The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1901-05-31

Perry Brown. 500; Man. King, 800; Dan
Merell, 800: Jerome Stewart, l00 The
total of these figures alone is over H..
600, while there may be enough others
which have been overlooked in the
hurry Of getting about in the course OF
a rainy oay to swell the figures to
still larger place. tits, again, matter
of regret that more eNtended sketch
cannot be given here of eacA>0f tne
above mentioned feeders.
AS already noted the greater part OF
the lambs which are brought in during
the fall months for winter feeding are
western lambs and a large part of these
come from as far west as Montana but
on the other hand the greater part OF
them are purchased in Chicago to which
market the lambs are shipped in great
quantities in the fall. A few OF the
feeders have gone as far west as Mon
tana to purchase feeding stock at diff
ferent times and sometimes have had
representative acting for them in that
state who has sent on lambs in the
quantities which they desired. The
greater part of the lambs are usually
bought by some of the feeders them
selves however after personal inspec-
ton of the stock in the Chicago market
and last fall alone there were some six
or eight of the Venice feeders who
looked after their own purchases per-
sonally in the Chicago yards.
1t takes roughly speaking, some three
thousand bushels of grain and seventy
tons of coarse feed, hay, bean pods,
straw, etc., to feed every thousand
lambs through the months during
which the feeding is carried on and of
course large part of this feed must be
purchased by the feeder. There are
probably on the average eight or ten
men who buy from one to seven or even
eight carloads of corn for feeding every
| winter in addition to the increased
crops which their own farms produce.
What this feed is expected to do may
be told in a general way by the state
ment that the lambs are said to average
about forty.fve pounds each when
purchased in the fall and when they are
sold in the spring they are expected to
average about ninety pounds. The
rest is told in the value of the wool,
the condition of the market, especially
at the time of selling, and in the manure
which is always left for the enrichment
of their fields.
The year which has just ended has
been far from the most satisfactory
year in the history of the business and
it is, somewhat open secret that
in some case or cases the balance has
come out on the wrong side of the
ledger. To begin with, last fall when
the feeders were buyers, lambs were
unusually high. This spring when
they were sellers they have been low.
1t has not been invariably so, but that
has been the general experience. Then
t. make the matter still less satisfactory,
the price of wool has been somewhat off
this spring. Some of the feeders sold
their wool at price which was quite
satisfactory but the most Of them did
not sell until it took tumble and some
still have theirs on hand. The practice
OF the feeders is not uniform along this
line however. Some shear their hocks
and sell the wool, others sell with the
wool on, but in either case the present
season has been little disappointing.
In one or two cases to add to the I'M
favorable conditions which the high
market of last fall and the unsettled but
somewhat low market of this spring
produced there was the added loss of q
considerable number of the lambs,
partly through the fault of the shippers
last fall and perhaps in some cases
through some misfortune in the process
Of the feeding In this connection how.
ever it may be said that even if they
come out even on the matter of the
feeding OF the sheep they are ahead in
the matter of the manure, and can
therefore claim to have made profit
on the transaction although one of the
feeders with rather grim humor said
that he figured that his manure cost
him once in q while as much as two or
three dollars load, and that once at
least he thought it cost him about ten
dollars load. In the most of cases the
manure is however clear profit over
and above the cash profit which the
sheep themselves bring. And it comes
in form which compounds itself year
by year in the growing fertility of the
farms.
You cannot tell the farmers of Ven.
ice that it does not pay to fertilize
their farms and to fertilize them well.
you are inclined to be at all skeptical
on the subject they will quickly point
out some field which for one reason or
another the owner has not seen fit to
fertilize in this way and tell you to
judge for yourself from the appearance
OF the crop there and in the adjoining