4h, het te Mranhahy ee 9 roe th Matin he goatee AGO SSE AD RRO BCU 4 4 Nene Tdentt te ae Net one reat Zee tote tie ieee Tes eS. ee vant j HEART hy SAE ca) Ie) ane 0 a RY , tm it eV i YAY: ARBRE! eh Ss L is, ‘5 i 1 tof. c J By AER ada SS SHEEP HUSBANDRY; AN AGGOUNT OF THE DIFFERENT BREEDS, AND GENERAL DIRECTIONS IN REGARD TO SUMMER AND WINTER MANAGEMENT, BREED- ING, AND THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES. Ueith Boriraits and other Engrabings. f “<4 EY HENRY S“ RANDALL LL.D, LATE SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. WiTH HIS LETTER TO THE TEXAS ALMANAC OW Cus. SHHEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS, AND GEO. W. KENDALL’S ON SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS, 36, 265 New-York: ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 245 BROADWAY. 4880. ————$—— - Entered according to Act-of Congress, in the year 1860, by C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & (%)., Ir the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New Sy transfer from Pat. Office Lib, * ori) 1014 PREFACE. So full and complete is the exposition of the subject as discussed in the following pages, and so clearly are the scope of the work and the circumstances which prevailed with its accomplished author, to pass it through our hands to the public, explained in his own « InTRo- DUCTION,” that only in compliance with a common custom in book- making, might any thing have been deemed necessary in the way of preface; were it not to acquit ourselves of the obligation to tender thus publicly to Col. RANDALL, not our own thanks merely, but those of the agricultural community, for the great benefit which must ensue to it, in the proportion that this instructive contribution to the stock of our agricultural knowledge and literature may command the atten- tion to which it is, on every account, so well entitled. An agricultural correspondence, reaching far back, and spreading: widely over the Southern States, to which has been more recently added considerable extent of personal observation, had with us, already established the conviction, that in no other part of our coun- try, perhaps, does there exist a resource at once so fruitful, and so little availed of, as that which is possessed in that region, for the pro- secution of this—one of the most interesting and important branches of Husbandry that any country can enjoy. But while it has been easy to perceive this defect soc apparent in their agricultural economy, amounting in the aggregate to a national loss of no inconsiderable magnitude; it was not so easy to expose, as Col. Randall has done, the fallacy of the difficulties that were sup- posed to stand in the way, or to indicate how the real impediments which do exist may be overcome, or materially mitigated. Something of these imaginary difficulties, for successful Sheep Husbandry, may, as we believe, be assumed to have their origin in the prejudices engendered in the minds of Southern agriculturists, by the sweeping condemnation of it to be found in the celebrated and deserv- edly popular essays of Arator, by Col. John Taylor—elarum vene- rabile nomen! and it may be that these prejudices are referable ina degree, also, to the concurrent opinions of théno less celebrated John Randolph, «of Roanoke,”’ who, even onthe floor of Congress, gave them utterance in vehement and bitter denunciation against the harm- s - 4 PREFACE. less animal itself—going so far in his animosity to it, and to all en couragement of the great industry which it was formed to subserve, as to declare, that he would at any time go out of his way «to kick a sheep!” Nor would it be unreasonable to apprehend that these im- pressions against the policy and profit of sheep-breeding, as an import- ant object of attention for the Southern land-holder, have taken root the more kindly in the minds of a people unaccustomed, if not na- turally averse to that careful and minute attention which the successful prosecution of this business demands—a people whose sons, it may be feared, still find it easier, if not more commendable, to follow in the venerated footsteps of their sires, than to encounter for themselves the labor of investigation, and the trouble (together with some expense) of new arrangements incident to every new employment of labor and eapital. The general impression, in fact, is, (the reader will judge how far it is just,) that cultivators of the soil everywhere are, of all classes, the least apt to embark in any new enterprise, however pro- mising. . They talk and talk about it, but rarely go about; and per- haps it may be better that it should be so; yet it is well to remember that precipitancy is one thing, and torpor quite another! We once knew a farmer (so called) in Calvert county, who, being told, as he sat toasting himself in the chimney corner on a cold winter’s night, that the house was on fire! without moving from his seat, answered, « call the people !” In opposition to all that has been urged or imagined against Sheep Husbandry in the South, on the score either of ill-adapted climate, deficiency of suitable forage, want of adequate demand for wool, or other obstacles, the whole subject has been so admirably and thoroughly canvassed in the work here offered, that further argument would be superfluous ; otherwise we might oppose to the hitherto prevailing be- lief, if not prejudice, the experience of some, on a limited scale, and the well-settled opinion of yet many more among the most enlightened of our acquaintances in that region—gentlemen uniting ample oppor- ‘unities with close habits of observation on all questions of rural ecunomy, and who have not hesitated to express the confident belief, that profitable and interesting as has been the growing of cattle in western Virginia, an equal amount of capital and attention, devoted to sheep and wool growing in the same section of country, would be yet more remunerating. Looking for reliable information yet further south, and back to a period more remote, even anterior to our decla- ration of independence, it may not be out of place to quote an evi- dently careful and intelligent author of a work on the climate and products of each of the then English colonies. Speaking of Georgia, and her well-ascertained adaptation to the growth of silk, the vine, the olive, madder and wool, he remarks: « Wool, we [England] take ce om PREFACE. 5 in large quantities from abroad, betas it is of a a we ‘cannot pro- duce in England: our colonies on the continent of North America, South of New York, produce a wool entirely similar to the Spanish. — No staple they could produce would, therefore, be more advantageous to Great Britain. It is well known that a piece of fine broadcloth cannot be made without Spanish wool; it is also known that the Spaniards have of late years made great efforts to work up their own wool; if they should succeed, or if they should by any other means prevent the export of it, our woollen fabrics, though they might not be stopped, would at least be burdened with a fresh expense and a new trouble; all which would be prevented by encouraging the tmport of wool from America: and at the same time that this good effect was wrought, another would be brought about, 7m cramping the manufac- tures of the colonies.” Unfortunately for the agricultural interest of our country particu- larly, the desire to “ cramp the manufactures of the cololies,” here so candidly avowed as the sv itled policy of England, not only survived the Revolution, but has been so well fostered by our own subserviency to it, as to render our independence, in respect of this and other no less important industrial pursuits, rather nominal and fictitious than substantial and true; nevertheless, with the odds of pauper labor and immense capital against us, thanks to the ingenuity and enterprise of our people, we need not despair of final success with any thing like fair consideration on the part of our own government. For this opinion we need have no better authority than that of SAMUEL LAWRENCE, the enlightened and liberal proprietor of the Middlesex Mills, at Lowell, who says, «the business of manufacturing wool in this coun- try is on a better basis than ever before, inasmuch as the character, skill, and capital engaged in it are such as to defy foreign competi- tion.”” Occasional revulsions, such as the present, will occur from causes abroad over which we have no control, but let not the wool grower relax in the care of his flock, for the same far-seeing manu- facturer has declared that he could point to articles of wool now im- ported, that will require thirty millions of pounds of medium and fine - quality to supply the demand. After all, then, on viewing the importance of the inquiry to nume-. rous and for whose welfare we profess to entertain unaffected con- cern, and the great extent of the district which seemed to us to be so well adapted to the growth of sheep and wool—the magnitude of the interests involved swelled upon the contemplation, begetting a conviction that as a question cf practical agriculture, it was not to be worthily and well treated by a few hasty and superficial essays, or by more elaborats - compilations in relation to the oft-repeated natural history of the ani- mal, its prominence in scriptural annals, &., unsustained by that oe a 6 PREFACE. laborious and discriminating comparison of facts and authorities to ee illustrate its uses and its value, and by that fulness of personal ex- perience in the breeding and management of the various races, «in sickness and in health,’ which constitute the excellence of these let ters to Col. Allston. Under all these circumstances, the reader of the work here pre- sented may well judge how fortunate that it should have been under- taken, con amore, by a gentleman so well prepared by general scholar- ship, by exact practical knowledge, and by extensive inquiry into the mercantile and manufacturing, as well as the agricultural bearings of the question. It is due, however, no less in justice to ourselves than to truth, to add, that in urging him to undertake it, we had no idea of committing the author to such an amount of labor, even had we foreseen that being, as he says, a “labor of love,” it would have thus ended in pro- dneing, asi judgment it has, decidedly, the best work on the sub- ject of Sh _ 3 at any time appeared in our country. May we not refer, for the soundness of this opinion, as well to its originality and strictly American character, as to the comprehen- siveness with which it presents the subject in its various relations, in- structive alike to the merchant, the manufacturer, the political inquirer, and the legislator; as to the practical farmer? Nor is it to be characterized alone by its utility in these respects; for the reader will agree with us that its entire fairness and freedom from narrow views and local prejudices, much enlarge, in a moral and instructive view, its title to general confidence and favor. Finally, as far as the public judgment may be anticipated in refer- ence to a production originally appearing. disadvantageously, in de- tached parts, and not until now finished and embodied; if we may conclude from the favorable manner in which such portions have been reviewed and recommended, by some of the leading journals of the country, the writer may well felicitate himself on having rendered a most acceptable service not only to his brother farmers, but to his countrymen generally; while we may unaffectedly, and, as we think, confidently add, it establishes for Col. Randall himself a claim to stand in front of those whose pens, some of them under high motives of patriotism, have been engaged in illustrating one of the most impor- tant of all our industrial pursuits; nay, one which may be considered essential, in an eminent degree, to our national independence. J.S SKINNER. INTRODUCTION. Tre subject ot Sheep Husbandry kas recently attracted mor? attent on in out S-uthern and South-western States, than at any previous period. The want of a staple or product, the cultivation of which should render productive the capital in- vested in millions of acres of mountain and other lands, which do not now yield a farthing of income, and which, from their soils, situation, or othe: circumstances, are unadapted to the growth of any of the present Southern staples, has struck every Southern man, as well as every traveller of ordinary intelligence, who has passed through the regions indicated. The want, too, of some class of domestic animals to constitute the basis, or pivot as it were, of a system of convertible husbandry on the tillage lands of the South, to take the place of the present imperfect rotations of crops, and new and old field-system, has become apparent to many of her mors investigating agriculturists. The fact that the mountain and other unproductive lands alluded to cannot be made to profitably yield any vegetable products but pasturage; that for the present, and for a long time to come, at least, the bulk of them will not afford a pasturage adapted to the support of large animals; could not but suggest the growing of wool, as their best, if not their only available staple. The similarity of their general cli- mate, too, with that where wool is most cheaply grown on the Eastern Continent, was a consideration promising favorably to this husbandry. And, finally, it had not failed to strike men of ordinary commercial intelligence, that of those animal staples, to the production of which a Southern climate is adapted, the Sheep fur- nishes a vastly more marketable one than any of the larger grazing animals. The superiority of the Sheep over other animals for supporting the fertility of tillage lands, by converting a portion of their products into manure, was not so apparent. Butthe well-known fact that they receive the preference for this pur-. pose, in some of the best agricultural countries of the world, made it sufficiently - probable to demand a full investigation, before adopting an adverse conclusion, espe- - cially as what has been said in relation to climate and the marketableness of animal staples, was as applicable to these lands, in the South, as to those adapted only ta, grass. But Sheep Husbandry as a system, and especially a system tested by experience, . was scarcely known in any of the Southern States excepting in western Virginia. Whether the theoretical considerations and natural circumstances which apparently : favored its introduction would be met, in practice, with unforeseen obstacles, was a: _mnatter calling for grave circumspection. ‘The Southern agriculturist is ever Wary: of innovation, and very properly averse to rash experiment. He knew, it is true,. that his roving and untended “native” sheep obtained subsistence, and found no» : a en he P _ INTRODUCTION. - enemies to their health but the wolf and cur, on all the Southern zones. But ce whether the local climate and herbage of those different zones—the low, level. — Tertiary sands of the Atlantic plain—the granite hills of the middle, and the ele- : vated Paleozoic or ‘Transition regions of the mountain zone—would be found to agree with the more valuable breeds of sheep ; whether their wool would retain its qualities or degenerate in these several localities ; whether a greatly increased sup ply of wool would find a remunerating price in market; whether the mountain could be converted into sheep-pastures, and wool produced on them without an expense Which would absorb all the profits; whether Sheep Husbandry could be made a substitute for “ resting,’’ or expensive artificial manures, in restoring to the eotton, tobacco, and grain lands of the middle and tide-water zones the fertility withdrawn by tillage; and various other important correlative questions were all problems to him. And to add to the difficulties of forming a correct opinion, and especially of instituting safe and satisfactory experiments, he was ignorant of all the practical details and manipulations of Sheep Husbandry: he knew little of the various breeds, and their respective adaptation to his wants. For information on the subject of practical Sheep Husbandry and breeds of sheep, there are a multitude of European, and several American works, of great value. But for the answers to the questions in the preceding paragraph, which involve the particular bearings and adaptation of this husbandry, of the different breeds, ete., to the agricultural cireumstances and wants of the various regions of the South— where was the inquirer to find the desired information? Some well-written letters, embracing portions of these topics, have appeared from time to time in our agricul- tural journals. They have been of great value in drawing attention to the subject. But they have not usually occupied limits sufficient for the examination of more ~ than a single phase of the general subject, or they have been mere coup d’wils of that subject, omitting all but a few important facts and considerations of a general tharacter. They have, too, usually been replied to, or published contemporaneously in the same or other agricultural journals, with contradictory statements—some- times with crude and erroneous speculations—calculated to confuse or mislead the inexperienced inquirer. Beyond these occasional Letters in the agricultural jour- nals, nothing, so far as I am aware, has appeared on this subject. | A practical farmer, I have bred nearly all the approved varieties of almost every «ind of domestic stock—of every kind commonly kept on Northern farms—and have been familiar with the details of their management and husbandry. I have owned flocks of sheep, and been more or less familiar with them, from my child- . hood; and for the last fifteen years have made their economy, their habits, their comparative ‘profitableness with other kinds of stock, and the comparative value of their breeds, matters of careful and constant observation and experiment. When Corresponding Secretary of the New York State Agricultural Society, a few years since, the facts drawn out by me in an extensive correspondence with eminent Southern agriculturists, united to what knowledge I nad previously ob- tained by reading and personal observation of the Southern States, led me to th impression that there were numerous considerations an¢ natural circumstances strongly indicating the expediency of introducing wool-growing extensively into those States. But at that time, my attention, in common with that of many if net most, of the Northern flock-masters, was turned towards the prairies of the North- west, as a region capable of sweeping away all American competition in this branch of husbandry. Glowing estimates and calculations had been predicated on very partial experiments. The value of the natural grasses, the character of the winters and general climate, and the general facilities of the prairies for wool-growing, were then little understood here, and had been made the subjects of much favorable exag- Pe un INTRODUCTION. g geration. Facts subsequently ascertained, have, it cannot be denied, materially ‘changed the impressions of our flock-masters on this subject. Whether correctly or incorrectly, they no longer fear Western competition in growing fine wool. My own coincides with the popular impression on this topic, if we consider that com- petition in its relations to a period not far distant in the future. -The adoption of these views led me to again turn my attention, never entirely withdrawn, more particularly to the capabilities of the South for this branch of hus- bandry. My conclusions and the reasons for them will be found in the following Letters. Ina letter to Hon. Robert J. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury, pub- lished in his Treasury Report of 1845, and ina series of letters published in the Virginia “ Valley Farmer,” the same year, I stated some of the general conclu- sions I had then arrived at on this topic. ‘These publications were followed by letters from gentlemen residing in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, making farther inquiries, and usually imparte ing more or less local information on the subject. Some of these were practical men, only seeking information on practical points; others, eminent for intelligence and legislative experience, embraced a more comprehensive field of investigation, and sought from me, as probably from other sources, to ascertain by a wide range of general facts and statistics, the probable bearing, now and in future, of an exten- sive system of wool-srowing on the Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures, domes- tic consumption—in short, the whole domestic economy of our Southern States. Answers to these questions demanded careful investigation, and involved a great variety and complexity of details in the practical department of the subject, ren- dered far more numerous by the wide differences existing between the soils, esta- blished husbandry, and even the climates, of the three distinct and well-defined zones already alluded to. ‘The location of some of my correspondents was on the mountains of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee—others on the hilly zone of the same States—others on the Tertiary sands of the tide-water zone, and the Cre- taceous plains of the Mississippi and Arkansas. ‘To give opinions on all the topics referred to, and in reference to natural circumstances so various, supported by even a respectable show of corroborating facts, was an undertaking requiring considera- ble time and labor: to repeat them separately to each correspondent, was wholly out of the question. Requested by Mr. Skinner, a little more than a year since, to prepare a series of Letters on Sheep Husbandry, and especially on Sheep Husbandry in the South, for The Farmers’ Library, it occurred to me that a compliance with his request would 2nable me to answer each of my correspondents by once writing; and moreover, I could feel, under such circumstances, that I could properly afford to bestow an amount of time and elaboration on my communications which I should otherwise find impracticable. And I confess, I also thought if the information I could impart would prove of value to my personal correspondents, it might also prove so to many others among the numerous readers of a popular agricultural magazine. ‘The liberal offer of the Publishers to provide all such cuts as I should choose to direct, was an additional inducement to adopt this medium of communication. I have often felt the want of these in agricultural letters of my own, and in reading the works of others. In describing a breed of sheep, for example, to a person who has never seen them, the best chosen words convey but a vague impression. In many other eases also, cuts exhibit at a glance what it would require much circumlocution te describe ; and they in many instances convey ideas to the mind with-a definiteness, correctness, and exemption from possibility of misunderstanding, which words alone never covld. The cuts include portraits of all the breeds which I supposed sould of possibility possess, or claim to possess, superior value, for any region o B 10 INTRODUCTION. locality within the United States; all the necessary anatomical figures, with those ‘ of the less known insect and parasitic enemies of the sheep; and finally, represen- tations of every implement, fixture, or process employed in Sheep Husbandry — where I thought they would convey important information—and particularly new information—more clearly than it could be done by words. Many of the latter class of illustrations have never before been, so far as I am aware, attempted; and, representing as they do the results of years of inquiry and experiment, I truest they may prove of service to beginners—particularly in regions where Sheep Husbandry has been hitherto little known. The Letters were begun and concluded exclusively as a “ labor of love.” To possess the consciousness that even a limited portion of my fellow-men have been benefited by my labors, would be all, and the noblest recompense to which I could aspire. Nor do I feel, that in attempting to benefit the agriculturists of one section of our country, by urging them to appropriate a branch of industry now giving sub- sistence to those of another section, lam seeking the good of the former at the expense of the latter. Every region has natural advantages, or those resulting from the natural course of events, for different branches of industry. A right to these advantages enures from a right to the soil; and the former is just as natural and sacred a right as the latter. ‘To attempt to wrest them from the holder by legisla- tion, is oppressive; to withhold from him any knowledge necessary to the enjoy- ment of them, is unfraternal and unmanly. If Virginiacan grow wool, or any other staple, more cheaply than New York, let her doit. She will only foree New York to fall back on the production of some other staple, or to adopt some other branch of industry. And why not? Why should there not be a division of production, where it is called for by natural circumstances, at least within the limits