THE CULTIVATOR. 
97 
Wintering Sheep on Oat Straw and Oats. 
Messrs. Editors —I will tell you and your readers one of 
the ways I have adopted to economise. It is simply keeping 
sheep through the winter on oats and oat straw. Winter ap¬ 
proaching, and perceiving that I had not sufficient hay to 
keep my sheep (more than 300) on that exclusively, and not 
willing to sell my stock at a sacrifice, I was obliged to enter 
upon an untried experiment, of wintering one-fourth on oats 
and the straw, thrashed. I am happy to say I have succeed¬ 
ed far beyond my expectations. 
I have fed to a flock of 105 ewes, (with lamb,) the past win¬ 
ter, one bushel of clean oats per day, and straw three times; 
and from many years’ experience in sheep husbandry , I say in 
all candor and honesty, I never succeeded so well in keeping 
up fine condition, none have died, and neither have I perceived 
that any (not in a single instance) scoured, which I was fear¬ 
ful would be the case. I have, with some care, drawn up the 
following estimate of wintering 100 sheep on hay. I think, taken 
one year with another, it will be found nearly or quite correct. 
I alio w fourteen tons is sufficient to keep 100 sheep through the 
winter and spring, admitting at once, however, that they may 
be, and often are, kept on a less quantity—at a tremendous 
loss sometimes to the grower. If fed fourteen tons, you will 
perceive that eight acres is necessary, producing one and 
three-fourths tons per acre. Fine hay I give greatly the prefe¬ 
rence for sheep; and meadow, that produces more than the 
above quantity, (If tons,) I do not consider exactly the right 
kind for sheep. 
14 tons of good hay is worth $6 per ton,. ,f84 00 
Expense of cutting eight acres, say. 14 00 
the front post and projecting two inches, will answer for the 
gate to rest against. 
Where the gate is to be used to a field, I should prefer 
hanging it level; but where it is used to a barn-yard or mouth 
of a lane, I should give it what we here call the “ double 
swing,” so that when it is thrown open, it will remain open 
without being propped; and when half shut, will fall shut of 
its own weight. ^ SOLOMON HENKEL. 
New-Market, Shenandoah, Va., March 22, 1841. 
ftkstern (Emigrants— No. 5. 
Now look on the other side of the picture 
Expense of plowing eight acres,. 
Seed for the same, 16 bushels, at 2s., is- 
Sowing and dragging,.. 
Cutting and securing, say. 
Threshing, • 
$98 00 
$8 00 
4 00 
3 00 
8 00 
12 00 
Estimating it to produce 40 bushels per acre, is 
320 bushels, worth 2s.,. 80 00 
-$ 115 00 
I have fed my sheep one bushel per day, 150 days, which 
deducted from the estimated yield, would leave a surplus of 
170 bushels, at 2s. is $42.50, which, deducted from the whole 
cost of production, would show the expense of wintering 100 
sheep on oats and the straw to be $72.50—showing an actual 
saving of $25 in the expense of wintering one flock of sheep. 
Brother farmer, is not my plan, based on experience, worth 
adopting ? C. M. 
LudlowviUe, April, 1841. 
Farm Gate. 
Messrs. Editors —Having been a reader of the Cultivator 
from its commencement, and not having noticed what I 
should consider a plan of a complete farm gate, I here send you 
the plan of a gate, similar to some fifteen or twenty which I 
had constructed, ana which have been in use for the last ten 
or twelve years, and still are in good order 
[Fig. 56] 
The cut above, represents a gate, twelve feet in length, and 
five feet in height, counting from the lower edge of the lower 
slat to the upper edge of the upper slat. The slats are six in 
fi^mber, one inch by six inches, and twelve feet in length. 
The heel piece is three by six inches, and six feet in height. 
The middle and head pieces are three by three inches, and 
five and a half feet in height. The braces one inch by three 
inches, and nine feet in length. The slats ought to be made 
of good yellow pine, or good white oak, without any sap ; the 
braces, heel piece, middle and head pieces, of white oak. 
