Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-09-04
Keep Few sheer.

Does it occur to farmers ordinarily that
they could add few sheep to the stock
already upon the farm without lessenlng
the amount of feed set apart for the lat
ter. Do farmers consider the unneees-
sary degree to which they cOnfine theIh-
selves to salt meats? After the freezing /
winter season is over it is not practicable, |
away from full supply of ice, to keep |
fresh meats about the house for more |
than day or so. Mutton is well known
to be the easiest of any to keep IN not /
weather. If farmers would more gener-
ally keep few sheep, they would Dy eN-
changing favors, killing alternately keep
each others tables supplied with fresh
meat during the summer months
On some farms-and these are not few
-the only dependence for change from
| smoked meat, or otherwise pork from the
barrel, is upon the good wife's stock of
! poultry. This stock, which has come
| from a good deal of watchful care and
labor usually, would answer her good
! turn, if permitted to market during the
! season, in connection with her butter and
lesser products. But owing to the alb
sence of other sources of supply in the
way of fresh meats, when harvest and
| threshfng time comes or visitors drop in,
| a raid is made upon the young growing
stock of poultry, the best are selected ,and
little by little the wife's visions of diverse
and sundFy things to come of sales in the
early fall, vanish.
Sheep, ignored and despised by the
average farmer, sheep will bred, with
view to tendency to fattening and early
maturity, will eat around in the fence
corners and by places, localities neglect
ed or avoided by other larger stock, and
on such feed-shunned by the cow and
the hOrse-they will fatten, making at
any and at all times, whether it be in
spring, midsummer, fall or winter, the
! hacE VxhOlaEnmp flesh
use upon the table. For dinner upon the
farmers table, during harvest, or at any
other time nothing is more appropriate,
healthy and palatable than bowl of we'll
made mutton soup, with crackers or Ilght
bread, accompanied with slice of the
meat welI-cOoked and duly seasoned
This, with the usual vegetables, forms a
meal easily prepared, and so nearly fills
, the bill that the most simply and mex
pensiVe dessert completes the require
nents. This for to-day, with bit OF
roast for tomorrow, nam or pork the
: third day, enables the farmers wife to
, break in upon the mOnotony, so common,
and liable to be so tedious to the housewife
possessed of average ambition, and sc
r irksome to all, whose tastes, and the weaI
and tear of whose muscles, exposed tC
: the daily strain of farm labor, required
| to be studied.
These are the views we set out to ad.
e vance, not thinking to bring argument:
o to show that there is money profit in keep
ing sheep. The common verdict for some
years past, has been, that there is, iT
general terms, no profit in farming. The
e farmer keeps a pair of farm geldings fol
G the mere work there is in them. So theFt
= are various things kept, not with view t.
figuring the profit as the merchant doe'
> this npOh yard of cloth or pound o
tea, but because the various movement
/, upon the farm and within the house can
> not be carried on in a becoming manne
if these things are omitted. What man
his hired help, and his family eats, ha
= question of palatableness involved, a
IS well as the question of building up tn
II muscles that full days work may b
done.
IS On these propositions it pays to keeI
n sheep, equally as it pays to have the oa
e bin we'll filed when you start in with you
= teams for a heavy seasons work. But w
y think flock of sheep-kept away froT
Is the worthless neighborhood dogs at nigh
Ze if reasonably well bred, will in view c
h the natural increase, the product of woo
= and hide unnn his hack and the inciden
= tai value OF pounds of meat upon his cal
ST cass, whether these be consumed upo
c. the farm or in town or city, will pa
st equally with any other stock upon tn
n farm Whether they will or not, in vie
- : of the value and availability of the mes
l. in the ways stated, hundreds Of shee
he should now be kept in townships whel
re NOT one is now seen