of a come mon nation? It is doubtless well for every region, whether extensive or limited, to produce its own necessaries of life to the greatest economical extent. But an attempt to force Nature against her manifest capabilities, for the sake of attaininga fancied local independence, is to inflict a real evil, in the hope of attaining an ima- ginary good. History is full of instances where the prosperity of large masses of individuals, and even whole nations, has been crippled, in futile efforts to upbuild this or that branch of industry, in spite of natural obstacles, or against the compe- tition of regions possessing greater natural advantages. Among the foolish, selfish, and even iniquitous legislation of past ages, there has been none perhaps productive of more real mischief to human industry than the intermeddling enactments of go- vernments, ostensibly designed for its benefit. Masses of men, because divided by a rivulet, speaking a different language, or owning the sway of different potentates, have aspired to that physical independence of each other, and of the whole world, which the God of nature rendered economically, if not absolutely impossible. The vexatious restrictions on trade and commerce imposed in pursuit of this object by one government, were met by retaliatory ones by others, until international com- mercial legislation became a confused labyrinth of enactments—their absurdity only equaled by their mischievousness, And like the elephants formerly used by bar- oarian nations in battle; they nearly as often trampled down their friends as their enemies. The era of these things is rapidly passing away. ‘That patriotism which includes only a province or State, among one common people, is beginning to be recognised as narrow and sordid: nay, among intelligent men, that philanthropy is veginning to be thought meagre and unexpansive which stops even at the boundaries of Nations. In preparing the following Letters, I have labored under disadvantages insepara- ble from the circumstances under which they have been prepared. I have written” them from month to month, amid the hurry of other pursuits, with little idea of what INTRODUCTION. | a ae 1] would be their ultimate limits—usually with one or more of the immediately pres _ ceding numbers in the hands of the printer, and consequently not under my inspees tion. Ihave not therefore had that opportunity to proportion the space devoted to - the several topics, avoid repetition, and correct errors, possessed by him who coms _ pletes and revises, before any portion of his manuscript is rendered unalterable by stereotyping. Reliance on insufficient authority has in a very few instances led me into errors, but fortunately, so far as discovered, they have been of trifling importance, and in ‘relation to matters of no especial moment. Those thought worthy of notice have been corrected in subsequent parts of the body of the work. The causes I have named, therefore, affect rather the literary character of the Letters, than their general accuracy. In stating important facts and conclusions, I have consulted such writers of repu- tation as were within my reach. Among the foreign ones who have prepared works on Sheep Husbandry, or expressed important opinions on some of its separate topics or facts, or who have alluded to the Sheep Husbandry of particular countries or nations, reference has been had tg the following, either by consulting their works, as I have in most instances been able to do—or by quotations from them found in the works of other writers of reputation;—Anderson, Bakewell, Barnes, Barrow, Bischoff, Blacklock, Bourgoing, Bright, Carr, Coventry, Culley, Cunningham, D’Arboval, Darwin, Daubenton, Dick, Ellman, Gasparin, Gilbert, Goese, Harrison, Hogg, Hood, Howitt, Hubbard, Jacob, Lang, Lasteyrie, Leeuwenhoek, Lichsten- stein, Linneus, Low, lLuccock, Maitland, Malte-Brun, McCulloch, Moffat, McKenzie, Paget, Parkinson, Parry, Petri, Pictet, Powell, Reaumur, Rodolphi, Sinclair, Slade, Southey, Spallanzani, Spooner, Stephens, Swaine, Trail, ‘Trimmer, Valasnieri, Vanderdonk, Von Thaér, Walz, Western, Willmer & Smith, Youatt, Young, and some others. Of our domestic writers, I have aimed to consult ai/ of the most prominent ones. It is not necessary to enumerate them, extending, as the list would, to hundreds. The examination of these writers, foreign and domestic, has been no recent under- taking with me. For years, I have found it a source both of instruction and plea- sure, to peruse their works. Where they have proposed any thing new to me, which I thought promised favorable results, I have usually sought the first opportunity to put their propositions to the experimentum crucis of actual trial. I have often thus learned valuable facts. But I have nearly or quite as often ascertained that what may be true of one breed, in one climate, or under one set of circumstances, is not true when all or a part of these conditions are changed. The English and German systems of management, for example, I regard as almost wholly inapplicable here, on account of the entire different relation which the prices of land and labor bear toward each other in those countries and ourown. And I sometimes have had the conviction forced upon me, that writers even of reputation have assumed positions in relation to practical matters, which they must have derived from other sources than direct personal experience. While I have carefully reviewed and collated the opinions of other writers on doubtful practical points, I have in all instances, as will be seen in the following eezes, preferred the results of personal experience and observation, to adverse aathority, however eminent. Compilations, it seems to me, are sufficiently abun- dant, and I have thought it better to give my own opinions, leaving them to stand or fall, as they shall be found accurate or inaccurate. Where I have found it necessary to rely on others for any fact, or have quoted their opinions, I have uniformly given them eredit. To my kind correspondents, particularly my Southern correspondents —many of whose communications ire not published cn account of their reluctance ~~ a Ree c. / ~ ae a te ie Ge be, * CH, 2 * ‘ ate “ ’ y ¥ ' 12 INTRODUCTION. to be cited as authority for facts, where their modesty leads them to underrate theit own comparative knowledge and experiencc—I tender my thanks for theit assistance. I have addressed the Letters to Col. R. F. W. Atuston, of Waceamaco Beach, near Georgetown, South Carolina—a gentleman to whom I am indebted for much valuable information on the subject of Southern Agriculture, and who has ever evinced a most earnest desire to contribute to the improvement of that Agriculture. HENRY S. RANDALL. CONTENTS. LETTER J.—Errsct or CuimatTe on THE Heattu AND WooL-pPropucine QUALITIES OF LETTER I.—Erreor or Crmeate, (continued,).....2...02000csccccce scccuncsae cue 23 — LETTER UT.—Apaprarion or THe Sorts, Hersace, EtTc., oF THE SOUTHERN STATES TO Saeer Huspanpry.—l. OF tHe Low or Tiwe-warTer REGION, ........... 000 eeee 30 LETTER IV.—Tue Anpapration or THE Sorrs, Hersacr, Erc., oF THE SOUTHERN Srates To Sarre Hussanpry, (continued.)—2. Or rae Mippxe or Iiitty Zonre.— 8. Or THE MounTAIN REGION,........0-00000. sip civic iw'etele (o's s)e\'s plates '=’s!ale eterna 42 LETTER V.—Prorits or SHeer Huspanpry IN THE SouTHERN States.—l. Drirecr IPRORUM ON GARTMAT IN VROTED 50 orice c,c\e cot vercnieroveicien rlpinialesinitie etererse Pn a Onc sc 52 LETTER VI.—Prorits or SHeep Hussanpry in THE SouTHERN Srates.—2. As THE Basis OF AMELIORATION IN NATURALLY STERILE AND Worn-outT Sorts,........ rye lie a LETTER VII.—Prorits or SHeep Husspanpry In THE SouTHERN States.—3. By Giv- Ina To SourHERN AGRICULTURE A MixEp AND CoNVERTIBLE CHARACTER.—4. By FURNISHING THE Raw MareriaL For THE Manuracture or Domestic WooLteEns,.. 78 LETTER VIII.—Prosvects or tHE Woot Market—Future DEMAND AND Surrry,.... 94 LETTER IX.—Prospects or tHE Woot MarKetT—FutTure DEMAND AND SurPPLly,..... 108 LETTER X.—Breeps or SHEEP IN THE UNITED STATES,........02eeceeeece Sia) peers 129 LETTER XI.—Tue Most Proriraste Breed oF SHEEP FOR THE SOUTH—PRINCIPLES OR GRREDING shoin bs cinc «vie hie \ocla’e o's wie nln slcie w c’evainlalejnleso/aiele a's mp Sale) a(stalele ett 153 LETTER XIL—Svsoree MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP,......0..+cccecccerccceccececesenl 173 LETTER XUI.—Winter MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP,.........00+ec000s 9 0:0 s/t nae ~o Oe LETTER XIV.—Anaromy AND DISEASE OF SHEEP,........0--eceecccceccceesscces -219 LETTER XV.—Anatomy oF THE SHeeEp, (continued.)—Diseases AND THEIR TREAT- FIUEERTT We Stro'als ale alu eiaig sate a'sia'are olule swine alalebslele'sle eiaie'arhicts o'N(sls biete eyelh a ors les ean 234 LETTER XVI.—DisEaseEs AND THEIR TREATMENT, (continued,)........... ora daiety etanieta 254 LETRER XVII.—Sarer Doas; Woot DEPOTS, ETO. ,.0):.)6,0 50a.05\0s's00c5 onesies 278 APPENDIX. . Serer HussANDRY IN SOUTH CAROLINA... 0.0.2 cn ence ces ni vinc cis scale cumeminm sisiaiwie ctaipenal Seer HusBaNpRy IN TEXAS,...... ....2ecsecvces SBS nanreoeteccr oe one swien stein kieeits PHEEP MGCATHING JIN VLMEAS se mesecesscsigsesnnee done vain pitas s a.eia.cin pies 0 AGA mie )a nt wlalenta ems pe SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE UNITED STATES, IN A SERIES OF LETTERS TO R. F. ALLSTON, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. LETTER L. EFFECT OF CLIMATE ON THE HEALTH AND WOOL-PRODUCING QUALITIES OF SHEEP. Introductory Remarks...Wool-Growing and Manufacturing Statistics of the Southern States compared with those of New-York...Effect of Warm Climates on the Health of Sheep...Sheep in the Southern States below latitude 32°...Effect of Climate on Wool-Producing Qualities of Sheep—on the Quantity of | the Wool... Weight of Fleeces in the Southern States indicated by U. S. Census of 1840—Important Omis- sions in that Census—Other important Errors in it...Table of Weights of Fleeces in Four Counties where they average highest in each of the Southern States and in New-York—Latitude, Topegraphy and Climate of those Counties... Warmth of Climate conducive to the Production of Wool—Reasons. R. F. W. ALLston, Esq— Dear Sir: That spirit which prompts communities and States to at- tempt to render themselves independent, so far as the supply of physical wants is concerned, of other communities and States, is an eminently proper one, up to certain limits. Beyond these,it degenerates into mere sectional selfishness, as deserving of reprebation in the community as in the individual—nay, more so, for it militates more widely against the in- terests and happiness of mankind. Agriculture supplies the most of our physical wants which are not administered to spontaneously by Nature. In this great department of human labor,it is not difficult to decide how far the inhabitants of each particular region are called upon to rear from the earth what their wants require. Nature herself has, in the distribution of soils and climates, both indicated and limited the production of many of ~ the agricultural staples, by geographical boundaries, sometimes topically 19 16 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. — -_——__ — and sometimes by whole regions. This compels those practicing Agricul- _ ture, both as individuals and masses, to make that “division of labor” _ which, as in the mechanic arts, gives a better knowledge of its principles — and a greater expertness in its practical manipulations. It also creates — the necessity of exchange. Exchange is commerce, and commerce begets _ and diffuses civilization. sy Agricultural production, then, should be controlled by the demand or | want, and by the adaptation of the country to such production. It would ~ be absurd; for example, for New-York to attempt to raise its own rice and cotton, instead of exchanging the surplus of what it can most To produce for that rice and cotton, or selling its surplus where it is wanted, ~ and buying the rice and cotton with the proceeds. But, on the other hand, it would be equally absurd for New-York to be dependent on South - America or Australia for her wools, when she can raise that staple just as | well as those countries, and thus save paying for transportation and the hire or commission of the agents of exchange. Though Nature both indicates and limits the production of staples by soils and climates, she too rigidly enforces the primal curse, or perhaps we should say blessing, of labor, to bring forth each, indigenously, in the — regions adapted to it, or ever to place them there, unless transported by the enterprise and industry of man. The potato and maize were a recent gifi from this continent to the eastern. The debt has been repaid by rice, the sugar cane, the .horse, the cow, the sheep, and a multitude of other plants and animals. How singular is the history of some of their deporta- _ tions! The sugar cane, now furnishing an important staple in some of our own Southern States, originated in the eastern confines of Asia; was not vouchsafed to the Greek and Roman; traveled into Arabia about the last of the thirteenth century; passed thence into Africa; was carried by the Moors into Spain; by the Spaniards and Portuguese into the West India Islands; and thence-we received it. Rice, the great staple of — your own State, sir, a plant of which it has been said that it “has altered the face of the globe and the destiny of nations,” originated also in Asia, ~ and has trayeled by the same slow stages, until it has reached that low zone which skirts our south-eastern shores, to render its vast marshes, oth- a erwise useless, as profitably productive as the best grain or cotton lands of the Southern States. Here, sir, we find an instructive lesson. Other regions there are in our Southern States, now, nedrly as useless as would be her “ hammocks” without rice, inviting the introduction of some other great staple to sup- rly, if feasible, a home demand, and a surplus for profitable exportation: fthis great object can be achieved, and by the same means, the husbandry of the regions now under cultivation be made to assume that mixed and . convertible character which will both add to their present proceeds, and better sustain their fertility, for future demands on them, a benéfit will be conferred on the South the present and final results of which it would be difficult to overestimate. Repudiating theoretic speculation and vague conjecture—advancing just so far and no farther than we find our way illumined by the broad and certain light of facts, let us inquire what im portant staple there is, not now extensively produced at the South, which would come within and at the same time fill the requirements I have men- tioned. Woolen fabrics constitute an important item in the imports of the South- em States, and for these they exchange the proceeds of no inconsiderable- proportion of their industry with the Northern States and with Europe. The following table will exhibit the population, and the amount of home _ | SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 17 . production in these staples, acc srding to the U.S. census of 1840, in the - States south of the Ohio and Potomac, and west of the Mississippi, (in- cluding Louisiana,\ in 1839. To these are added, by way of comparison, the statistics of the State of New-York, under the same heads, for the same year: TABLE No. 1. Value of Woekes. STratTEs. Population. | No.of Sheep. | Ibs. of Wool. | Eo iaaie EE ee i Goods. ‘Virginia ..------- 1,239,797 1,293,772 2,538,374 41 ls 147,792 North Carolina . .. 753,419 538,279 625,044 3 3,900 South Carolina - -- 594.398 232,981 299,170 3 1,000 Georgia .-.-.---- 691,392 267,107 371,303 1 3,000 iloridaea 2. ....2 54,477 7,158 7,285 Alabama ........ 590,756 163,243 ~ 220,353 Mississippi......- 375,651 128,367 175,196 Louisiana.......- 352,411 98,072 49.283 Tennessee ....... 29,210 741,593 1,060,332 26 14,000 Kentucky SECS 779,825 1,008,240 1,786,847 40 151,246 Motale wise 6.261,336 4,478,852 7,133,187 114 320,938 MewoVork. 1... 2% 2,428,921 5,118.77 9,845,295 323 3,537,337 EE aL tes MO A De ce oe We ht AN JR RCE Te ACL | The above is only given to indicate approximate general results; fer, as I shall subsequently show, the returns of the product of wool are inac- curate to the last degree. The question now arises, whence the immense disparity in the growth and manufacturing of wool in the State of New-York, comprising 46,000 square miles of territory, and less than two and a half millions of popula- lation, and the ten States above enumerated, covering an area of 495,000 square miles, and exceeding six millions of population? Is the growing of wool, (for we will first consider this, as the main question, leaving the sub- ject of manufacturing for subsequent examination,) to its present extent, profitable or unprofitable in the State of New-York ? I contend, and shall attempt to prove, that taking a term of say ten or fifteen years, it has been the most profitable branch of industry carried on in the State. If this is true, why is it not equally profitable in the Southern States?* Is there anything in their climate which renders them less favorable to the health or wool-producing qualities of the sheep—or is there anything in their topographical features, soils, herbage, or other circumstances, which unfits - them for a natural and easy adaptation to sheep husbandry? Or have they other staplus so much more profitable that it is not an object to grow wool? la Having bestowed some attention on these points, and having been prac- tically familiar wich the most minute details of sheep husbandry from my childhood, I have thought that the conclusions I have arrived at, and the facts on which I have based them, might not be uninteresting to you. To bring these facts connectedly before you, I shall necessarily be driven to repeat some matter from my own and the writings of others, which you have doubtless before seen in the publications of the day. Let us now take up the first of the two preceding questions; and first } will call your attention to the effect of Climate. Sheep have been bred, time out of mind, on the Eastern Continent, from the Equator to the 65th degree of north latitude, from the burning plains vf Africa and Asia, to the almost perpetual frosts of Iceland. The Terino, (the different families of which, as will be shown, constitute the only varieties suitable for wool growing on a scale of any considerable _ extent,) has been bred in Europe, for ages, as far south as between the * When I use the words “Southern States,” without farther specification, you will understand me ta _ Mean. the ten enumerated i ‘Yable Ist. (651) i, C 18 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 86th and 37th parallels of latitude, and has, within the last few years, bees — ‘ acclimated with perfect success as far north as various points in Sweden _ If any difficulty exists in the climate of the United States, rendering it unsuitable for the rearing of sheep and wool, it must be its heat; and this _ must affect the wool-producing qualities of the animal alone, and rot ita health, as the following facts will show. There were upward of 660,000. sheep in the five most southern States, in 1839. In Florida, they have been acclimated as far south as the 29th degree. In Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, they not only flourish in the northern and more elevated sections, but on the low, fenny, tide-water region which skirts the Gulf of Mexico. In the above five States there were, in 1839, wpward of 190,000 sheep below the 32d degree of latitude, viz.: in Georgia 32,986 Florida 7,198, Alabama 22,053, Mississippi 56,780, Louisiana 81,627* They graze with equal impunity the vegetation on the margin of the Great Okefinokee Swamp (in Georgia and Florida) and on that which — rankly flourishes among the ooze at the mouths of the Mississippi. It may interest some less acquainted than you are, sir, with this subject, to know that in 1839 the county in which New-Orleans stands (Orleans) contained 1,807 sheep; Jefferson, on the opposite side of the river, 6,871; St. Ber- nard, extending from Orleans to the Gulf, 1,154; Plaquemine, almost sur- rounded by the waters of the Gulf, and comprising the delta of the Missis- — sippi, 1,832; Lafourche Interior, on the Gulf, 1,253; Terrebonne, another Gulf county, 1,013; St. Mary’s, another, 8,211; and La Fayette, another 2,622.7 No portion of the United States is lower, hotter, or more unhealthy than much of the preceding, and none, according to commonly receivec notions, would be more unsuited to the healthy production of sheep. Yet. that they are healthy in these situations is a matter of perfect notoriety tc all conversant with the facts. So far as health is concerned, then, we are assuredly authorized to assume the position that no portion of the United States is too warm for sheep. We come now to the effect of climate on the wool-producing qualities ef the animal. Assuming the census returns of the United States m 184C- as reliable data, they would furnish strong proof that the warmth of the climate has a marked effect in diminishing the weight of wool per sheep ; and they have been adduced as furnishing conclusive evidence to that ef- tect, by persons more accustomed to broad assertion than patient investi gation. The following will give the weight of wool per head in the States enu- ° merated in Table No. 1, estimated from the census returns of 1840: TABLE No. 2. j Lbs. Ox. Lbs. Oz. IY PMNG Roe oe mente a anes pwede s =e 1 7 845 Alabama-%'. . 222. 2255. See Loe 16 Brorth | CAvOUNE cents a 5-amwis wana L 2 221 Mississippi. <-=<.0si0-% + eee " 28 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ca’ —_— —- tity” and the “ yolk” of the fleece, cannot be ascribed to the climate, nor to the feeding itself. It is undoubtedly owing to Mr. C.’s system of breed ing and selection, a point which will be fully discussed hereafter. If feed or condition exercise the principal influence on the fineness of wool (that is, within the range of variation to which it is subject on the same individuals), it follows that the effect may be produced in any climate, for high condition throughout the year is attainable in the most rigorous ones, by the supply of plentiful and rich food. The wool secretions are incident » condition—fatness, however superinduced.* It again follows that if wool of the highest degree of fineness (for the breed) can be pro- duced in New-York, although the sheep is kept in a decidedly fat state throughout the year—quite as fat as it would become, grazing on green feed all the year round—that wool of equal fineness can be produced by the observance of the same influencing conditions (apart from feed) by the southern breedev. Here again, undeterred by any considerations of what I deem a false modesty, I shall offer facts founded on my own personal experience as a sheep breeder; and I would remark, once for all, that throughout the whole of these letters I shall never so far prefer beliefs founded on the as- sertions of others, to actwal knowledge, based on facts repeatedly and con- stantly brought under my personal inspection, for a number of years, as to suppress the latter, to rely solely on the former. I have succeeded, in repeated instances, in producing an exquisite qual- ity of wool, decidedly above the average of the breed (Merino) in the heavy fleeces of sheep kept fat the year round. I have made it a surt of atest latterly, in the selection cf rams, to choose only those which not only carry heavy fleeces, in any condition, but which, in the highest, yield a wool equaling the choicest samples to be found on this variety. These facts will, by and by, be placed in a definite and tangible form, by the re- corded testimony of the scales and the microscope. But though the natural effects of warm climates and their incidents, tc increase the bulk or coarseness of the fibre, is one which can easily be re- sisted, they work a change of another kind in the character of wool. They cause a longer fibre and a greater softness of staple. The effect of succu- lent nutriment during the year in increasing the amount of the wool will exhibit itself; but the skill of the breeder can so far regulate its action, that the increase is in the length, rather than in the diameter or bulk of the fibres. It is not difficult to conjecture why a staple of more rapid growth, supplied to excess with the secretions which enter into its comp dsition, un- exposed to great and rapid variations of temperature, should retain a greater degree of softness than one produced under opposite conditions. But, whatever the causes of these phenomena, their existence is placed beyond a doubt. The increased length of staple, resulting from the nutriment of warm climates, has been sufficiently adverted to. The following statements made by some of the most eminent wool-factors, staplers, etc. in England, before a Committee of the House of Lords, in 1828, place the other point beyond controversy.t Mr. Henry Hughes, wool-broker, London, says : * No one has asserted, go far as I am informed, that dry feed will produce less woo. than green feed, if the same degree of fatness is kept up. On the other hand, the rich cereal grains, oil-cake, &c. (without some of which a high degree of fatness cannot be maintained, on dry feed alone, during the.four or five smonthe’ winter in latitudes north of 42°), might be supposed to be quite aa conducive to the production of Wool as grasses. ¢ For extended minutes of this ve-y interesting investigation into the state of the wool-trade, &c. &c. i Great Britain, see Bischoff on Wool &c., vol. ii. p. 118 to 200, act ‘SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. “29 a “ Latterly they (Australian and Van Dieman’s Land wools) have been of varied qualities, but all possessing an extraordinary softness, which the manufacturers here so muck admire that they are sought for more than any other description of wools, from that peculiar quality, which is supposed. to arise from the climate alone. They are known to require less of the milling or fulling power than any other descriptions of wools. . . They are better adapted than ihe German wools to mix with British wools, because the superior softness which J have stated gives a character, when mixed with English wool, that the other does not, from the hardness of the fibre.”