Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1914-03-31

the corn is full grown. AS q scaven-
ger, even goat is not more useful
than a sheep.
AS meat-food animals sheep have
never been sufficiently appreciated in
the United States. They ere, however,
of very great value. They must be
classed with hogs and poultry as the
most available animals to supply meat
for home use on the average farm.
They are readily slaughtered, the
meat can be kept without difficulty,
it cuts up without waste in sizes which
are convenient for the average family,
and the meat is nutritious, wholesome
The healthfulress of the sheep alone
gives it front rank as meat-food
animal Sheep rarely have tubercu-
losis or other diseases communicable
to man.
The foregoing statements are axio-
viting, why do the farmers seem to be
showing tendency to curtail sheep
raising? There are probably three
principal causes.
First Intestinal parasites, princi-
pally stomach worms, cause serious
losses in farm flocks over thu whole
country, and almost entire lamb crops
are sometimes exterminated. In no
farming sections are sheep free from
this danger, and no breed of sheep is
immune, although some breeds-the
Merinos, tor example-are less sus-
ceptible than others. No infallible
cure for stomach worms is known,
but it is possible to control them eco
nomically by keeping the lambs away
from the ewes except when nursing,
and by system of pasture rotation.
Unless a farmer is willing to take pre-
cautions in the management of the
flock he should not raise sheep.
Second-Cur dogs are almost as
great hindrance to the sheep indus
try as parasites. The only protection
against them lis to keep the flock dur
ing the day where it can be watched
and to put it into a dog-proof inclos-
ure at night An authentic case has
recently been reported from Michigan
where a flock of more than 200 head
were all run to death in one night by
two cur dogs. Dog-tight night folds
can be built Of woven wire at small
expense.
Third-Farlners have not generally
recognized the proper place of the
sheep in agriculture in the settled
regions. Too much Importance is
placed - wool Except on the range
where land is cheap, the wool should
be regarded rs an incidental side
line to help defray the cost OF han
ding. Raising sheep for wool alone
does not pay on farms. and the at
tempts of farmers to make it pay is
undoubtedly largely responsible for
the prevailing OPTION that sheep are
not profitable or expensive land. Sheep
are raised in England on some of the
most expensive land In the kingdom,
but they are raised as meat animals
and not as wool producers; the wool
is a by-prodlIct, as /. should be in
farm fiocks.
II only 25 par cent OF the farms on
which here ,re now no sheep should
have flock Of not over Is or 80 ewes,
managed with reasonable care and
protected against dogs, not only would
~ses~~s~s-S~es~s~~~e~s~
Stable Manure.
It is a. rell-known fact that no sys-
tenn of crop rotation win restore to
the soil the potash and phosphoric
acid removed by crops. Unless these
elements that are removed be returned
In some manner, the soil win in
eyftably become too poor for an am
bilious man to cultivate. Common
stable manure is conceded to be one
OF the best fertilizers for general rur-
poses. and II is to be deplored that
much OF this valuable plant food is
dumped away as so much trash, or
exposed to the teaching rains oven