VGI.. XIV.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA,. JANUARY 25, 1879.
FOR SALE.
FOB SALE—Fine Chester White pins, 7 weeks old,
either sex, at $5 each.   J. A. ECKHART, Butler, DeKalb county, Ind.
FOB SALE—Whitney sewing machine needles, all
sizes, at 30 cents per dozen.   Send order to INDIANA FARMER COMPANY.    • tf
FOR  SALE-Cholce Partrldtre Cochin  breeding
chickens at prices that defy competition.  Eggs
in season.   D. St. KINNEY, Rushville. Ind.
FOR SALE—Can spare a few choice pairs or trios
of Dart Brahmas at from $1 to ft per pair, 15 to
|7 per trio.   WILLIAM R. ZIKE, Jlorrlstown.Ind.
FOR BALE—25 of the beet Chester White pigs I
ever saw, weigh from 100 to _S lbs, at $10 for
choice, or |15 a pair • Address, _. B. MOODY, Eminence, Kentucky.
FOB SALE—The Farm Register and Account
Book. Complete method. of keeping farm accounts. Prices! each. Address INDIANA FARMER
COMPANY, Indianapolis.
TTiOR SALE—A pnre English Ferret, white in color,
JL. and warranted to be a tine hunter, for particulars, assdress, 1, L. OASPER, corner New York Stand Massachusetts avenue, Indiaoapolis.
POR SALE— Short-borns—Fletcher s young Marys,
Phylis. Agathas. Brides, Gems, etc. Bulls and
heifers, choicely bred. . Correspondence solicited.
E. C. THOMPSON, Lock Box 1, Edingburg, Ind.
EOR SALE—Cheap for cash', or would trade for
two good driving horses, a fine large black station, six years old, well-broken, single nr double.
This horse has a fine pedigree. Call on, or address,
MALONE * SHORTRIDGE, Union Stock-yards,
Indianapolis, Ind.
FOR SALE—Farm or 160 acres 1 mile from Kokomo, at *)30 per acre. With fl.no>). mprovement
the farm is worth tm per acre. It will require t2,0CO
cash, balance on time at 6 per cent. Poor men need
not apply. This is capable of being made one of the
best nsrms in tbe State of Indiana fur a home.
T. A. GOODWIN,
29 Thorpe Block, IndlanapoUs, Ind.
WASTED..
t»
1
%
■r
v
*m
"\I7 A-*TED—To exchange spiing mattresses and
, W lounges for country produce. If o. 45 Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis.
"TXT-A-NTEB-To exchange Partridge Cochin cocker-
YV      els for Golden Sebright Bantams.-  J. G.
KINGSBURY, Indiana Farmer office.
WANTED—To exchange a 160acre farm in Southern Illinois for a 40 acre farm tn Central Indiana.   J. G. KINGSBURY, Indiana Farmer office.
WANTED—An agent In every township to sell
Western WlldsbyJ. H. Beadle, and Ridpath's
" .Popular Historyof the United States.   Apply at once
'to J. M. OLCOTT, 36 East Market street.Indianapolis.
"WTANTED—Immediately, six sober, honest and
T V industrious men, to work on tbe farm for one-
half of the crop, and board themselves. Land, usual
farming implements usedhera. teams and feed for
same, also a house for the hands to live In furnished
by the owner.   Address C.  C. BELL, Brazoniat Tex.
~\Tf ANTED—All who suffer with any manner of
„ t V lung disease to lay their prejudices aside and
try Mrs. Rohrer's New Remedy for the lungs. It
will cure when all other remedies fail. Sold by druggists.-Prepared by Mrs. E. Rohrer & Co., 347 and
349 So^*»H,_MMWUruSt^JnrtUn»niJ_ts-.Ind. Acents
^wanted....       -.•.-.- •_&.*. ;-,._.,,- ■,r^L^J__i_-.~-~^--~^-
lis-ea
WANTED-^Invalids suffering from any disease
of the stomach, bowels,'urinary or female
organs and the sympathetic affections, to address the
undersigned for a private circular. Ninety-five per
cent, of all cases treated have positively been cured.
