Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-11-15
Sheep For New England.
NEEDS OF ROTATION IN FARMING METH
DISADVANTAGES OF SHEEP.

The New Hampshire Farmer says there
are many things done under the head of
improvements" which are so only for a
time or as they bring some new thought,
view or sensation to the persons most
concerned. A man may cut away tree
from his grounds or dig out and throw
away clump of shubbery, and the
usual expression is, at looks better"
Let another man come into possession Of
the same property and plant tree in
the old spot and replace the shrubbery,
and he and his friends will say, at
looks oetter." Customs and methods of
labor may be changed to conform to the
changing demands of the people, but the
pendulum must swing back in time or
the needs of rotation in methods will
assert themselves. We cannot expect to
go back to the spinning wheel and hand
loom for the manufacture of the domes-
tic fleece into clothing for the family,
but We have gone so far in the direction
of special farming, dairying and forage
crops that we have introduced and fos-
tered a horde of weeds not palatable for
neat cattle, and are SO careful to have
the hay in the barn or when carried
to market, look clean that we let
weeds and shrubbery stand around the
rocks and stone piles, and even in the
pastures which are kept clear of bushes
the ground is gradually being appro-
priated by plants unfit for cattle food.
The most rational way to get out of this
is to keep flock of sheep on the farm
to clean out the weeds and promote the
growth of pasture grasses.
People cannot be induced to invest
much in sheep while the game laws and
the practices of hunters remain as al
present, but such things are digging
their own graves at a satisfactory rate,
and the time is coming when farmers
and their families can again enjoy some
of the pleasures of country life which
are now reserved for transient visitors
and irresponsible trespassers.
The thick, fine turf in the pastures
which covered our hillsides 40 years ago
is seldom found now, and the hoofs OF
the cattle have cut paths around the
faces of the slopes like spiral staircaSes,
and the most of the grass is found where
the wash from these paths reaches few
feet down the slope. With sheep many
things may be done which are not desir-
able with large animals.
The moving fields may be pastured
in the fall without injury to the roots
by the hoofs of the animals; orchards
can be pastured without injury to the
branches of the trees, and many weeds
can in that way be destroyed and re-
placed BY desirable grasses. With the
pasture divided into three nearly equal
parts, and sheep kept in one two years
and cattle occupying the other two by
being changed each week, the pastures
may be greatly improved and in few
years as many cattle can be kept under
that system as can be now roaming over
the whole territory every day and crop
ping here and there, and leaving the
poorest plants TO mature seed and prop
agate.
People have been invited to believe
that the Angora goat would eat brush
in preference to grass, and kill out
bushes, and woodlots if they had a
chance, and we can remember when the
same claim was made for certain breed
of sheep, and farmers were told that
they could keep as many sheep as cows
in the same pasture without reducing
the supply of grass for the cows, but the
fact is that neither sheep nor goats will
feed exclusively ON bushes ii they can
get grass, but sheep like change and
will browse leaves more than cattle, as
they often depend on getting their sup
ply of water by eating large leaves early
in the morning when the dew is on them.
1t is also a fact that they prefer certain
fiavors found in plants which cattle re-
iect, not because the plants are weeds
or have leaves, but because they relish
them.-New England Farmer.