The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-04-15
4 Mammoth Sheep Farm.

The Victoria stock farm is in the heart
of Kansas, and is already an immense
estate, and Mr.. Grant is now in treaty
for the purchase of the whole county OF
Ellis, comprising about nine hundred
square miles or $4,000 acres. This
would be larger, with one exception,
than any estate held by any dukedom
in Europe. 1t is the intention of the
owners of the farm to devote themselves
to stock raising, much of the stock
now being sheep. The flock numbers
| 10000, and the success in wintering
stock has determined Mr.. Grant to in
crease his flock, his aim being to have a
| flock of 100, 900 of improved breeds with
| in five years. He has also largely i'm
proved his stock OF cattle, having upward
of five hundred young COWS, which have
been crossed with imported bulls of the
highest pedigree.
Mr.. Grant believes in sheltering cattle
through the winter and feeding them
when necessary. Many of the sheep and
cattle owners of the West, during the
past winter, lost nearly one-half of their
stock, through exposure and cold, while
Mr.. Grant has not lost more than one
per cent. The cost per head for feed
averaged about thirty cents. His feed
for sheep on stormy days is an allowance
of crushed corn, which costs about one
cent per day per head. In Difference to
his head shepherd, who was an advocate
for hay, Mr.. Grant divided flock of
$500 young sheep, feeding one-half on
! hay and the other on crushed corn. The
death rate was twenty-four to one, in
favor of those fed on crushed corn. In
stormy weather, he now feeds on crushed
cora altogether, which can be done at
great saving of labor. One man can
easily provide the crushed corn and put
it into the bins for 10000 sheep per day,
while it requires five men to feed hay
Mr.. Grant has experimental success
fully with alfalfa clover, and intends to
SOW three hundred acres this season, be-
lieving it to be the best feed for cattle
and sheep. Convinced that prevention
is better than cure, he has sheep-bath
in which he dips his sheep twice year,
Immediately after shearing and at the end
of the summer, and by his arrangements
he can dip 5000 sheep per day. A solu-
ton of twenty pounds of tobacco and
fvepounds of sulphur to the one hundred
gallons of water is prepared by being
boiled for two hours in two tanks, hold
ing each 1000 gallons, and used in the
bath at a temperature of one hundred
and twenty degrees Fahrenheit. The
solution is then run into trough twenty
four feet long and six feet deep, and the
sheep are driven up to it in single file,
through narr, passage on a level
with the top, and fall into the water.
After swimming through the water, the
sheep ascend from the bath by steps tc
a dripping corral or inclosure, where
they remain until the wash runs back
into the bath, so that nothing is wasted.
The cost is about two cents per head fol
each bath, and yields to the owner re
turn in wool, from the improved condi
pcand tjGn a. and nd wor aG94 4ew9efhg 9f ct assf half
This bath also keeps out scabs, tick, ant
other vermin to which sheep are sub
ject. Several interesting experiments il
crossing imported stock will be made
this summer, and the results carefully
noted