* Mr. Stewart Donaldson, merchant, London, says: “‘T have no hesitation in pronouncing that the wools of New South Wales and Van,Die- man’s Land are decidedly preferred to the apparently similar descriptions of German wool. They have a softness and silkiness about them which, when worked up into cloth, shows itself more distinctly than in the raw material. I conceive that it is dependent on the climate alone. Iam of opinion that wool of that quality could not be produced in any part of Europe.”’t Mr. Thomas Legg, wool-stapler, Bermondsey, says : ‘ our are sume of these wools of very beautiful quality, as good as any of the German wools.”’t Mr. Thomas Ebsworth, wool-broker, London, says: “ The peculiarity of the climate of New South Wales appears to haye a very great effect on wool, so as to reduce it from a harshness to a very fine texture.”’|| This was the substance of a// the testimony on this particular point ; and when it is understood that the investigation was an issue between rival interests, where all the facts were thoroughly sifted, the fact that the above assertions were undisputed shows that they were considered of an undis- putable character. Allusior. has already been made to the loose and careless system of sheep-breeding, etc. in Australia, compared with that in Germany. Tak- «ug this into consideration; taking also into consideration that the flock furnishing the best wool in Australia (Capt. McArthur’s) is composeu of grade sheep (Bengal and English, graded up with Merino and Saxon rams), the trifling effect of climate is made more strikingly to appear. The statements of Mr. Cockril! in relation to the softness of the wovis grown in Tennessee and Mississippi, sustain and are sustained by those above given; and they go to show that it is the result of a general law and nut of any peculiar iocal influences peculiar to Australia © Bischof on Wool, &c. vol. ii pp. 129-3. { Ibid. 183-4. } ‘hid. 182. [i Thid. 134 Wa Cy he BORE oe: on A 30 SHEEP HUSBANDRY INTHE SOUTH, LETTER I. ADAPTATION OF THE SOILS, HERBAGE, &c. OF THE SOUTHERN STATES TO SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 1. OF THE LOW OR TIDE-WATER REGION * Natural! Features of the Southern Statese—Divided into three Zones...The Natural Features, Soils, &c. cf each...The Tide-water Zone—lIts destitution of ArtWicial Pastures and Meadows. ..Causes—Smal! amount of Domestic Stock kept—Unsuccesstul Experiments in raising Clover and Grasses... Reasons why those Experimerw were unsuccessful—Land too much Exhausted by Severe Tillage—System of Tillage com- pared with hat of the Grazing Regions of New-York—Experiments unsuccessful, also, because impro varieties of Clover and Grass were tried...Much of the Land adapted to Grass—Shown by its Natural Pas tures—Statements of Col. Allston—Opinions of Mr. Ruffin—of a Committee of the S. C. Agricultural Soci- ety...Land compared with that of Flanders—also with some parts of New-York. ..Climate perhaps unfa- vorable to certain Northern Grasses and to Red Clover—Opinion of Mr. Ruffin—Statements of Milton (3, C.) Agricultural Society. ..Clover not indispensable...Experiments suggested... Valuable indigenous and acclimated Grasses—Crab Grass—Millet—Bermuda Grass—its great value—Statements of Mr. Affleck... Peas—Their great value in the Southern States as a Green Crop Manure—Sprengel’s Analysis of them— The Value of their Straw as a Manure compared with various substances—Table of the Value of Manures by Payen and Boussingault...Oats, Rye and Barley—Corn Blades—Sweet Potatoes...Conclusions fror foregoing. Dear Sir: Having discussed, in my previous letters, the effects of warm climates and some of their incidents, on the health of sheep, and on the quantity and quality >f their wool, we come now to the second branch of my original inquiry—Is there anything in the natural features, soils, herb- age, &c. of the Southern States, which unfits them for a natural and easy adaptation to sheep husbandry ? The vast region south of the Ohio and Potomac, and west of the Missis- sippi—comprising an area considerably exceeding that of France, Spain and Portugal*—is distinguished, by its natural features, into three distinc? zones, parallel to each other and to the Atlantic coast. The lower or tide-water zone, which skirts the Atlantic, is a low, flat, sandy, and oftentimes marshy plain, from 50 to 100 miles wide, compara- tively recent (tertiary) in its formation, and covered with pine forests oves the greatest portion of its extent. The soils on the dry lands are generally light, and sometimes too sterile to admit of profitable cultivation ; that in the swamps and river bottoms, where the sand is replaced by a rich allu- vion, is exceedingly fertile. The middle or hilly zoue rises from the level of the preceding, first into gentle hills, and final!y into high and oftentimes broken ground, as it approaches the mountains. The width of this does not greatly vary from that of the preceding. The formation is almost ex- clusively primary ;+ and the soil varies, sometimes being poor, but more enerally ranging, in its natural state, from medium to highly fertile. The aie consist of oak and other deciduous trees. The third or mountain region is formed by the different chains and groups of the ‘great Apalach- ian range of mountains, and occupies not far from 70,000 square miles of the central portion of the territory under consideration.t It comprises the middle of Virginia, the west of North Carolina and South Carolina, the north of Georgia and Alabama, and the east of Tennessee and Kentucky. Its formation on the eastern declivities of the Blue Ridge (the most east- ern chain) is primary, and thence to the Alleganies the rocks belong to * Spain contains 170,000 square miles, Portugal 40,000, France 200,000—in all 410,000. Allowing 10,000 square miles of Louisiana to be east of the Mississippi, the area of the region referred to is 456,000 square miles. + There are one or two interrupted belts of new red candstone—vide McClure. } Estimated not far, I think, from correctly, by myself. I can nnd no authority on this point, SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. | 3t the Transition order.* Its soii varies from thin and light to that of exue berant fertility. West of the mountains, the hilly zone rests on Transition rocks and coal measures, and is succeeded west and south of Virginia by the vast rolling cr level plains which extend to the Ohio and Mississippi; and which, instead of the silicious sands of the eastern coast, exhibit rich _and varying soils resting on limestone and other Transition and Cretacecus rocks. In Virginia, the hilly region, which is one vast coal measure, extends to the bottom lands of the Ohio ; and its soils, taken as a whole, range from ordinary to meager.t We will now proceed to examine the capabilities and adaptation of each zone, separately, for the purposes of sheep husbandry. It has already been shown that sheep are hetdthy, and produce as heavy, and may be made to produce as fine fleeces as elsewhere, in the tide-water zone. They are easily kept—finding, in a climate so mild, considerable succulent food even in the winter; and, south of North Carolina, large numbers would subsist during the entire winter on the hardier wild herbage which continues green in the forests and swamps. If this region was stocked with sheep, to the extent alone to which they could find subsistence, summer and winter, ou wild herbage—or, in other words, get a living without costing their own- ers anything—the present number would be largely increased, and _ their wool and mutton would add materially to the annual income of the own- ers of the soil. But a better system would undoubtedly be not to depend upon wild herbage alone, but to have pastures or sheep-walks seeded with the best grasses which will flourish on them, and provision made for a quan- tity of dry fodder, or some substitute for it, for winter use. Can this summer and winter feed be produced, in the region under ex- amination, to any considerable extent, at an expense which would render it3 conversion into wool and mutton profitable: There are patches of good natural pasture in many parts of the tide-water zone, apart from the salt or fresh water marshes. But artificial pastures and meadows have rarely been attempted. The planters in this portion of South Carolina, for example, actually import hay! ‘Many of the cotton and rice planters . . » in some cases buy hay from New-England. . . . Northern and (:n some cases) Huropean hay is even carried up to supply Augusta and Columbia, along rivers which flow through swamps covered with natural grass, so rank and luxuriant as to be almost impenetrable.’’t This neglect of grass culture springs from several causes. Little fartn- stock, comparatively speaking, is reared or kept by the rice and cotton- planters, from the fact that most of the labor on such plantations is per- formed by men; and the few animals kept are fed on wild herbage, or the offal of crops which are raised for other purposes. The carriage and draught horses and mules are fed in the winter on the leaves or “ blades” of corn; and the neat stock get their living in the swamps, and in the corn fields, where the greatest portion of the stalks are usually left stand- ing. Nor is it to be denied that various unsuccessful experiments have been made in the cultivation of the grasses and clover, which have discouraged farther efforts, and led many to infer that the soil or climate, or both, are decidedly uncongenial to them. That the soil or climate is as favorable to the production of rich, thick swarded pastures or meadows, as in many * So termed by Werner. Thuugh little used now by geologists, I resort to it as the shortest descriptive epithet which will include all these rocks, unless it be the Hemilisyan of Brongniart, the Submedial of Co- mybeare, or the Graywacke of De la Beche—neither of which is so familiar, nor, it appears to me, any bet ter. The Transition rocks are equivalent to both the Cambrian of Prof. Sedgwick, and the Silurian of Mr Murchison—whose nomenclature is adopted by Lyell, Phillips, Mantell, &c. t Dr. Morse, Mitchel!, &c, } Ruffin’s Agricultural Survey of South Carolina, 1843, p. 73 32 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH - parts of the Northern States, I do not contend. Some of these soils are doubtless, naturally too barren to be made to produce good yields of grass, without an expenditure which would more than counterbalance the profits accruing from them. Others have been sunk nearly to the same level by wasting and improvident tillage; and it is on lands of the latter class, mainly, that the experiments in introducing the grasses and clover have been made, As long as they would produce cotton or corn, these crops were annually taken from them, with perhaps an occasional year of rest (i. e. lying without any crop being sown on or taken from them) ; and, when reduced to such a degree of barrenness that the crop fell short of re- paying the cost of producing it, clover or grass was resorted to in the vain hope of suddenly repairing, through their instrumentality, the ravage and desolation of years. The following is from the report of a Committee of the Fishing Creek Agricultural Society, Chester Distrigt, South Carolina, made to the President ofthe State Society in 1843 ; and, though this dis- trict is not in the tide-water zone, the system of cropping described is more or less the prevailing one* throughout much of the cotton growing region : “We generally plant cotton on fresh land four or five years in succession—then corn— then wheat or oats—again corn and cotton ; and, after it will produce little else, we sow it in rye, and let it rest two or three years. There are no fixed principles observed in the ro- tation of crops. . . . We have no data whereby to tix the expense of cultivation avcn- rately. We know this, however, that at the price of produce for the last two or three years, we are sinking money.”t I ask what would be expected, in the way of grass or clover, from some of the best grazing lands of New-York, after being cropped with grain crops from ten to twelve years consecutively, with little or no manure ?-~- However carefuliy seeded with the best grasses, or with clover, they weuld not form meadows worth mowing, nor pastures where an acre would sum- mer a sheep—though, as now managed, an acre is poorly grassed that will not summer five or six sheep. Take the map of New-York, Sir, and draw a right line from Buffalo to a point a little south of Albany—say Coxsackie —and all the region, speaking in general terms, south of this line and west of the Catskill Mountains, is mainly devoted to grazing. It is the best graaing region of the State, and much of it is equal to any in the Northern States. The best farmers in no part of it take off to exceed three grain o1 root crops before seeding down to grass; and, unless the soil is unusually rich, it is customary to give barn-yard manure to one of these crops. This ts almost invariably the case where the land was in meadow when broken ap. Where no manure is given on meadow lands, or even on lightish pas- cure lands, two grain crops are considered sufficient by the most provident farmers—it being an axiom amoug such, that all ordinary or thinnish soils should be nearly or quite as rich when seeded down as when broken up, In other words, they draw from the soil only what is equivalent to the strength or fertilizing properties of the sod, and of the manure given.— When seeded down to grass, these lands are usually depastured by cattle or sheep several years before they are again broken up. If converted into meadow, they are top-dressed from time to time with gypsum, and some- times with stable manures.{ The poorest soils, rocky hill-sides, declivities much subject to washing and gullying, are rarely broken up after being ence properly seeded down. I repeat it, Sir—take all the grazing lands of New-York, and crop them as severely as it is reported above to be done in Chester District, South Carolina, and they would become so sterile that, * Id est, so far as constant cropping without returning anything to the soil is concerned. + See Ruffin’s Agricultural Survey of South Carolina, 1843—Appendix, p. 6. t Itis not considered good economy, however, to top-dress any meadows with stable manures whisk ere dry and arable, and can thus be subjected to the regular rotations of the farm. 1. wae SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 33 unless resuscitated by copious applications of manure, they would not yield grass enough to pay the expense of keeping them under ferce, until they had lain waste for a quarter cf a century. Another cause of the failures which have attended some of the efforts to introduce the culture of clover and the grasses on the tide-water zone, in the Southem States, may, and probably has, existed in the improper selec- tion of the varieties sown. As the first crop on avery meager soil—-red clover, for example—is not appropriate in any region. In Flanders, the natural soils of much of which so closely resemble those of the zone under examination, it is not sown until the land is enriched and got in condition by several preparatory crops. The different grasses seem to be affected by various conditions in the soil or atmosphere, or both, which it is fre- quently difficult or impossible to detect. Timothy grass (Phleum pratense) is decidedly the favorite meadow grass of the grazing regions of New- York. White clover ( Trifoliwm repens) invariably comes up spontane- ously on those lands. Red clover (T. pratense) is sometimes sown with Timothy in meadows, and generally in pastures. Red Top* (Agrostis (stricta) vulgaris) is preferred on wet lands, where it comes up spontane- ously. It is considered a prime pasture and meadow grass in such situa- tions. June or Spear grass (Poa pratensis), the Blue grass of the South ern and Western States, so prized there and also in England,} is consid- ered an unprofitable intruder in our meadows, where it comes up sponta- neously, and ultimately drives out the Timothy. The meadows are then said to be “run out,” and are broken up. I have never known the seed of this grass sown in a single instance! The favorite Rye grasses of Eng- land (Lolium perenne var. bienne}, Lucern (Medicago sativa), Sainfoin ( Hedysarum ombrichis ), Orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata), and various others equally celebrated in England and on the Continent, have been tried in New-York, and the experiments are generally regarded as decided failures. None of them, at all events, have obtained a footing among the grasses sown by our best farmers. On the other hand, the Red Top of New-York is but little regarded in England,t and Timothy was not in much better repute until the Woburn experiments demonstrated its great value for hay. Even now it is considered inferior, in general value, to many other grasses.|| All this goes to show that even the hardiest grasses have their favorite situations; and that we are not authorized to pronounce against the practicability of forming pastures and meadows in a given re- gion, because we have failed in a trial with two or three grasses, out of a list of as many hundreds. _ It has already been remarked that there are patches of good natural pasture on the dry as well as the wet portions of the tide-water zone These are frequent and extensive, and could be rendered infinitely more so by simply clearing the land. In your Memoir on the Cultivation of Rice, furnished to Mr. Ruffin, while making the Agricultural Survey of South Carolina, in 1843, you say : “ At first, rice was cultivated on the high land, and on little spots of low ground, as they were met with here and there. These low grounds being found to agree better with the plant, the inland swamps were cleared for the purpose of extending the culture, In the process of time, as the fields became too grassy and stubborn, they were abandoned for new clearings ; and so on, until at length was discovered the superior adaptation of the tide-lands, and the great facilities for irrigation afforded by their location. For these, the inland planta- tins were gradually and slowly abandoned, until now, that the great body of land, which * Sometimes known as “ Upright Bent grass,” and in the Southern States as Herds-grass. ¢ Pronounced by Sole the best of all the grasses. j Agrostis vulgaris is pronounced “a worthless or rather a mischievous plant,” by Sir George Sinclair ! “Our opinion,” says Loudon, “is that neither Timothy nor (some other grasses named) is ever likely te be cultivated in Britain.” E 34 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. , Gi sy little more than a century ago furnished for exportation over 50,000 barrels of rice, now lies utterly waste, constituting, where trees have not overgrown it, the finest natural pastare which could be desired.’"* bt Mr. Ruffin in his Report of the Suryey, of the same year, asserts : “ Few countries possess greater natural facilities, or which are more improvable by in dastry, for producing in abundance, grass, hay and live-stock, and their products of meat milk and butter. all of which are now so deplorably deficient.”'t s ‘ The Committee appointed by the State Agricultural Society of South Carolina to take into consideration the scheme of reducing the quantity of cotton grown,{ in their Report observe : ‘* Millions of acres in South Carolina, including the lower country, are admirably adapted to the raising of rich grasses. This might be added as another branch of industry, from which reasonable profits could be realized, and might very well be added to the cotton planter’s income.” Carresponding statements, on equally indisputable authority, might be indefinitely multiplied, not only in relation to that portion of the tide- water zone lying within the limits of South Carolina, but in all the South- ern States. South Carolina occupying a central geographical and lati- tudinal position, in reference to this zone, and its soils on it, about averaging, so far as I can learn, with that of the other States, it is not necessary to pursue the inquiry. Where fine natural pastures spring up spontaneously on deserted lands, more or less impoverished—probably in most instances considerably so— how little difficulty would there be in forming, almost immediately, the best artificial pastures and meadows on millions of acres of just such land, (only that it is in its virgin state, and consequently far better,) now in un- productive forest ! And how small would be the amount of skill requisite to convert millions of acres more of cotton lands—which do not now yielé emunerating crops—into pastures and meadows, which, as I shall show, would yield their owners a handsome remuueration ! And the culture of the grasses need not stop with these comparatively good and medium lands. They can be made to stretch their carpet of green over the poorest of your sands—over those now covered with stunt- ed pines, or which, scorched and naked, reverberate back fiercely the burning heat of a southern sky. There are few regions in the tide-water zone possessing poorer soils than some culézvated portions of New-York. In the vicinity of Albany, (between that city and Schenectady, for example,) the same loose, silicious- sands, the same, though perhaps rather more stunted, growth of pines, would almost compel you to fancy yourself somewhere between Richmond, and Wilmington, on the route of the great Southern Railroad! Denuded of their meager covering of dwarf pines, and the cohesion produced by their interlacing roots, these sands would be lifted and driven about by the winds. Yet on such a soil as this, you find the farm of the late cele brated Jesse Buel! And fertile grass fields, dotted here and there with splendid mansions, are every year stretching out farther and farther amon the arid sands. How are these rapid transformations in the fertility o the soil accomplished ? The stables, and mews, and cesspools of Albany can give the answer ! The following description of the natural soils of Flanders, now provers bial for its fine crops and rich pastures and meadows, is from the pen of that able English agricultural writer, Rev. W. L. Rham : * Acricultural Survey of South Carolina, 1843. Appendix, p. 14. i Ib. p 73. t The Committee consisted of Whitemarsh B. Seabrook, Esq., John B. O'Neall, Esq., and W. J. Alletom Esq.