W. __. MORGAN. M. D,, Lebanon. Ind.
SIISC ELLANEOVS.
s
M. GOODE—Dentist, over 80 North Pennsylva-
t   nia street.   Prices reduced to suit times.
G
C. BURGESS, Dentist.   Office in room 4 Va-
m   Jen's Exchange Block, N. Pennsylvania St.
Ihave some good farms for sale, an d desire calls and
correspondence from parties in quest of them.   G,
"W. ALEXANDER, 36 East Market St.
BEAL ESTATE ADVERTISER tells all about
the Blue Grass Valley of Middle Tennessee.
Price 25 cents a year. Published bv E. M. COCK-
RILL. Real Estate Agent. Gallatin. Tenn.
LOANS.
fTIO LOAN—Money on farm and city propertv, and
-il and at a low ratt? of interest. G. G. HOI-MAN,
70 East Market street.
LOAN—Six per cent, loans |made on long tim e
on real-estate security at 6 per cent, interest.
Special arrangements for those wisning loans In from
6 to 12 months at lower rates. A. W. PRATHER,
State Agents.
Agents wanted in every county in the State. Office
72 E. Market street, Indianapolis, Ind.
^|ke
NO. 4.
comes in an element in the calculation that as yet we have
made no provision for, and that
is the cost of the sheep together
with the interest and taxes. To
satisfy the conditions of the question this must also come through
the sheep out of the land. The
60 acres of pasture at five head
per acre, would carry 300 sheep,
which at $2 75 per head would
cost $825. Interest and taxes on
this at 10 per cent, would be
$82 50, which added to the $350
(interest and tax on land) would
make $432 50, which the sheep
must proluce in order to get out
of debt. We might stop here a
while and inquire something in
regard to the division of our farm
and its products. We have agreed
that 60 acres of pasture would
carry the 300-sheep through the
summer, but will our grain and
hay winter them. From the
meadow we have 80,000 pounds
of hay; of the corn we have 28,-
000 pounds; of oats we have 9,-
600, or a total of 117,600 pounds
of grain and hay. Our 300 sheep
weigh 30,000 pounds; now the
books lay it down as a rule that
a sheep to be kept in a thriving
condition will consume three
pounds of dry feed to the 100
pounds of live weight, so that
our 300 sheep will require 900
pounds of feed per day. This divided into 117,600 our whole
number of pounds, would give
us 130$ days, leaving 19J in
which they would have to live
on corn-fodder and oat-straw,
which they could well do provided the forage was properly
distributed through the winter,
so that we find our division as
 , nearly covered as we could pos-
Percheron-Xornuan Stallion -AUWCE-OT, Weleht 1,*OT -Pounds., Important ftsmt ffra»M by JC W. Dunham, Wayne, DnPag-e Co., III., Augr. 1878. sibly gueSS  at  it.     NOW  for   results: we have already seen that
Do Sheep Pay?
The following is arr address read before
the Sheep Growers' Association at their
recent-meeting, by B. F. Magee, of Benton county: -    '   '  :
Gentlemen of tbe Associatlori:
I
Always Breed Your Mare to a Good
Stallion.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
With the superior females bred as
above, oneV is generally sure to obtain good offsprings, and such as will
pay handsomely for raising; but when the
mare is somewhat indifferent in form,
stamina or action, the owner may be in
a little doubt as to paying a higher price
than ordinary^ for the services of a first-
. rate male.   But this is just the time in
■ Which he should not hesitate at all; for
the superior sire is likely to give a superior colt, however indifferent the dam
may be.   This is particularly the case
H With the Percheron-Norman stallion, as
., he has been so well and uniformly bred
for centuries past that he has acquired
' greatprepotency, and his produce is much
> surer of proving satisfactory than when
.   got by a more modern animal of whose
■ i ancient breeding he knows nothing.
¥■   Joined to this long line of superior
} breeding for ages past, the Percheron-
4 Norman unites in himself all those qual-
I ities which make him the best large farm,
\ road and cart horse in existence.   There
> is nothing superfluous in his make-up,
.; and whatever size he may be, from 16 to
\J8 hands, or less or more, all his bones,
I flesh, muscles and sinews are justly and
\ harmoniously   united,    to   give   him
^strength, action and endurance for all
£prts of work to which he may be put.
lAdde_ to these is his kind temper, never
flinching or balking at a load, his good
weeding and easy keeping qualities.   The
N   {Johsurnption of food by a Percheron-
jporman is probably less than that of any
Other breed of horses, in proportion to
tt-e work lie does.
