The Salvation of the Sheep Industry 
W I1AT MAINE IS DOING.—It begins to look 
as though Maine had solved the sheep prob¬ 
lem, and that from now on growers are to realize a 
living price for their wool. The scheme started with 
a bright man in our State Agricultural Department, 
Mr. C. H. Crawford, but it soon got away from the 
original plan, which was to pool the product with 
the State Slice]) Breeders’ Association to sell as best 
it could. This was attempted first in 1920, and a 
large quantity stored in Boston. Then came the 
slump because of the enormous importation of 
sl oddy. Whether this came from the battlefields of 
France or not, it came, and was utilized to such an 
extent as to bar virgin wool. Mr. Crawford, a suc¬ 
cessful sheep grower, had spent time 
among the sheepmen helping them com¬ 
bat disease and stimulating the indus¬ 
try. so that they were ready to follow 
where he and his associates in the as¬ 
sociation led. The object was to find 
a market for the wool. 
IlEVELOPING MANUFACTURE.— 
A professional grader was secured from 
Washington, who held demonstrations 
all over the State. With no public 
market Mr. Crawford determined to 
solve the problem from his own prod¬ 
uct, and found a woolen company which 
took his wool and made a fabric of 
high quality. Out of this a suit was 
made for and worn by Governor-elect 
Parkhurst, and the rest sold for $3.50 
pci* yard: 107 pounds of wool made 
67 2/3 yards of fine cloth, and though 
expenses were greatly increased over 
any large operation, yet it demonstrated 
the wisdom and justified the associa¬ 
tion in deciding fo market its product 
in the form of cloth. One hundred 
pounds of grease wool shrunk 42 pounds 
in scouring. Then in working through 
the mill another loss of 25 per cent in 
short ends, breakage in spinning and 
the cards shows how a small lot will 
suffer'more than a quantity; yet this 
wool paid the expenses and returned 
$1 per pound for the wool. 
GETTING DOWN TO WORK.—Hav¬ 
ing these facts the directors decided at 
once to take the medium and lower 
grades and have them made into heavy 
fabric suitable for lumbermen, team¬ 
sters, etc., while the better grades went 
to the making of finer goods. A com¬ 
pany was found ready to manufacture 
from measure, and hundreds of pairs 
of trousers are now being worn made 
entirely from Maine wool. Today 
fancy suitings can be had, and the 
ambition of the association is to get 
the men of Maine to wear cloth made 
entirely of Maine wool. A connecting 
link between producer and consumer 
has been found, to the profit of both.. 
AN ENCOURAGING OUTLOOK — 
Cloth is being made to weigh 12, 16 
and 20 ounces to the yard, and to know 
that every thread is virgin wool is 
enough to bring 'custom. The officers 
ax*e now ready to settle with the 
farmers for the 1920 clip upon a 
'basis satisfactory to all, yet not what another 
year promises, because with increase of business 
there follows lower cost per unit. Pride in the 
product is stimulating growers to give more and 
better attention to the sheep, State pride, backed by 
wearing qualities, is advertising the product, and 
Ml*. Crawford is a happy man in that, with others, 
he has been able to organize wool growing upon a 
permanently profitable basis to growers and a saving 
basis to users. “Maine wool for Maine mills, for 
Maine tailors, for Maine men,” is the motto, and 
while sharper attention is being paid fo the health 
of the flocks, the features of this co-operative move¬ 
ment is being strengthened. o. m. twitch ell. 
Kennebec Co.. Me. 
vou submit this proposition to some State Experiment. 
Stations, and get their opinion as to the amount of 
damage per acre? W. it. a. 
Pennsylvania. 
N O plant food except nitrogen would be lost in 
the burning. The lime, potash and phosphorus 
would all be left in the ashes. The plant food loss, 
therefore, would he measured by the loss in nitrogen. 
It would be well-nigh impossible to figure the loss 
in organic matter. The following notes are from 
some of the best authorities in the country: 
A Basis for Adjustment 
The loss of nitrogen can be calculated on the basis 
of 2 per cent, 60 lbs. for a ton and a half. In my 
Manurial Loss in Burned Grass 
I have a 20-acre grass field which was intended for 
is year’s cornfield. Only half of the field was mowed 
sit year. The other half was mowed, but second crop 
ma’ined. The field was not pastured. The idea was 
plow under this growth to get humus in the soil and 
ke the place of manure. The grass was a mixture of 
iver. Timothy and Red-top. A railroad locomotive 
t. fire to this growth March 17, and burned it. Would 
A Yount/ Vermont McIntosh and its ('ro/r Fit/. 243 
judgment 15 cents a pound would he a fair basis for 
adjustment, certainly low enough. It is pretty diffi¬ 
cult to make an estimate of the value of organic 
matter, hut I should say that a minimum of $2 a 
ton would be fair. On this basis, the loss would he 
estimated at about $11 per acre. L. l. van blykk. 
