The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1878-01-24
TOPICS FOB THE FARM.
Profits of Sheen Raising.-The |

Profits of Sheep Raising.-The fol-
lowing from Pennsylvania farmer
shows that sheep raising is profitable:
learn by the agricultural report of
1870 that there were nearly seven acres
of unimproved land in Pennsylvania to
each sheep, and that each produced a
little more than three and a half pounds
of wool. This is forty cents per pound,
amounts to S2,500,000. My object in
giving these figures is to show the profit
of this branch of agriculture. l am now
keeping, on an average farm, one sheep
to every two acres improved land. The
wool of each sheep averages four pounds,
but these sheep do not consume one-half
the hay and grain raised, and do not re-
ceive any roots. Last year l raised my
first crop of sugar-beets and find that
thirty or forty tons may be raised per
acre. l think these will enable me to
keep at least one sheep to every improved
acre, and still have one-half the hay,
grain and roots left to feed the team and
necessary cattle. If these conclusions
be correct, and one-half of my sheep
raise twin lambs, making total of one
and one-half lambs to each sheep, worth
81 each, we have total of Sc for lambs
and S1.60 for wool per acre. or S1S, 800
00O for lambs and S69,000,000 for wool
in Pennsylvania. I cannot give the
value of lambs in 1870, and cannot COM
pare the difference. The wool produce
was Sc, 500, ,000 pounds, but at my esti-
mate there would be 100000 pounds,
making a difference of SIC, 100000 at 40
cents per pound. This result is of course
not attainable in one or two years. 1t
must be brought about by degrees. l
find sheep are liable to disease if kept
in large focks, unless the very best
breeding ewes are selected and the rams
changed each year.
Corn in Bayard Taylor says
in the Weekly Tribune: must not forget
| to mention three other important articles
of nourishment--in Northern Italy the
pumpkin in Central Italy, Indian corn
and in Corsica and among the Apen-
mines, chestnuts. Pumpkins, cut into
slices and baked, are sold at the street
corners, and the inner kernels of their
| fat seeds are as much relished by the
boys Of Venice and Florence as peanuts
are by ours. At the cheap open air
theaters, where children are admitted for
five cents, the gravel floor is always
covered with the hulls of pumpkin seeds.
| The Italians known corn as we'll as we
do, and they would not learn much from
Mr.. Hewitt's proposed missionary corn
restaurant at Paris, except some new
varieties. of the cooking. They roast
the green ears instead of boiling them
and their favorite dish, polenta, is sort
of thick mush, or pone," made of corr
meal, salt and water. Italy is the only
country in Europe where an American
can get fried mush, and quite as good a:
at home. The chestnuts are very large
such as we call "Spanish chestnut:
and exceedingly nutritious; they are
not only roasted, but ground into foul
when dry, and baked as cakes. II
Corsica they are more important croI
than even wheat; in fact, chestnuts arr
called Corsican bread"
Vegetable Green for Pickles.-Th,
Boston Journal Of Chemistry gives par
ticulars ola process recently patented
in France and England for supplying ;
green color, extracted from vegetable
which is to be used from coloring pick
les. To procure the extract, leaves O
spinach sorrel, or similar plants, ar,
scalded in hot water, chopped into !;
mass, and then boiled in solution o
caustic soda till dissolved On cooling
green cake is deposited, which is to b
dissolved with the phosphate of potass
or ammonia, and reduced to herequire,
strength by adding water. In the liqui'
thus obtained, when it is heated t.
! boiling point, ten or fifteen minutes i'm
| mersion will give to pickles fine pei
manent green. AS the color consists O
the chlorophyll of plants, it is quit
,, harmless; which cannot yet be certainl
said of the salts of copper, althoug
French experimenters have recent
found them less poisonous than ha
hitherto been supposed.