4 Then as to the colts, so hardy and so
easily kept, they can be raised at a less
cost offood than other breeds, and be
ptitto light work a year or two younger;
iq consequence of which, when ready
foi* market they may be sold at a considerable profit over-the rearing of the foals
of. the ordinary horse now generally
kept by the farmers. C. G.
attempt to enlighten yuu u^OT'SujH.ui^:
ject connected with your calling. When
I look around upon your friendly faces I
see the-marks of wisdom and intelligence, and were it not that I hope to
profit by your friendly criticisms, I
should be loth indeed to undertake the
task before me. But no violent, vindictive or churlish man ever keeps
sheep. And from this I know you will
be charitable towards my ignorance, and
will treat my blunders with leniency and
due consideration. And although I may
not be able to advance a single new
thought nor present an old one in a
light that would be pleasing to you, nor
yet germain to the subject, I flatter myself that you will take up the subject
and give it such a thorough ventilation,
and make the proposition so plain that
the wayfaring man, though fool, need
not err therein.
Question—"Will it pay to keep sheep,
for wool alone, on land worth $35 per
acre?" I never could see just why the
question should be stated in that way, nor
just why anybody in this country should
keep sheep that way. But so it is stated,
and so we will try to discuss it. It must
be clear to every one who has given the
subject a moment's thought, that no answer can be given to the question that
will be satisfactory to all persons in all
places. The ever varying circumstances,
soil, and its productiveness and the
adaptability of the place to the sheep,
and the man to the place -would require
as many answers as there are men who
make the experiment. From this you see
my task is no easy one. Indeed, it was
long before I could get the consent of my
mind to undertake it at all. Had I not had
the generous help of practical shepherds
from different States and different parts
of our own State, I should not have undertaken it. While I had some data in
regard to cost of wintering sheep, I had
very little in regard to cost of pasturing;
and I was aware that the success of the
enterprise depended upon the cost of
summering as well as wintering. I began to cast about in my mind to
see if I could call up any experience of
my own that would settle it, but to my
annoyance I could find nothing. I had
long pastured a few sheep of my own,
and some, too, for others, and charged
them so much per head by the month,
but this proved nothing; and not having
tho advantage of a scientific education
I came to the conclusion I never could
settle it in that way, and so concluded to
borrow from the experience of others.
With this object in view I inquired of
all I could see, and wrote to those I
could not wee, and altogether addressed
these two questions to 25 different sheep
1. What is it worth per head by the
month to pasture a sheep weighing 100
pounds?  s '     " ■     " ■    '•   . v
2. How many sheep, Weighing 100
pounds each, will an acre of good pas-
•irrough some of the answers were not
powerfully instructive they were very
amusing and I felt richly repaid for the
trouble of asking them. But so far as
helping me out of my difficulty was concerned, the resultwasnot very flattering.
That you may have a more lively appreciation of the difficulties under which I
have labored I will sketch a*~few of the
answers. The range on the first question being all the way from 10 cents per
head a month to 25 cents, and on the second question 2 head per acre up to 15.
Answers, which of themselves, are sufficient to confuse the oldest man in the
world. And to show you, too, that these
answers come from practical sheep men,
I will mention a few names. Some
of them are familiar to you.
S. R. Quick, of Bartholomew county,
an acre will carry 6 sheep and it is worth
20 cents a head.
J. A. Johnson, of Warren county, 31-3.
Wm. Burns, of White county, says 8.
H. H. Crow, of Putnam, says but 2
head, and that it is worth 15 cents. No
wonder he thinks land is too high.
Mr. Crawford, of Warren county, says
12 head, and that it is worth 10 cents.
He could keep sheep profitably, at that
rate, on land worth 4>75.
T. S. Miller, of Illinois, the great Hereford cattle man, finds great difficulty in
answering the question from the fact
that his sheep so soon grow beyond the
hundred pounds that he can't tell much
about it; but that Cotswolds are the
greatest sheep in the world. While Mr.
