The Farm

This subject may not interest the readers of every department in your valuable paper, but i i is so closely allied to the interests of farmers that we trust the few ideas herein presented may be found worthy a place where some of your numerous readers may find them. Any discussion of the subject will draw out thought and thus make an advance in the right direction. In this day and age of improved farm machinery, with the vast acreage of wheat producing lands, and facilities for growing and handling immense quantities, the tendency is to over-production with its consequent unremunerative price to the producers. Is there not another industry that will go hand in hand with it making a diversity of producís, thereby increasing our chances of profits on the whole should a part f ail f On our high-priced lands, with corresponding high rents and taxes, a good erop from year to year is very essential, and when it is obtained we should adopt some plan whereby we can realize with tolerable certainty a fair profit on our investment from year to year of its wheat producing qualities. Now if we continue to strip our land sooner or later it will_ deteriórate in quality and value. It is obvious we must replenish exhausted conditions either by leaving the coarser part of the erop on the ground or substituting something else in the shape of phosphates. Some advocate headers for cutting wheat, thereby leaving nearly all the straw for manure. Others scatter from the threshing machine, while some pile it up in high piles to plow around from year to year. Now my plan to accomplish,a desired end is to add to the general business of raising grain, a flock of sheep, and instead of taking off one erop eacli year and leaving the land pooier I get two crops, one of wheat and the other of sheep, and at the same time keep up the fertility of the soil. Perhaps we have put that a little strong, let Ufl see what can be done. We raise wheat, corn, oats, and barley, and eacli has a large per cent. of coarse feed, which if properly cared for is valuable and will return to the producer as much proflt in proportion to the cost as the grain already secured. Som e raise sheep and grow wool, while others keep them to supply the western stock ranches. Either of these methods necessitates the keeping of the flock the entira year. Now, in my opinión what we want is some method whereby we can utilize our coarser products and not interfere with our grainproducing interests, and at the same time enharice the value of our farms by incre?sing their productiveness. In localities better adapted to grass than grain the farmer can keep sheep aboutas cheaply one season of the year as another. but on our grain raising farms we can winter more stock with proper management than we can mer. My plan isthis: raise wheat in the summer and grow sheep in the winter. Now suppose we let the graas producing farms raise the lambs and grow the wool until, we will say, the sheep are three years old, then the grain producing farmers with their corn and abundance of coar.e feed put on the fat ready for the Eastern market. On a farm largely occupied with wheat there is usually little pasture the fore part of the season, but af ter haying and harvest there is the meadow,then the stubble, then, perhaps, a summer fallow which, , together with the pasture lot, and may be some clover on a neighbor's farm which can often be had for what it is worth, a judicious farmer can often carry a good number of sheep until winter without lessening the number of his acres for wheat. And now I commence growing my second erop. I have already secured my wheat, which is in the granary or drawn to market. My hay is in the bain; corn in the. crib and stalks and straw well stacked in the yard. We have bought our wethers since haying, and kept them on the ground from which we took the flrst crops with such assistance as we have referred to, and we mayadd the fallows of the neighbor who has no sheep. As winter approaches I make up any shortage in pasture by feeding shelled com in troughs in the field, and when stormy weather comes I house my sheep and devote f uil time to converting my feed into mutton and the refuse to manure. My flock is carefully sorted with reference to size, build, and grade of wool, getting those of a kind together in pens of about 40 each. Sheep for feeding need agood, light, dry and airy place with room enough to eat, drink, and sleep without crowding, and when they are full we want them to lie down and be quieL and happy, and we will wait on thenr to the best of our ability. We regúlate the kind of feed and quantity according to the condition of the sheep, season of the year, and temperature of the weather, always feeding the poorest feed in the coldest weather. We carry all the feed and" water to them and when feeding straw and stalks we don't ask them to eat it up too clean, but after they have got the best of it use the rest for bedding. We clean out the pens and draw directly to the field. In this way nothing is wasted, tbe manure is made under cover, the straw absorbs the liquid, and if properly managed, the sheep will increase the value of the land in produotiveness. This care of sheep takes time and work, but it comes at the season of the year wüen labor is cheap and seems to fill in a part of the year when without something of this kind much time would be wasted. We have put in two-thirds of the year getting in thefirst erop, it is no more than fair to give the other one-third to the next, and we will venture odds on the second erop paying best, one year with another, other things being equal.