About Feeding Roots. The verbal enquiry has several times been made, of late, as to the when and the how of feeding roots to stock. We are heartily glad to know that some of our farmers are getting awake upon the subject, and would answer them, en masse, as follows: If you have roots-and no farmer, who keeps either sheep, cattle, or horses, is excusable for not having a good lot of them for winter feeding-they are doubtless either turnips, mangold wurzel or carrots. Well, these are all good for either class of the animals 'named, though the horse is more partial than the others to the carrot, and should, on this account, have more than his equal share, in consideration of relinquishing all claim to the wurzels and turnips, to which the sheep and the neat cattle are scarcely less partial. As to when roots should be fed, we agree entirely and most emphatically with the able and long-experienced Editor of the Massachusetts Plowman, who says: "The best time to feed turnips and mangolds is all the time, from the day the cattle have had their last bite in the pasture, to as late a period in the spring as the roots will keep well. We know it is the practice of some very good farmers to reserve their roots until midwinter, and then to feed very liberaliy until the crop is exhausted; but we believe it is more advantageous to distribute the quantity, even if it admit of but a moderate allowance a day, over the whole period of winter-feeding; and our own experience has confirmed us in this belief. Green fodder is the natural food of neat cattle, and every farmer has noticed the avidity with which they will turn from the best hay to a mass of roots of whatever kind. When taken from the fields in the fall, the utmost care and attention hardly suffices to keep up the condition of the animals at first, if fed upon hay alone; and then it is that turnips should be introduced as part of the daily ration. We have no doubt that such blending of food has a very favorable effect upon the organs of digestion, and that dry fodder, of whatever kind, is eaten with a better relish where this course is pursued. In fact, turnips fed with swale, and even with coarse meadow hay, will form a better, as well as a more economical diet for all the neat stock of the farm, except milch cows, than the best hay fed separately. The best half dozen yearlings ever raised by us, were carried through their first winter exclusively upon this diet; giving with the meadow hay, a peck of turnips a day to each. The turnips seemed to have the effect of an appetiser, for we noticed that the hay was eaten up clean where turnips were fed out, while it was not upon those days when, by way of experiment, the turnips were withheld. We sold them in the next summer for $16,67 cents per head, (solely on account of their fine growth and thrifty appearance,) to one of the best judges of farm stock in the State. A good price for yearlings, as all farmers will admit, and affording, as we think, a good answer to the enquiries of our correspondent, for they were of native and mixed breeds, pains having been taken only to select calves from good milkers, without reference to blood or pedigree. In regard to feeding turnips to sheep, we believe there is no fact in agriculture more universally admitted than that they form one of the best and cheapest articles of diet that can be supplied, whether the sheep are reared for their lambs, teir mutton, or their wool. In England, where greater attention is paid to sheep husbandry than in this country, the practice universally prevails of feeding with turnips, commencing as soon as the pastures fail in the fall, and continuing their use through the winter." The how is also a question of some importance. It is very common among the few farmers of this country who feed roots at all, to throw them down in heaps in the open field, where, if not already frozen, they soon will be, and where each stronger animal is left free to charge upon and gore the weaker and more Sheep nibble their feed, if of this kind, and in their case the raw root is partially warmed before it enters the stomach, and is, therefore, less liable to derange the digestion. But in either case there can be no question but that it would be more wholesome if not frozen. The remedy is obvious: Have partitioned troughs or boxes to feed in, under cover, and take the roots from the cellar each day as needed. All this requires a little more trouble, but the farmer should not expect to make much by his business without a good deal of just that. Winter Care of Sheep on the Prairies. ewes from exposure in lambing time. Let the sheds be low, and