—aend the Report was ma 2e, [ believe, in January, in 1846. SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 35 — = “ The greater part’ of the land in Flanders is naturally poor; and in extensive districts, which now have the appearance of the greatest richness at harvest time, the original soil was once little better than the blowing sands which are met with in the neighborhood of the sea. Neither is it a genial climate which brings forward the fruits of the earth m abundance; for the climate is inferior to that of France or the southern parts of Germany. The soil may be divided into two classes. The first consists of the alluvial’ clay loams near the coast; tne second, of various sands and light loams which are found in the interior. The mest fertile x that of the low lands which have been reclaimed from the sea by embankments ; it is chiefly compcsed of a muddy deposit mixed with fragments of marine shells and fine sea sand .. In the interior of East and West Flanders the soil varies considerably; but the prmeipal part is of a sandy nature. The sand, and a heavier loam which scarcely deserves the name af clay, are found much intermixed, which is owing to an alternation of layers of sand and loam, which are found by digging to a considerable depth. These layers are not of great thickness, and the accidental circumstance of the washmg away of the sand in some places and the depositions from rivers in others easily account for this variety. Some cf the eleva- tions, which are nowhere considerable, consist of a very poor sand, and suggest the idea of their having once been the sands of the sea blown into hills, as is observable on the coast. These hills, if they may be so called, are naturally so barren that they were, not very long since, covered with heath, or at best planted with fir trees; but they have gradually been culti- vated and improved, and only a few remain in their original state of heath and wood. The poorer sands have been brought into cultivation chiefly by the persevering industry of small proprietors and occupiers.” Have we not here a good general description of much of our southern Atlantic coast—the tide swamp and sandy plaim—and even a graphically minute account of the “‘Sand Hill” region of South Carolina ? Instances of the reclamation of such lands might-be indefinitely mul- tiplied. I do not offer the above facts to prove that it is either profitable or ex- pedient to reclaim all the sterile lands of the southern sea-board by the same means that have been resorted to about Albany, or in Flanders. Except. in the vicinity of cities, where manures are plentiful and cheap, and un- sommon market facilities are offered, it would not be profitable, unless ite can be accomplished by less expensive means. But it proves one and an important position: that it is the sterility of such soils—or perhaps their loose and ‘‘ blowing ” character in some places,. their sun-baked hardness in others—which prevents them from spontane-- ously producing esculent herbage; and nothing in them, as has been- frequently fancied, positively deleterious to vegetation. And it follows. hence, that whenever it is profitable to convert them into grass lands, it is: practicable so to do by the proper application of manures. Butdo I hear: some of your South Carolina neighbors, of the anti-improvement school,. if you have any such,) say, “If our sozls are, or can be made, generally,. suitable for the production of the grasses, our climate cannot!” This 90sIition is obviously incorrect, as warmer climates, as, for example, Aus-- ralia, the Cape of Good Hope, and various others, produce, where the: oils are favorable, a luxuriant growth of grasses; and South Carolina: rerself, as has been already shown, produces them bountifully in situations. where neither the latitude nor the elevation abates one jot of the heat of © your fervid climate. It is not impossible that the climate of the States farthest south—south, say, of North Carolina—may be unfavorable to certain grasses and clove1s ; ind perhaps so to the favorite ones of the Northern States. In relation: to 1ed clover, however, the acclimation of which is regarded by many ag 30 important to those States, it seems Mr. Ruffin thought otherwise. He pays : “Perennial, or other permanent grasses, of which, doubtless, there may be found some peculiarly suited to the warm climate, (South Carolina,) would still more serve to give the great benefits of changed condition to the fields, independent of the much needed benefits of grass husbandry for feeding of live-stock and giving rest and manure to the-land.. The qrasses whose yalue has-been fully established by long experience in more northerm:coun y ‘ ‘; wee che) Mie Tooele ew Get PON er bee” oer ar eee Dae eh of eee Y May Sa KS St Dk sve Y Be se 7h 7 ‘ ena a ani ee. ‘ MeN | Pa PREe a! ; 36 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. —_—_—_—_—_—— tries, should be tried—not because they are from the North, (which in itself is a strong ob- jection,) but merely because their good qualities are known, and possibly some such may as well suit a more southern clime. And such, I trust, is red clover, the best of all “hha and manuring crops. For although this was long held to belong to the North only, I ve fully experienced that its locality and the perfection of its growth are ficed much more by peculiarity of soil than by latitude. Not more than twenty years ago 1t was as general a belief in Lower Virginia, as now in South Carolina, that there the soil was too scanty end the sun too hot to raise red clover. But since marling and liming have made many of these soils calcareous, it is found that neither the sandy soil nor hot and dry climate forbid the raising excellent and profitable crops of clover. And so hereafter it will be found in South Carolina.””* In a Report by a Committee of the Milton Agricultural Society, (em- bracing adjacent parts of Laurens and Newberry Districts, 5. C.) made to the State Seciety in 1843, they state : “ Our native grasses, except the crab grass, are of the poorest kind, principally sedge. Of the artificial grasses, some trials have been made with red cloyer and bordered On rich lots the first appears to succeed very well. For alternating with tillage crops we do not know of its having been tried; but our impression is, that without manuring more highly than is customary here, it will not answer. We are not aware that it has ever been sowed with gypsum. The herds-grass, as far as it has been tried, appears to succeed yery well on the bottoms that border our branches and creeks.”’t Lawrence and Newberry are not in the tide-water region, but so far as the effect of climate alone is concerned, their testimony has an equal bearing. ; I have little doubt that red clover may be cultivated on good, rich soils even in the States south of North Carolina, and may possibly become, un- der some circumstances, a profitable crop in their rotations ; but, as has been already remarked, it will not do as a first crop on very meager soils, in any climate—and still less so, I apprehend, on such soils south of Jati- tude 34°. It is not, therefore, the crop which you need, to cheaply ame- liorate your poor and exhausted soils, to fit them either for grazing or for tillage. Grant that such soils can be fitted to produce it, as Mr. Ruffin suggests, by the application of lime or marl,|| these manures will be found expensive, can be but slowly obtained in quantities sufficient to apply to large tracts, and, besides, when the soil is sufficiently ameliorated to carry clover, it will carry most if not all of your ordinary tillage crops. Though clover would aid materially in the rotation, in sustaining or even improy- -ng the fertility superinduced by lime or any other fertilizer, it is not, and cannot be made the original fertilizer on the sterile sands of warm climates. When we talk, therefore, of the initiatory steps by which such soils shall be brought from a state of barrenness to a state of production, clover does not come within the category of appropriate agents. Though red clover ranks in the first class, if not the first in that class, on appropriate soils, as a grazing and manuring crop, I haye never regard- ed it as indispensable—as what the lawyers would style a sine qua non— even in sustaining fertility anywhere except on rich calcareous wheat lands, where a severe and exhausting rotation is resorted to. Where wheat is taken from the soil a¢ least every alternate year, for ten, fifteen, or twenty years, without any manure, excefting the intervening crop, and the droppings of animals depastured on it, clover will better sustain the land in the ultimately fatal struggle, than perhaps any other green ma- * Ruffin’s Agricultural Survey of S. C., 1843, p. 81. t This should be the Agrostis stricta or vulgaris—the Red Top of the North. Some writers designate tt as the one species, some as the other. t Roffin’s Agricultural Survey of 8. C., 1843; Appendix, p. 9. || Unless, however, the soil contains more organic matter than I suppose to be the case with many of your sandy coils, theory and practice both show that lime will not prove the proper manure. Though ex. ceedingly valuable in its piace, experience shows that it is no agricultural panacea. J shall allude to this sub- ject more fully ic a subsecuent letter ; F SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH aed nuring crop. But on the silicious grazing soils of Southern New-York, it is rarely used exclusively as a manuring crop, and is but little used, ex- cepting slightly admixed with timothy, for pasture or meadows.* I think it should be used more; but the fact stated shows that clover is not re garded by practical men, who are perfectly familiar with it, as that indis- pensable crop, in all situations, which some of its more extravagant pane- gylists wazld lead us to suppose. The conclusions which I would have ou deduce from the above facts and statements are, simply, that if clover is found to flourish with you without extra trouble and expense, you will do well to make use of it in your rotation; if not, it is chimerical, in my judgment, to engage in an expensive struggle with natural disadvantages to force its cultivation. The herds-grass (red top) spoken of by the Milton Society, is a good grass on moist (but not boggy) soils, and having been found to succeed with you, is worthy of trial in such situations, but on dry soils, especially on arid sands, it would entirely fail. Nor have 1 much confidence in either timothy or spear (blue) grass, in such situations, in your latitude— none at all in the former. It would be well, probably, to try limited experiments with all grasses, domestic and foreign, which have succeeded well on sovls simalar to your own ; as among these, some may be found which disregard climate, or are even better fitted to your climate than their indigenous one, as was tho sase with timothy at the North. The same remark is also true in rela- tion to certain other esculents which are used as substitutes for the grasses, and for green manuring crops. Notwithstanding the evident propriety of such experiments, I am strongly inclined to the opinion that it is to your own native grasses and esculents, or those of some kindred climate, you must look mainly for the basis of your grazing husbandry—-and through this, the amelioration of your poor and exhausted soils. I regret that I can find no list of those native grasses which sward over the deserted lands of the tide-water zone, and flourish with a tropical lux- uriance in its swamps. You allude to them as ‘ native” grasses, so does Mr. Ruffin. Mr. Seabrook, in his Report on Cotton Culture,t speaks of “crop grass,” by which I suppose he means Crab grass, (Panicum san- guinale,) coming up spontaneously after spring-sown peas; but farthea than this, neither of you specify varieties.|| Among these indigenous ones, particularly those which spontaneously make their appearance on dry lands, it would be exceedingly singular if there are not several very valua ble grasses for your soils and climate—grasses the seeds of which should form a part, if not suitable for the whole sowing, on the same kinds of soils on which they are found flourishing. Crab grass grows in all parts of the southern States, and is a fair, though not a very superior pasture and meadow grass. Golden millet ( Panicum milliaceum) is a great producer and withstands Sa 1 Know of but very few farmers excepting myself, in this, (Cortland,) one ae wee UT © es eae oe a Ty Vee cr vet ES po Hy é a) ee LETTER IV. THE ADAPTATION OF THE SOILS, HERBAGE, &e. OF THE SOUTHERN STATES TO SHEEP HUSBANDRY, CONTINUED. 2. OF THE MIDDLE OR HILLY ZONE. 3. OF THE MOUNTAIN REGION. Climate, Soils, and Productions of the Middle or Hilly Zone—Its evident Adaptation to Sheep Husbendry .-- The Mountain Region... Altitudes of different Ranges and Peaks—Their general Shape—Freedom from Rocks, Precipices, &c...'!'able Lands—Their Geological Formations—Products...Mr. Clingman’s Letter describing the Roan and other Mountains in North Carolina...Mr. Buckley’s Counter Statements... Mr. Earle's Description of the Mountains in Henderson and Rutherford Counties, North Carolina. ..Col. Cols- ton’s Statements in relation to the Mountains in Berkley County, Virginia. ..Hon. A. Stevenson’s in rela — tion to the Blue Ridge, and the Mountains in the South-west of Virginia—Hon. W. L. Goggin’s in relation to the same...Judge Beatty’s Account of Sheep Husbandry on the Cumberland Mountains—Mr, Kramer's .--Mr. Buckley’s Views in relation to the North Carolina Mountains examined and objected to. .-Climate™ of the Roan and others compared with that of the Grazing Lands of New-York. . Statistics showing the Forwardness of the Seasons and the Temperature in New-York...Effect of Elevation on Temperature On Vegetable Productions. Dear Sir: The middle or hilly zone is high, dry, healthy, and has a mild and, compared with the North, equable climate.* Its soils possess the ingredients due to its formation—disintegrated granite—and are far more fertile than those of the lower zone. Sometimes on the summits of the hills they are poor and thin, and there are occasionally extensive ranges of poor land, as in Virginia; but asa general thing, they vary from fair to good; and on the bottom lands of some of the rivers and larger creeks, they possess remarkable fertility. The valleys, however, are generally narrow, and are everywhere the bed of streams, which abundantly water this whole region, and furnish inexhaustible facilities for mills and manu- factories. ‘The slight cohesion of the soil, aided by the face of the country and the system of tillage pursued in many parts of it,t render it peculiarly subject to washing by heavy rains. The hill-sides are frequently cut into deep gullies, rendering aration difficult,t and the surface soil is washed into the valleys and into the beds of the creeks, not only impoverishing the high lands, but, by impeding the courses of the streams, in some regions converting those of the valleys into unhealthy marshes.|| Grasses suited to the climate flourish when sown, and on lands not ut- terly worn out, throughout all this region; and there is little doubt that every variety which could be acclimated on the sands of the lower zone, could be more readily acclimated here—and probably various others. The pea succeeds in nearly every situation; oats also form a valuable ma- nuring crop in some parts; while on many of the alluvial bottoms, such, for example, as the Blackjack lands of South Carolina—rye grows luxuri- antly, answering a valuable purpose either for grain, manure, or for winter * The range of the thermometer is sometimes 60° to 75° in a single month (March or April) in New- York ! t That is, a constant succession of clean tillage crops, such as cotton, corn, and tobacco. t Phe Fishing Creek Agricultural Society, in their Report before quoted from, say: “The only really waste land we have is our old fields, many of which are so washed and gullied as to be absolutely irre- clafmable.” Mr. Ruffin says that “the destruction both of soil and of fertility has been enormous” from this cause. || “ The country was, at first, as its features indicated, nearly free from malaria and all its noxious effects But as soon as the incessant and injudicious use of the plow caused the soil to be wasbed from the hilly ounds into the buttoms, the before unobstructed clean bordered channels of all the small streams were led and clogged with earth, and vegetable rubbish, and fine> matter, and the adjacent low lands were thereby rendered swampy. The washing of the high land earth into the valleys so altered the original sur- face level as to killthe trees; and their decay, and, later, the obstructions by their fallen trunks, increased the general evi... .. I infer” that these causes “have mainly served to nourish malaria and increase the paalignity of disease.” [Ruftin’s Ag. Survey of S. C., 1843, p. 96.) | S SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SCUTH. 43 = SS eee feed for stock. In this last particular, it would be, as I have before sa’d. an important auxiliary in sheep husbandry. The adaptation of most of this region to sheep husbandry is too obvious to require extended comment; and it becomes, therefore, simply a ques- tion of profit and loss, whether it is expedient to introduce it.* Let us turn: therefore, to the adaptation of the mountain region to this branch of industry The altitude of the southern mountains, witha few exceptions, is nol very considerable. The loftiest, the Black and the Roan, in North Caro- lina, are respectively 6,476 and 6,038 feet in hight. The Peaks of Otter, the highest, and summits of the Blue Ridge in Virginia, are 4,250, and the highest Alleganies 2,500 feet high. Table Mountain in South Carolina is about 4,000, and the terminal masses of the Blue Ridge in Georgia are about 1,500.t. - The hight of the Cumberland Mountains, the most western chain, I nowhere find stated, but they are not reputed as high as some of the preceding. It will be seen, therefore, that none of the southern moun- tains rise above the range of the grasses. ‘They are usually broad at the base, easy of ascent, and rounded or flattened on their summits, instead of rising from narrow bases into steep pyramidal forms with conical peaks ; and from their geological formations and their shape (resulting probably from that formation,) they are uncommonly free from exposed rocks, preci- pices and abrupt acclivities. With the exception, perhaps, of the Cum- berland chain, large, exposed rocks abound far less, on most of these mountains than in many parts of New-England, or even the Old Red Sand- stone region of Pennsylvania, which are not only pastured, but plowed! Indeed, a side-hill plow, drawn by oxen, could be used on very many of, the southern mountains, if cleared, to their very summits; and this is true, singular as it may appear, of some of the loftiest of them.{ The Cumber- land Mountains are spoken of by Doct. Morse, as “ stupendous piles of craggy rocks,” and in these statements he has been followed by more re- cent geographers. But if this description applies to some portions of the chain, it certainly does not to others, as I shall have occasion to show. On the sides, and sometimes on the summits of the mountains in differ- ent parts of this whole region, extensive plains or table lands, already pretty well covered with wild and domestic grasses and nutritious escu- lents, not unfrequently occur. LEsculents suitable for sheep are to be found in greater or less quantities on nearly all of them. West of the summit of the Blue Ridge, the geological formations, as has before been stated, belong to the Transition period—a rather unusual circumstance in mountain ranges, and undoubtedly more indicative of fertility in the superincumbent soils than the ordinary Primary formation.|| Indeed, they are the same with those of the best grazing lands of South- ern New-York, and subtracting climatic and other§ effects of elevation, they should possess a general correspondence in their properties and pro- ducts, with the latter.§] * This question will be fully discussed in a subsequent letter. ¢ For these altitudes, I am indebted to Professor Mitchell. t For example, the Roan. - || It is true that soils formed from Primary rocks, when suffciently fertile to sustain hertage of any kine are peculiarly adapted to the production of sweet grasses; but mountains of this formation are usually steeper, from the slower decomposition of granite, gneiss, and 3ther Primary rocks, and their steepness ex poses them to increased abrasion, or washing. Hence their soils frequently but thinly cover the recks and are of a meager and lixiviated character. _ § ‘To wit. abrasion and denudation by rains. And, moreover, the “ northern drift” of New-York has auded a little lime to the soils formed trom these rocks, and thus supplied, measurably, a want existing in all of them for most tillage crops. { For example, the “ Slate Hills.” which rise on the west of Augusta, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Fred- erick and some other counties in Virginia, are composed of the same rocks (Hamilton group, including Genesee slate of the New-York system.) which underlie some of the best soils in New-York; ard much ‘of the land between these hills and the Alleganies rests on the same rocks, (Chemung,) which undcrlie the southern grazing region of New-York. ; ? LER ee Soy Bere 44 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. In ascertaining the particular products of these mountains, their climate, and general adaptation to sheep husbandry, I will first call your attention to the often quoted letter from Hon. T. L. Clingman, of North Carolina, to John S. Skinner, Esq., in 1644. Mr. Clingman says : “You state that you have directed some attention to the Sheep Husbandry of the United States, in the course of which it has occurred to you that the people of the mountain regions of North Carolina, and some of the other Southern States, have not availed themselves suffi- ciently of their natural advantages for the production of sheep. Being myself well acquaint ed with the western section of North Carolina, I may perhaps be able to give you most of the information you desire. As you have directed several of your inquiries to the county of Yancey, (I presume from the fact, well known to you, that it contains the highest moun- tains in ary of the United States,) I will, in the first place, turn my attention to that county. First, as to its elevation. Dr. Mitchell, of our University, ascertained that the bed of Tow River, the largest stream in the county, and at a ford near its center, was about 2,200 feet above the level of the ocean. Burnsville, the seat of the court-house, he found to be be- tween 2,800 and 2,900 feet above it. The general level of the country is, of course, much above this elevation. In fact, a number of the mountain summits rise above the hight of 6,000 feet. ‘The climate is delightfully cool during the summer; in fact there are very few ere in the county where the thermometer rises above 80° on the hottest day. An intel- igent gentleman who passed the summer in the northern part of the county (rather the more eleyated portion of it) informed me that the thermometer did not rise on the hottest da~s above 769. ‘ You ask, in the next place, if the surface of the ground 1s so much covered with rocks ae to render it unfit for pasture ? The reverse is the fact; no portion of the county that I have passed over is too rocky for cultivation; and in many sections of the county one may travel miles without seeing a single stone. It is only about the tops of the higher mountains that rocky precipices are to be found. A large portion of the surface of the county is a sort of elevated table-land, undulating, but seldom too broken for cultivation. Even as one as- cends the higher mountains, he will find occasionally on their sides flats of level land con- taining several hundred acres ina body. The top of the Roan (the highest mountain in the county except the Black) is covered by a prairie for ten miles, which affords a rich pasture during the greater part of the year. The ascent to it is so gradual that persons ride to the top on horseback from almost any direction. The sane may be said of many of the other mountains. The soil of the county generally is uncommonly fertile, producing with tolera- ble cultivation abundant crops. What seems extraordinary to a stranger is the fact that the soil becomes richer as he ascends the mountains. The sides of the Roan, the Black, the Bald, and others, at an elevation even of five or six thousand feet above the sea, are covered with a deep, rich vegetable mould, so soft that a horse in dry weather often sinks to the fet- lock. The fact that the soil is frequently more fertile as one ascends is, I presume, attrib- utable to the circumstance that the higher portions are more commonly covered with clouds; and the vegetable matter being thus kept in a cool, moist state while decaying, is incorpo- rated to a greater degree with the surface of the earth, just as it is usually found that the north side of the hill is richer than the portion most exposed to the action of the sun’s rays. The sides of the mountains, the timber being generally large, with little undergrowth and brushwood, are peculiarly fitted for pasture grounds, and the vegetation is in many places as luxuriant as it is in the rich savannah of the low country. “ The soil of every part of the county is not only favorable to the production of grain, but is peculiarly fitted for grasses. Timothy is supposed to make the largest yield, two tons of hay being easily produced on an acre, bnt herds-grass, or red-top, and clover succeed eqnaily well; blue-grass has not been much tried, but is said to do remarkably well. A friend showed me several spears which he informed me were produced in the northern part of the county, and which by measurement were found to exceed 70 inches in length. Oats, rye, potatoes, turnips, &c., are produced in the greatest abundance. “ With respect to the prices of land, I can assure you that large bodies of uncleared, rich land, most of which might be cultivated, have been sold at prices varying from 25 cents to 50 cents per acre. Any quantity of land favorable for sheep-walks might be procured in anv section of the county at prices varying from one to ten dollars per acre « The few sheep that exist in the county thrive remarkably well, and are sometimes perm mitted to run at large during the winter without being fed and without suffering. As the number kept by any individual is not large enough to justify the employment of a shepherd to take care of them, they are not unfrequently destroyed by vicious dogs, and more rarely by wolves, which have not yet been entirely exterminated. ‘‘T have been somewhat prolix in my observations on this county, because some of your inquiries were directed particularly to it, and because most of what I have said of Yancey is true of the other counties west of the Blue Ridgé. Haywood has about the same elevation and climate as Yancey. The mountains are rather more steep, and the valleys somewhat vee ie Biss - 4 Se eS ee we eee ee ee Oe ee SHEEP HUSBANDRY INTHE sovurn. 