I he spring, trigger, bolt and both brackets are made of lo¬ 
cust. The heel piece, middle and head pieces, have each one 
nvet near each end, so as to keep them from splitting. The 
braces, one being applied to each side of the gate, are fasten¬ 
ed onby six rivets passing through the braces and slats, and 
join the heel and middle pieces by a shoulder, as shown in 
the cut. Two rivets pass through the two bottom slats and 
the springs. Two rivets confine each bracket, and one passes 
through the middle of the upper bracket, the trigger and slat ; 
making in all nineteen rivets. The spaces between the slats 
are graduated, so as to leave a space of two and a half inches 
between the two bottom slats, and seven inches between the 
two upper slats. The whole of the stuff ought to be planed 
and painted with Venetian red. The hooks and hinges are 
made of tough iron, not very heavy. The hinges pass through 
the heel piece, and are secured by taps. The lower hino-e is 
kept from crushing the heel piece, by a plate three inches 
square, having a hole through it, through which the shaft of 
the hinge is passed up to the eye, so as to keep the gate from 
swaggmg. The upper hook ought to be somewhat longer 
than the lower ; it ought to be nine inches in length, and 
bearded on two sides, so as to keep it from drawing out. In 
order to keep the gate from being thrown off the hooks, it will 
be necessary to have a tap put on one of the hooks. The 
posts ought to be made of good white oak, or locust; the back 
post ten feet long, and the front one nine feet. The back 
post ought not be less than eighteen inches in diameter at the 
lower end, and should be sunk in the ground ihree and a half 
feet; well filled in with stone at the bottom, and another layer 
nearthe surface of the ground; and the balance of the hole 
should be well rammed: with clay. The front post will be 
deep enough, if put into the ground three feet. The posts 
before putting them up, should have the bark taken oflf and 
the upper ends cut to a cone. The bolt may be constructed 
so as to slide along a level leading to a mortise made on the 
inner side of the front post. Two locust pins inserted into 
THE FIRST TRIP TO MILL—THE EMIGRANT’S FAMILY 
OUT OF PROVISIONS—A LOG CABIN SCENE. 
Messrs. Editors —And you my kind readers, who have read 
my previous numbers, if you think I am becoming prolix, lay 
the present one aside. I was led away in my last number from 
the subject which I was prosing upon in No. 3. I told you of 
the first night on the prairie, but I have not yet told you of 
many other nights and sunny days that I have spent here. The 
month of November, around the head of Lake Michigan, (which 
is in lat. 41, 38,) is usually a mild pleasant month. Such was 
the month that followed “ the first night on the prairie.” This 
was indeed propitious to the newly arrived emigrants, for there 
was much to do to prepare for the expected rigors of an ap¬ 
proaching northern winter. 
There was neither hay nor grain within many a long mile, for 
man or beast, and to one accustomed to look upon the gloomy 
side of things, the prospect of making a new settlement under 
such circumstances would have looked gloomy enough. But an 
emigrant to the West should not be one of that cast of temper. 
He should be able to look beyond the many discouraging cir¬ 
cumstances attending the beginning of his new mode of life, to 
the bright prospect of the future. There was but one fleeting 
moment of gloom resting with me during the first winter. The 
first month had been spent in the numerous duties of prepara¬ 
tion for winter, and the beautiful sunny days of November had 
given place to cold and snowy December, when it became ap¬ 
parent that the little magazine of provisions must be replenish¬ 
ed, and that right speedily. And although “ delays are danger¬ 
ous,” yet, waiting better weather, delay was made to that 
point, that upon calculation proved the stock on hand barely 
sufficient to supply the five or six days that it would take to 
make the journey where a supply could be obtained, and return 
again while there was yet a little left. So a trusty and perse¬ 
vering messenger was dispatched, with due, though little need¬ 
ed caution, to hasten his return. The weather again was mild 
and pleasant, and our spirits all buoyant and bright as the win¬ 
ter sunshine, as the cheerful cheering notes of the departing 
teamster’s joyous morning song floated away upon the breeze 
that swept unobstructed over miles of prairie, now blackened by 
the annual fires, to a somber hue, and cheerless winter aspect. 
