St. Landry democrat., 1884-08-09
Sheep Husbandry

other farm products are ready Tor mar,
ket. Money is usually most IN demand
among farmers during spring and sum-
mer, for it is then thatthey are engaged
in making the crops to be sold the en-
suing fall and winter. Combining sheep
husbandry with grain-growlng pieces
out an uncomfortable gap in the imam
ces, when without it the farmers bust
ness would for while be all outgo and
no income. Sheep will tit into the rota-
ton so nicely in other ways THAN oy
furnishing money at convenient PERIODS
that certain number can ana 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 little or
no hay will be needed in wintering
fattening sheep. The utilization OF
what otherwise would be wasted goes
far toward paying the winter keep, and
a ward 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,
worlnv fruit, in addition to what they
can Craze, or if placed in a lot filled
with young shrubs which it is desirable
to keep down. Fine apples free from
cooling 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 a
large farm to keep a greater or less
number of sheep whose keeping small
be almost inappreciable in cost. With
crop of wool and lambs each year
such a flock can not fail to prove profit
able.
The chief mistake in sheep husband
ry is il keeping more than can be econ
omcally provided for. 1t requires in
creased care and skill to manage large
fiocks. 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 imperiled. Some excellent
| farmers have found sheep so destructive
to clover that they have sold their
focks and will keep sheep no more, Ii
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 proftably resume sheep husband
ry on a smaller scale, and be careful to
Keep their fiocks 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 few on his
place. 1t requires q good farmer to
succeed with sheep and such 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 conducted. Even the
enormous losses of hocks during severe
winters in those wild regions must adj
| mOnish the herders that some more care
is needed to keep sheep protitably than
VIII answer with other kinds of stock.
| viii Western, Southern and Australian
herders force Eastern farmers out OF the
business of sheep husbandry? So far
do hCC pIuSS lbl 70 NUNS 10 COIICeIICttt <oit0
answer may be in the affirmative. These
large fiocks, however, were never pro-
portionately as successful as those Of
smaller size. We believe that the BUSH
ness of selling off sheep in our older
States has been overdone. Probablyno
one hereabouts will keep as many sheep
as We're once included in certain large
tiocks, but there is good reason for be-
lieying that large proportion of farm
ers viii lind it to their interest to keep
a few sheep. Even on ow-priced land.
or even that which has q mere nominal
value. as in Texas and Australia the
keeping Of many thousand sheep under
! one ownership has been attended with