Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-08-05

q QudliIy WHICH, Will pTONc larry ICnuii'
eratiye; to prevent waste; to ward of
causes of accident or disease. Properly
to arrange all this requires some general.
ship and some experience. Young farm
ers with fair command of stock often
fall into the serious error of getting over
stocked; in q dry season, many good
managers are aptto discover thatthey ais O
have too many mouths Cattle and sher p
always do best where they can have a
change of grazing once or even twice a
month; as we have often insisted on, a
given acreage of clover, grass or Yetches
will produce greater weight of meat if
the food is brought 10 the animals, instead
Of being walked over and spOilt by them.
Pastures suffer very severely if fed too
closely during hot weather, so that the
roots are burned by the sunshine. Keep
no more. stock than can be well fed, and
at the same time allow the grass lands to
remain in food condition. A mulching of
straw upon failing spots would often be
of great service; but re-seeding is the
only remedy where the grass has been
supplanted by weeds. A crop of buck
wheat will aid in subduing these, and will
prepare the ground for seeding with rye
in the fall.
Horses are thriftless inmates of good
pastures; they are apt to disturb other
stock; they Craze down closely the best of
the keep, and their summer management
is often a difficult question. We prefer
the eastern system of keeping the horses
of the farm in lots of two or three to-
gether in divided yards, which at this sea-
son are usually kept empty. Here they
are supplied with rough grass, cut about
the pastures, or, where that is insufficient,
with clover or green corn fodder.
Cattle for fattening next fall should
have good start by being allowed full
pasture during summer. There should be
free access to water. If pasture for mich
COWS be short, feed night and morning
with cut grass, clover or millet, corn, ETC.,
from the ground devoted to that purpose.
Calves will thrive well upon good growth
of clover with other feed.
With sheep the penning system is the
most economical, and has the great ad-
vantage of getting the land evenly ma
nured, and making also the best of the
cake or other purchased food. Even
where sheep are not constantly confined
to the pens, it is good practice to enclose
the flock during the night. The food is
thus kept fresh, and less of it is spoilt.
The night pen, which should be moved
several times week, should either be in
the same field in which the sheep Craze
during the day, or in contiguous field of
clover, vetches, or the like. By the adop-
ton of the system of pens, and by in
creasing the quantity of purchased food,
a bad season may be successfully encoun-
tered, and very heavy stocking carried
through without loss. In the grazing or
penning, whether of cattle or sheep, it is
unwise to have too many animals together.
One hundred sheep is quite enough to have
in one pen. Iii important to place togeth-
er those animals which are about the same
age, or state of progress, and that will !
best agree.
Lambs after weaving will require for !
some weeks great care alike in feeding |
and general management. 1t is better to |
take the ewes from the lambs than to |
move the lambs from the ewes, as is often |
done. Accustomed to their grazing, their |
water supply, and other surroundings, the !
young lambs sooner become reconciled to |
the separation from their mothers. If |
they are not already receiving any artifi-
cial food, three or four ounces of linseed |
cake will greatly help thriving, and ward |
off disease. They should be 'Erun thin;"
when put in fresh field, they should be
daily driven to the watering place; little |
time should be lost in having them dipped, |
and before the middle of September they
should be on roots.
Keep swine in clover pasture or or
chard, and feed moderately with grain
until crops are harvested; then give them
he range of the wheat and the rye fields,
where they will be well prepared for fall
fattening. Give green peas with the vines,
corn stalk, clover or other suCculent food
with milk and grain to those confined in
pens. Keep their apartments well cleaned,
and secure all the manure.
For all animals it is most important to
ook to quantity and quality of the water
supply. A good supply of pure, fresh
water is, in hot, dry weather, quite as es
'ential to thriving as food itself. With
access to a good spring, we often find
young stock make wonderful progress,
wen when the pastures are extremely
bare. Running streams are preferable to
;tagnant pools; but in many clay and
evel countries, these pools are the only
sources of water during dry summer.
Where pools are the sources of the water
for stock, great care should be taken that
al mud should be removed almost daily |
fIn IF n a
place, so that all stock, but more especial
Iy the sheep, may get at the water readi-
Iy. Sheep will often want water |
for days rather than walk over rough, |
poached, or muddy ground to pro-
cure it. When sheep do not come read
ily to the pools, troughs should be formed |
without delay, and filed from the pools
with convenient hand pump, or a sup
ply brought daily in water-cart. From |
being short of water in the summer or
hundreds of young sheep pine |
and die during the subsequent winter.
During hot, dry weather, the daigyman
has his special difficulties to contezd with.
The cows, instead of eating as much as
usual, lie lazily in the shade, or worse |
still, gallop about, tormented with flies.
A sponging over in the morning with a
weak solution of carbolic acid, is recon-
mended to abate this nuisance of the flies.
In very hot weather milking cows are
much better kept in the house during the
day, and only grazed at night. A little
meal, green corn fodder or cake, with
some cut food twice daily, will sustain
the condition of the herd, and the yield
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