SHEEP TO CLEAN LAND.

Patea Mail, 16 April 1881, Page 4

SHEEP TO CLEAN LAND.

Many think the only advantages of sheep are in the wool-producing properties, forgetting that they multiply with great rapidity, doubling the flock annually, and, in this climate, taking cave mainly of themselves, if good winter pasturage and proper shelter is afforded. There is, however another use for sheep, which we have found, by experience to be of great advantage in good farming. They are the best weed and thistle exterminators a farmer can have. They keep the pasturage free from these pests of the farm. We recollect hearing of a gentleman several years ago who had a farm of seven thousand acres, and that not a weed could be seen upon it. We did not put much faith in the report, and determined to visit the farm and see whether the report was true. We did visit the farm, and such a model of neatness and cleanliness in farming we never saw before. But it was not long before we discovered to what it was attributable. This gentleman kept several thousand well-bred sheep. These he transferred from field to field, as he saw proper, and they nibbled down the weeds and kept the pasture free of them. He told us that a dozen men constantly engaged could not keep the weeds under subjection like this flock of sheep. But, in clearing land, sheep are still more valuable. They will keep down the sprouts and shrubs much better than the men can do with the best of tools. They give them no rest. As soon as a new bud or leaf shows itself it is nipped off; everything is compelled to surrender. They give them no chance for life—no quarter. Every time they make an effort for new life they are remorseiesly cut down. If farmers want to clear land or free it from weeds and sprouts and foul growth, sheep are their best aids. Fanners can well afford to keep sheep free of charge the year round for the work they perform for them. If farmers are not able to buy sheep it will be money in their pockets to keep their neighbors’ sheep without charge. They never can have neat farms without them. They furnish the best animal food, A family can eat a sheep without letting the meat spoil, especially if a cool cellar has been built that will keep out the hot summer atmosphere. More mutton and less heavy food would be better for farmers. Farmers can keep sheep, even with dogs around them, if they will take some precautionary measures. If a number of large bells are put upon sheep, the noise produced when dogs are in sight will drive them away. They want to do the destruction so that no one will know it. If sheep are kept with cattle, and dogs pursue them, instinct teaches them to run to the cattle for protection; and, if the dogs still pursue the cattle will fight off the dogs. This we have seen done. But to make the keeping of sheep doubly sure, a yard near the house or stable, with a high fence to enclose the sheep at night, is what is needed. The sheep will soon get accustomed to coming to their sleeping quarters, and it will not take much labor to securely enclose them every night. —Rural Australian.