Geneva, N. Y., Experiment Station. 
Estimating the cash value of the burned grass is 
pure guesswork. The best I can do is this: In one 
ton of hay, consisting of one-third by weight of clover 
and two-thirds of Timothy, there are 31 lbs. of nitro¬ 
gen. If the growth was a ton and a half to the acre 
there would be 43 lbs. of nitrogen lost by the burn¬ 
ing. Now the nitrogen in hay or manure 1 consider 
is not more than 40 per cent as effective as in com¬ 
mercial forms of nitrogen, for which about 40 cents 
per pound is paid. On this basis the destruction of 
nitrogen alone per acre would amount to about $7.30. 
You will appreciate how much assumption there is 
in this calculation. As to the money value of the 
organic matter destroyed. I can make no estimate. 
Connecticut Experiment Station, e. h. jenkins. 
T Avould compute the nitrogen in the inquirer's 
grass on the basis of average analyses, such as those 
published in the appendix to Henry & Morrison’s 
“Feeds and Feeding.” The phosphorus, potassium 
and other mineral elements would be left in the ash. 
Insofar as the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen of the 
hay are concerned, we are not able to allot to them 
any manurial value. This means that we do not 
find any fertilizing value in “organic matter” beyond 
Hie nitrogen and mineral elements that if carries. 
We have never been able to get as large a return 
from manure, in proportion to the nitrogen and 
mineral elements carried, as we do from the 
same elements in chemicals until we balance up 
the manure by adding phosphorus. 
The “organic matter,” which is pro¬ 
duced in the soil by the rank growth of 
roots produced by liberal manuring or 
fertilizing, serves both to separate the 
soil particles far more perfectly than 
can be done by plowing under stable 
manure or green manure, and also to 
furnish all the carbon required for the 
functions of the soil bacteria. Tn your 
inquirer’s ease these roots are still in 
the ground. 
In the first years of his great experi¬ 
ments John B. Lawes tried manuring 
with rice and tapioca, with negative 
results, while the greatest yield of 
wheat of which the world has any 
record is the 60-odd year average of 36 
bushels per acre produced on Plot 8 of 
Broadballt Field,'with not a particle of 
“organic matter” in the 60 years, ex¬ 
cepting the wheat roots. Plot 2, with 
15 tons of manure each year for the 
same period, falls about a bushel below 
Plot 8. CHARLES E. THORNE. 
Ohio Experiment Station. 
The Strength of Glazed Pipes 
WAS very much interested in read¬ 
ing your editorial on glazed tile re¬ 
questing information on the resistance 
to pressures of that material. I pre¬ 
sume that your inquiry pertains to 
glazed pipe, for what is generally un¬ 
derstood as Hie has no jointing ap¬ 
pliance, and cannot be readily built 
into a continuous unbroken line, while 
pipe has hell and spigot design for the 
purpose of making possible a continuous 
line impervious to infiltration. I have 
made many tests of salt-glazed vitri¬ 
fied pipe from 6-in. internal diameter 
to 30-in. internal diameter, both of 
these sizes inclusive, and I have found 
them capable of withstanding very high 
pressures. 
In connection with some work done 
for the American Society for Testing 
Materials I tested a number of carloads 
of glazed vitrified pipe from different 
factories for the purpose of ascertain¬ 
ing, among other things, the resistance 
of the material to internal and external 
hydrostatic pressures. Very little work 
had been done in this respect, and there 
was no data that I could find that in¬ 
dicated the possibilities of this material. 
My investigations were prompted by tlie necessity 
of finding a material that would provide a sewer 
capable of preventing the entrance of ground waters 
under the pressures developed at the depths encoun¬ 
tered in practice. The tests proved that all sizes of 
salt-glazed vitrified pipe are capable of withstanding 
internal pressures up to 30 lbs. per square inch 
without, leakage. Many of the tests showed that the 
pipes are capable of withstanding higher pressures, 
particularly those of smaller diameters, some of the 
6-in. diameter pipe going as high as 110 lbs. per 
square inch before breaking. During the war, when 
cast iron pipe became difficult to obtain, several 
lines were designed here for water pressures, and 
one design for 30 lbs. per square inch was installed 
and proved successful. 
Your paper does not state what pressures will be 
encountered in the water lines desired, but it would 
appear to me, from my knowledge of the require¬ 
ments of the farm, that salt-glazed vitrified clay 
pipe could he made to provide the service required, 
provided the jointing material was one of the bitu¬ 
minous compound jointing materials now on the mar- 
