OCR Text |
Show SHEEP HELP ON MANY FARMS Besides Being Money-Makers, They Will Destroy Many Noxious Weeds Range Bred Best. By W. A. LINKLATER, Oklahoma Experiment Ex-periment Station.) It would add to the revenue of many farms if a flock of sheep were Excellent Type. kept. Besides being profitable they are great weed eaters. They will eat five out of six of our known weeds, where a cow or horse will eat only one out of every six. Range bred sheep are the right kind for the average farmer to buy. Such sheep will be grade Merinos and if they carry a cross of Shropshire, Lincoln or other mutton blood, so much the better. It would not be advisable ad-visable to buy Mexican sheep or low grade sheep of any other kind. The ewes purchased for the foundation founda-tion flock should be good, .large animals ani-mals from one to four years old, and weighing more than one hundred pounds. Where possible it would seldom sel-dom be practical to start with less than 50 ewes, and a larger number would be better still. A flock of a dozen doz-en would require admost as much care as 50 or 100. The reason we recommend buying range bred grade Merino ewes is that thousands of these are available, while Dorsets are not to be had In large numbers. These fall or early winter lambs, by good feeding and care can be made to weigh 90 to 100 pounds by May 1, when they wil find a ready market and will always be la demand. |