The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1877-11-15
TOPICS FOR FARMERS.
Raising Sheep for Profit.-When

Raising Sheep for Proflt.-When I
began farming twenty-five years ago,
writes a correspondent of the Practical
Farmer, l depended upon Southdowns.
They have always proved with me prolific
breeders, capital nurses, and hardy and
good feeders, and my Southdown mutton
ranks in the market first class. If
quality of meat was the only desidera-
tum l would make a change; but as
coarse wool now brings the highest price,
and as perhaps | gain a little in the
weight / have made one cross on my
flock of one hundred ewes with the
Cotswold. The finest carcass has re-
suited where the Southdown buck was
used on the Cotswold eve. l do not
want any finer sheep than this makes,
and l try to keep them for my purpose
one-half CotswoId. What lambs | have
to spare are sold all to your butchers in
advance at about eight dollars per head.
l raise roots, which I consider indis-
pensable in the sheep business, and with
good management l have the lambs in
market in March and April. I consider
that roots make a good substitute for
grass; they keep the sheep in good heart,
and with fine health for early pasture,
and promote the flow of milk and the
| appetite. Two-thirds of my ewes
usually have twins. With lambs at
eight or nine dollars each, and wool at
fifty cents pound, your raisers can
figure up my profits on one hundred
ewes.
Those Watered Trees.-The editors
of the indianapolis Journal and Neacs
are discussing the effects of river bot
toms and uplands on verdure.
We give scrap: The pawpaw
editor of the Neacs has not profted
generally by his wide experience as a
river-bottom ranger. He may find SER
mons in stones, books in the running
brooks, and riparian changes wrought
by the restless current of White River,
but he is somewhat off in his vegetable
physiology He asks: "Why are the
trees along the river bank largely green
to-day, while those on the uplands are
brown or bare?" The answer is that
trees whose leaves are now green have
probably been protected from the action
of the frosts, and this is true, whether
the trees are growing on uplaDds or in
the p. p. editors favorite bottom. Some
species of trees ripen their leaves earlier
than others, without regard to frost
The buckeye, for instance, ripens and
sheds its leaves in August on uplands
and lowlands alike. Some species Of
trees are harder than others. and resist
the action of slight frosts, and theil
leaves remain green until the frosts are
quite severe, and this they do on high
lands and lowlands alike. The sycamore
at the river side and the sycamore OF
the uplandds, other conditions being the
same, are to-day alike green, or brown
or bare.
He says further: Water in the
shape of rain has kept the grass re
markably green for the season, and it il
not easy for anybody with brains bach
of the eyes to see that water in easy
reach of the roots of trees would moi
have the same effect in prolongins
} verdure." Why has not water in the
shape of rain" kept sweet-potato ane
tomato vines remarkably green fer thu
season?' But leaving out of the dis
) cussion the effect of frosts, would !;
botanist look for like effects from tn,
same causes upon an endogenous herl
: and an exogenous tree? In mild winter
one may find the blue grass green be
meath the snow, when the stately syca
| mores along the river banks are bare. Il
summer, after even light shower, tn
, trees are green simply because the dus
is washed from their leaves, evel
though the "water in the shape of rain
S is not handy" to their roots. Tn
same shower, however, would increas
the growth of the grass and intensity it
| verdure. But now, when the ripenin
process is almost ready to fall, eve
e without the influence of frost, if tn
a editor aforesaid will look again, he vii
find that the tree at the waters edge
: and the tree of the same species on tn
e upland, under other like conditions, ar
: alike green, or bare. But how are tn
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