The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-10-01
CONCLUDED FROM PAGE II

herein proposed when properly con-
Quoted is in harmony with the law
Of nature in his perfect works and
without such joint operation, pro-
gressive agriculture shall always
prove to be an absolute failure.
AS TO the value of sheep manure
compared with other manure, and
writing from experience, / believed
the n from my highly fed
thoroughbred sheep was equal TO
three times the amount from the
horse and cow stables, and I do not
believe that l over. estimated it's
value. When I fed the ewes wheat
bran, oat chops, corn meal, oil cake
meal and abundance of clover hay,
/ believed their manur was worth
six times that Of common manure
from any other stables or pens on
the place except that from the hen
house. But mark, this we'll chopped
ND manure never took a bleaching
sun nor a washing rain until it was
carried out and covered up in the
earth that was prepared for the com-
ing crop.
Iregret that I have not an equal
experience with anu from sheep
fed with cotton seed meal as with
oil cake meal (fax seed) but judging
from it's constituent elements, from
experience of others and from re-
ports of experiment stations, I be-
lieve it to be as valuable, especially
if fed with some corn meal.
Mr.. Stewart in his most valuable
work "The Shepherds manual,
places a very high estimate on sheep
manure, and so does DR.. 81. S. Ran
dali in that other old standard work
"The Practical Shepherd" but all
u American authors failed to &C
cord so high value to it as has been
done by some Scotch, English and
French writer's.
Ihave noticed that the sheep ma
nure left in the corrals in the West,
by the large focks that feed on the
plains, hills and mountain sides of
that vast country was not half so
valuable as that to which 1 refer
above. 1t was generally subject to
hot q and wind and bleaching
rains but even when protected from
these, it lacked strength, because it
came from sheep that fed only on
the wild grass and herbage-though
abundant may be-of pastoral re-
gions, in their nOmadic life.
To produce sheep manure that
shall be rich in the elements required
in our day of advanced agriculture,
the sheep must be fed On the i'm
proved plants, (grasses) and i'm
proved grains (seeds) that have
largely in a concentrated form the
elements that produce not only beef,
pork, mutton and wool, but that re-
produce improved grains and grasses.
Among the most important of these
we name clover, pea haulm and millet
or cotton seed, peas and corn.
The sheep can only get a limited
supply of these while on the highly
improved pastures and for the re-
mainder must depend on feed the
greater part of which is cut and
slowed away in the NOW or silo or
cut, threshed and emptied in the
granary. The improved sheep must
be fed literally from these so as to
obtain from them the greatest
amount of meat and wool.
1t is from sheep fed in this way
that the manure of such peculiar
quality and high value is obtained
and it is from sheep kept in this way
that such substantial profits in mod
ern sheep h~usbandry are obtainable.
When sheep are housed their urine
is most all saved with the solids and
forms a very important part of the
manure, because when fermented or
decomposed it largely becomes am
monia, at which point IN absorbent
should be present to receive and re-
tain it in soluble form as plant food.
When out on their grazing lands
the droppings of sheep are better
distributed than that from other
animals andis therefore more useful,
but sheep manure as all other ma
nure, to be most useful, should be
carefully housed and composted.
The present and old method most
in practice with manure is to cart it
out from the piles where it has lain
outside of the barns and drop it in