Never were such appetites seen before, as those which daily 
diminished the fast failing stock of provisions of our little family 
m the wilderness. Before them I kept a cheerful face, but oh 
how my heart sunk within me on the evening of the fifth day’ 
as I descended from a tall tree which I had climbed to try to 
discover the expected team. For I easily perceived that the 
weather had been such as to ice over the unbridged streams 
though I feared not sufficient to pass over a wagon. On this 
evening, too, I was still further gained by the arrival of some 
hungry wanderers, to whom hospitality could not be denied. 
On the sixth day, the only neighbor within a dozen miles 
came to borrow a little meal. He looked upon the bottom of 
the empty barrel and turned homeward with his empty bag 
The knife had scraped the last bone for breakfast, and the next 
resource was a small bag of wheat bran, which made very pa¬ 
latable batter (not better) cakes, though they would have been 
better, but that the lard was gone, and butter was, in those 
days, among the unknown things. Bran cakes and cranberries 
sweetened with honey, then were sweet diet. Although the 
owner of a gun that rarely failed to perform good service it 
seemed that every living thing in the shape of game had hid’up 
m winter quarters. ’Tis true, that I suffered a degree of ner¬ 
vousness, that might have rendered my hand too unsteady to 
endanger the life of game, if it had come in the way; not that 
I heard one word of repining or fear, nor that there was any 
immediate danger of actual starvation; yet the thought was 
not a pleasant one, to think I had brought a wife and children 
into a wilderness to suffer, even through fear of want. 
On the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth days, anxious and 
watchful eyes scanned the prairie by day, and tended beacon fires 
by night, for this precaution was necessary, as there was nothing 
to guide the expected teamster home, should he undertake the 
perilous passage of the prairie just at night fall. It was about 
midnight of the last day, and I had tired of watching, and had 
lam down, but not to sleep. The question of “what is to be 
done ?” was working up some horrid visions before me, when 
my ear, which had grown remarkable quick of late, caught a 
faint sound like steps upon the frozen ground. Sentinel upon 
his post never started quicker than I. The sounds grew more 
and more perceptible, but there was nothing like the rumbling 
of wheels. For the first time, then, did the deep seated anxiety 
of the good wife and mother show itself. Hope was fast sinking 
when the well-known voice of the ever cheerful teamster was 
borne along the midnight air. How little do we know how to 
appreciate trifles, until placed in trying situations. What joy- 
lul sounds! But the joy was soon damped, as it became mani¬ 
fest that he drove a team without a wagon. Where was that i 
was the first question. “ Fast in the river, a few miles back 
on the prairie.” “ Do you know we have nothing in the house 
for your suppper ?’’ “ I expected so, and so I brought along a 
bagful; here is both flour and meat.” 
Reader, can you imagine yourself for one moment in my situ- 
ation ? Can you realize that the happiness of that moment was 
sufficient to pay for many weary, watchful days of anxiety« 
No, you cannot realize that, until experience teaches you 
Happiness is only realized by contrast with misery. And it is 
because the emigrant’s life is full of such exciting scenes, and 
because the days of pleasure are long remembered, when those 
of pain are buried in oblivion, that induces thousands annually 
to add themselves to that irresistible wave of western emigra¬ 
tion, that is rolling onward to the Pacific Ocean. 
