The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
441 
Live Stock and Dairy 
Extra Work at Lambing Time 
The sheep census is growing these days. 
Hothouse lambs come in the Fall and 
during Winter, but the regulars have 
started now during the last of February. 
They will string along until the first of 
June east of the Mississippi, and will 
come by hundreds of thousands on the 
plains in April and May. The price has 
been good for all kinds of good ones, and 
the promise is profitable figures for this 
installment. A few have been contracted 
on the range at 10 cents at weaning 
now, before they are born. 
We like ours to arrive before the heavy 
Spring work begins; also some of the 
largest may get good Spring or Summer 
prices, and our busy time began a few 
days ago. There are GO little white fel¬ 
lows here now, with more than double 
that to follow. They will be an interest¬ 
ing crowd when they all get here, and 
with the long wool on the ewes’ sides the 
stable will be so small they cannot play 
inside, unless they jump straight up. Our 
loss so far has been but one, and as a 
pair of twins came then, one was given to 
the bereaved mother, after the dead ©ne 
had been rubbed on it. 
This low mortality comes from good 
care the ewes had, and almost all will be 
saved, but it takes care right along. We 
cannot get sheep for nothing any more 
than other good things. All the wool has 
been clipped off the inside of the hind 
legs to give the awkward little fellows 
the right of way, and the mothers must 
not have too much feed. Lamb colic cuts 
short careers, and the little idiots will fill 
with milk, if it is there, until their sides 
bulge out. A “creep” is the thing for 
them. There is no colic in clover or Al¬ 
falfa leaves, nor in oats, bran or corn. 
Their hay rack and grain manger there 
must be kept clean, so they will grow in 
health and size. The old sheep will be 
glad to get the daily leavings. One of the 
cutest sights is the lambs jumping in and 
out of their compartment and daintily 
eating. 
We have had no disowning, which is 
very provoking if not understood. A 
sheep is the most stubborn animal, un¬ 
less one understands its nature. Each 
should be by itself at lambing, and you 
notice she goes there if possible. If there 
is a flock, she can only get as far as the 
wall, which is too near the other sheep, 
and perhaps too near another lamb she 
may want to think is here. Each of ours 
go into a 4-ft. square pen, and stays 
there until fit to turn with, not the whole 
bunch, but the ewes and new lambs. Then 
we think every ewe that drops a lamb 
merits one, so if she loses hers, a twin is 
rubbed with hers and then rubbed on 
her nose, so she never finds out how 
near her heart was broken. Also we want 
her to earn her passage by raising that 
lamb better than it would bo with its 
comrade. 
Hurdles, or a pen in the corner, are all 
right for a small flock, but we have alleys 
4 ft. wide along the walls, and light pan¬ 
els 4 ft. wide hinged with fence staples 
and baling wire. After the campaign 
the lumber is laid up for the next one. 
Every lamb, when it gets on its feet, says 
‘$5,” but the money is small compared 
with the pleasure of the feeling that one 
is the master and owner of new, valuable 
products. Compare that breeding with 
sitting on a stool with a pen over a book, 
counting money on a salary, any kind of 
factory work, or anything else, instead 
of bringing good animals into the world. 
It is a partnership with the Almighty. 
I wonder if anyone has more pleasure 
than I have? I do not need a golf green. 
Playing there, compared to my exercise, 
seems idiotic. It is all right for boys to 
contest at games, but this is more fun 
than it was for me to'be at or near the 
top of in many when young. 
Seventy-three and 1923 was the pleas¬ 
antest of any of them, while all were 
good. It was lambing, shearing, planting 
for this Winter’s grain, putting up hay, 
thrashing, Yellowstone peaches, apples, 
fencing, husking, reading and writing on 
bad Winter days, and now lambing again. 
That will be over in a few weeks. This 
year, if well, it will be the same routine 
with perhaps the Adirondacks, White and 
Green Mountains. You can have the the¬ 
aters, bright lights, etc. I would not give 
our 200 acres for the Metropolitan Build- 
ang and Woolworth’s if I had to stay- 
near them. This is a grand old world if 
one knows enough to take it right, and 
tries to behave. w. w. Reynolds. 
Ohio. 
Sweet Potatoes for Cows 
What feeding quality have sweet po¬ 
tatoes for milk cows? Do they make 
cream hard to churn? w. H. 
Delaware. 
