Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-05-22
SHEEP.

1hs'r giants and AZ Land Renovators.
r, tho older settled portions of New
-'n,ond and the Middle States there
numerous farms which have be-
'aoe so thoroughly run out that it is
.:ac,,lt to make them produce enough
~ nav for cultivation. Many of these
torms we're originally productive and
Enable, and might again become So,
Void they be restored to fertility. To
e,,rchase fertilizers or manure for rem
proting these farms would cost 80
,n,1ch that few who W them would
toel that they could afford the neces-
sorv expense. 1t is desired to call at
.ention to the value of sheep for reno
r,ting WORKOUT land. Sheep can OBJ
Tain their living from land so poor that
little could scarcely live, and the land
z,;ll become more and more productive
zach wear. Sheep exhaust the land the
least of almost any product the farmer
eap raise and sell. BY comparing the
Tal,e of the fertilizing elements re-
moved from the soil, and the market
value of various products sold from
the farm, it will be seen that sheep pos
sess an advantage over most of the
others. One ton of good hay removes
from the soil fertilizing elements worth
over ten dollars, and sells for from ff-
teen to twenty dollars; one ton of
clover removes fertilizing elements
worth twelve dollars, and sells for
about the same; n ton of oats re-
moves nearly twelve dollars worth,
and sells for about twenty-five or thirty
dollars; one ton of corn ten dollars
worth, and sells for about twenty-five
dollars; while ono ton of fat live sheep
removes about thirteen dollars worth
Of fertilizing elements and sells for
from one hundred to one hundred and
forty dollars. Thus it will be seen
that, in proportion to the market value,
fat sheep remove much less from the
soil than either hay or grain.
\ few instances of what sheep will
do in the way of improving and en-
rching land will be of interest in this
connection. In the report of the Maine
Board of Agriculture for 1870, it is
stated that II. G. Abbott of vassalboro,
Maine, had a moving field of forty
acres covered with a white weed, vel
low weed, and very much killed out.
He turned out ten acres of it for pas
ture and placed fifty sheep upon it, and
allowed them to feed it two years. The
third year he moved it, and obtained
the heaviest crop of hay that he had
ever grown with any amount of dress
inc. Timothy and redtop came in, and
in some places the clover was so heavy
that the moving machine could not be
used. 1t was moved several years,
and continued to yield heavy crops of
hav. A New York farmer bought a
three hundred and eighty-acre,. worn
ont hay farm, which yielded only seven
teen loads of hay, forty acres of rye
produced four hundred bushels of rye,
twenty-five acres of corn yielded only
five hundred bushels, and the rest of the
farm pasturcd a span of horses, four
oxen and a COW. The land was too
poor to produce red clover, The farm
was stocked with sheep, and in twenty
six years had become SO much i'm
proved that it produced six hundred
tons of hay, forty acres of corn yielded
fifty bushels per acre; thirty acres OF
wheat, fifteen bushels per acre; and
there were thirty acres in octs, eight
acres in roots, and three hundred sheep
We're also pastured on it. AS 500 as
the land had become rich enough to
produce red clover, that was sown, and
after that the improvement was rapid.
1t is said that there are cases in Yer.
mont where sheep farmers have been
compelled to abandon one farm after
another as they became too fertile for
profitable sheep growing. England, by
the aid of sheep husbandry, has been
enabled to increase the productiveness
OF the soil so that the lands which in
the time of Elizabeth produced only
six and a half bushels per acre on the
average. now average over thirty bush.
els per acre.
Lands which are already rich and
productive, by the presence of sheep
are made richer and more productive.
Hon. George Geddes. whom Horace
Greeley used to regard as the highest
authority on agricultural matters in
New York State, and who has raised
sheep in connection with raising wheat
Tor many years, says that with one
sheep to the acre of cultivated land,
pasture and meadows, he raised more
bushels Of grain on the average than he
did before he had sheep to manufac.
iure the coarse fodder into manure and
to enrich his pasture, preparatory tc
the grain crop; that the land is con
stantly improving and the crop in
creasing, and that while producing
crops on less acres and at less cos1
than he did before he kept sheep, he
has, in addition, the wool and mutton
produced by the sheep. Even farmers
on the rich farms of the West find il
advantageous to keep sheep for theil
Ienovating influence on the soil. A
Wisconsin farmer finds that by keeping
SSneep he is able to raise twenty-five
bushels of wheat per acre, while the
average yield of wheat in the State is
only ten bushels per acre. Worn-ou'
'and IN the South, by %pasturing sheep
can be renovated in a few years so az
TO become very productive. There are
lew farms which would not be made
more fertile and more productive by
sheep %husbandry. In Holland, where
nearly all of the farms are rich as gar
uenS, sheen ara kent On nearly every