The happiness of the teamster too, was such as he will ne¬ 
ver forget. For he had endured a night of actual peril. When 
the ice gave way under the wagon, it became necessary for 
him to plunge into the water to extricate the team, and when 
f-ff 6ac j - l°ne log cabin, his outer garments were frozen 
stut, and. in a short time he would have become an immoveable 
mass of ice, and perhaps have sunk to his final rest upon the 
bleak prairie. ^ 
Those who have seen a real log cabin fire of hickory logs, 
may picture to themselves a scene in the first cabin of the first 
settler, m the first winter on the prairie; and those who have 
never seen such a scene of real comfort, must imagine as best 
they can, a picture of such a scene as was realized in that ca¬ 
bin on the night of the return from “ the first trip to mill.” 
biicn scenes of excitement, of pain and pleasure, often occur 
to the western emigrant. I have in memory 7 s store many that 
may or may not yet be told; but for the present, I will leave 
those who have perused this, with the sincere wish that they 
may ever enjoy their fast fleeting moments of life in a splendid 
mansion, with as great a zest, as a portion of life has been en¬ 
joyed in a log cabin, by their old friend, 
Lake C. H., la., February 1, 1841. SOLON ROBINSON 
Management of Manures, Sec, 
Editors of the Cultivator— Having been a constant reader 
of the Cultivator for some years, I have become convinced that 
we must improve by careful observation, and also by adding 
the experience of others to our own; and if practical farmers 
yvere more willing to furnish the public with their experience 
in their various modes of tillage; of collecting, preserving and 
disposing of their manure, &e., much information might be 
gained. I am, therefore, willing to state some of my experi¬ 
ments, together with the results. 
For twenty years past, I have been in the practice of rotting 
my manure m the yard, and in order to effect this, would turn 
it twice in the course of the summer, and in the fall apply it to 
ground previously prepared for wheat. The summer of 1835, 
I varied from my common practice, by taking out my manure 
about the 1st of 6th month, spread it broad cast on a field of 
thin, land, which had previously brought little beside straw¬ 
berries and five-finger vines; the manure was immediately 
turned under. Six or eight weeks after ? it received a second 
plowing, and early in the 9th month a third plowing, and sow¬ 
ed it with wheat the 17th of said month, one and three-fourths 
bushels per acre ; timothy seed four quarts per acre, and clover 
seed in the spring following, six pounds per acre. The result 
was a good crop of wheat; since which, this field has produced 
as great crops of grass as any field on my farm; and to the ad¬ 
miration of my neighbors. I think the manure worth one-third 
more than when rotted in the yard. 
In 1837, I took out my manure on the 1st of 6th month, spread 
it broad cast on a piece of land containing three and a half 
acres, of a description similar to the above, thirty-five loads to 
the acre, coarse yard manure, plowed it three times as before, 
sowed it with red chaff bearded wheat, 25th of 9th month, one 
and three-fourths bushels per acre ; grass seed as above; from 
which I harvested 105 bushels, or thirty bushels to the acre. I 
judged one-eighth of an acre fell down and was nearly lost. 
Westchester county is not a wheat growing county—average 
yield not more than from twelve to fifteen bushels per acre, 
and frequently much less. I have used no fallow crops in the 
above experiments, as the land was thin, and I wished to im¬ 
prove it as much as possible. 
In 1839, 1 put my yard manure on a piece of rather cold mea¬ 
dow land early in 5th month; turned it under and sowed it 
with oats. They were only middling; after which plowed 
twice, sowed wheat, with grass seed. Wheat good, and pros¬ 
pect for grass very fine. 
Many of our Westchester farmers are in the practice of feed- 
mg their cattle from stacks on their fields ; the dung is left by 
the side of fences, or on some rich corner of the field, the least 
exposed to the chilling blasts, where it is scorched with the sun 
and dried with the wind, until it is worth but little. 
I have, for a few years past, raised the Italian Spring Wheat 
with tolerable success; average yield about fifteen bushels per 
acre. It has some advantages over winter wheat; one is, it 
does not need land as strong as to grow winter wheat. I sow 
it about the 1st of April. 
I wish your opinion, as well as the opinion of some of your 
numerous correspondents, respecting keeping cattle in stables 
through the winter; I anticipate building a barn with stables 
sufficient to hold my entire stock of cattle. My plan of feeding 
is to cut my hay and straw and mix them together in such pro¬ 
portions, as I find my cattle will do well on; in feeding in 
this maimer, there will be but little wasted. Their drink to be 
furnished from a pump in the barn, so that they need not go 
out of their stables during the winter. 
