The Tupelo journal., 1911-08-25
FARM PROFITS
Many Valuable Services Of AMI
NAL Not Fully Credited.
Need Variety OF Feed, But VIII Do
Great Things In Kidding Place Of
Various Weeds-Three Az
enues Of Money-Makln0.
BY w. A.

Of Manipulating.
(By w. A. M'KERROW.)
The most profitable and pleasant
kind of farming is that which embraces
the growing of live stock. The farmer
who is continually taking fertility
away from his land by selling grain
crops Is a robber OF the soil. In a trip
through a rural community We will In
.variably find that all the most pros
porous farmers are growers OF live
stock in some form. and b far-sight-
ed ones, those that intend to leave a
better farm than they found. have
sheep. Sheep serve a threefold pur-
pose and many of their most valua-
BILE services are not fully credited
They have been one of the chief tee
tors in the development of British ag-
r%iculture, and wherever given an oP-
p%ortunity have lone wonderful things
in our own country. The fame OF he
sheep as a killer OF weeds ~andegeneral
scavenger has in nan cases really
done them harm. 1t Is not possible to
make a 9ock OF sheep pay and make
them subsist entirely on weeds and
rubbish which other animals will not
eat. This must be distinctly under
stood, but ON the other hand. they
want a variety and will do great
things in Kidding a farm of weeds.
They relish young burdocks. ragweed,
dandelions and will eat thist@s IL
sprinkleG with salt. Their three most
important venue of profit are: First.
mutton production; secoid. wool pro
duction and. third. the preservation OF
soil fertility.
Mutton as q food is gradually beeom-
fng more important and prices should
remain steadily on the increase re-
gardless of the inereas of supply.
There Is NO eason why the Amert-
can people should not eat as much
mutton per capita az the English, and
this would mean practically a doubling
OF the present consumption. Further
more, the big 1ocks on the western
prairies are gradually decreasing and
this deficiency must be supplied from
some other source. There is a bright
future for the farmers sheep. The
cost of maintaining a flock of sheep is
very light, and with fair wool prices.
the fleece should nearly pay for the
years keep. Then we have the lamb
as profit and pay for our time. The
time spent in caring for the flock Is
a small item, and In summer should
be considered as a recreation. Lambs
of some good mutton type should be
ready for market at from three TO
seven months old. depending on the
trade which they supply. The small
flock owner will usually find a good
local demand, especially for the early
or Easter lambs. Any man located
near a large city will find it profitable
to grow early lambs. to be dropped
in January or February and marketed
about Easter time. The selection of
good ewes and a pure-bred ram OF the
right type are essentials in this bust
ness and are great factors In the sue
cessful flock, no matter what the aim
is. We must have breeding before
good feeding can help us. The best
eve lambs must be retained and ewes
past their usefulness discarded. 1t is
impossible to set any definite age at
which ewes pass their best. for II is
largely a matter OF individuality.
The second source Of revenue or the
maintenance fund, as we call It. Is the
fleece. Wool prices have been rather
discouraging this year. but there are
numerous causes for this. and 1t IL
Eot likely to occur again. Tarfn agi
rtators and the manufacturers have
both been working against the poor
grower and consequently prices have
been low But taking normal prices
we hnd that 4 good clip becomes quite
an item. 1t 10 possible to get . fairly
heavy fleece without sacrificing NUT
ton conformation. and this is the type
that Is most profitable. Length of
staple is necessary. but the fiber
should be fine and OF SUFFICIENT density
"a sbed rain. The sheep with a long.
coarse fleece that parts along the
back as soon as wet is subject to colds
and other re'egated diseases. The time
for shearing and marketing the wool
is subject entirely to local conditions.
but. we do not think there Is any dan
ger of not ffnding a ready market at
the current price American WOODEN
manufacturers import large quantities.
of wool each ear, and even without .
tarift could aford to pay q higher rate
than the present price. Last, and Of
great importance to the farmer is b