The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-30
The advantages of.sheep ON the Farm.

n. NJ Curtis in Rural New yorker.
Woefis so low in price, with no certain pros
pect of any material increase, that the keeping
of'sheep, except under favorable circumstances,
will require very close and econ omical calcula-
tions if any profit is to be realized. | have not
much faith in securing an increase of the duties
on foreign woods by revision of the tariff laws;
and, if an Increase OF the duties should be OBJ
tanned, it is erninently proper to consider sheep
husbandfy upon the basis of small protection
and small returns Sheep fit in so nicely upon
the farm that they can hardly be dispensed
with They have an advantage over other stock,
tinasmuch as they may be made to furnish an in
come twice in the year--7first. the wool and then
I the lambs. They may be made to
aff5rd another. income in the autumn
or winter by the fattening and sale of the old
sheep OF the surplus stock After, trying all
kinds ofsstoek, i have returned tossheep believ-
ing them to be indispensable for a complete
IdeyeloPIneut of alt the resources Of the farm
/ There is no stock well calculated for rugged
hnlsides or rough pastures, and to- prevent the
growth of weeds and bushes. Where sheep have
the range of a field very few weeds will ever go
to seed, and busheswill be SO thorough cropped
that they will either die or be kept from making
much of q growth When. q farmer can
thus easily turn the weeds and bushes of farm
into excellent manure, and at the same time
have them converted into mutton and wool, 1t is
certainly good thing. Sheep will always do
this. They will thrive in pastures and getfat
where cattle would almost staFves They also
scatter their droppings over the field, and never
fail to enrich lands where they are kept. On
poor farms they are most emphatically the best
factors for increasing fertility On rich lands
the same rule holds good, as they win make
them richer. BY the simple means Of a port
able she'd which can be moved about the field
and under which the sheep will readily congre-
gate. the poorest spots may be made fertile, and
the whole field by frequent and regular changes
of the flock, may be thoroughly enriched
When was small boy, my father purchased
al l1fdh
husbandry for years. He went heavily into
debt in the purchase, and l recollect to have
heard him. say number of times that the sheep
which had belonged to the former owner paid
for the farm. What he meant was that they
made the farm so productive and caused it to
yield such hountiful crops after he became its
owner that he was thus enabled to make his
payments. This productiyeness lasted for
years and made the farm famous for large
crops. There are in the older States a great
many farms. now run down with continuous
grain culture, which hardly pay the cost of
the'labop bestowed upon the crops. mthe keep
ing Of sheep, although the direct returns from
them may not be-as great as they have been in
former years the advantage to be derived from
them in the improvement of the soil should be
taken into account. If, by these means, better
crops can be grown, thereis additional induce=
ment for stocking the farm with sheep. There
cannot be any doubt about this result num-
Der of years ago, when large flock of sheep
was kept on Kirby Homestead, a strip of land
the most exposed on any IN Une Hetd was
well dressed with sheep. manure. The entire
field was sown with rye and seeded with clover
The. portionswhere the sheep manurs was put
produced three times las much rye to the acre as
the rest of the field. The clover grew so rank
that its very nature was changed and instead of
dying out the second year, tits likely to do, it
lived for years and made an excellent growth
From the facts set forth in this article, and
others, have beed led to add flock of sheep to
the stock on the farm, with the intention that
the farm, under my plan, must be made TO keep
them and the certainty that they will be aids in
its improvement and most useful factors in in
creasing the manure When others 60 out, it is
a good time to go into stock. Certainly this is
better policy than to rush with the crowd and
make the extremes which unsettle markets, by
overproduction at one time and scarcity at am
other. The whole section, of country around me
is now loser on account of selling the sheep,
and some of the best farmers have resolved to
begin sheep raising again-th time to stick