45 —_— broader ; the soil generally not quite so deep, but very productive, especially in grasses. In some sections of the county, however, the soil is equal to the best I have secn. “ Buncombe and Henderson are rather less elevated; Ashville and Hendersonville, the county towns, bemg each about 2,200 feet above the sea. The climate is much the same, but a very little warmer. The more broken portions of these counties resemble much the mountainous parts of Yancey and Haywood, but they contain much more level land. In- deed the greater portion of Henderson is quite level. It contains much swamp land, which, when cleared, with very little if any drainage, produces very fine crops of herds-grass. Por: tions of Macon and Cherokee counties are quite as favorable, both as to climate and soil, as those above described. I would advert particularly to the valley of the Nantahalah, in Ma- con, and of Wheoh, in Cherokee. In either, for a comparatively trifling price, some ten or fifteen miles square could be procured, all of which would be rich, and the major part suf- ficiently level for cultivation, and especially fitted, as their natural meadows indicate, for the production of grass. “ Tn conclusion, I may say, that as far‘as my limited knowledge of such matters authorizes me to speak, I am satisfied that there is no region that is more favorable to the production of sheep than much of the country I have described. It is everywhere healthy and well watered. I may add, too, that there is water-power enough in the different counties com- posing my Congressional District to move more machinery than human labor can eyer place there—enongh, perhaps, to move all now existing in the Union.” A writer in the Albany Cultivator, Mr. 8. B. Buckley, of Yates county, New-York, who has visited these mountains, thus objects to the views of — Mr. Clingman : “These mountains have a cold, damp climate, the summits of the highest being covered with clouds and mists a large portion of the summer season. Cold rains are of frequent oc- currence, doubtless causing the deep vegetable mould alluded to by Mr. C. A large por- tion of the county of Yancey is an elevated table-land which is so damp and cold that the inhabitants do not raise corn sufficient for their own consumption. ..... Mr. Husted in- formed me that in many seasons there was scarcely a month in the year without frost . . . . that he had been on the top of the Roan on the 25th of June, when a snow storm arose and completely covered the mountain, and that there were few days in the year but that it was foggy on the Roan. . . . . I have ascended most of the high mountains in that State, and rarely without encountering a storm, or finding their tops covered with mists, which disap- peared in the cool of the evening, to be resumed by the warming rays of the morrow’s sun. In encamping on the mountains, I generally found the thermometer to range from 45° to 60° and on the high mountains, during the day, it seldom rose above 65°. he inhabitants of the valleys pay great attention to the raising of cattle and horses, which, in the summer sea- son, are turned upon the mountains in what is termed ‘the range,’ which consists of tall weeds, native grasses, and in many places white clover has become naturalized. * * * * “‘ These remarks will apply more or less to the mountainous region of Haywood and Ma- con counties, from which we conclude that they are not suitable to the raising of fme-wooled sheep, judging from their elevation, damp and cold climate, which, as before remarked by Mr. C., creates a deep vegetable mould, in which a horse will sink up to the fetlock. And would not sheep sink in also, and be liable to have the foot-rot? And in yeaning time would not many lambs be lost from the frequent cold rains so common there during the month of May ?’’* In a previous communication in the Cultivator the same writer says :T “On the 12th of May I arrived at Ashville, (the capital of Buncombe county, ) intending to visit Mt. Pisgah, a high conical mountain in full view, about twelve miles distant, over- topping its neighbors. I was told that the season was not far enough advanced to bring vegetation forward on the high mountains. . . . The climate of this region is not much, if any, warmer than that of Western New-York. During the summer of 1842, the thermume- ter ranged generally from 70° to 85° in the valleys, while on the mountains it was frequently about 60°, and sometimes much lower. .. . . When I left the southern portion of Alabama, it was the middle of March; the woods were green, with their full expanded leaves; in about a week I had reached the elevated region south of Huntsville, in the northern part of the State, where the leaves had not yet attained half their usual size. Krom the 1st to the 10th of April, im Middle Tennessee, the leaves were nearly full grown and the inhabitants wore busy in planting corn; but at the middle of April, for thirty miles on the table land of the Sumberland Mountains, the trees had. just begun to put forth their leaves, and the ground was white in the morning witha severe frost. “On descending into the plains of East Tennessee, the country was green with verdure, and the farmers were there also busy in planting corn, and now, the middle of May, amang * See Albany Cultivator, 1846, p, 242. t Ib., 1846, p, 174 y P P 46 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH er the mountains of North Carolina, I found myself where vegetation had scarcely clothed the — plains and woods with green, while the leaves of the high mountain trees were about half — wn. I should also remark that the spring of 1842 was from two weeks to a month ear ter than usual.” I record a portion of the last extract for subsequent reference ; anc the object of these communications being to arrive at the truth, aua uct to wae a favorite hobby, or,advance a preconceived theory, I have thought it proper to give the substance of all this gentleman’s remarks, embodying © ns they do a// the objections, real or supposed, which exist against the highest mountains in the whole Southern States for the purposes of sheep husbandry. Per contra, we have the following statements of Henry M. Earle, Esq., of Pacolett, Rutherford Co., North Carolina : * “ On the question whether wool-growing will succeed in North Carolina or not, I would say that it depends entirely upon the exertions used, as I am thoroughly convinced that the country and climate are altogether favorable. The objections raised by Mr. Buckley, if they existed in all the mountain region, might be considered serious; but as they can only be of- fered against a few very high mountains, situated in the midst of many other mountains, and far from any level or plain country, such a hiding place as he speaks of would not be such a lace as persons raised iu civilized or refined society would wish to settle in. The Roan and Black Mountains were selected by Mr. Thos. Clingman, because they were the most elevated and noted mountains in Yancey Co., and not, I presume, because he thought th would afford the best pasturage for sheep; if so he was mistaken. On those mountains an in their vicinity are the finest grazing lands for cattle ; and so there is in the low, marshy iand of South Carolina; but neither location is favorable for sheep. I agree with Mr. Buck- ley, ‘that 2 large portion of the county of Yancey is an elevated table land, which is so damp and cold that the inhabitants frequently do not raise corn sufficient for their own con- sumption.’ ‘This 1s partly owing to the climate ; but mostly to the character of many of the inhabitants of those sparsely inhabited regions, where they too frequently depend upor. the success of the chase for the largest portion of their subsistence. ‘But if Mr. Buckley, or any other gentleman of observation, will come 60 miles far- ther south—or the line of the Blue Ridge, into Henderson and Rutherford counties, about the Tryon Mountain, which is the first that he will ascend in rising up from the level conn- try east of the Blue. Ridge, along the Howard-Gap Turnpike—high on the acclivity of the Tryon he will find a bench of land which possesses a very peculiar characteristic. At night, generally, there is a pleasant breeze, and for several miles along the mountain side there is never any dew to be found, and it is very rare that they have frost except in winter; and when the whole country above and below is covered with sleet, along this mountain side. there is none. Here grow the finest native grapes that I ever saw, and the fruit crop never fails. And here are grown the heaviest wheat and rve in all the country. Here the inhabit- ants have the first dawn of the morning sun, and persons unaccustomed. to the view fanc that they can almost see him coming up from the watery deep. On the eastern side of this — mountain is the earliest pasturage in spring, and the latest in the fall that is found im the whole range of mountains. “This location is about 46 miles E. 8S. E. from Ashville, and 20 miles S. 8. W. from Rutherfordton. Here two of those ever persevering men from the North, called Yankees, have commenced to wall in a vineyard, and to cultivate the broom-corn for manufacturing brooms. They have the purest water that flows out of the earth, and around them are beautiful cascades more than a hundred feet high, and above them the toppling peak of the Tryon. 0 Thousands of persons throng this mountain region during the summer, to enjoy the pure, bracing atmosphere, which on the eastern face of the mountain is dry and healthful; but farther back, in the mountains of the French Broad, there is much more dampness and heavy fogs. “You may readily conclude that along the eastern slopes of these mountains, the climate and country are finely adapted to the growth of wool, as may also be seen by many of the fine flocks of native unimproved sheep, which wander here untended, regardless of wolves or dogs, the‘r greatest enemies. “For two hundred miles along the eastern slopes of these mountains, south, there are situations well suited for large flocks of sheep, and land is cheap. In many places it dove not cost more than 20 cents per acre, and very fair land may be had for 40 cents per acre. ’ Tm an Address,* remarkable for the force and pertinency of its sugges — * See Albany Cultivator, 1846, pp. 335-336. + Delivered in Martinsburg, Va., Oct. 30th, 1845, hefure the Berkley County Agricultural Society, pab lished in the Valley Farmer, Dec. 1845, and Jan. 1846. x SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. AT — tions, Col: Edward Colston, of Berkley county, Virginia, makes the fol- lowing statements : | “The western part of our county, containing perhaps 30,000 acres, is mountainous. I have ridden there for ten miles without seeing a human habitation, and although from its abundant herbage it might sustain for its owners 20,000 head of sheep, not a single one is te - he found grazing on its surface. In this region may be found, also, much land fit for culti+ ‘yation, with fine meadows and abundant water. Yet all this is worthless to our community, and a dead capital to the proprietors. There is territory and grass enough here to be di- vided into three or four sheep-walks, each sustaining from 3,000 to 4,000 sheep during the sumimer, with meadow and arable land enough, at a small expense, to provide amply for winter sustenance.” Hon. Andrew Stevenscn, of Virginia, in a letter to Mr. Skinner,* says: ‘Virginia has many advantages for breeding sheep, not surpassed in the United States The middle part of the State, and especially the whole range of the south-west Mountains and Blue Ridge, afford the greatest facilities for fine sheep-walks. Hills covered with fine herbage, extensive inclosures, abundance of running water, and well sheltered by trees against the heat and sun of summer.” The following extracts are from a communication in the Monthly Jour- nal of Aericulture,t by Hon. W. L. Goggin, who recently represented the District he describes in Congress : “ Bedford, the county in which I reside, is bounded on the south side by the Staunton River, on the north by the James River, while its western extremity, the whole length, reaches the top of the Blue Ridge. .... The Peaks of Ottert are situated in this county, on the north-west corner—they are not only beautiful themselves, when seen as they are in the distance, but the whole range of the Blue Ridge presents, perhaps, here, the most inter- esting view of the kind in the State. These mountains afford an unlimited range for stock, end the advantages for sheep-walks (mild as is the climate, combined with the productive- ness of the soil) that are nowhere equaled, as is believed, except by similar situations in the neighboring counties. .... Ranges for sheep may be had at a very reduced price on ‘he mountains, and where, too, could be produced all the grasses in which they delight, such is the red and white clover, the meadow fox-tail, short blue meadow-grass, lucern, rye-grass, &c. These advantages, and then the beautiful, clear streams which abound in all the moun- tam regions, invite a pastoral life.” Speaking of Amherst and Nelson counties, he says: * The ranges for stock here, too, are extensive, and the beautiful, rich mountain sides inter- spersed with farm-houses, some of them even elegant mansions, betoken an independence among the inhabitants that is often found in such situations. Many of the mountains, to their very summits, are covered with the richest verdure.”” Of Madison and Greene coun- ties he says: ‘“‘ Here, too, are abundant ranges, and the wonder is that sheep husbandry is ‘not introduced.” i The character of the loftier mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, for the production of grasses, would seem to leave no doubt, in this par- ticular, in regard to the lower ones which form the prolongation of the same chains in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Let us now turn our glance to the great western chain—the Cumberland Mountains-—in Kentucky and Tennessee. The following extracts are from a communication published by Hon. A. Beatty in the American Agriculturist : “ But it is not upon our high-priced rich lands alone that we can carry on sheep husbandry to advantage. Kentucky has a belt of hill and mountain country, bordering on the Virginia line on the east, and on the rich lands of the State on the west, averaging about seventy-five miles in width, extending from the Ohio River and Big Sandy, latitude 38° 30/, to the Tsn- uessee line, 36° 30’ north. The whole of this region is admirably adapted to sheep inus- bandry ; the most northern part but a few minutes north of my residence, and extending about two degrees farther south. The lands are very cheap: the State price of those not et appropriated only five cents per acre, and those purchased second-hand, more or less unproved, may be had from 25 to 50 cents per acre, and still less when unimproved. This ‘country in a state of nature furnishes, during the spring, summer, and fall months, a fine range for sheep, and is aes of great improvement by clearing up and sowing the cul tivated grasses for winter feeding. This whole country is finely adapted to the Spanish * Monthly Journal of Agriculture, July, 1845, pp. 37-39. Te.. October 1845, pp. 181-182 t The loftiest mountains, as before stated, of Virginia. ‘ e 48 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. mode of sheep husbandry. Very large flocks might be driven to the mountain region, some thirty to sixty miles from the rich lands, immediately after shearing time, grazed till late im the fall, and then brought back to be sustained during the winter on the luxuriant biae— grass pastures of the rich lands of the interior. ‘ ‘4 ‘A very intelligent friend, residing in the southern part of the above district of country, speaks of it in the following terms: ‘ One of the strongest proofs of this region of country being favorable to the growing of sheep stock is that we are sitaated in the same degree of north latitude with the sheep-raising parts ot Spain—Leon, Estremadura, Old Castile, &e.— only that our mountains are more richly and abundantly clad with luxuriant wild and fern, pea vine, and shrubbery, than the mountain regions of Spain, where they raise auch abundant stocks of sheep. Wayne County, witha few adjoining counties, affords more fine water-power than any country of the same extent that I have ever known; and for health, and fine, pure drinking water, no country excels it on the face of the globe. Now is the time to commence the business of sheep husbandry, while land can be got almost for— nothing. It is worthy of remark that our sheep, which are suffered to roam and graze in the mountains altogether, produce about one-fourth more wool at a shearing than the sheep that are raised and grazed altogether on our farms, and of much better quality.’ In an- other part of his letter he says: ‘The tops of the mountains of Spain are sterile, without — verdure, producing no food for sheep, or other anlmals, to graze on. Our mountains are quite different. They are thickly clad from bottom to top, and all over the top, with fine rich wild grasses and shrubbery of every variety, for stock to graze on. In the midst of our mountains are to be found a great abundance of salt water and stone coal of the finest quality, together with a great variety of mineral waters and pure springs.’ “‘ Another friend, residing in Knox County, writes to me: ‘ My sheep upon my farm, ad- joining Barboursville, do not thrive, even with pasture and winter food, like the sheep in the extremities of the county, which have neither pastures nor winter food, except what they get in the woods. Without cultivated grasses of any description, sheep will live and — do well all the winter, subsisting on the spontaneous growth of the country.’ “ Another friend, residing in the northern po:tion of the above-described mountain region, writes that ‘the counties of Carter and Lawrence, and the eastern portion of the State, are admirably adapted to sheep husbandry. ‘There are several flocks ut sheep in this neighbor- hood that thrive and increase wondertully, running at large, at little cost or trouble to their owners. Many flocks have no other reliance, during the winter, but what they get in the woods. The great advantages of this country for sheep husbandry are, the cheapness of the land, it adaptation to grasses, grain, and roots—its healthfulness. Sheep delight in moun-— tain or hilly land; the natural evergreens and shrubbery upon which sheep can feed and subsist on in winter; though it is not safe to rely altogether upon these.’ ” Mr. C. F. Kramer of Woolverly Farm, Marion Co. Tennessee, ir a com- munication in the Nashville Agriculturist,* says : “ After having spent part of the years ’43 and ’44 on different parts of the Cumberland — Mountains—the part of Tennessee more particularly recommended by all writers in your — journal, and others, for sheep-walks—I have, since last fall, settled on a portion of them near Jasper, Marion Co. and will, as briefly as possible, give you the result of my experi- ence, which will, I believe, fully remove any erroneous impressions hitherto made. . ‘« First, as to climate: The extreme salubrity of the mountains makes them the general — refuge of the sick. Sheep here are remarkably healthy, and exempt from disease. The temperature is very even, varying during summer seldom more than from 75° to 80° of — Fahrenheit, nor in winter more than from 45° to 30°. Snow during the two winters, little as there was of it, never remained forty-eight hours on the ground. “ The forest, so far from being dense, seldom contains more timber, after cutting out the — | smaller growth, as dogwood, &c. than is desirable for woodland pasture. j . ‘The rocks, as far as my rambles have extended, are ‘few and far between.’ The bet — ter spots of soil (and there are enough to provide every farm with sufficient remunerating — arable land, under a provident and enlightened system of tillage) are covered with nutri- — tious weeds, as pea-vine, &c. &c. which are nearly all greedily devoured by sheep and cate _ tle, and on Sica they fare well. The poorer soil is covered with sedge-grass, which my sheep have invariably eaten with avidity. «« When our herds and blue grass lands, which we are aying down, will be fit for pastur — ing, the cost of wintering will be greatly reduced, as the former yields good grazing mFeb- | ruary—the latter during the whole winter. Our young cattle kept in good condition on the — winter-range and two ears of corn per head per day. is “ Although the wolves of our mountains are larger than those of the prairies, and may be mure difficult to exterminate entirely, yet, thanks to our good hunters, their ranks have already so thinned that they mostly prowl about alone, or at most in pairs, committing their depredations by night, on the sheep and hogs that are left to stift for themselves. ‘In the : | : ! * June, 1846. € SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 49 two years that I have been here, I know of but two instances of their having attacked young stray cattle by night. By day, sheep are perfectly safe ; and, I should presume that every good sheep-master would have his flocks, for inspection, home at night, when any common ince will be an ample safeguard for them.” To recur, for a moment, to Mr. Buckley’s statements in relation to che Roan and some of the contiguous mountains in North Carolina—if we concede all his positions to be correct—it but proves that they are excep- tions to a general rule. But a review of his facts, it seems to me, scarcely justifies his conclusions. The vegetation which seemed so backward to him, coming from the warmer climate of Alabama and Lower Tennessee, was in fact but little, if any, later than that of the elevated grazing lands of Southern New- York. The following table* will show the average forwardness of the seasons at the location of fifty-eight Academies, scattered over New-York, for a term of fifteen years. And these Academies, as would be supposed, are rarely found on the high bleak hills. In fact, the number in the south- erm grazing region is but small, and they are mostly on the low bottoms of the larger streams. ‘The same remark will also apply to the hich region between the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain. TABLE NO. 5. Mean Date. No. of Localities. | No.of Observations Shadbush in bloom......... iy ave arenes: May i 48 168 Peach GOs Soccuddeseshsessooese Stare Nh | 57 175 Currants GOR trata tercinietat SGDaooneES oe 4 58 269 Plum Ova Matatastsies ie ooesoe 2006 Hf 6 52 264 Cherry Gs Goonododsoonsoocoooe= PS eh 52 250 Apple @@- 0 sconsscosesoass5ss6005 “15 59 374 Strawberries ripe.............---.------ June 12 58 210 Hay harvest commenced............---- July 18 34 127 W heat do. LO Se RT Ui Creat OS 45 186 Wirstkilling, MYTOSt-.cacs.< { SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH 3] — Ararat the common vegetables of Armenia; half way up, those of Italy and France; and upon the summit, those of Scandinavia. Forster saw several Alpine plants upon the moun- tains of Terra dd Fuego.” Mr. Mudie also remarks : “Tf we take each mountain as the index of its own meridian, we shall find that each one expresses, by its vegetation, all the varieties of climate between it and the pole:’”” Humboldt, and our own Doct. Forry, notice. an equally striking deveiop ment of this law, on the Western Continent.t This would go to show what I have little doubt is the fact, (my impres- sions, too, being strengthened by a comparison of latitude, elevation, and recorded.thermometrical observations,) that on the sides of the Roan and. other lofty mountains of North Carolina, and pretty well up on their sides, too, the climate is not greatly dissimilar from that on the high grazing lands of New-York and New-England. On the sweetest and best of the latter, white clover always comes up spontaneously, and will immediately _re-sward any field thrown out of tillage. It sometimes flourishes on soils of ordinary fertility, but never on very sour or boggy ones, or on those the poachy character of which would render them liable to communicate hoof-rot or other diseases. It indicates, most decidedly, both a soil and. climate fitted for sheep. You will not understand, Sir, of course, that in the remarks made and facts stated, at so great length, in relation to three or four mountains, my object has been simply to refute the views of Mr. Buckley in relation to them. In a region of 70,000 square miles, the unadaptation of half a dozen mountains, or a much greater number, to this or any other branch. of husbandry, would be of but little comparative importance. Anticipat- ing, however, the croakings of the timid—the exaggerated counter state- ments of those rash and sanguine men who are ever ready to rush into whatever is mew, without judgment to guide or perseverance to sustain. them : who abandon their undertakings at the first obstacle, and apologize for their ficklety by magnifying the difficulties encountered by them: I deemed it expedient to lay before you some useful data for comparisons, ‘and conclusions,) which will be equally applicable in the case of all our southern mountains. The hilly and level regions west of the mountains, and lying between them and the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, scarcely require a separate no- tice—particularly after the statements of Mr. Cockrill, given in my second letter. As a whole, they are undoubtedly more fertile, and better adapted | _to the production of the grasses, than those of corresponding latitude, in, _ even the hilly zone, east of the mountains. * Mudie’s World. + Since making the extract above from Malte Brun, I observe the following better, or, at lerst, more defi- - _ Bite expression of the same fact by Doct. Forry: “In ascending a lofty mountain of the torrid zone. the: ' greatest variety in vegetation is displayed. At its foot and under the burning sun, ananas ind plantaing = flourish ; the regions of limes and oranges succeeds; then follaw fields of maize and luxuriant wheat ; ang? ‘still higher, the enries of plants known in the temperate zone. The mountains of temperate gions exh}! bit, perhaps, nse variety, but the change is equally striking.” See Forry’s Climatsof the Uni? ¢ States... - — —— LETTER V. PROFITS OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.—I. DIRECT PROFIT ON CAPITAL INVESTED. Different points of view in which the question of the profitableness of Sheep Husbandry in the Southern States is to be regarded...Direct protit on Capital invested first considered...Average prices of Wool in New-York. .. Average weight of tleece—Price of Sheep—Increase in Lambs—Amount of Manure--.Price of Land...Number of Sheep supported per acre..-Estimate of the Expenses and Profits of 100 Sheep, i taking average prices of Wool for the last fourteen years...Present low prices of Sheep—Causes—Esti- © mate of Protits of 100 Sheep, at present prices of Sheep and Wool. ..Profits far below what they might be — by breeding better Sheep. .-Writer’s Flock—Annual yield of Wool—Prices sold at for six years—Statistics — of Premium Flock...Show that Wool can be produced at a large profit in New-York ot proses TICES... Healthfulness and economy of substituting Mutton for a portion of the Bacon consumed in the Southern — States...Economical advantages which Sheep possess over other animals—No risk by Death—Manure — more valuable—Best clearers of Briery Lands—Improvers of Vegetation...The cost of producing Wool in the South, compared with the cost in New-York..-Number of Sheep which can be supported per acre South—Greater number than on land of the same quality North, by reason of the winter growth of grains and grasses in the former-...Col. Allston’s statement—R. L. Allen’s—Col. Hampton’s—Hon. R. F. Simp- £0n's in relation to the Atlantic States south of Virginia...Price of Lands in those States. ..Winter Vege- tation in Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia- -.Mr. Coles’s statement—John S. Skinner’s. ..Recapitulation. .. F Estimate of Profits on 100 Sheep South—Compared with New-York. .-.Profits on the Southern Mountains — .--Doct. Brockenboro’s statements—Mr. Murdock’s...Economy of Migratory Sheep Husbandry...Advan- — tages for it in the South compared with those of Spain...Drawbacks on Profits of Sheep Husbandry— Dogs and Wolves..-Their depredations compared with those in Australia and the Cape of Good Hope... 4 Remedy. — Dear Sir: In ascertaining the Profits of Sheep Husbandry in the Southern States, several considerations present themselves, apart from the — mere question of direct annual profit or loss on a given investment in Sheep and in land for their subsistence. The more immediate and obvious profit is doubtless the first question; but in regarding the general advan- tages or disadvantages of this branch of husbandry—particularly in a re- gion circumstanced in all particulars as the Southern States are—we are farther to consider the practicability and comparative economy of making it the basis of an effectual amelioration in soils naturally sterile, or these which have been rendered so by excessive and injudicious cultivation; and its comparative efficacy in giving to Southern Agriculture a mixed and convertible character, and thereby sustaining (or improving) all the present good tillage lands, in the place of continuing the “new and old field” system—(tilling land until it is worn out, then abandoning it and — opening new lands,)—once so general, and even now by far too prevalent. — And there is another point of no mean importance : whether, independent of preceding considerations, and even if the staples furnished by sheep husbandry proved no more profitable, in direct returns on capital invemtiiee than some of the present staples, it would not be better economy, on the © whole, for the South to produce the raw material and manufacture domes- tic woolens, particularly for the apparel and bedding of slaves, than to be dependent for them on England or Massachusetts. To ascertain the direct and immediate profit on investment in sheep hus- bandry, let us appeal to well settled facts and statistics, instead of content- ing ourselves with vague and general propositions. For the following Table of the average prices of good wool* in the State of New-York, which was published in my replies to Mr. Walker’s “ Treasury Circular” in * Such wools as are used for the manufactnre of broad and other cloths of good quality—ranging, say. from jth blood Merino to pure Saxon—excluding native, grade (below jth Merino). and all English wools 53 REI y : 4 i 1845,* I was indebted to a most respectable and extensive purchaser of wool, and its accuracy is beyond question. TABLE No. 7. ie Year Average price per pound. } Year. Average price per pou TEE Ass eee ers 40 cents. SUSE Ge a a a gape rs 50 cents. MBBS Hone sees ee eae 50 do. TSV OES Ei Ses cer sc eneatae TES SN 33 do 1834..... a ore geass 45 do. I BAIA ee Bee eee ie ube eae 35 do TASS. oe NO ogy? 48 do. UG Ae es siateysia cla ae eB OREGO ISSO Mise ae eee eee eae 54 do. BASE Serre emitsree ke 5 oe 31 do TAS y/o oe ea es a eee ee Pes 30. do. j NB Aap TaN ea ual siciniarere ote 40 do MBS eae eae ses lee ie 36 do | PSF BSe see Sees Ses ee 32 do it will thus be seen that for a period of fourteen years preceding 1845, the average price of good wools was 394 cents per pound.t The average weight of fleece in sheep yielding this wool has been about 3 lbs.; the pure-blood Saxons less; but those bearing the coarsest wool included, in the average, more. The average price of sheep of the quality under consideration, has been not less than $2 per head in the fall, and lambs half that price.t The an- nual increase in lambs would be about 80 per cent., or if less by reason of the number of wethers in the flock, the growth of the latter would give a corresponding increase in profit. One hundred sheep, properly littered, will make at least forty loads of manure during the one hundred and fifty days during which they are confined to dry feed, in our Northern winters. The grazing lands of New-York, cut up as they are into small farms,|| and each being provided with dwelling and farm buildings, are worth from $15 to $30 per acre. Prime sheep lands will average about $20.§ In relation to the amount of land necessary to support a given number of sheep, the experience of a good many years has satisfied me that the rule commonly laid down on the grazing lands of New-York and New- England, that, on the average, one acre of land will give subsistence to three fine-wooled sheep throughout the year, is an accurate one.] On grain farms, it is considered good economy to keep one sheep for every acre of cleared land which the farm contains; on those where mixed husbandry is practiced, two; and, on those exclusively devoted to sheep, three. _ In the following, and all similar estimates, I shall reckon the profits on the land and expenditures, instead of the land and the commonly quoted prices of grass, hay, &c., consumed. ‘These prices, in the interior, are * See Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 1845, p. 461. I thought, and so stated to Mr. Walker, that the Table placed wools about 1} cents per pound too high. But subsequent information has convinced me that I wasin error. In my statement of the average profits of sheep husbandry, in those replies, I estima- ted the average price of wool by the prices paid by a local and much smaller purchaser, and for a com- paratively limited term of years. I was not then aware of the utter defectiveness of the U.S. Census re- turns (pointed out in Letter IL.) in relation to the annual product of wool, and therefore was misied in the average weight of fleeces; and, speaking from impression rather than experiment, I placed the value of the manure altogether too low. Those questions and:replies have led me into experiments and inquiries, which have resulted in more accurate information. I allude to this subject, because I think it every man's uty to correct any errors or explain any discrepancies subsequently discovered by nim, in his statements which have been thrown before the public, and thus are placed in a position toe mislead. + During 1846 it was from 30 to 32 cents per pound, but as this estimate is not based on extensive pur- chases, like the preceding, I have not placed it in the table. ¢ Including grade sheep, which form the greatest proportion of the whole number. There have been very few pure-blood Merinos in the State, and many of the Saxon flocks have been so miserably deterio- rated in carcass and weight of fleece. that they have sold for low prices. But good Saxons sold much above this until within three or four years; since then, the Merinos have been rapidly driving out the Saxons, and those of good quality and undoubted pedigree have sold for from five to twenty-five times as much. The higher the price, the greater the profits, by reason of the value of the increase. || It weuld be my impression that the farms in the grazing regions do not, on the average, exceed 130 acres each. . : Id est, in the grazing region. TE say “ fine-wooled sheep,” because the larger and coarser Downs, Leicesters, Cotsw olds, é&c. consume _ much more, as will hereafter be shown. be Bae! ut 4 ri ‘ e ,, r as : ; F = i | {=r r ' " fever . eS 54 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH, merely nominal, as they cannot be obtained for beyond a small portion of the annual crop. They do not, therefore, form a proper basis for correct — general estimates. The expenses and losses in keeping sheep, not already alluded to, are all set down below, as high as they will average on well managed farms, ’ Dr. $ cts. cr. $ cs. 100 Sheep to interest on purchase money-...14 00 | By 300 Ibs. of Wool, at 39 4-7 cts. per lb.118 71 3-7 To int. on 33} acres of land at $20 per acre....46 66 | ** 80 lambs at $1 per head.........---- 80 Ov “ curing and storing hay on llacres of above.13 75 | “ 40 2-horse loads of winter manure at “ expense Of shearing. ..---- o202eeneess ene 4 00 50 cents per load.........---.-<0. 20 00 “ galt, tar and summer care........-----.-- 400} “ summer manure, calling it only equal “ labor of foddering, &c., during winter, say. 5 00 to shearing and summer care*..-. “ loss by death 2 per cent. above the value of Total Wee! $226 7137 pulled wool. 2... 22... eee cee cenn oss QOD DE 8 ES A ie seed dbel Oe 2) Total. ... cesnescaccecccoccece- 91 41 | Balavice..3....---00sasaeutee - $135 30 3-7 q worth $20. Since the passage of the Tariff of 1846, there has evidently been a panic among the wool-growers of New-York, and the rise in bread-stuffs, beef, pork, and dairy products, occasioned by the change in the British Tariff, and the famine which has prevailed in Europe by reason of the short crops of 1846, has tended farther to depreciate sheep, by offering inducements supposed to be very strong, to embark in branches of husbandry furnish- ing the former staples.t Sheep are consequently cheaper than they ever were before. Prime grade sheep, bearing wool of as good quality as the average of that embraced in Table 7, have in some instances sold for ten shillings per head, and coarse common sheep for one dollar—lambs half a dollar—making, in the ordinary proportion between lambs and grown sheep, about 75 cents per head, taking a flock through! Wool of the quality embraced in Table 7 has fallen to an average of say 31 cents. Under the impression that sheep and wool have reached their minimum prices,{ it becomes an interesting subject of inquiry whether — they can yet be produced, at a profit,in New-York. The following figures I think, will fairly show : Making the net profit of $4.05, or 201 per cent. per acre on lands ; | ~ -. a Dr. $ cts. | Gr. Sas, { 100 Sheep, to interest on purchase money, at By 300 lbs of Wool, at 3L cents per pound...93 00 Br onney HEAG. -weee eee eee ae ae 8 75] “ 80 lambs, at 624 cents per head........-- 50 00 To int. on 33$ acres of land at $20 per acre.-46 66] “ 402-horse loads of winter manure, at 50 ' “ cutting, curing and storing hay on 11 acres * ‘+cents per’ load.--220 - 20220 cewee soe 20 . BhADOVGpe eens. nee aeeee ea 13 75| “ summer manure, calling it only equal to “ expense of shearing. ...--.......-------- 4 00 shearing and summer care. --.-.-.-..-..-- 8 00 : ; * tar, salt and summer care..-.--..----..- 4 00 enone aan Sw | “ labor of foddering, &c. during winter, say. 5 00 “ loss by death 2 per ct. above the value of PUNE WOO)... 2-25 cea ence ese a= sons 2 50 | Patel cantame sea aa $84 66 Balance... ...a0=-es00sseeeeae $86 34 Making $2 59, or nearly 13 per cent. et profit per acre on lands worth $20. In the preceding estimates I have only regarded the profit of sheep hus- bandry, as it has averaged for a series of years, among those possessing good ordinary flocks. * I place the summer manure, undoubtedly, considerably below its actual value. No experienced farmer will say that good solid sheep manure is worth less than 50 cents per load, and as the summer manure ‘a at eas equal in quantity, and is deposited immediately on the tet valuable. t That the diminution of English duties on these staples will give them a better and steadier market, there can be little doubt; but not the very high one of the past season, occasioned by the severe famine which has prevailed in many parts of Great Britain. Many, therefore, who have sacrificed their sheep, reckoning on such prices, will probably find that they have “reckoned without their host.” t I say this under the decided impression that our wools, at this price, if properly washed and put up, would triumphantly compete in the foreign markets with those of the wool-growing nations of Europe; and even with thosr: of Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, and other Austro-oriental regions. For a more full examination of this point, see Appendix D I see no reason why it is not equally SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. DD we ee Se It falls far short of that realized by breeders and flock-masters, whe started their flocks with the best pure-blood sheep then to be found in the country ; and who have subsequently continued to improve them by great care in breeding, and by a rigorous course of selection. I have bred Merino sheep for a number of years, and latterly in consid- erable numbers: and in no case have my grown sheep averaged less than 5 lbs. of well washed wool per annum. ‘The quality of the wool may be inferred from a comparison of the prices at which it has sold, with those in Table 7. In 1846, I sold for 35 cents per pound; in 1844, for 331 cents ; in 1844, for 48 cents; in 1845, for 333 cents; in 1842, for 35 cents, and sc on. 0 To give more precise data, I select the following statement of the pro- ducts of a flock, on which I drew the first premium offered by the New- York State Agricultural Society for “the best managed flock of sheep,” in 1844: [From the Transactions of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, 1844, p. 254.] “Tn the winter of 1843-4, I wintered in a separate flock fifty-one ewes over one year old, two ewe lambs, two rams, one of them one and one of them two years old. Of the ewes over one year old, twenty-eight were full-blood Merinos ; twenty-three were half-blood Me- rinos and half-blood South-Downs; the two ewe lambs were three-fourth-blood Merino and one-fourth-blood South-Down ; and the two rams were full-blood Merinos. The flock were kept as follows through the winter: They were fed hay morning and night, and were, as a general rule, required to eat it up clean. At noon the flock were daily fed three bundles of oats and barley (which had grown mixed, say three parts oats and one part barley,) until the 25th of December—after which they received four bundles of oats. The grain was light and shrunken. They received no hay at noon during the winter, and usually consumed all the straw of the gram fed them. They hada good shelter, and access to pure water at all times. From this flock I raised fifty-three lambs. The full-blood Merinos, including two rams, and the two three-fourth-blood lambs, (in all thirty-two,) sheared one hundred and eighty-six pounds and four ounces of washed wool, which I sold at forty-eight cents per pound. Four of the full-bloods had two years’ fleeces on. The half-blood Merinos and half-blood South-Downs (twenty-three) sheared eighty and one-half pounds of washed wool, seventy-one pounds of which I sold at thirty-eight cents per pound. During the summer of 1844, the flock were kept in good ordinary pasture, and salted once a week.” Thus, the Merino fleeces averaged 5 lbs. 134 oz. and sold for $2 792 each; and the grades between Merino and South-Down averaged 3 lbs. 8 oz. to the fleece, and sold for $1 33 each. It will be observed that four of the full-bloods (they were ewes) had two years’ fleeces on. A two years’ fleece will not weigh as much as two single years’ fleeces from the same sheep. On the average, it will weigh about three-quarters as much.* On the other hand, the lot included two three-quarter-blood lamb fleeces, which would fall below the average weight of the others, and a portion of the flock were yearlings and two- year olds. The Merino neyer attains its maximum weight of fleece before three years old, and ordinarily not until four, and therefore the aggregate weight of wool of the 32 sheep, given above, does not, to say the least of it, give too favorable a view of the product of sheep of this quality. This is proved by the fact that my entire flock of full-bloods sheared about _three-twentieths of an ounce over six pounds each, the succeeding year. It would give me great pleasure to subjoin similar statistics of other carefully bred flocks, were authorized statements of them in my posses- gion, or published within my knowledge. Tt is sufficiently apparent from the above facts and estimates, that woo. has not yet reached the lowest point at which it can be produced at an ample profit, on lands of the value indicated, 7f the shecp are of the proper * That isto say f the singie years’ fleeces would equal 6 lbs. each. atwo years’ fleece, instead of weigh _ Img twice as much, or 12 lbs., wiil not exceed three-quarters of such aggregate weight, or 9 lbs. The wc swastes when it becomes so long, and perhaps does not grow so rapidly. : 26 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH, ; ¥ quality ; and these facts farther suggest the expediency of relying on our — own eflorts to “protect” this interest, rather than the fickle support of 4 National legislation. 4 lor the production of a cheap, wholesome, and highly nutritious foed, — uo animal excels the sheep. Theoretical considerations, as well as exper- 4 iment, show the superiority of mutton to pork in the formation of vigor- — ous muscle ;* and its tendency is less, particularly in hot climates, to en- — gender inflammatory and putrid diseases. The consumption of consider- — able quantities of fat is indispensable, in cold climates, to supply the — necessary amount of carbon to support “ combustion,” as Liebig terms it, in the lungs, or, in other words, to maintain the animal heat. Hence the Laplander and the Esquimaux find a grateful diet ir crain-oil, or the adi- pose parts of Arctic fish and mammalia. That tic pork ehould be the favorite meat, in the Northern States, is not pervaps so singular, but that it (under the name of bacon) should constitute tr¢ principal one consumed ~ in our warm Southern latitudes, and especially taat it should constitute so large a proportion of all the food consumed,r is indeed a most anomalous fact, and is utterly unparalleled among the practices of other nations oceu- pying the same latitudes. The tendency of this practice to produce dis- ease, physical inertia, indisposition and incapacity to sustain continued activity, will not, I think, be questioned by the pathologist or the close observer. Mutton and lamb are a favorite, if not the favorite food of the English of all classes. Notwithstanding all that has been said and written of the — “roast beef” of “ Old England,” mutton is more eaten there by people of every rank.t On the other hand, it is evidently not a favorite meat in the United States, though its proportionable consumption is evidently increas- ing. Whence the difference ? Circumstances have led to habit, and habit, in a great measure, regulates appetite. It needs no other proof than is to be found in the experience of every individual, to show that the appe — tite is readily trained to relish what was even positively disgusting, and to become indifferent to what was once the most grateful. : That the preceding facts are well worthy of attention among those who are favorable to the introduction of sheep husbandry, among planters who supply not less than 3 lbs, per week of good bacon, or a full equivalent, to each slave, on plantations where the number ranges from ten to one hun- dred, and sometimes many more, there can be little doubt. Twenty-five slaves would thus consume 3,900 lbs. of bacon per annum; and the more common allowance of the opulent planter is about 200 lbs. per head, or 5,000 lbs. for twenty-five. If an equivalent for at least half of this was * The theoretical considerations will be found sufficiently discussed in Liebig’s “ Animal Chemistry.” For experimental evidence, I know of none that can be more depended on—which approaches any nearer actnal demonstration—than that which is furnished by the English prize-fighters. To attain the proper con- dition to sustain the protracted and tremendous exertions of their brutal trade, their flesh must attain the hardness and toughness of sen pe Tas and they must, at the same time, maintain that physical elasticity (technically, “ corkiness,”) which adds agility to iron strength. These men, while training, are suffered te eat little or no adipose matter, and not even the lean of pork. ‘Their animal food is exclusively beef or mutton, or both. Some trainers prefer the former, some the latter. I have seen this matter very fully al- juded to, but do not now remember any more explicit authority than that contained in the following now to Carpenter's Principles of Human Physiology, (p. 357.) “Tbe method of training employed by Jackson, (a celebrated trainer of prize-fighters in modern times ) as deduced from his answers to questions put to him by John Bell, was to begin on a clear foundation bg ar emetic and two or three purges. Beef and mutton, the lean of fat meat being preferred, constituted the principal food; veal, lamb and pork were said to be less digestible (‘the last purges s9me men’), Fish was said to be a ‘watery kind of diet ;’ and is employed by jockeys who wish to reduce weight by sweat- ing.” ‘ I mean this portion of the remark to apply more particularly to the non-laboring classes. The propor- tion consumed by the slave, though ample, is not excessive, when his laboring habits are taken into con sideration {¢ Istare this on the authority of various individuals who have been much in England, and who bave ~ peen placed in positions to form a pretty accurate opinion. Mr. Colman speaks of the “extrao) f eonswuption of mution in England, without, however, giving any comparative data. 7 * | SHEEP. HUSBANDRY IN.THE SOUTH. 