open on the south side, and if the extreme cold for a long period pinches and impoverishes the flock, increase the feed of grain and you restore the warmth and arrest the decline. Cold is favorable to a good growth of wool, but to economize food and insure the health of the flock, the more even the temperature the better. grain-troughs. The flocks may live if fed on A good feeder will have hay-boxes and the ground, but nothing less than keen hunger will force so delicate an animal to take its food from the wet and filth of the yard. The racks will more than pay their cost by not in the sheaf or ear is fed for more than a saving of hay in one winter, and if grain one-half of the season, troughs will be an imperative necessity. the epicurean tastes of the flock. Why should It is a part of good management to indulge the sheep be confined to the same variety of food from month to month. A treatment which we would deem a hardship? Every pioneer farmer can cut prairie grass, which is a suitable, well-relished food, and Hungarian hay cut early is very nutritious; then he may make up a variety by feeding oats in the sheaf, timothy hay and corn cut before frosts and fed in the bulk. Many well-wintered flocks have subsisted on cut-up corn mainly, which has increased the weight of the fleece above that attained by ordinary keeping full 20 per cent. There is no excuse for having poor stock, if they are fed three times a day and furnished with salt and good water and such varieties of food as our country readily furnishes.-Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, of Iowa, in U. S. Agricultural Report, 1862. The Statistics of Sheep Husbandry in the U. S. Winter being upon us by the first of December, this is the time for sorting. Lambs should always be folded separate. Yearlings having weak teeth should, if there be a flock of over one hundred, be fed by themselves. Large wethers should be sorted out from the ewes, and the breeding ewes put in a pen of such dimensions, with gates, that they may be handled with ease, and when in season, served with promptness and marked, that the The statistics of sheep and wool, like other time of their lambing may be known, and the results of the census, are defective necessarisire of their offspring. Once in two weeksy, and doubtless more incorrect than they the teasers may be turned in, to find such as have escaped impregnation. It is never a good practice to let the buck run at large with the ewes, but where there are not more than thirty or forty ewes, after the first week, it will do. I depend on a full grown buck for from fifty to one hundred ewes. Every good shepherd will have a hospital flock, on which he will bestow extra attention, and to which he will add from time to time such are drooping, or are pushed aside from their grain, or are doing poorly from any cause. Sheds which will keep out the wind and rain are essential. When boards are not to be had, poles and a good covering of straw will be a substitute for one or two winters. I am not partial to close confinement in tight sheds, except it is a necessity to keep the flock from wolves or dogs, or to keep the should be by reason of carelessness in making returns. Still, a proximate accuracy, is aimed at. In 1850 the census returned 21,723,220 sheep; in 1860, 22,163,105-increase in ten As compared with the increase of sheep, there has been a proportionally larger increase of wool, indicating a greater weight of fleece. The clip of 1850 was 52,516,959 pounds; that of 1860, 60,511,343 pounds-an increase of *This differs from the summary in the preliminary report of the census, which contains an error of 1,154,651 ly the aggregates for States, will be corrected in the rein the return for Indiana Other errors, affecting slightvised and complete census report. 15.2 per cent. This improvement is only a continuation of former progress, which has by no means reached it highest limit.. In 1840, from 19.311,374 sheep were sheared 85,802,114 pounds of wool, equal to 1.84 pounds per head. RAISING PORK.