Crow thinks that Merinoes are the only
sheep that can profitably be kept on $35
land.
T. W. W. Sunman, of Ripley county,
says that an acre of good pasture wdl
carry five grade, or common sheep,
through the summer, which corresponds
exactly -with my own opinion. But you
see from this that all the quantities entering into the discussion of this problem,
are not fixed and known; but like all
questions, that are questions at all, there
are some known quantities, and from
these we shall proceed to make our deductions.
In the first place then, we will say that
we hava 100 acres of land, worth $35 per
acre, or $3,500. Allowing 10 percent,
for interest and taxes and we have $350,
which must be made out of the land in
some way, in order to make the debit
and credit sides of our ledger to balance.
If a man should rent his land for less
than that, of course, the more land he
should have, the worse he would be off.
If he should farm it, his crops should be
sufficiently large-and sufficiently well
disposed of to meet all the expenses of
cultivation and the ten per cent. over.
But our question demands that this ten
per cent, shall be made through sheep,
anything more than this ten per cent,
might be chargeable to profit, while anything- less should surely be charged to
loss. Now, if the profit must be made off
the sheep, it follows that the more sheep
the land will carry, the more profit there
will be, and right here is where the
whole question hinges. It would make
no difference at all what the land might
i,e worth, provided it was sufficiently
productive to carry a sufficient number
of sheep; of course, we shall place no
limit to the point, up to which land may
be made to produce, but we have deemed
something near an average as best
adapted to the discussion of our question
— .~  .«« ^..--_-._^*^_. vrs   _-,_  ..uv^uuu,     "« ." —«   »,__.., ovr as.    ..c   Ilia V c    allilUt* st UUU
i*irt;_satisfactory to all men in all  bargain we will have to "grin and en-J
'ris^plesasareconsuiuea uy-s-w^
our 300 sheep are in debt$432 60, and in an
ordinary way, if the sheep's fleece would
not pay the debt we would take his carcass to make up the deficit. But the
conditions of our question will not allow
us to do that, so if we have made a bad
We shall say 50 bushels of corn per acre,
This may be large for some localities, and
indeed, to take the last four years in my
own locality, it is too large by half, but
to take the four preceding the last and
the estimate would be much too low.
We shall say 30 bushels of oats per acre,
which ,is as much too low as the corn is
too high, and for meadow we shall say
two tons per acre, and if anybody complains at that, we want to remind them
that with us, grass is the only crop that
has never been known to fail; but now!
comes the tug of war, and that is to settle what it would take to constitute a good
average   pasturage;   and   it  seems so
strange to me that among all the books
I have ever read about the cost of keep-1
ing horses, cattle, hogs, or sheep, I have
never read a single line in regard to cost
of pasturage.   Strange, isn't it, that the
most important item in all our farm products should never be mentioned in any
of our farm literature? While every other
item of food and forage has been carefully analyzed by our most skilful scientific men and its exact value ascertained,
on the subject of pasture we are left to
guess and grope our way in the dark.
The fact is, I have never heard of but a
single instance where an experiment had
been made to test the value of pasture,
and that was made by a gentleman of
this association in regard to the value of
pasture for sheep. AH honor to that gentleman, we say.   How then shall we settle the question?   Partly by borrowing
from the experience, orrathertheopinions
of others, and partly by induction, and
we shall notice the latter method first by
supposing that the 100 acres chosen in
the onset were all in pasture  and that
the  pasture  was  available  for   seven
months in the year.   Now, I have pastured sheep for others at 10 to 15 cents a
head per month, but mostly for 10 cents,
and never thought I charged too much.
Now, for convenience, we will suppose
that an acre of pasture will actually carry
five sheep through the summer, and that
We get 10 cents a head per month for
pasturing   somebody else's sheep, and
don't you see that we just get $3 50 per
acre, or the 10 per cent, that we allowed
for interest and taxes, and we would only
need to make the land carry two more
sheep to the acre, or add on four more
cents per head to make a pretty good investment in land for sheep pasture.   But
we may have occasion to refer to this
again before we are done.
