360 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[October, 
many plants out of place, and so very few 
meadows and pastures producing grass only. 
Even upon the virgin soils of the West, recently 
reclaimed from the forest, or the prairie, it is 
astonishing to see the rank growth of weeds. 
Their diminishing wheat crops are owing quite 
as much to the presence of these weeds in the 
stubble, as to the loss of fertility in the soil, or 
to the changing seasons. There are few farm¬ 
ers who do not indirectly pay a heavier tax to 
weeds than to tire government. We insist, then, 
upon absolute clean tillage all through dog days, 
as the only economy. We have no doubt that 
the extra cultivation required will be paid for 
in the extra yield of corn, and in all the root 
crops, except potatoes. This crop, fortunately, 
is not injured by early lifting, and as soon as 
dug, a clean sweep should be made of the weeds. 
If green, they can be turned under, and add to 
the riches of the soil. If ripe, burn them. 
How Muck and its Composts Help the Soil. 
In our last issue we noticed some of the 
methods of composting muck and peat and of 
preparing them for fertilizers. We now point 
out some of the ways in which they benefit the 
soil. They add a large mass of organic matter 
directly to growing plants, and supply their 
wants. These peat swamps are the sepulchres 
of dead plants, containing most of the elements 
of our cultivated crops. Composting puts this 
organic matter in a condition to be used. An 
analysis shows that peat contains nearly the 
same elements as cow dung. All our hard- 
cropped fields in the older States need this 
vegetable matter. It is especially valuable upon 
sandy and gravelly loams, and if we add it in 
large quantities enough we can turn a barren 
sand into a fertile field. Astonishing results 
are shown from the application of these com¬ 
posts to thin, hungry soils. They are largely 
made up of carbon, and their decay in the soil 
furnishes carbonic acid gas, both to the roots of 
plants and to their leaves. The great luxuri¬ 
ance of crops upon drained swamps and fresh 
clearings is due mainly to the abundant supply 
of this gas, furnished by decaying vegetable 
matter. In all cultivated.lands the carbon in 
the soil is steadily wasting by the removal of 
the crops, and it must be restored or the land 
will not pay for cultivating. But peat contains 
nitrogen in considerable quantities, which fur¬ 
nishes to plants nitric acid and ammonia, the 
most costly elements in all fertilizers. The ave¬ 
rage amount of nitrogen found in tin* thirty 
samples of peat analyzed by Professor Johnson 
for the Connecticut State Agricultural Society 
was l 1 | a per cent of the air-dried substance, or 
more than three limes the quantity usually 
found in stable or yard manure. When the 
peat is weathered and composted and distrib¬ 
uted in the soil, this nitrogen furnishes ammo¬ 
nia to plants, like other nitrogenous fertilizers. 
A ton of sun-dried peat, according to the esti¬ 
mate of the Professor, contains thirty pounds 
of nitrogen, equivalent to thirty-six pounds of 
ammonia, worth, at twenty cents a pound, 
$7.20 a ton. This may not be all available for 
plants the first season, but it is so much plant 
food stored away in the soil, certain to be 
wanted in due time. It is as really money to 
the farmer as the nitrogen which he puts into 
the soil in yard manure and Peruvian guano. 
There is also an incidental benefit from the free 
use of muck compost too often overlooked. It 
enables the soil to appropriate the free nitrogen 
pf the air. This is oxidized in the pores of the 
soil to nitric acid, and thus the farmer’s crops 
are daily dressed with the most costly of all fer¬ 
tilizers. The inorganic elements of peat are 
also valuable. The ashes have considerable 
quantities of lime and sulphuric acid, and mag¬ 
nesia, phosphoric acid, potash, and soda in less 
amount. These are worth as much as the same 
elements furnished in other manures. 
Besides the plant food which is furnished di¬ 
rectly by the peat, it helps the soil in other 
ways. It absorbs water, and holds it like a 
sponge for a long time. This property of peat 
makes it exceedingly valuable for thin, sandy, 
and gravelly lands. These lands are said to be 
leachy, from the well-known fact that manures 
do not benefit them much after the first season. 
But the escape of the valuable properties of the 
manure is into the air rather than into the 
earth, because there is not vegetable matter 
enough in the soil to retain them. It is of great 
value to dress these lands heavily with peat 
composts. They hold moisture much better 
to guard them against drought, and they re¬ 
tain the ammonia furnished by other ma¬ 
nures. So many and important are the bene¬ 
fits of peat that every farmer who has bogs 
ought to ascertain their quality and spend 
money freely in making composts. Veiy often 
they are the cheapest means of enriching the 
farm and making it pay large dividends. 
---— -• 
What to Do with the Sheep. 
While good, fat sheep still command fair prices, 
poor, inferior ones can hardly be given away. 