-The Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, formerly Commissiouer of Patents, made a well regulated series of experiments in the feeding of hogs. He found that washe land unwashed, and currie and not curried hogs, seemed to flourish equally well. In all this pens the hogs could wallow they wished, In 1850, while sheep had increased 12 per cent. in number, the wool crop had augment-in water at the lower end of the pen, Luthe ed 46 per cent., fleeces averaging about 2.42 pounds. The increase from 1850 to 1860 has been respectable, fleeces averaging 2.73 lbs. Daniel Needham, of Hartford, Vermont, says there was not a buck in that State that could shear 12 pounds in 1840, while there are these now that yield 20 to 25 pounds, of which 60 per cent. is clean wool. Ohio, which produces the largest amount of wool of any of the States, with 3,942,929 sheep, in 1850 had a wool clip of 19,196,371 pounds, the fleeces averaging 2.58 pounds. In 1860, with 879,042 less sheep, the wool product was greater than in 1850, (10,648,161 pounds,) averaging 3.47 pounds per fleece, or 34.4 per cent. increase in ten years. more elevated portions were flctred an iso arranged that fluid manures coulu run to the lower or uncovered portion. In the teeding, however, he found that with cocca 100 he could raise hogs at far less than half (?) the cost, as they consumed much less than half the quantity. Mr. Mason, of Somerville, N. J., made similar experiments and with corresponding results.-Exchange. THE POULTERER. Care of Fowls in Winter. The farmer who lets his domestic fowls In point of numbers, and, in some instances, in aggreate amount of wool, the older pick their food where they can get it, and States exhibited a decline in sheep husband-roost on the fence or on the trees in his doorry. This decline has been going on for many years in New England, and amounted to 45 yard, will be pretty sure to vote them a nuiper cent. between 1840 and 1850, and 20.4 sance if they should chance to live through per cent. in the last ten years. From 2,213,- the winter and find their way into his garden 287, in 1850, the decrease has been 406,352. the subsequent spring; and simply for the In the four middle States there has been a diminution of 1,060,109 from 4,463,589, in reason that they will prove to be a greater 1850, or 19.4 per cent. plague than profit. In the ten southern (Atlantic and Gulf) States there was an increase of 352,709, or 9.1 per cent. from 3,840,124 in 1850. Texas alone gives an increase of 683,088, without which there would have been a loss almost as heavy as the actual improvement. In the fourteen remaining (western) States, in which were 9,781,241 sheep, in 1850, there has been an increase of 1,149,664, or 11.75 per cent. Making a comparison between the twentyfour loyal and the eleven "seceded States," the showing of the weight of fleeces is conspicuous, the difference being doubtless due in part to climate, in part to careless sheep husbandry. In the former, 16,263,718 sheep produced 50,183,626 pounds of wool, averaging 3.08 pounds each: in the latter, 5,013,659 gave 9,784,702 pounds, or 1.94 pounds per fleece. Virginia, with as favorable natural conditions for sheep husbandry as any other locality, averages 2.40 pounds. Tennessee averages 1.81; Texas, 1.91 pounds. A GOOD PRICE.-The Manchester Mirror says that the celebrated trotting stallion Ethan Allen and his colt Honest Ethan, have been sold by their owners in New Hampshire to F. Barker, of New York, for $17,000. To make the keeping of fowls economical, they require to be warmly housed and liberally fed. The housing should not be in the barn or carriage house, however, and the feeding should not be exlusively upon grain. An excellent and cheap chicken house was described in the last volume of the FARMER, July No., and it only remains, in the further discussion of this question, to say, as to the manner of feeding, Give them regularly of grain, with a supply of chopped waste meat, an occasional dish of chopped cabbage, or other vegetable from the cellar, and an abundance of water. Thus provided, they will give you good, liberal returns in eggs and palatable flesh. And not only so, they will have formed habits in respect to being gathered up and confined at the proper time, that will enable you to manage them in the summer with much more convenience and economy than heretofore, The Inevitable Turkey. ROBERT M referred to. What is fashionable cannot be It would be curious to know just how this great, coarse, ugly bird came into the favor it now enjoys-how it came to be essential to all festive occasions, and a positive sine qua non on those three great holidays, in all Chris- with becoming fortitude. tiau lands, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. easily remedied, however absurd. Only this we would be glad of - that on some great festive day the whole turkey race might become extinct. We'll bear our share of the loss In appearance, clumsy, gawkey and repulsive; coarse and uninviting in the quality of its flesh and eggs; and then about as expensive to keep as a horse, and as destructive in grass and grain fields, or in the orchard, as a breachy ox or a rooting hog, its popularity has always