SHEEP ON WHEAT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 899, 19 September 1879, Page 2

SHEEP ON WHEAT.

The value of sheep in connection with wheat-raising (says the WUamettee Farmer) is too well established to need argument, but we hear of instances so directly in point that we cannot do onr farmer readers a greater service than to mention them. John Pugh had a piece of fall wheat that promised largely, and yet he was advised lo put his sheep on it, which he concluded not to do. The wheat grew remarkably, there was heavy straw, and there was 20 bushels per acre. It is evident that the sheep would have cropped down the heavy growth, added richness to the soil, and ensured less straw and double the amount of wheat, or at least a much heavier yield. So he thinks, and no doubt correctly. •W. J. Herren tells us of a case over in Polk County, near Bethel, where two neighbors had fields of wheat on similar soil, and in all respects but one with similar cultivation. One, Mfc Keyte, last spring put sheep on his wheat and let them crop it close. Some of his neighbors predicted that it was ruined, but he realised sixty-one bushels to the acre ; while his neighbor, who let his first rank grow mature, got only half thac yield. Dan Clark, near Salem, has a small field that was in potatoes, and as the growth was rank last spring he let hoga and stock run on it until the wheat seemed almost exterminated. It was his intention to re-sow it, but as other work claimed his attention he deferred it until it appeared that there would be wheat enough come up. The result is that it is the best wheat he has. It is evidently true that good wheat-farming cannot be done without sheep, for their utility on summer fallow is beyond question.