Now for the opinions of practical sheep
men, I have already given a few of them,
and you might take all the practical
shepherds in the State, or different States,
and ask them how many sheep an acre
of good pasture would carry through the
summer, and perhaps, five would be an
average of the flrst 50 men you should
ask, and for the sake of avoiding fractions and convenience, otherwise I shall
assume that that is just the number. We
now have our premises partly laid down,
and the next thing is to so divide our
hundred acres up into pasture, meadow,
oats and corn, as not to have too much
of one and too little of another, and for
convenience, I shall divide it this way,
60 acres of pasture, 20 of meadow, 10 of
oats and 10 of corn. Others might divide
differently, but no mattert in any case,the
pasture should be so partitioned that the
sheep could be changed from one part to
another every   two  weeks.    But her
lain fronr our wool-buyers the'average
price paid for wool the last five years,
andalso the average weight of fleece during that time, and I find that the average price paid (for all grades) during the
last five years is less than 27 cents; I
have the exact figures at home, but they
are not absolutely necessary to our present
purpose, and while the weight of fleeces
have been steadily improving the last
two or three years it has scarcely yet got
above four pounds, and this too includes
all that the country produces; the heavier
Merinos, Leicesters, Cotswolds, and all.
If there is any mistake about this,
the wool-buyers bave made it, and not
your humble servant. But as we have
had our 300 sheep on hands a good while,
we think a good deal of them and we
would like to think they are a little better
than common, and that they will surely
shear five pounds a piece, and we can't
get the consent of our minds to put it
down at less than that. And while the
average price for wool this year has been
less than 23 cents, we certainly think
ours is worth 25, and we shall put it
down at that. Now what have we? Five
pounds of wool at 25 cents, is $1 25 for
each sheep, or just $375 for the whole,
which leaves us just $57 50 in debt.
Now, gentlemen, I think I see a very
broad smile upon your friendly faces at
the announcement of this result, and you
say, " 'twill never do." Well, my premises may have all been wrong, but my
reasoning is certainly correct. But you say
that the land would certainly have kept
more sheep. Well, if I was pasturing
sheep for some other man I should be
flad to have him think so. But you see
have made no allowance for waste
land, stumps and trees, and logs and
sloughs, and sour grass. Where is the
hundred acres of land that has not some
of these upon it? But you say I might
have used a little more economy in feeding. . True I have made no arrangement
for feeding of turnips, bran, shorts or oil
cake for the simple reason that as sheep
are usually kept these things are never
thought of. My calculations are based
upon the usual methods of keeping
sheep. But you say I have made no calculation for the increase of.the flock.
That is true, for the simple reason that I
started with fully as many as I thought
the land would carry, and there would be
no room for more without selling some we
have on hand. But the question contemplates selling the wool only, and not
the sheep. But you say I started with
sheep weighing 100 pounds, and that
they ought to gain 25 pounds apiece.
That might do for the first year, but hbw
about the second; you see I have made
no allowance for loss by old age, dogs
and disease.
But suppose we try another method of
settling this question. We have already
found what our hundred acres of land
would yield in pasture, meadow, corn
and oats, and except the pasture,we very
nearly know the market value of each.
Now let us suppose that we get our sheep
pastured for the small sum of 10 cents a
head per month, and for the seven
months it would cost us $210; our hay
is worth $5 a ton, and we have 40 tons of
it, $200; our 500 bushels of corn is worth
25 cents a bushel, or $125; our 300 bushels of oats is worth 20 cents a bushel, or
$00. Making a grand total of $595, which
our sheep has cost us. But our wool only
brought us $375, leaving a deficit of $220,
which is worse and worse. Besides in
this calculation yon see I have not
counted the corn-fo.i.ler and oat-straw
worth anything, wl;ii.; in the other they
were to keep our 300 sheep 19_ days.
Now, gentlemen, I am just as much surprised at the result as any of you can be.
When I began writing this paper I had
for two weeks given the subject my best
thoughts while, going about my work on
the farm, but had not put a single idea
on paper, so that I had not the least idea
how my calculations should end. Indeed I most earnestly wanted them to
come out in favor of the affirmative of
this question; but so far as I can see now
the only way to make it pay to keep
sheep on $35 land, would be to sow it aU
down in pasture, charge 20 cents a head
per month, and then keep somebody
else's sheep. But before taking my seat
it may be proper for me to state that
the foregoing calculations are based upon
the assumption that sheep are kept alone
or to the exclusion of other stock.
