Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-06-28

du opportunity 10 see lCHdC oil Is TlSuC.3
This is a good time to let me urge
you strongly to dock your ewes be-
fore Landing begins; shearing away ALI
the dirty, greasy tags that are around
the udder.. It will save you lambs
and much trouble. When a lamb
first tries to suck, if he gets dirty
tag in his clean, wee mouth, he is
apt to become disguised with the
provision made for him, and not try
again until you force him to.
From lambing TO green grass is the
only difficult time, and each day, ac-
cording to the weather will have to
be rule to itself. When grass
comes, your fence will care for the
sheep, unless during some unusual
storm. Before the great heat Of sum
mer begins, if your sheep have no
other shade, rig up near the water
a rough shade of poles and wire and
slough hay, and your sheep will be
benefited a hundred dollars for your
one days work. Buy clean healthy
sheep to begin with; use ordinary
diligence and reason in feeding and
sheltering, and you need not worry
yourself about disease. If you keep
on studying about the diseases of
sheep you'll get hypocondriac yourself.
and that will be worse than sickness
in the sheep. When your second
October comes around you can Judge
how many more sheep you can handle
and to increase your flock, pick ont
the best Of your eve lambs. Choose
them for their strength, and for the.
amount and density of their wool, pay
ing no attention to the color of their
face. Beauty is only skin deep, and,
this is true of more than eve lambs
The first cross Of the merino eve
and mutton ram is the best general
purpose sheep yet found. The second
and succeeding crosses will be bet
ter lambs to market, or to feed, than
to keep for breeders. BY the time
that the original ewes and their first
lambs are too old to be kept profita-
bly,, you viii know more about the
best breed for you, than any college
or any expert can tell today. The
department of agriculture, which can
make money do more good than any
other department, has tackled the
subject now, and will solve the prob
lem of general purpose sheep, If
it can be solved. So far we have
dealt only with the beginning Of the
| farm, but no one should engage in
lit, unless he intends to follow it up
for many years. AS our section farm
is now laid of, we have 480 acres
in grass and only 160 in grain That
i is a good proportion here where grass
is king. Every where grass is the
easiest Of all crops to grow, and is
1 the cheapest to harvest, whether, as
hay or as pasture. Continued and
straight grain-growing will end in
| trouble here, as surely as it did in
Iowa and Minnesota. Already our
own Red river valley farmers, with
4 the richest heritage Of soil in Ameri-
/ ca, are making rom for the COW,
| the sheep and the hog, to assist them
in maintaining the supremacy that
has long been accorded to them. We
have started in our farm all right,
but in a few years eve must double
It's stock-raising capacity. This we
cannot do with natural grass alone.
By and by there will be other grasses
and clovers for the Dakota farmer,
but at present / only know of one
that has passed the experimental
stage and that is bronze grass. No
one need be afraid to use it extern.
4 siyely, and once it gets a good start
one acre will produce from April to
i November as much feed as three vii,
| ia natural pasture. With the aid
Of our college bulletins, your own
4 good farmer sense, your plough,
your disk and drag you can work
Il the wild grass out of the bronze grass
into most of your pasture in a very
4 few years. Here the pertinent aues
i ton may arise as to how much mon.
\ ey we may reasonably expect to real
4 ize from each sheep. During the last
few years a small band of sheep car.
Ted for as we have outlined should
I have crossed to the farmer at least
4 $3.50 per head. The average for the
4 twenty years preceding would be
about a dollar a head less. But the
man who really likes to work with
4 the gentle animals, and will humor
4 Them, can beat those conservative
4 figures. For instance, we are count.
i ing now on rs to4s5 per cent increase.
Il But with extra feeding, fenced pas.
lures and lambing in sheds, the in.
crease ought to be 100 per cent. The
4 first lambing will not show many twin
II lambs But the second year, IL your