The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-05-26
SHEEP.

England anu the mluulo otdteS tHcie
are numerous farms which have be-
come so thoroughly run out that it is
difficult to make them produce enough
to paw for cultivation. Many of these
farms were originally productive and
valuable, and might again become so.
could they be restored to fertility. 10
purchase fertilizers or manure for rem
ovating these farms would cost so
much that few who own them would
feel that they could afford the neces-
sary expense. 1t is desired to call at
tention to the value of sheep for reno
waiting WORKOUT land. Sheep can OBJ
tain their living from land SO poor that
cattle could scarcely live, and the land
will become more and more productive
each year. Sheep exhaust the land the
least of almost any product the farmer
value 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 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, 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
ing. 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
hay. a New York farmer bought a
three hundred and eighty-acre, worn
out 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 pastured 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 wears 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 oats, eight
acres in roots, and three hundred sheep
were also pastured on it. As soon 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 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
for 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-
ture the coarse fodder into manure and
TO enrich his pasture, preparatory to
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 cost
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 their
renovating influence on the soil. A
Wisconsin farmer finds that by keeping
sheep 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. WORKOUT
land in the South, by pasturing sheep,
can be renovated in a few years so as