been, to us, an unaccounable fallacy. True, the turkey is larger than the chicken, prairie or domestic, and will, on that account, of itself, the better supply the wants of an ordinary family, at any given meal; but then it costs two or three times as mueh, and yet, for several good reasons, is less valuable than its equivalent by weight in fowls of a more delicate and savory character. But it is, probably, of little use to decry this practice of giving the turkey precedence before all other birds on occasions like those THE HORTICULTURIST. A. G. HANFORD,. .CORRESPONDING EDITOR. The Fink Apple. In reply to the query of Mr. Payne, page 414, Vol. XV., we copy from the Transactions of the Ohio State Pomological Society, sixth session, 1854. "Fink's Seedling, from Mr. Clark, of Perry county. Originated on the farm of Joseph Fink, near Somerset, Ohio. Original tree is in an orchard of seedlings, among which are several others nearly resembling this in appearance and quality. Was first brought into notice by the late W. J. Clarke, nurseryman, of Somerset, about seven years ago, (1847). Small, round and flattish, very smooth, greenish yellow, with a dash of brown red, flavor mild, sub-acid; was awarded the first premium on seedling apples at the late Ohio State Fair. Is a remarkably long keeper-the fruit and limited cultivation, trained low, with of two seasons' growth often having been shown at the same time. "Was exhibited at former meetings of this Society, and pronounced Tewksbury Winter Blush; but this was afterwards found to be incorrect, and its claim to be a seedling admitted." Mr. Clark stated the season to be in April, May and June; and far better than the Romanite, and as good as Rawle's Janet in its The ground should be well prepared beforehand for new orchards, whether the trees are set out in autumn or spring. Unless the soil is already quite rich enough, its fertility should be increased by manure previously applied, or to previous crops; or it may be enriched after the trees are set out, by autumn top-dressing for working under in the spring. The soil should also be well drained and subsoiled, or deeply plowed.-Annual Register of Rural Affairs. Apple and Pear.-Select Lists for the North West. FRIEND HOYT:-In answer to the request of L. L. F., in your last number, for a list of pears "known to be hardy," &c., and also in response to numerous similar enquiries received by letter, as well as for select lists of apples adapted to this State, and the North West generally, please publish the following list of ten varieties of Pears, eminently hardy and valuable for northwestern culture, as standards: Early Bergamot, Rosteizer, Flemish Beauty, Belle Lucrative, Seckle, White Doyenne, Sheldon, Onondaga, Lawrence, and Winter Nellis. To this list add Bartlett, for very dry soils, some winter protection from sun. Indeed, we cannot dispense with this old variety, as its vigorous growth, early bearing, and showy fruit will render it popular where it is grown with the care mentioned above. The Buffum is an excellent growing and apparently hardy tree, but not well tested in its bearing quality here. Dwarf Pear.-From those who have the most experience, and fair success, in dwarf culture, we gather the foliowing list of ten varieties: Summer Doyenne, Rosteizer, Flemish Beauty, Belle Lucrative, White Doyenne, Louisa B. de Jersey, Beurre de Aryon, Onondaga, Lawrence and Winter Nellis. In season from August to mid-winter. For a friend in Outagamie county we have prepared the following list of apples: First. For one hundred, all early and hardy, 20 Red Astrachan, 20 Duchesse Oldenburg, 10 Fall Stripe, 10 Autumn Strawberry, 10 Sops of Wine, 10 St. Lawrence, 5 Sweet June, 5 Early Red, 5 Cranberry and 5 Williams. Second. For light soils, well drained, high and cool locations, substitute 10 each of Early Harvest and K. Codlin, in place of 10 each from the Astrachan and Duchesse; also, 5 Red June and 5 Early Pennock in place of 5 from each of Autumn Strawberry and Sops of Wine. Third.-Market List of ten long keeping va rieties: Five Tallman Sweet, 10 Northern Spy, 10 Winter Wine Sap, 10 Perry Russet, 20 Golden Russet, 10 Rawle's Janet, 10 Canada Black, 10 Vandervere, 5 Red Romanite, 10 Dumelows, all hardy and profitable to grow. Proportions, so many to the hundred. Fourth. For high, cool, well-drained locations, it may be found profitable to substitute or add to the foregoing list those excellent old varieties which will not bear the stimulating diet of black, moist soils; as Dominie, Wagner, E. Spitzenburg, N. Pearmain, and also the King, of more recent introduction, but quite promising |