The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-02-19

POUNDS oacn, or an average OF IOO
pounds per pair. This kind of mutton
sells readily for an average of y cents
per pound for the whole carcass, or
1915 per head at nine months of age,
then there is the pelt and tallow that
amounts to about IS cents per head
more, or $3.50 per head.
Mutton lambs have sold very high
In the market this winter, reaching
s. 25 to $3.50 per cwt. 1t would seem
from this that there ought to be a
good margin in raising lambs for the
market.
OF late years wool has not been
much of factor in sheep husbandry,
as shOddy and other things have COM
bined to make it cheap, but at the
low prices of the last few years, good
mutton sheep will net Sl.25 to 81 so
per head Oh wool alone, while a good
grade will average 5 80 to S1.OO each.
There is no shoddv in the mutton
business except it be the goat.
Nothing is paying good dividends
at present and anything that is pay
ing small profit is doing we'll.
Sheep do not iDjure the soil, but on
the contrary add fertility to it.
By fastening about u cents worth
of wire netting around each appletree
in an old orchard, such as can be
found on many farms in Kansas, and
pasturing a bunch of sheep there that
are we'll fed aud watered, ALL the
weeds aud sprouts will he killed and
the old rundown orchard will take on
new life, and this is the very best way
to doctor up one of this kind.
Nearly played out pastures that are
nearly taken by weeds can be entirely
redeemed by sheep as their, feet do
not hurt the soil ard they will do
hest on short grass, also they will kill
out the weeds and make an old pas
ture look like a lawn.
BY breeding early and having the
ewes lamb in February, the care they
need is required when other farm work
is slack, or in other words, work is
furnished the shepherd in these
months that will pay him good wages
and the wages will come in just in
time to pay off that interest that is
due OH the mortgage
1t does not take such large sum o
buy flock of good grade ewes, while
a thoroughbred mutton ram does not
cost anything at all, as his lambs
from flock of ewes will bring about
81 head more on the market than
the lambs from q common ram would,
while the similarity of all the lambs
tleeces would cause the wool to bring
much larger sum of money lin the
wool market than the get of COM
mou ram would.
1t has been my experience that
what will keep one good large Short
horn cow as she ought to be kept,
will keep thirteen head of good grade
ewes in good breeding condition and
there is not a mutton sheep breeder
in the state but what will agree with
me when 1 say that even at the pres
Ell extraordinary prices of wool thir-
teen sheep will net ninety cents per
head or total of Sl1 40 in wool for the
feed given one COW, while the thirteen
ewes will easily raise 20 lambs which
at the present market price would
bring from $50 to 500, or with the
wool, the sum of about 500 for the Is
sheep, kept on the feed usually given
cow.
Orr scientific men have adopted
VOLTS feeding standard and he gives
the same standard for ten sheep of
IS pounds each, as for a dairy cow
which is as follows: II pounds clover
hay, 10 pounds husked corn fodder,
4 pounds shelled corn, pounds gluten
meal and 4 pounds wheat bran, or "a
pounds for the ten sheep. Reckoning
clover hay at Sc a ton, corn fodder at
s. ton, corn at 20 cents a bushel,
gluten meal at one Cent per pound and
bran at J cent per pound and it would
cost Sl905 to winter ten sheep for $50
days or five months, or 81 80 on each
sheep and the same authorities show
US that the manure from one sheep is
worth 8, thus with The addition of
pasture, the value of the manure Tor a
year exceeds the cost of wintering the
sheep.
The same authority, the best in the
world and one that is just las true as
that and make 4, says that sheep
return to the feeder one half more in
crease in growth than cattle for the
same propOrtionate feed. A sheep has
been found to lay up twelve per cent
eff the food in the increase of weight,
while cattle make only eight per cent