The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1901-05-31
LIKE MARKET GARDENS.
Farms of Venice Town
ship are Rich.
Sheep Feeding on Large Scale
Restored Fertility.
FROM TEN BUSHELS PER ACRE
TO THiRTY-THREE.
Within Radius of One and One-half
Miles u 900 Sheep Fed.

| lnere is one part or ShiaWasSee
county at least where whole farms are
as rich as market gardens. Even the
famed productiveness of the gardens of
the Dutch in old Holland would have
little advantage to show in comparison
with the fertility of the broad acres of
these Shiawassee county yankees who
have been feeding their soil as we'll as
their stock. The farms in the southern
half OF Venice township are undoubted-
ly as rich as any lands in the state and
yet it was not many years ago that they
were pronounced in many cases almost
worthless, were said to be worn out and
the owners were in some cases almost
If not quite discouraged.
new industry obtained a foothold
in the township few years ago and
gradually spread throughout the south
ern half of the town. The farmers un-
dertook the task of feeding western
sheep during the winter and selling
them in the spring. Sometimes they
made good money from their winters
work, sometimes they made no money
at all when the returns came from the
eastern market where they shipped
their sheep, sometimes the money which
was returned To them was less than they
had paid for the sheep in the fall and
the amount which they had paid out for
grain with which to feed .hem-the lat
ter outcome was not however frequent,
and always they had the tons Of rich
fertilizer left by the sheep, to put on
their fields. They kept on with the
business however making profits more
years by far than losses until today the
result is as stated above, and fields that
few years ago would raise but ten and
even in some known cases only eight
bushels OF wheat per acre now raise in.
variably from twenty to thirty and even
as high as thirty. three bushels per acre.
The story does not stop with the
wheat however. The hay fields and the
corn fields show the difference. Large
feeding barns had to be built to accom-
modate the sheep. Still larger barns
had to be built to hold the increased
yields OF hay and grain, until today there
is not section of farming country in
| the county, and men who have travelled
throughout the state in the rural dis
tricts affirm also that there is not sec.
ton in the entire state, where the farm
buildings are larger and better kept
than they are in this territory where
| sheep feeding has been carried on so ex.
tensively in recent years. The country
is slightly rolling in parts although no.
| where so rolling as to interfere in the
slightest degree with the ease of work
ing the land, and it is throughout the
entire district as pretty farming land
| and contains as comfortable and hand
some farm homes as can be found in
| any part of the state or the United
States. And to a very great extent the
start which the farmers of Venice made
in this very matter of sheep feeding is
responsible for the present condition of
affairs.
The business of feeding, which has
reached such proportions in this one
section that about eleven thousand
sheep were fed within the radius of
about mile and half during the win
ter which has just passed, was begun
on small scale about fourteen yearsago.
Mr.. Washington Bingham, who up to
that time had been an extensive breeder
of pure bred Shropshire sheep and had
been about the first importer of sheep
of that breed in this part of the state,
ut that time concluded to make an ex-
pertinent and became one of the first if
not the very first to take up the new
business He had concluded that there
was money in raising his own sheep
and shrewdly decided that there might
be still more money in another feature
of the business. The different features
entering into the case were that he
had more coarse feed, hay, straw etc,
raised or his farm than he could use |
and he thought that there would be |
more profit in turning it into live
stock and selling it in that form than |
in selling it in the old way. At the |
same time he saw that he would have a
still greater amount of fertilizer of the |
richest sort with which to increase the |
fertility of his farm. On the other hand |
the sheep raising industry had taken
great strides forward in the west.
Montana raised immense ilocks of sheep
on the great ranches and every May saw
an immense number of lambs dropped.
These could be cared for very well on
the ranches during the spring and sum-
mer months but when the fall and win
ter came on with the shortness of forage,
the season would find the western
breeders obliged to sell many of their
flock because they did not have the
necessary feed to carry them through
the winter and to buy feed there was
out of the question. These were the
facts which appealedto Mr. Bingham.
An account of the way in which he en-.