During the past mouth such sheep have sold 
in Albany, and even in New York, at from 
$1.25 to $1.50 per head, and at Pittsburg and 
other interior markets, whole lots have been dis¬ 
posed of at 50 cents apiece. At the same 
markets fat pigs sold for eleven cents per pound 
live weight. In other words, four pounds of 
pork is worth more than a whole carcass of 
mutton, and the pelt thrown in. Not only in 
our large cities, but also in the country, meat is 
scarce, and commands high prices. Good fat 
mutton even, is by no means cheap. It is only 
the thin, half-starved sheep that are so low. It 
is not necessary to discuss the causes which 
have produced this state of things. They 
ought to teach us a lessson which we are 
slow to learn, that it is never well to rush 
into one kind of stock to the exclusion of 
all others, and then to half starve and otherwise 
neglect it when it proves less profitable than we 
anticipated. Those farmers who have taken good 
care of their flocks can still dispose of them to 
vastly better advantage than those who have 
neglected them. There is no profit in keeping 
any kind of stock unless it is kept well. There 
are those who think the mutton breeds of sheep 
more profitable than the Merino, and just now 
the incipient symptoms of a long-wool mania 
are manifesting themselves. It is simply a re¬ 
action from the American-merino sheep fever. 
It is clear to us that farmers who have sold 
their merino sheep for fifty cents a head would 
have done no better if they had had the English 
breeds. In fact, it may well be questioned 
whether they would have done as well, for the 
Cotswolds, Leicesters, Southdowns, or their 
grades will not endure neglect or starvation as 
well as our little, active, hardy Merinos. The 
trouble is not with the breed, but in the men. 
‘ The question recurs, What shall we do with 
the sheep ? Stock of some kind we must keep. 
Butter, cheese, and beef, are very high, while 
wool is low, and many farmers are selling their 
sheep at low figures, and buying cows at high 
prices. Those who propose going into dairy¬ 
ing, with little experience, should count the cost. 
They have feeding racks, troughs, sheds or 
barns adapted for wintering sheep; but how is 
it with cows or cattle ? They will probably 
need additional buildings, or will have to alter 
those they have, and it will take a pretty large 
flock of sheep at present prices to erect even a 
small cow stable. We do not anticipate any 
material reduction in the demand for American 
cheese abroad, while the home consumption 
will undoubtedly increase. Still, it is hardly 
safe to base our calculations on the present high 
prices of cheese and butter. The great drought 
in England—the worst that has been known 
since 1826—has increased the demand for Amer¬ 
ican cheese, while the introduction of cheese 
factories into sections wdiich have hitherto pro¬ 
duced only butter, combined with scanty pas¬ 
turage, will account for the comparative scarci¬ 
ty and high price of butter. It is not probable 
that a pound of poor butter will long con¬ 
tinue to bring more than a pound of fine wool. 
On most farms manure is a necessity, and 
there is no economical way of obtaining it in 
the interior without keeping stock. Owing to 
the high price of wheat, barley, oats, and corn, 
many farmers are determined to sow all their 
available land to grain. The diminished yield 
soon shows them their error. Disastrous as 
have been the effects of the sheep fever, the 
grain-growing mania will be even more injuri¬ 
ous. It will curtail the profits of the farm, and 
leave the land in an impoverished condition, 
from which it will take many years to recover. 
We have, therefore, no alternative but to keep 
sheep or cattle. And our conviction is, that for 
the next ten years sheep will pay as well as 
any other kind of stock. If we had cattle we 
W'ould keep them, and if we had sheep, we cer¬ 
tainly would not sell them at present prices. 
It is not easy to tell what it is best to do with 
such poor sheep as will not sell for more than 
fifty cents apiece. To try to fat them this win¬ 
ter would be throwing money away. If they 
are sound, healthy sheep, the better way proba¬ 
bly would be to winter them on coarse fodder, 
with grain enough to keep them from growing 
thinner than they are now. The wool will pay 
the expense of wintering, and leave us the ma¬ 
nure for profit. Next summer give them good 
pasture, and turn them off for mutton as soon 
as they are in good condition. 
Sheep that are now fat bring a comparatively 
fair price. They may either be disposed of now, 
or fed liberally till mid-winter. By that time 
the thousands and tens of thousands of poor 
sheep that are glutting the markets will be dis¬ 
posed of, and there is a reasonable prospect 
that good mutton will command good prices. 
In regard to the flock of ewes, it depends en¬ 
tirely on circumstances whether it is better to 
cross them with a Southdown or Leicester, or 
some other mutton breed, or to confine the 
flock simply to the production of line wool. 
For the last few years long wooled crosses have 
been quite profitable. The wool has been in 
demand for combing purposes, and the mutton 
has commanded a ready sale. But of course it 
is useless to expect any breed or cross to pro¬ 
duce a good fleece and a heavy carcass' without 
liberal feeding. Those who are prepared to 
give extra food and attention to their flocks 
would do better to keep mutton sheep. If 
large flocks are kept, and it is necessary to 
put them on short commons, a well-bred, dry 
fleeced Merino would be the most profitable. 
