Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-02-06

clerking it for IS week in the city,
Golden Rue.
RAISING SHEEP FOR FRoF1T.-When1
began farming twenty-five years aeo
depended upon Southdowns. Ther
have always proved with me prolific
breeders, capital nurses, and hardy and
good feeders, and my Southdown mutton
ranks in the market first class. Ifoual
ity Of meat was the only desideratum
woulo not make change; but as coarse
wool now brings the highest price, and
rs perhaps gain a little in the weight
l have made one cross on my flock Of
one hundred ewes with the Cotswold
The finest carcass has resulted where
the Southdown buck was used of tho
CotswOld eve. do not want any finer
sheep than this makes, and try to keen
them for my purpose one-half Cotswold.
What lambs l have to spare are all sold
to your butchers in advance at abou
eight dollars per head raise roots
which consider indispensable in the
sheep business, and with good manage.
ment have the lambs in market in
March and April. / consider tn roots
make good substitute for grass; they
keep the sheep in good heart, and with
fine health for early pasture. and pro-
mote the flow of milk and the appetite.
Two thirds Of my ewes usually have
twins. With lambs at eight or nine dol.
lars each, and wool at fifty cents
pound, your readers can figure up my
profits on one hundred ewes.-Co,res.
pondence Practical Farmer.
ATTENTION TO HEIFER CALvEs.-We
are glad that t. better class of dairy.
men are beginning to see the economy
of raising their own COWS. AS has often
been urged in this journal, the dairy.
man can never be sure OF his stock I'M
less he raises it upon his own farm. We
know large numbers are now doing this,
and some are trying to accomplish it
without making proper provision for
the necessary food to grow their heifers
in the best manner. 1t is not enough
that the heifer is raised upon the farm
where she is to be useful as q milk pro-
Queer, but ample provision of food must
be made'to develop all her good quail
ties. 1t too frequently happens that
the dairyman turns his heifer calves
into poor pasture after they are two
or three months old, and expects them
to grow into good animals on what they
can pick up, without further attention.
But such calves will turn out like the
corn fields planted upon poorly plough.
ed and prepared land. with no sutse-
quent cultivation. The corn is scarcely
worth harvesting, and the calves not
worth wintering. The owners of such
neglected stock often excuse themselves
by saying, "a little extra attention will
fetch them up by and by" But every
body else notices that those calves
arc never fetched up-always remain
small, scrawny, undeveloped animals.
Now the COW is machine for secreting
milk, and this machine should be de-
veloped to the greatest perfection. A
poorly developed animal cannot have
its secretOry system in a vigorous and
active state. Having been fed meager-
ly, its digestive system is contracted and
wanting in capacity to furnish sufficient
aliment for large milk production.
Everything depends upon the rearing
of the heifer calf in determining her
usefulness as u mixer. A steady and
rapid growth from calf-hood, shows all
her secretory organs in the greatest &C
tivity, and her digestive organs must
have been well developed and active to
have prepared so much food for assimi-
lation into such rapid growth. And
as it is impossible that the COW should
yield a large quantity of milk without
digesting large quantity of food, the
animal must be trained to do this from
calfhood. The statement of these
principles must show the dairyman
how vastly important it is that his heif-
err calves should never cease growing for
a single day. Scanty feeding is, there,
fore, the worst economy, and judicious
fall feeding the greatest economy. The
calf, like every other animal, requires q
certain amount of food to keep it alive,
and all the growth comes from what is
eaten more than this. The greater the
amount Of food, therefore, digested and
assimilated, the more the growth, and
the more the profit. The cost Of good
calf, six months old, is but little more
than a poor one, although It is worth
from three to four times rs much. Let
us, then, urge dairymen not to begrudge
the food eaten by their dairy calves,
but to study how they can best please
their tastes and satisfy their appetites.
If the pasture is at all short, give them
extra food Bran, a little oilmeal, oats,
apples, pumpkins-all are good. Grain
is better ground than whole but oats.
in small quantity, do very we'll ground.
Feed with liberal but judicious hand,
and vour reward will no M eted ont in