The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1885-07-25

tffoaIl Is MA "a thdid produce enough
.lpav fAz 1nlfiyatIon. Many of these
rss were ORIGINALLY productive and
valuable, 1nd aAg 1t again become so,
oxnId lls9y be restored to fertility. To
II Fchaae fertilizers or manure for rem
ovhting these farms would cost so
much that few who own them would
lesl that they could afford the neces-
snrv expense. II Is desired to call at
Aention to the value of sheep for reno
svatinp worn-ott land. Sheep can OBJ
tain their living from land so poor that
cattle could scarcely live, and the land
win become more and more productive
each year. Sheep exhaust the land the
aeastSof almost any product the farmer
can raise and sell. BY comparing the
value OF the fertilizing elements re-
moved from the soil, and the market
value OF various products sold from
the farm, IL will be seen that sheep pos
gess 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 fif-
teen to twenty dollars; one ton OF
clover removes fertilizing elements
worth twelve dollars, and sells for
about the same; one 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 one 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.
A few instances of what sheep will
do in the way of improving and en-
riching land will be of interest in this
connection. In the report of the Maine
Board of Agriculture for 1870, it is
stated that H. G. Abbott OF Vassalboro,
Maine, had a moving field OF forty
acres covered with white weed, yell
low weed, and very much killed out
He turned out ten acres of it for pas
ture and placed fifty sheep upon it, ant
allowed them to feed it two years The
third year he moved it, and obtained
the heaviest crop of hay that he hat
ever grown with any amount of dress
ing. Timothy and redtop came in, an'
in some places the clover was so heav,
that the moving machine could not b
used. 1t was moved several years
and continued to yield heavy crops o
hay. A New York farmer bought
three hundred and eighty-acre, worn
out hay farm, which yielded only sever
teen loads of hay, forty acres of ry
produced four hundred bushels of rye
twenty-five acres of corn yielded onl
five hundred bushels, and the rest of tn
farm pastured span of horses, fou
oxen and COW. The land was to
poor to produce red clover, The farl
was stocked with sheep, and in twent,
six years had become so much in
proved that it produced six hundre
tons of hay, forty acres of corn yielde
fifty bushels per acre; thirty acres
wheat fifteen bushels per acre; an
there were thirty acres in oats, eigl
acres in roots, and three hundred shee
were also pastured on 1t. As soon {
the land had become rich enough
produce red clover, that was sown, an
after that the improvement was rapi'
1t is said that there are cases in We
mont where sheep farmers have bee
compelled to abandon one farm aft
duOUu0I dS bnCJ DCOtAhC wv CAtiiV ~
profitable sheep growing. England,
the aid of sheep husbandry, has Be-
enabled to increase the productiveno
of the soil so that the lands which
the time of Elizabeth produced on
six and half bushels per acre on t
average, now average over thirty bus
els per acre.
Lands which are already rich q
productive, by the presence of she
are made richer and more productiN
Hon. George Geddes. whom Hora
Greeley used to regard as the hight
authority ON agricultural matters
New York State, and who has rails
sheep in connection with raising whe
for many years, says that with o
sheep to the acre Of cultivated Ian
pasture and meadows, he raised mo
bushels of grain on the average than
did before he had sheep to manufa
ture the coarse fodder into manure al
TO enrich his pasture, preparatory
the grain crop; that the land is CO
sSantly improving and the crop
creasing, and that while producil
crops on less acres and at less &C
than he did before he kept sheep,
has, in addition, the wool and mutt
produced by the sheep. Even farme
on the rich farms of the West find
advantageous to keep sheep for thu
renovating influence on the. soil.
Wisconsin farmer finds that by keepil
sheep he is able to raise twenty-fi
bushels of wheat per acre, while
average yield of wheat in the State
only ten bushels per acre. Worn-o
land in the South, by pasturing shet
can be renovated in few years so
to become very productive. There 8
few farms which would not be ma
more fertile and more productive
sheep husbandry. In Holland, wht
nearly all of the farms are rich as g
dens, sheep are kept on nearly eve
one of them.
Sheep are very beneficial in the W
of killing out bushes and briers,
sides increasing fertility. Many kir
of plants which cattle and horses
fuse to eat, sheep relish; hence it is We
beneficial to pastures to have a f
sheep in them, to keep in check
plants which other stock refuse to e
In report of committee of the H,