 
This is a guarded letter—much less of a “bait” than 
many we have seen. It may be ajl the more effective 
for that reason. It makes no definite promise. Noth¬ 
ing is said about commission, and under this invita¬ 
tion it is doubtful if these parties would be liable as 
agents. Even though the entire scheme were honest 
and straight it would be a jug-handled contract—they 
holding the jug. There is nothing about this to jus¬ 
tify a farmer in shipping goods. 
Bad habits are easy to pick up but hard to drop. 