This in my judgment would be very poor
economy as we have fully demonstrated.
But there is no necessity, in this country, of keeping sheep that way. A mixed
husbandry is not only the most profitable, but most surely successful, and if I
ever am so fortunate as to own a farm
worth $100 per acre, I shall always keep
a few sheep, becauselthink that like the '
birds they always pay their way, and
though we may not realize a big per
cent, in actual cash profit, yet there are
a thousand ways in which they do pay.
They are the best scavengers in the world
to rid a place of foul weeds and briars.
They make the best manure of any animal, and for my part I don't see how
any farmer can afford to raise a family
without the help of the social and civilizing influence of the sheep. Any farmer
who keeps other stoek can keep sheep—
from 10 to 15, or even 500, (according to
the size of the farm.)—without missing
their keep, because they will live well on
what other stock leaves. Take for examples some of the gentlemen before referred to, Mr. Wm. Burns, of White
county^ who keeps 30 to CO thoroughbred
Cotswolds, and Mr. J. A. Johnston, of
Warren county, who keeps 700 grade, or
common sheep.   Both own very largo
thoroughbred Short-horns, but not hear
enough stock of all kinds to keep their
pastures grazed down, so that their sheep
live nearly the whole year around on the
pastures alone. In these cases and
most every other case, where a few sheep
are kept in connection with other stock,
it would make little difference whether
the land was worth $35 or $75 per acre,
all what you get off them would be clear
gain, whether wo count the wool alone,
or wool and mutton together. Besides
we might take all the conditions of the
question just as we have in the foregoing
demonstration and add the profits of
mutton to what we realized on wool and
make it pay largely. Let us say that
our 300 sheep are all ewes. Then we
should add on $200 for six thoroughbred
Cotswold bucks, and then we should get
200 lambs, worth just as much as the old
sheep, or perhaps more, which would
enable us to sell 200 old sheep for mutton. Now let us see how we come out:
We were in debt, interest and tax on
land, $350; interest and tax on ewes,
$82 50; interest and tax on bucks, $20, or
on all $452 50. The 200 ewes we have to
sell weighed 100 pounds, and we paid
$2 75 apiece for them; but now they
weigh 125 pounds apiece and worth three
cents per pound, or $750 for the whole;
which added to $375 for the wool makes
1,125, which less $-152 50 debt, leaves
us a clear gain of $672 50, or more than
15J per cent, (clear gain) on our investment. Who wouldn't keep sheep? as
this is 25J per cent, on cost of every tiling.
What branch of husbandry pays so well
as this? But there is another reason why
I shall keep sheep. In these times that
have tried farmers pockets as well as
their souls, there has been less shrinkage
in the value of sheep and wool than any
other product of the farm; horses have
decreased in value 150 per cent.; cattle
over 400 per cent.; hogs over 500; corn,
300; wheat, 100; sheep less than 100;
while in the last five years the shrinkage
in wool has been less than 12 per cent.
 _— « -■ *-	
Ohio to Australia.
The idea of shipping breeding swine to
Australia will strike our readers as something new under the sun, but the following from D. M. Magie & Co., of Oxford,
O., will convince them that it is being
done.   These gentlemen write us:
We have sold in four years business
1,542 swine for breeders exclusively, and
have shipped stock to five different foreign countries within the last two years.
Six swine we Bhipped to Australia, went
through all right; they arrived there in
fine condition. Mr. Woodhouse tells us
so, and he writes that he is exceedingly
well pleased with them, and that the
people there in Australia never saw «uch
fine swine. He makes special mention
of their heavy hams and deep sides.
They were five weeks on the road from
here to Australia; one week from here to
California, and four weeks from Han
Francisco to Australia. They add: Our
herds are healthy and doing fine. We
have the best lot of brood sows we ever
owned, and they are in pig by_boars that
are very superior hi form, finish, and
breeding.
 » _m   «	
All    human    virtues    incrpane   and
strengthen by the experience of them.