My principal object is to keep more cattle with the same 
feed, and thereby increase the quantity of manure. I am aware 
that it will cause extra labor to cut their feed, and take care 
of them in the manner prescribed above, and wish information 
to know, whether cattle will be likely to do well, kept up 
through the winter; and whether it will be likely to pay ex¬ 
penses. Information upon the above subject will be thankfully 
received by, S. WOOD. 
Lherryhill Farm, Westchester co., N. Y., 3 d mo., 1841. 
Use of Calcined Gypsum. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucrer— I trouble you with this commu¬ 
nication, merely to say, that I have wished that the simple sug¬ 
gestion might be made to your numerous readers, of the proba¬ 
ble advantage to -the cultivator of calcining, or burning, gyp¬ 
sum before using. 
We know that a certain amount of pure sand, mixed with 
stilt clay, will greatly improve such soil for arable purposes, 
a L m J Uch ’ P robabl y> as any single ingredient which could be 
added, scarcely excepting any kind of manure. On the same 
principle, a certain amount of limestone reduced to powder of 
suitable fineness, would have a similar effect; but who thinks 
of using limestone in this way? 
My belief is, that if gypsum, before cast upon the ground, 
was subjected to the action of fire as limestone is, that is, cal - 
cmed, it would then be found altogether a more energetic arti¬ 
cle for promoting vegetable growth; indeed, I think as much 
better as the limestone is for burning. The expense of burning 
is trifling. It may be done (having been previously ground) in 
a cast-iron pot of almost any kind. I should think “Motts’ ” 
new portable cast-iron kettle and furnance would be excellent 
Hartford, Conn., 1841. l g ' 
Management of Bees—No. 2. 
Messrs. Editors —The series of essays I proposed to publish 
m your valuable paper some time since, on the management 
of Bees, will be predicated principally on four classes of bee¬ 
hives, which are divided into three distinct sorts each making 
twelve hives in all. The first sort in each class will ie a sim¬ 
ple swarmer. The second sort in each class will be a perfect 
swarmer; and the third sort in each class will be the perfect 
bee-hive, and non-swarmer. The two first classes will be 
chamber hives. The third class will be box hives, with a 
chamber and thermometrieal chamber in the third sort or per¬ 
fect hive; and the fourth class will be a capped hive, with col¬ 
lateral and thermometrieal chamber in the third sort, which is 
called a perfect bee hive. These hives are all-managed on the 
life-preservmg principle. Swarms to form new colonies, are 
divided off only in the perfect hive of each class. I intended to 
have had the whole before the public at an earlier date than 
tn is ; but the preparations have been laborious and slow The 
S1) a C U Catl< l nS t. are n ? w a11 made i tbe drawings all completed, 
and I hope to have the cuts ready for the next No. of the Cultii 
y a *° r- Tbe . se hives will be cheap or expensive, according to 
larU’ varylng brom hfty cents to fifty or even a hundred dol- 
1 0, i" ht here t0 answ er the inquiry made by Mr. Quimbv, 
page 76, current volume, concerning dead chrysalis found 
among the combs m a hive of bees. Answer— First, the cause - 
]?, too much ventilation in the spring months. The cold air 
chills the young broods. Remedy-Close up the bottom board 
stop all ventilators, and contract the hives’ mouth so as to afl 
ford no more air than is necessary for the passage of the bees 
at work, until the weather is hot. These close at every turn 
of chilly weather during the breeding season. Ventilate in 
hot weather only during the breeding season; if this is done I 
the r comb !- to be alwa ys kept clear from dead and 
putnfied chrysalis. Objections to this practice removed—see 
page 70, current vol. of Cultivator. JOHN El WFFES 
Salisbury , Vt., May, 1841. 