Sweet potatoes are not considered a 
highly desirable feed for dairy cows. In 
addition to being high in fiber they are 
not particularly palatable and if included 
in a ration they should serve as an ap¬ 
petizer rather than as a basis for car¬ 
bohydrates or protein. If fed in excess 
they would be very apt to cause a con¬ 
dition that would make difficulty in 
churning. Usually when by-products of 
this sort are available for feeding live 
stock they are fed in extravagant 
amounts. Any one product fed in this 
wise is deleterious to the animal. If I 
thought very much of a dairy cow and 
expected her to give very much milk I 
would go easy on the sweet potatoes. 
f. c. M. 
Countrywide Produce Situation 
Frozen crops re-planted ; also pos¬ 
sible GAP IN LETTUCE SUPPLY; NORTH¬ 
ERN VEGTABLE MARKETS FIRM ; APPLES 
IN WEAK POSITION. 
A Carolina lettuce grower writes that 
the frozen lettuce fields in the Beaufort 
section have been re-planted and that let¬ 
tuce will be ready 0 whip this Spring as 
usual. He warns Northern growers of 
lettuce under glass not to overdo on the 
strength of the reported freezes. 
Still, it looks as if there would be a 
time in March and April when the let¬ 
tuce supply would be moderate. Florida 
probably will ship about 300 cars in 
March reaching the height of the move¬ 
ment about March 20 and will be prac¬ 
tically done soon after. The Carolinas 
and the Gulf Coast States hardly will 
be ready to fill the whole gap because the 
re-planted crop will be weeks later than 
usual. California lettuce will keep com¬ 
ing, but the quality has not been up to 
standard becau.se of frosted- leaves. A 
great deal o i frosted Southern lettuce 
was observed in the February market sup¬ 
ply. Northern lettuce ought to find a 
fairly good opening from the middle of 
March to the middle of April, or until 
the re-planted areas are in full shipping 
condition. 
CABBAGE UP 
Cellar vegetables began the month in 
fairly strong position. Cabbage had 
moved $10 from the low point. There 
is a better tone in the onion market, 
owing to the moderate supplies in sight, 
and the lateness of Texas onions. 
Northern onions will have a fair 
chance to clean up with the new crop 
likely to be three weeks late and only a 
medium-size crop at that. Prices are 
firm in city markets, at $2 to $2.75 per 
100 lbs., which is low when compared 
with $7.50 to $8.50 two years ago, but 
high compared with 50c to $1.25 three 
years ago. As compared with a year 
ago, prices are about the same, which 
might be expected with the season’s 
shipments practically as large this year. 
So far, there is little sign of the shorter 
crop estimated earlier in the season. The 
Middle West fell off, as expected, but 
New York has shipped nearly twice as 
many as last season and there'were more 
onions than were looked for from the 
Pacific Coast. 
POTATOES FIRM 
Potatoes gained about 10c a bushel in 
northern Maine. There was quite a 
boom in carrots, which advanced $1 per 
100 lbs. during February. Even turnips 
have had a fairly good market. Nobody 
has made much money from any of these 
things because of the high cost of pro¬ 
duction, but anyhow they have brought 
in some cash. 
Apple markets do not look so' well. 
The most hopeful feature is the tremen¬ 
dous export movement, which is likely to 
exceed 4 million barrels. About 12 per 
cent of the market crop is being taken off 
our hands this way. Much of it in 
grades and sizes not so popular in the 
American markets. At first thought it 
seems a mystery how Europe at its half¬ 
bankrupt condition can afford more 
apples than ever. But the quantity is 
relatively small. If they ate apples in 
Europe as we do here, England and Ger¬ 
many alone would buy our entire market. 
G. B. F. 
A Blessing for Dairymen”— 
So says Mr. Frank Cervenka, a 
De Laval Milker user in Illinois. 
He goes on to say: 
“I certainly am proud that I 
discarded the old, laborious and 
disagreeable method of milking by 
hand. Never would I do without 
a De Laval again, and am sorry I 
didn't get one before I did.” 
This is not an exceptional in¬ 
stance of De Laval satisfaction. 
Read the following: 
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the most wonderful piece of ma¬ 
chinery ever invented.”—W. T. 
Farris, Kansas. 
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Oscar Schacht, Indiana. 
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Milker almost four years. It is 
sure a great labor-saver, making 
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stead of a hard part of the day’s 
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California. 
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milker the best investment I ever 
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Thousands of other De Laval 
Milker users are just as enthusias¬ 
tic in their praise. If you are 
milking ten or more cows by hand 
you can soon pay for a De Laval 
in time saved, and extra milk of 
better quality produced. Sold on 
easy terms. 
Send coupon for full information 
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