The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-11-01

Give to health of the flock. Hence
the losses from disease will be reduced
to the minimum. Quality of the prod
uct will also be an important factor.
Sheep fattened upon heterogeneous food
are superior to those fattened upon
corn. Their flesh is of better quail
ity. more solid and commands pre-
MUM in the market
Sheep are also the best cleaners upon
grain farm. They not only pick up
the waste grain but consume great
many weeds and thus convert them in
to valuable edible food Mustard, while
an undesirable weed in grain, is con-
sumed by sheep with avidity. Thus
| sheep not only add fertility to the
farm, but they can clean the farm as
well.
In fact great quantity of roughage
on a grain farm which ordinarily goes
to waste may be profitably utilized by
sheep. 1t is this trait of sheep to
which the Spanish proverb, THE
sleeps hoof is golden" evidently re-
fers. The question of methods should
receive careful attention. 1t will prob
ably not be found desirable for farm
ers to maintain breeding flocks upon
wheat farms, but rather to purchase
his feeding stock from the rangeman.
Perhaps the most important problem
will be the production of the right
class of feed. AS before stated, nitro
genous feed produces the best quality
of mutton. Thus the principal rough
feed should consist of the legumes.
There is no question but what profit
able crops of alfalfa can be grown
over a large area of the wheat belt.
Alfalfa hay and a small supplemental
, feed of wheat screenings or barley
| make an excellent feed for sheep. An
other combination that has been sue
| cessfully grown is alfalfa and beardless
barley. After the alfalfa is thorough
ly established, each spring it is well
cultivated and small seeding of beard
less barley is drilled in among the al
| falfa. If this is done early in the
spring the barley and alfalfa will be
ready for hay about the same time and
makes an excellent fattening food for
either cattle or sheep This class of
hay will fatten either cattle or sheep
without supplemental grain food. 1t
| is thought, however, that the most feas-
| ible crop and one that is the most
suitable for rotation in wheat grow
ing is the field pea, or the field pea
and beardless barley grown togeth-
err The pea crop on the wheat farm
can be grown as a rotation and takes
the place largely of the bare fallow.
| This crop may be utilized as sheep feed
in two general ways. The crop may be
cut for hay and fed to sheep in this
| he CT off will
sheep. In Colorado the latter system
| is practiced successfully. In our dry eli
mate it is thought this crop may be
| allowed to ripen and be pastured with
sheep in the fall or early winter This
will be the less expensive method of
utilizing the crop.
There is no doubt but what large
and profitable sheep feeding industry
can be developed in the wheat growing
section of the inland empire. Not
only will it add another industry to
the agricultural resources of this Sec
ton, but it will also supply the means
for greater revenues from the farms
and at the same time place agriculture
upon a more substantial and enduring
basis.
The Hog lndustry.-There is per-
haps no branch of animal industry in
grain growing section that will give
quicker, surer or larger returns than
will hogs. 1t is certainly peculiar
anomaly that train loads of Nebraska
fed hogs are brought past one of the
best hog producing sections of the
continent. There is not an agricul-
tural district in the whole nation that
can surpass the wheat farms of the
Columbia River Basin for the econom-
ical production of a high class bacon
hog. These hogs can be grown and fin