57 -—— _ made in mutton, it would be far cheaper, and, if I have not erred in previ: ous statements, better for the slave. _ There are two or three other highly favorable considerations to pe taken into account among the direct profits of rearing sheep. The risk by death, by ordinary causes, is nothing. Two per cent. is al- iowed in the preceding estimates, as the full product of wool and increase is carried out. But, in reality, the sheep never dies “insolvent.” If the colt or the bullock dies on our hands, after two or three years of trouble and expense with it, the loss is nearly a total one.’ If the fine-wooled _ sheep dies at any age, the wool then on it, or what it has already produced, _ more than covers all the cost which it has ever made us.* Not only is the winter manure of the sheep superior to that of any other domestic animal, the hog and fowl excepted, but it practically becomes _ still more so in proportion, in summer, when scattered over the pastures, by reason of the conditions in which it is deposited. The soft porous ex- erements of the cowt or horse, exposed to the exsiccating action of sun and wind, evolve most of their fertilizing properties into the atmosphere, and this effect would increase in proportion to the warmth of the climate. The excrements of the sheep, on the other hand, are deposited in small, hard, rounded pellets, which fall down between the leaves of the grass, and are thus in a great measure protected from the sun and wind, until they are trodden into and incorporated with the soil Then, again, they need no spreading,|| like the dung of the horse and cow. And finally, instinct, in leading the sheep almost invariably to seek the summits of the elevations, in warm weather, for its night quarters, leads it to deposit much more ma- nure in proportion, where it is most needed, on the drier and more barren hill-tops; and where, being more remote from water-courses, less of its - juices are liable to be washed away by rains, into the streams, or on to the lands of others. Sheep are also far more efficient than any other animal (if we except the worthless goat) in clearmg up new lands, or neglected old ones, ot those briers and shrubs which it is often difficult to eradicate without plow- ing; and they often abound on lands which cannot be plowed with profit. And, when plowed, the shrubs in the fence corners must be left (to the utter shame of all good husbandry), or the fence must be removed—some- times at a great inconvenience. The sheep delights to browse on the buds, and to strip the bark of must shrubs,§ and they thus soon destroy them. It would be good economy for the farmer to keep his neighbors’ sheep, with- out charge, on all very briery or coppiced unarable lands, if he could not so stock them himself. Finally, it is generally believed by experienced flock-masters—and ob- servation has led me to fully coincide in the opinion—that sheep not onlv improve the lands they depasture more than any other animal, but that they exert an almost specific influence in improving the character of the vegetation. All wild, poor grasses gradually disappear from their pastures * IT speak, of course, of the cost of rearing and feeding. __ . + Gazzeri found that 100 parts of recent cow-dung contain 25 per cent. of dry, solid matter, and that 5 per %eni. of this is lost in 40 days by exposure to the air. I do not think this indicates the full loss which would de sustained in a southern latitude. { These rounded pellets are covered, too, in the animal in good condition, with a coating of mucus, which farther protects them from evaporation. _{|{ Their urine, also, is voided in quantities which render it highly beneficial; while that of the horse and cow is voided in such large quantities in one place that it is not only in a great measure wasted, but ina dry ime (so that it is not diluted by the moisture in the soil), its rich salts, so far from benefiting, actually kill the verdure. _ 5 This is particularly true of the blackberry or bramble (Rubrus villosus), and the raspberry (Rubus _ sdoeus), often great pests on new or neglected lands at the North. Sheep can even be made to attack the eider (Sambucus canadensis var. pubescens), and various other troublesome intruders, by turning them upon ‘bem in thawing ‘spells,” in the winter, after they have heen for some time confined to dry feed. i ‘ a 58 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. tae . - a and are succeeded by the best ones; and the sward becomes remarkably — dense and even. This is probably due to the richness and better distribu- tion of their dung and urine. ‘ If upward of twenty per cent. profits, over and above all expenditures, have been and still can be made, on lands worth $20. per acre, by wool- growing—on lands, too, where the reign of an iron winter confines sheep to dry feed at least five months of the year—how are we to estimate those profits on lands costing but a small part of this sum, which, though inferior to the former, will, by reason of the shortness and mildness of the winter support about an equal number of sheep per acre, and also save the ex- pense of preparing dry feed, of foddering, and a large proportion of that Jaid out in barns, shelters, &c. ? It will be seen that, by assuming the data of the last of the two preced ing estimates (with the exception of the loss by death), the gross. cost of producing 300 lbs. of wool, on the grazing lands of New-York, is $82 16, or 272% cts. per pound. This is undoubtedly as dow as it can be produced where the fleeces do not exceed the average weight of 3 lbs. Let us now roceed to inquire what would be the gross expense per pound in the Southern States. You inform ine that “ one or two—not more—” sheep find subsistence during the summer on the zatwral pastures of the tide-water zone in South Carolina.* The broad-tailed, and other large breeds, now mainly fed there, consume nearly double the amount of feed required by the fine- wooled sheep. But, to make our estimate perfectly a safe one, we will assume that two fine-wooled sheep only will consume the summer herbage of an acre. Fields of rye sown in September or October, you farther in: form me, will support “two sheep and their lambs” per acre, “ from the 20th of December to the 10th of March.” Numerically, then, here you have the same stocking that is borne by the lands of New-York, viz. three sheep per acre. And, making the allowance already alluded to for the different consumption of breeds, an acre would sustain three full-grown Merino sheep. As the rye subsequently yields its crop, the wool is not chargeable with the expense of its tillage. Rye will continue to grow in the winter on all lands not too sterile, o1 too elevated, south of latitude 36°, and, in favorable situations, at least two degrees farther north. Grass, and some other hardy esculents, alse apap a winter vegetation in many portions of the whole of this re- ion. : R. L. Allen, Esq., after a recent visit to the plantation of Col. Wade Hampton, near Columbia, 5. C., thus speaks of the winter verdure in that region: . ” “Though everything like grass or weeds is rigidly excluded in the early stages of the crops, yet, as these approach maturity, the thick netting of crab and various other grasses and plants, which are ever struggling tor existence in this warm clime, are allowed to come forward and mature; and their growth furnishes forage for cattle and sheep during the win- ter, and an important addition to the vegetable manures for turning under and adding to the fertility of the soil. . . . The sheep, together with the cattle, mules and horses, which are not at work, are turned into the natural pastures in summer, and, in addition to these, they have the run of the corn-fields in winter, and without seeing any other shelter against the severest storms than a thicket or hill-side, they thrive and fatten throughout the year.— This condition is secured by the mildness of the climate, and the consequent growth of vege tation during the entire winter.” * |These statements, and all others credited to Col. Allston, are, when not otherwise specified, contained ¢ letters from that gentleman to the writer.] + Among theee, “a plant called ‘Wild Rye,’ affording excellent herbage during the winter months, springs Rp spontancously on the rice-field banks, and between the cotton beds, on some plantations on the River cal Vonguree, S 7 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN [HE SOUTH. 39 _ John S. Skinner, Esq. thus writes me :* “Col. Hampton’s flock numbers 800, I believe. He kills the finest sort of mutton through out the winter and spring—very fat and excellent in all respects. He told me last summer, at Saratoga, that they never get a mouthful except what they can find in the woods and ’ fields.” Hon. R. F. Simpson, Member of Congress, of Pendleton, South Caro iina, thus describes the region in which he resides, and some of the contig uous ones :T Henry S. RANDALL, Esq. WASHINGTON, Jan. 2%, 1847. Dear Sir: I take much pleasure in answering your inquiries, and only regret that I have not more time to do full justice to the subject. If my answers fail to inform you with suffi cient clearness on any point, I shall be most happy to add to them, at your suggestion. The Allegany Mountains, as you are aware, run from N. E. toS. W. That part of them north of the 8. C. line lies spread out in different chains or ridges to a distance of nearly 50 miles ; and the whole region is commonly called ‘on the mountains.” The ciimate is healthy and the grass fine. Many of the valleys in this region are very rich, particularly on the wa- ter-courses. The ground is covered with snow as much as four weeks annually. The range is good, but there may be too much humidity for sheep.{_ The land is cheap, say $1 per acre—but much can be bought at 50 cents. I have learned from good authority that sheep can be farmed out during the winter at ¢en cents a head, in any ordinary quantity. The farmers who take them, too, will be liable for loss by death, in many instances. There is a strip of country lying east of the Blue Ridge, and parallel to it, from 20 to 30 miles wide, extending through North and South Carolina and Georgia, which I think espe- cially adapted to sheep husbandry. The land is poor for the production of our southern sta- ples, and is sparsely settled, but the pasturage is good. There is a perennial grass, known as ‘woods grass,” which springs up in the woods after they are burned each winter, which makes excellent pasture for all kinds of stock. It starts vigorously in the spring, and sheep fatten on it by the middle of July. It lasts all the summer, and provides sufficient food for sheep during the entire winter, except when snow is on the ground, which is not more than two or three days at a time, and usually not more than ten days during a winter. The few days during which the grass is covered up with snow are the only ones, during the entire year, when it is necessary to feed sheep. ‘This is usually done with oats in the sheaf. . . . Supposing ten sheep equal to one cow, I think one acre would afford sub sistence to three sheep. _ But few people mow here. In a few instances, herds-grass has been sown and mowed, but the product not weighed, to my knowledge. Both herds-grass and. the natural ones, on our bottom lands, look much richer, and to all appearance would turn off a heavier crop of hay than any meadows to be seen on the line of travel through Virginia. As I have before remarked, the land is poor, except the smail bottoms on creeks and branches. The latter are rich, and will produce 30 bushels of corn and from 10 to 15 bush: els of wheat per acre. They also produce oats and rye, but I do not know how much by measurement. I suppose from 10 to 20 bushels each. The land is valued low—from 50 cts. to $1 50 per acre—and it is only necessary to buy $500 or $1,000 worth of it, to embrace sufficient bottom to raise provisions, and oats to feed sheep when snow is on the ground.— The range|| is very large, and everybody’s stock has liberty to roam over it, without hin- drance or compensation. Our common method of managing sheep is as follows: The flock are kept in the planta- tion during the winter by some; others turn out in the woods. In May they are sheared, the lambs marked, &c., and they are turned into the out pastures. When they come up. they are salted, and no other attention is paid to them until fall, when most persons shear again. ‘They are rarely brought up unless to get a lamb for the table. This treatment ren- ders them wild, and prone to jump into the owners’ or neighbors’ wheat fields, fram which they are driven out with rocks and sticks, and sometimes with dogs. They are, in all re- * Jan. 15, 1847. + This letter would have been more appropriately included in my IVth Letter, but was not received ig time, and it is by far too valuable and interesting to be omitted. The effect of humidity on sheep is, I think, often misunderstood and greatly exaggerated. Wet, cid sotis are uncongenial to sheep, but they suffer no more from those ordinary fogs and vapors which prevall in insular positions, or which are attracted by mountain ranges, than other domestic animals. As has been before remarked, sheep thrive in the peculiarly foggy atmosphere of England—also in Holland. Their heelthiness on mountains is proverbial, yet these elevations are usually subject to fogs, and clouds rest on the sides or summits of the lofiier ones. As the southern mountains are cleared of their trees, their atmo- sphere will be less humid, ard that soft vegetable mould (which excited the fears of Mr. Buckley) will ac- quire the consistency which it always dces on a dry foundation, when exposed to the sun and air; and it will be the means of supplying the shecp with rich vegetable nutriment. instead of poisoning them with *hoof-ail.” ‘ ; || The provincial signification of this word, Scuth, is the uninclosed pasturage in the Jorest and “ont fields,’—7. e., worn-out lands thrown out to commons. + ra %, eee = ) ae SS ¥ A Y 7 WG 60 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. “cee spects, treated more like outlaws than domestic animals. When out, all the flocks in the : neighborhood mingle together. From their disposition to ramble, and the incursions of doga, they get scattered, and scarcely any farmer can get up to the fall shearing more than one halt of his count. , . The region above described includes Pickens, Grenville and Spartansburg, so far as this State is concerned. Going east of this strip, you at once get into good land, where the set Uements are frequent. Here snow is rare, and wheat, rye and barley are used for wirter pastures for sheep, and they continue growing during the winter. Wood grass does not abound in this region, as the woods are not kept burnt.” Very respectfully, yours, &c. R. 7. SIMPSON. The preceding statements give a sufficient idea of the expanse of feed- ing sheep in the Carolinas, Georgia, and the Gulf States. In all of these, there is a striking similarity in soils and natural products, and also in cli mate—with, perhaps, the exception of North Carolina, which is a trifle colder. In all of them, as well as in all the other Southern States, land ‘can be bought at the same low prices.t 5 . * The cost of the winter forage of sheep in Tennessee may be inferred from the statements of Mr. Kramer, (in Letter IV.) On even the lofty Cumberland Mountains, in that State, grass grows during the entire win- ter, and snow rarely covers the ground to exceed forty-eight hours! Judge Beatty’s statements in relation to Kentucky (in the same letter) show that the luxuriant blue-grass pastures of that State will sustain sheep during the entire winter; and that they frequently obtain their whole subsistence on the grasses, even on the mountains. Let us now turn to Virginia, the most northern of the Southern States. In a recent letter to me, John 5S, Skinner, Esq. says : “Hon. Mr. Coles, a Member of Congress from Virginia}—a sedate, attentive and practical farmer-—once informed me that his flock of 200 sheep, kept in good condition summer and winter, did not cost him $10a year. . . . . You must know that they, in the generai way, as I believe, never feed their sheep, winter or summer, except where the ground 3s covered with snow—which is rarely the case, and then the snow does not lie more than a day, or at most two days. . . . No doubt winter pasture might be provided by sowing rye in the proper season (the usual system is to sow it the last thing, and as long as the farmer can “ catch a chance”) and putting the ground in good condition; and in that way adequate provision might be made for any deficiency of natural pasture. . . . . When the snow does cover the ground in Virginia, they give the sheep corn-blades—an excellent fodder. I think the rule was when I was a boy (in the rare exigency alluded to). to give them a bundle of blades each. A bundle of blades compacted would be about as large as the upper part of your arm.” North-Western Virginia seems to be considerably colder than the corre- sponding portion of the State east of the mountains; and the winter fod- dering season is not greatly shorter—though the amount of fodder con- sumed must be far less—than in Western Pennsylvania, or in many por- tions of New-York.|| Yet, singularly enough, more ie are bred here in proportion, probably, than in any other portion of the Southern States ! — *~-- * Some other paragraphs from this letter are omitted for quotation under the heads of which they specif: ically treat. t Hon. S. Strong, a Member of Congress from this (N. Y.) State, writes me, after consultation with vari- ous Southern Members, that “ good lands may be purchased for $1 50 per acre, and in great abundance, io most of the Southern States.” Mr. Garret Andrews, of Wilkes Co., Georgia, in a communication in the American Agrieniturist (April, 1844), eaye: “Several hundred acres (in the middle or hilly zone) are often sold for x dollar or less per acre. ‘The usual) rale is to Fell the wood-land for what it may be thought to be worth, and give the pur ehaser the old lands and the houses for nothing. . . . . For $1,000 or $1,500, a comfortable house and out-houses, garden, &c, may be hail, ~vith several hundred acres of land, . . wanting nothing buta fai chance to become as fertile as may be desired. . . . ‘here isno end ofthe materials for manure,” I recently saw it stated by a gentleman in a communication which was published in the N. Y. Farmer an¢ Mechanie, that he was uuthorized to give away good land in the Cumberlund Mountains to sober and indua tricus settlers. The prices in tne N. C, Mountains will be seen from Mr. Clingman’s letter, (Letter IV.) ¢ Mr. Coles resided in Pittsylvania, a county adjoining North Carolina, in the middle or hilly zone. ~ sbecp, fur the winter.” | Jesse Edgington, of Holliday’s Cove, Brooke Co., Va. writes me: “ Our average time of foddering ta at least 4 months, anit we generally provide provender equal to 5 tons of hay for each hundred grows y * 4 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ; 6] _ This region being essentially Northern ‘m its characteristics no allusion will be had to it in subsequent remarks. It will be seen from the preceding statements that in many, if not most situations, throughout the whole Southern States, sheep will obtain sufii- cient food throughout the year from the pastures,* or from autumn-sown grains, excepting on the higher or more northern mountains. As hasbeen e before remarked, as the grain subsequently yields its crop, its tillage is not - properly chargeable among the expenses of producing wool. The prepa- ration of hay, and labor of foddering, are also dispensed with. By the rule of estimation followed in relation to New-Y ork, the items on the debit side of the account would then be—interest on purchase money ; interest on land; expense of shearing; salt, tar, and general supervision; and loss _by death. The items on the credit side would -be the same with those of New-York. Your own statements, Sir, as well as those of Mr. Simpson, show that, in many situations, both in the tide-water and hilly zone, three sheep can be supported on the herbage of an acre, without other fodder. His state- ments show that such lands can be bought at “from 50 cents to $1 50 per acre.’ ‘The annual account then would stand thus: Dr. $ cts. Cr $ cts. 100 sheep—to interest on purchase money, at By 300 lbs. of wool at 31 cents per pound... $93 00 Sle penbeadyants..)-/)0- oot asec seeks $8 75 | ‘‘ 80 lambs, at 624 cents per head.-....... 50 00 To interest on 33} acres of land at $1 50 ..-.. 3} BD) || SO Niterenmreyy sooo so tesSessnastoossceosesoas 28 00 “ expense of shearing.-..---..-....---..-- 4 00 ieee OA WL A bata cs eae ER 171 00 “ salt, tar, and general supervision ...-..... 8 00 ao i * cop al “ loss by death 2 per cent. over and above value of pulled wool .....-...--.....--- 2 50 t UWiall ose so ssasacotsaseasossscsosah $26 75 Balancetsciis sis cee dee able bm ce cclewetlne $144 25; vw TT Making $4 32, or two hundred and eighty-eight per cent. clear profit per acre, on lands worth $1 50! By the respective estimates it will be seen that the gross cost of pro- ducing a pound of wool (allowing 3 Ibs. to the fleece) is, in the Southern States, 8,5, cents ; in New-York 2722 cents{—or nearly three and a half times greater in the latter! I have put down the expense of shearing the same in both cases, and the supervision, South, twice as high as the sum mer care, in the North. Shearing always costs $1 a day, per hand, in the North, and the summer care devolves upon the paid laborer whose every hour counts. The shearing would not be worth to exceed $2 a hundred on a plantation where slaves are kept, and the supervision or care could scarcely be considered an expense, when it could be borne mainly, if not entirely, by superannuated or decrepit slaves, or even by children. The real expense of growing wool on land of this quality and price would be about 5;'; cents per pound ;|| and calling the fleece 4 lbs. (which weight it always ought to be made to attain) it would but little exceed 34 cents.§ This is above Mr. Coles’s estimate of expense in southern central Vir- ginia, and Mr. John 8S. Skinner has repeatedly expressed the opinion that it could be grown in various parts of the Southern States at 3 cents per ~ This supply could be rendered far more certain and available, where desirable, by leaving a portion of the fields undepastured in the latter part of summer and autumn. This “fog” or after-grass would not only afford much food, of itself, but it also greatly favors the sprouting of the young grass wnderneath it, by the protection it offers from frosts and cold winas. 1 1 have put this down the same as at the North, because I suppose it is just as valuable at the South, and quite as much needed. Few are disposed to appreciate the value of manure when it is not presented _ to their view in bulk, as in the barn-yard; but it is worth quite as much, dropped in the first instance _ over the fields. I feel confident that I have not over-estimated its value either for the South or the North. t To ootain these results, I divided the whole annual expense, as set down in the respective estimates, with the exception of,the charge of 2 per cent. for loss by death, by the amount of wool produced. For _ Yeasons already given, I do not consider the wool chargeable with such loss by death, except in an e® timate where the full product of wool and lambs is carried out. In this estimate I call shearing $2 per hundra®, salt and tar $1, and supervision nothirg. Estimated as in the preceding note, ’ . : “\ wv ‘ é be ols : ye ay" - ; ‘ be ; ‘ ae bs? * ha) ea Dae 62 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. . pound.* My own impression, however, is that the land, properly in closed, that will support 3 sheep per annum, will cost, except in ovea-— sional localities, not less than $4 or $5, let the amount be more or less ; and this would bring the cost of production (with 3-lb. fleeces) to between : 7 and 8 cents per pound. I shall hereafter assume it to be 8 cents. ; On many of the more northern mountains of the Southern States, and — on the high peaks farther south, neither the grasses nor grain grow suff: — ciently to support sheep, unless the range is very large in proportion ta — the number, during the winter.t Here, as in the Northern States, dry feed — must be prepared for the winter subsistence of sheep. This can be read- ily done, as the best meadow grasses of the North and the clovers flourish on the sides of the mountains.{ There is little doubt that sheep can be wintered on dry feed on many of the mountains, and yet, on account of the extreme cheapness of the lands, the cost of producing wool not exceed eight cents per pound. In the circumstances of many of the lowland plantations, it would be a most economical arrangement to summer the sheep on the mountainn, and then drive them to these plantations to be wintered on pasture, fog, or grain fields, according to convenience. After the lambs have reached a sufficient age in the spring, and the sheep) are shorn, marked, &c., a flock might be sent thirty, fifty, or even a hundred miles to its summer range on the mountains, at a trifling expense; and large numbers could be kept there under the surveillance of a single shepherd and a brace v1 two of dogs. By this system the lowland plantation would be saved from maintaining pasture on more expensive lands; many of its less marketa- ble products could be converted into wool, meat, and manure; and it would be enriched by the wintering of the sheep. Such, you are aware, is the system of sheep husbandry in Spain. The» sheep are wintered on the plains of Estremadura, sometimes reaching the : north of Andalusia. Both of these provinces, though in a latitude cor- responding with that of a portion of the United States, extending from Albemarle Sound to a little north of Philadelphia, are parched, during the summer, to a state of arid sterility, by the burning winds of Africa.