Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-06-21
Sheep On. Worn.out Land.

In our new States there is as vet no
serious question as to the best way OF
renewing WORKOUT lands. But in the
older States it is question of impor-
lance, and in our new States it must be-
come one in time, Under our profligate
system of agriculture it is only matter
of time when this will be vital ques-
ton to those who own and till the soil.
The effect of sheep, therefore, upon
such land may be studied with profit by
all of us, whatever may be the present
condition of our soil. 1t has long been
known that sheep are an excellent
means of fertilizing. 1t is estimated
that sheep fed upon rich foods will pay
for the food in the production of mutton
and wool, and viii give at least seventy
five per cent. of its value in the fertiliza-
ton of the soil. In no other way can
phosphorus acid, potash and nitrogen
be so cheaply applied to the soil, the
cost being generally. estimated at fifty
per cent. of the cost of commercial fer
tilizers containing these clements. Be-
sides, as noticed BY one well-known
writer, while it is impossible to tell what
we are getting in the commercial fer
tilizers, we do know what we will get
when we have fed sheep upon
the richer. foods. If we feed certain
foods we know just what the fertilzing
product Will be when it has passed
through the sleeps machinery for diges-
ton. There IT, therefore, no branch Of
the live stock industry that draws SO
lightly upon the soil as sheep husbandry.
In the first place, it is not so exhaust
ing anyhow, and in the next place, it
actually returns SO much that the soil
grows better instead of poorer. Under
favorable conditions, we have the very
highest opinion of the sheep business,
tariff or no tariff, dogs or no dogs, and
in the face Of the various obstacles that
oppose our achievement of the full meas
ure of success. We repeat what we
have sometimes said before, tlat our
sheep husbandry will bear all the direct
or indirect disadvantages and come out
ahead in the end. Just so long as this
country fails to produce all the wool it
needs for its own consumption. and just
so long as we have the present natural
advantages for the business, the sheep
business will have room to spread itself,
and will comm md itself to those who
are engaged in agriculture; and should
we lose some of our natural advantages,
and the industry should enlarge to a
degree that our home demand viii be
fully supplied, an animal that will pay
seventy-five per cent. of the cost OF
what it consumes in fertilizers to the
soil upon which it feeds, will still COM
mend itself to the farmer. Upon u farm
that IS fitted for sheep husbandry, keep
ing sheep will pay. if the dogs can be
kept away, whatever may be the price
of wool or mutton. The improvement
of the soil will be enough to make a
profit, in addition, of course, to what
the wool and carcass will bring, for they
must always be worth something.
Some interesting and instructive eX-
periments have been made as to the
comparative effect of feeding a definite
quantity of food to sheep upon the land,
and applying manure made by sheep
under she'd, IN winter, from the same
kind of food. Prof. Stewards expert
ments, which he records in his work on
Feeding Animals, are among some OF
the best. He confined fifty large sheep
upon twenty-five rods of ground for
three days in June, feeding twenty
pounds Of green clover per day to each
sheep, cut before poisoning. The
parts of the stalk not eaten at first,
were placed in trough every day,
three-quarters of pound of corn meal
to each sheep, with pinch of salt
spread over them, and were thus eaten
by the sheep. In this way all the clover
Mas eaten. At the end of the three
days the land had received the drop
pings from sixty pounds of green clover
and two and a quarter pounds of corn
meal. AT this rate an acre would re-
.ceive 3, 264 pounds Of dry clover, and 633
pounds of dry substance of corn meal.
The estimated yield of this would be
ninety pounds of nitrogen, eighty
four pounds of potash, and twenty
two pounds of phosphoric acid. The
sheep fed under the shed in winter,
were fed 5,16o pounds of dry clover
the number of sheep being tifty-and
corn to the amount of 1896 pounds of
dry meal. The sheds were bedded four
inches deep with cut straw before the
feeding commenced. The sheep were
thus fed and bedded for thirty days.
As to the effect upon the sheep them
selves, those fed upon green clover
gained three and a quarter pounds per
week, while these fed in the shed gained
only two and half pounds per week.
The manure thus made in the shed was
spread upon an acre adjoining one
upon which the green clover feeding
was done, both pieces treated exactly
alike as to blowing, and both were sown
to winter wheat, with grass seed. Re-
suit: the acre fcrtil zcd by feeding clover
and corn meal upon it yielded thirty
bushels to the acre; the other acre
Y elded but twenty-five bushels. For
two years the grass crop upon the
former was much better than upon the
latter, and after that the difference was
not perceptible. We simply refer to
this experiment as an Indication of the
ease and certainty of fci tilizing the land
by letting sheep run upon it.-Wcsscrm
Rural.
Got nn,v, ~ tho Wrour- (huroh