The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-07-18
Sheep Husbandry

Sheep Husbandry
One advantage from keeping few
sheep on the farm is the fact that those
fortunate farmers engaged in the pur-
suit have clip of wool. some fat lambs
or sheep to sell at time when but few
other farm products are ready for mar
ket. Money is usually most in demand
among farmers during spring and sum-
mer. for it is then that they are engaged
in making the crops to be sold the en-
suing fall and winter. Combining sheep
husbandry with grain growing pieces
out an uncomfortable gap in the finan-
ces, when without 1.-THE farmers bust
ness would for while be all outgo and
no income. Sheep will fit into the rota-
ton so nicely in other ways than by
furnishing money at convenient periods
that certain number can and should
be kept on nearly every large farm.
Sheep eat much that would otherwise
be lost, during both winter and summer.
Bean straw and refuse beans are excel
lent feed for sheep, and usually of little
value for any other kind of stock. With
these and clean, bright straw Gatle or
no hay will be needed in wirAering s
fattening sheep. The Utilization of
what otherwise would be wasted goes
far toward paying the winter keep, and
q yard full of valuable manure helps to
make good any deficiency. In summer
sheep will pay their way if kept in an
apple-orchard to live on the fallen,
wormy fruit, in addition to what they
can Craze, or if placed in lot filed
with young shrubs which it is desirable
to keep down. Fine apples free from
codling worms are the result of the Wig
lance of flock of sheep in destroying
this enemy of the apple-grower. With
good management it is possible on
large farm to keep a greater or less
number of sheep whose keeping shall
be almost inappreciable in cost. With
a crop of wool and lambs each year
such flock can not fail to prove profit
able.
The chief mistake in sheep husband
ry is in keeping more than can be econ
omically provided for. 1t requires in
creased care and skill to manage large
docks. Beyond certain limit they are
more expensive and destructive than
almost any other live stock. In the Or
chard, if in greater numbers than the
pasture will keep, they will take to
gnawing the bark of young trees, while
this habit once formed cannot easily be
broken Sheep should never be pas
tured on clover, old or young. With
the natural grasses the habit of the
sheep in gnawing the stem down into
the earth is less Objectionable. Two
weeks rest and good rain will make
the pasture green again. On the other
hand, clover thus gnawed to the root is
killed. With the loss of the clover the
hope of maintaining or restoring fer
tility is also imperiIed. Some excellent
farmers have found sheep SO destructive
to clover that they have sold their
flocks and will keep sheep no more. If
there were no alternative but pasturing
sheep on their clover fields, they did
well to abandon the business. Still we
think that many of these same farmers
might profitably resume sheep husband
ry on smaller scale, and be careful TO
keep their flocks within the number that
they can maintain without turning on
their clover fields.
A farmer who has once profitably
kept sheep will not often be long con-
| tented without at least a few on his
place. 1t requires d good farmer to
succeed with sheep and such a one
will be impatient of the waste sure to
result from disposing of them entirely.
Yet it is probably true that many farm
ers will require an education before
they can make sheep anything but an
intolelable nuisance. He who has no
capacity for details should never keep
sheep. The are among the smallest do
nestle animals and the most dainty
| feeders, requiring most skill and care
not to overfeed, especially with grain.
Yet the necessity for this carefulness is
! in itself an excellent educational feat
ure When the husbandman has learned
to keep sheep with profit he will be
pretty sure to succeed in other branches
of his farming. Of course this has ref
erence to sheep husbandry in the older
States. In the far West, where land
for grazing practically costs nothing,
keeping. sheep may be continued
as it has been pursued in the
past, in the careless, slipshod
manner in which other farm
operations are COnuuctcu. Even Ine
enormous losses of focks during severe
winters in those wild regions must ad-
monish the herders that some more care
is needed to keep sheep profitably than
will answer with other kinds IF stock.
| VIII Western, Southern and Australian
herders force Eastern farmers out of the
business of sheep husbandry? So far
as keeping large flocks is concerned, the
answer may be in the affirmative. These
large flocks, however, were never pro-
portionately as successful as those of
smaller size. We believe that the bust
ness of selling off sheep in our older
States has been overdone. Probably no
one hereabouts will keep as many sheep
as were once included in certain large
iiocks, but there is good reason for be-
lieving that a large proportion of farm
ers will lind it to their interest to keep
a few sheep. Even on low-prieed land,
or even that which has a mere nominal
value. as in Texas and Australia, the
keeping of many thousand sheep under
one ownership has been attended with
losses so severe that smaller flocks Sill
hereafter prevail
1t is estimated that the sheep y.
Colorado are worth S10,0O0,0oO, and
that the wool crop of this year is worth
81, 800, 900. sum equal to fifteen pei
st. - - 81