|| In * See Monthly Journal of Agriculture. + With sufficient range, however, they not only obtain subsistence, but get fat. John S. Skinner, Esq., writes me: ‘In the mountains of Virginia, viz., at the Warm Springs, Dr. Brockenboro told me that a © flock of sheep which he had bought for use during the watering season, strayed, and got off beyond reach during the summer; that the winter after they were rarely seen: and that as chance offered they were shot; and that finer and fatter mutton he never desired to see.” The Warm Springs are in Bath county, among the Western or Allegany Mountains, a few minutes north of latitude 389. { See Mr. Goggin’s statements in Letter 1V. Since the above was written, I have received the following statements from Mr. W. Murdock, of Asheville, Buncombe county, North Carolina : “Excellent swards of grass are grown inthis district from Orchard grass or Cock’s-foot. » Timothy and Italian Rye grass I have found to thrive remarkably well. I never saw them do better in any country. I received my seeds from England, and they succeeded admirably, and in ground by no means favorable to u fair trial. Turnips succeed remarkably well here, and even 150 miles farther south, as I am informed by Mr. Edward Calhoun—the kinds I don’t know—but here the Globe, Aberdeen, Norfolk, &c., do well. .... If grounds were reserved as you suggest, for the winter feeding of sheep, the fall growth being under- pastured, and if some of the stubbles were plowed up and sown broadcast with turnips mixed with rape or colza, very little fodder will be required, in fact only when snow is on the ground, which seldom ex ceeds fifteen or twenty days during the year.” [‘Ubis fully confirms the positions assumed by me near th. ciose of Letter 1V.] ; “I think that Curled Kale would be excellent for the winter keep of sheep, or cattle of any kind. J got some seed from England and sowed it like any cabbage seed. I put out the plants two feet asunder in bu tolerable ground. it grew three feet high and two feet in diameter. ‘That | planted in the open field the . sheep got at in October, and ate it, stock, branches and all, to the ground. That planted inthe garden has, like the rape, stood the severe frosts uninjured. It is a delightful vegetable all the spring, and stands & wart ora cold climate... .. This and rape are, think, all the green food necessary to keep sheep _ through the winter, with the addition of a little hay. Rape may be sown broadcast in mois. weatherin May or June, and mown off for the sheep, when required, about six inches above ground. Ifthe shoote — are not required for pasture, let them goto sced, and the feed will pay better than any other crop, for making oil and rape cake.” + ‘| Here is a notable instance of the want of correspondence between isothermal and latitudinal lines be tween the west of Europe and the eastern portion of our own Continent. The two Spanish provinces the . Yetitude of which is above given, have a climate more resembling the scorched Ulanos of Caraccas than ani portion, cyen the most southerly, of the United States. , | SHEEP HUSBANDRY 1N THE SOUTH. 63 the winter, however, they are covered with verdure. About the first of ‘May the sheep start for the mountains.* Formerly many of them rested on the lofty parameras and mountain sides of Old and New Castile—the latter bleak. sterile and cragey, compared with the sides of our own South- ern mountains. Buta friend recently from Spain informs me that those once magnificent flocks (now, alas! thinned by confiscation,} the whole- sale plunder of invaders,t and for the subsistence of adverse armies,||) do not at present stop in any considerable numbers on the Castilian mountains, -but pass north to the Cantabrian, and that portion of the Iberian range north of Soria—or crossing the latter, spread over the Eastern Pyrenees, and the mountains of Saragossa north of the Ebro. Anything like an elaborate comparison between the facilities for sheep husbandry furnished by the mountains of Spain and the Apalachians of the United States, south of the Potomac, would, perhaps, be out of place in this connection. But a glance at them may throw useful light on the question of comparative profit. Ifthe Spaniard can grow wool at a profit, where the natural and physical features of the country gives him no ad- vantage over us, we can certainly do so; for in every other respect we have the advantage. The Eastern Pyrenees rise to a hight of 10,000 feet,§ more than double that of the Peaks of Otter, or that of any other portion of the Apalachian range, with the exception of a few summits in North Carolina. Mount Perdu, one of the Pyrenees, is 11,283 feet in hight,{] or 4,807 feet higher inan the Black, the highest mountain of the United States east of the Mis- sissippi. Maladetta, Vignemale and others rise considerably above 10,000 feet.** Glaciers exist on different parts of the whole chain. ‘“ The acclivity of the Pyrenees on the side of Spain, is often extremely steep,tt present ing a succession of rugged chasms, abrupt precipices, and huge masses of naked rock.”{¢ Miiano, a Spanish writer of authority, in defending his countrymen from the charge of indolence, speaks particularly of the ef forts of the hardy peasantry on the “almost inaccessible mountains of the Asturias, Galicia and Catalonia.” The vegetation on these mountains is ex- tremely variable, in some places being as luxuriant as the best on our South- ern Apalachians, but more frequently dwarfish and meager. On large portions of them it is entirely wanting. The northern acclivities are fre- quently swept by cold and piercing gales from the Bay of Biscay. On the whole, it will be seen that they do not compare with our southern moun- tains in the advantages which they offer for sheep hushandry,| || * For singular and interesting particulars in relation to their march, &c., and the municipal regulations pertaining thereto, see Livingston on Sheep, p. 36 et supra. 1 Some of the choicest flocks in Spain were contiscated by the Government during the great ant!-Gallic struggle. In tne winter of 1809, the Spanish Junto confiscated the great flocks of the infamously celebrated Godoy and several other nobles, and they were bought by foreigners for exportation. x The French Marshals, not finding anything in Spain to benetit the fine arts of la belle France, as in Italy, condescended, it is said, to benefit her Agriculture, by driving home some of the best flocks of Spain. The Allied Armies compelled the restitution of the marble and canvas, but those priceless flocks either could nat be re-collected, or they were not regarded as of sufficient importance to be returned. \| The Commissariat of the English, French and Spanish armies, “The foe, the victim, and the fond ally,” found the great Spanish flocks a very convenient resort, and availed themselves of it fully. The Guerilias, tontrabandists, and fugitive inhabitants, of course, did the same. ; § Malte Brun. 4 Ib. ** Encyclopedia Americana; art. Pyrenees. { Montserrat (in Catalonia), so famous for its monastic establishments, will occur to you in this connee- tion—where the steepness is so great that the monks ascend from hermitage to hermitage by ladders or stairs cut in the rocks! tt Encyclopedia Americana; art. Pyrenecs. || || How much the associations of early life—early reading—dispose us to exaggerate even the physical extent of the region covered by these mountains, connected as they are with so many romantic and inter- esting remembrances! The whole chain, extending from Cape Finisterre to Port Vendres, does not exceed 250 miles in length; and the space covered by it is not, in Western parlance, a “ circumstance ” to that oc- cupied by our Southern Apalachians! Yet, in the western ha/f of this chain, Pelayo and his successors ' maintained their Visi-Gothic kingdom, overthrew the descendants of the Abassides and Omrniades, and finally wrested Spain from the Moorish yoke. Who remembers, without the map under his eye, that Bap 64 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. : — | The route pursued by the Spanish flocks from, say, the middle of Ex tremadura to the Cantabrian mountains (the western portion of the Pre renees), cannot fall short of 300 miles. It equals 270 miles in a direet line. In addition to the length of the journey, they are compelled to cross” the Castilian mountains, and if they come from the south of Estremadura, also the mountains of Toledo. Their route to the eastern Pyrenees would — be farther and still more difficult. Every circumstance, then, excepting © municipal regulations,* gives our Southern States, on both sides of the — Apalachians, a manifest advantage over Spain, for the purposes of migra- — tory sheep husbandry. . Before closing the investigation of the question of the direct profits of — wool-growing in the Southern States, it is Proper to inquire if there are | any special local militating -causes or disadvantages not yet adverted to — which should be taken into the account. Diligent investigation has satis- fied me that there are no such causes—on the other hand, that there is @ remarkable exemption from them—with one exception. That exception is the destruction caused by wolves and dogs. ; Wolves are found in nearly all new, and particularly in mountainous countries ; but they invariably rapidly give way before the extension of population.t They have even now ceased to be very destructive in the most sparsely settled regions of the South. Mr. Simpson, in the letter be- fore quoted from, says : 4 “There are but few wolves in South Carolina, excepting on the mountains. Otherwise, our sheep which roam at large untended by shepherd, and uncared-for by any one, would soon be exterminated. The wolves are not numerous even on the mountains. They are not so destructive as dogs, which every now and then attack and destroy the sheep. A trusty shepherd, with a dog or two and a rifle, would prevent this.” These remarks would apply equally well to nearly all the Southern States. Wolves do but little damage, and wouid soon cease to do any; but the miserable, prowling curs are, in many places, a serious detriment. There is something singular in the fact that while so much complaint is made of them in the Southern and Western States, in New-York, where there is certainly a great surplus of them, we hear little, comparatively speaking, of their depredations. I am inclined to attribute it to the fact that dogs are here constantly familiarized with the sight of sheep. The first even playful movement of the adventurous puppy toward them is severely chastised, and he is thus educated to recognize them as within | the category of “ protected” animals. The dog which slays or even pur- sues a sheep, finds a long pedigree or a silver collar utterly unavailing t save him from immediate death.t But even in the South or West, the loss occasioned by the depredations nockburn was fought and Flodden lost to defend a Kingdom of half the dimensions of a good-sized Ameri can State! In comparing the agricultural capabilities—and especially in estimating the ultimate result o! agricultural competition between our own country and the European ones, we rarely take sufficiently int view the great disparity in territorial dimensions, * For the monopoly of privileges conferred on the flock-masters of Spain to the oppression and prostra tion of every other branch of husbandry, see Lasterie, and also Livingston on Sheep. t A bounty of $10 is paid for the destruction of every full-grown wolf, and $5 for a wolf’s whelp in the State of New-York. : In New-York it is provided by law that every bitch over three months old shall be taxed $2; every ad ditional one owned by the same man $5; two dogs over 6 months old $1; every additional one $3. The avails of these taxes constitute a fund, out of which Supervisors of Counties are to pay for any sheep slain by dogs whose owners are unknown. This is not often enforced. Any person may kill any dog “ which he shall see chasing, worrying, or wounding any sheep,” unless by direction of owner. The owner or poseess of any dog on being notified “of any injury done by his dog to any sh or his dog having chased or worried any sheep,” must within 48 hours kill his dog. or forfeit $2 50, and the farther sum of $1 25 for every 48 hours thereafter, unless “ it shall satisfactorily appear to the Court that ig was not in the power of such owner or possessor to kill such dog.” Revised Statutes of New-York, vol] ebap. xx., title xvil. : i SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. © 65 of other animals, or the expense of guarding against them, would be light compared with that in some of the wool-growing regions of the Old World. - In Australia, the sheep are exposed to the attack of wolves, dogs, and “convicts, and are constantly attended by a shepherd, and nightly folded, and guarded by a watchman with dogs and a fire.* _ At the.Cape of Good Hope, the shepherd and folding system is also fot lowed. In addition to wolves, and wild dogs which hunt in packs, and from their superior sagacity are much more formidable than wolves,} the Cape sheep are preyed upon by a variety of animals, and when they pass the mountains to glean the herbage which springs on the banks of the streams on the vast and lonely Karoos, they are exposed to the attack of the lion, the panther, the leopard, and the whole Feline family, so abund- ant and so particularly formidable in Southern Africa.t And they have had, and probably yet have, an enemy more destructive than all of these, in the Bushmen, more wild, irreclaimable, and predatory than their con- geners, the Bedouins of the Arabian desert.|| I have seen it proposed§ to teach young cattle to protect sheep from dogs, in the following manner: Turn a few steers into the pasture with the sheep, and with them a cow or two, having young calves at their sides. Send a dog into the field, and immediately the cows, followed by the steers, will commence a furious onset on the dog, and gore him or drive him from the field. After this is repeated a few times, it is said the steers will suffer no dog to enter the inclosure. This might do very well under some circumstances, but I should prefer to rely on the remedy proposed by Mr. Simpson: the dog and the rifle. There are no “shepherd dogs” large and powerful enough to encounter and kzll wolves and vagrant dogs, excepting the great sheep-dog of Spain ; and he is so irreclaimably ferocious to all excepting his charge, that he might frequently bring his owner into difficulty, and even endanger human life. | My impression is that a shepherd dog or two, to be on the alert, and a brace of mastiffs to capture and, if need be, slay wolf or cur, would be adequate protection for the sheep on a considerable range, and the expense of maintaining them would be trifling. * Cunningham’s “Two Years in New South Wales,” vol. i. p. 251. } Missionary Labors and Scenes in Southern Africa, by Rev. Robert Moffat, pp. 23-4. } The following stanza from the spirited lines of Freiligrath—“ The Lion’s Ride ”—will occur to you : i “ And the vulture scenting a coming carouse, Sails, hoarsely screaming, down the sky ; The bloody hyena, be sure, is nigh, Fierce pillager he of the charnel-house ! The panther, too, who strangles the Cape-Town sheep As they lie asleep, Athirst for his share in the slaughter, follows ; While the gore of their victim spreads like a pool in the sandy hollows!” 4| To these may be added the savage Kaffirs, who, in their recent struggle with the Colonial Governmeat, @estroyed and drove otf immense numbers of cattle and sheep. In 1334, “ the natives,” says Youatt, “ drova off or destroyed 80,000 cattle and sheep almost innumerable.” § By a writer in the American Agviculturist. ue i. i \ eu FE / ae ‘ nt 66 ' SHEEP HUSBANDRY !N THE SOUTH. LETTER VI. PROFITS OF SHEEF HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES—2. AS THE BASIS Of AMELIORATION IN NATURALLY STERILE AND WORN-OUT SOILS. Feasibility of rendering the naturally sterile and worn-out Soils of the South productive...Means must be ample and cheap..-Ordinary Animal Manures from Stables, &c., not attainable in sufficient quantity—toa expensive if transported tar by land carriage...Animal Manures of Commerce still more out of the ques tion...Gypsam—not sullicient of itself... Wood Ashes—Leached Ashes—their great value, but limited quantity... Lime (marl)..-Swamp Mud—inexhaustible quantity of each... Valuable Effects of Lime on Soils...Otherwise when there is a deficiency of Organic Matter...Opinion of Johnston, Brown, Lord Kaimes, Anderson, Morton, ‘haér, Petzholdt, Chaptal...Southern Tertiary and Granitic Soils destitute of Organic Matter... Expensiveness of Marl—not very permanent in its effects...The best Swamp Mud worth more per load...This, too, an expensive manure. ..Both too costly for extensive ameliorations. - .1s there, then, any resort ?—There is—it is to be found in a Mixed System of Green and Animal Manuring, the lat- ter made attainable by Sheep Husbandry. .-Experience and Testimony of various English Farmers under analogous circumstances... Reasons why Sheep are preferred to Horned Cattle for this purpose. ..Con- sidered more profitable in England, and by some in the United States, independent of Fleece.-..Singular Hallucination of Col. Taylor on this subject..-Sheep preferred as lmprovers of Poor Lands in the North- ern and Eastern States, but the end sought by different means from those employed in England...The English System—Reasons why it is inapplicable in the United States..-System in the Northern and East- ern American States...?roper System in the Southern States, on Lands now partly Grassed, and on Naked Soils...Green Manuring—how accomplished—Proper Plants for the purpose—Practical Rules—Expensive- ness...Should the Pasture Lands of the South be exclusively devoted to Sheep Grazing 7—Should not... Home Demand should Le supplied by Home Production, in the Staples furnished by all the Domestic Animals—Reasons therefor...As a surplus or exporting Animal Staple, Sheep furnish the one in which the South can best compete with other Producers. Dear Sir: Tet us now pass to the second point in reference to which we are to consider the profits of sheep husbandry in the Southern States, viz.: the practicability and comparative economy of making it the basis of an effectual amelioration in soils naturally sterile, or those which have been rendered so by excessive and injudicious cultivation. The first of these classes of soils 1s confined, mainly, to the tide-water zone. ‘The second is found both in this and the hilly zone, and, I need not say, in immense quantities. How can these soils be profitably ameliorated ? It is certain that this can only be done by the introduction into them of substances fitted to be- come the food of plants—or which, by chemical combinations or changes, prepare other substances to become such food. On soils naturally too sterile to sustain useful vegetation, the quantity of fertilizing matter intro- duced must be comparatively large. Hence it must be cheap, or its cost will more than overbalance its advantages. There are various manures ry which separately, or in conjunction, would convert the worst acre of bar- ren sand between Richmond and Raleigh, or, if you please, on the Desert of Sahara, into a fertile garden, provided it could have timely rains and be protected from the burying sands. But it is utterly useless to argu3 the feasibuity of this means or that, without at the same time examming its economy. The direct and profuse application of animal manures, for examfle, would probably effectually ameliorate any of these soils. But where are these manures to be obtained, in a region where the first necessary condi- tion for their production, 7. ¢. the vegetation necessary to support domes- tic animals, is wanting? The quantity accumulating in the cities and vil- lages of a comparatively sparsely populated region—in a climate where the preservation of putrefying substances would be incompatible with SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 67 health, would be inconsiderable. And whether more or less, it would not pay the cost of transportation to any considerable distance by land car- riage. Guano, poudrette, bone-dust, and all the expensive manures of commerce, are still more out of the question. Gypsum, on account of the smallness of the quantity requisite, is a cheap manure, and, reasoning from analogy, should be a valuable one, under proper circumstances, at least on the granitic soils of the South.* Mr. Ruffin states that it produces little ef- fect in the Tertiary sands.t It is considered by practical men to be, at the best, rather an azder of organic manure than a substitute for it, and when repeatedly applied without any other fertilizing substance, it ceases to produce any visible effect. On an exhausted soil, the chemical consti- tution of gypsum shows that it could not replace al/ the substances ab- stracted by the plants ; and on one naturally sterile, there is small proba- bility that it would happen to supply the only deficiency necessary to the production of vegetation. Wood’ ashes constitute a most valuable manure on probably every class of soils, and. unlike lime, gypsum, soda, ete., which afford only a limited number of those substances which constitute the: necessary food of plants, they afford in a greater proportion than any other manure the inorganic substances which are taken up and assimilated by plants. They are used with the most beneficial effect on the granitic soils of New-England, the calcareous and aluminous ones of Middle New York, the silicious ones of the southern or grazing region, and on the Ter tiary sands of Long Island. On the latter, of the same geological forma- tion with your tide-water zone—in fact but a continuation of it—even the ‘leached or washed ashes bring a shilling per bushel (the same that is paid for the unwashed ashes by the soaper and manufacturer of pearl or pot ashes) for agricultural purposes.|| But the supply cannot be made suffi- ciently large for extensive agricultural ameliorations, without a destruc- tion of the forests, which would inflict a grievous and utterly inexcusable wrong on posterity. The Southern Atlantic and Gulf States possess two natural and inex-- aaustible deposits of fertilizing matter, which, it is supposed by many,, would be fully adequate to the general “reclamation ”§ of their barren and‘ exhausted evils. The first of these is the marl, which underlies large por- tions of the low country of Virginia and South Carolina, and probably the- *T refer here to the successful example of its use on the granitic soils of New-Ergland. I have particu- arly specified this class of soils because your barren ones are limited to them and\to the Tertiary. Gypsum: is used at the North on nearly every class of soils with advantage—calcareous, aluminous, silicious and alfi intermediate varieties. It will be found very valuable, I have no doubt, on your mountain lands, particu-- iarly in localities where the cloyers flourish. ¢ Ruffin’s Agricultural Survey of South Carolina, 1843. ¢ To show the value of ashes as the food of plants, and at the same time the difference between thosew made from ditferent woods, I append the following analyses of those of two well-known southern trees... That of oak ashes is by Sprengel, that of pitch-pine ashes by Berthier : Constituents. | Oak. Pitch-Pine. Constituents. Oak. Pitch-Pine. |- Silienmeen eects: 1 29-95 7-50 Potasheee eee eee 16-20 14-10 Alumina ....-..--- SOdapeeere sie 6-73 20°75 ; | Oxide of Iron ....- ‘i 8-14 11-10 Sulphuric Acid ....-- 3°36 3-45 Oxide of Manganese 2-75 Phosphoric Acid ..-. 1-92 7 Os90Me ike Aime echo soos de.e 17-38 13-60 Chlorine............ 9-41 | ' Maenesia.... ....- 1-44 | 4-35 Carbonic Acid....... 15-47 17-50 Sea ee eee eats SSSR ie tsi Meese This fact 1 consider an important hint to the planters of the tide-water zone, and it is to be hoped taat: - \: is one which will not be thrown away. Leached ashes are valuable also on every other class of lends. The southern portion of my farm (lying on Chemung rocks) is silicious. The northern part is covered. wich “ northern drift,” and is therefore calcareous. I use from 3,500 to 4,000 bushels of leached ashes per annum, without any discriminaticn as regards the soil, and on almost every variety of crops, and invariably with marked advantage. Doct. Emmons, our State Geologist, having in charge the volumes on Agriculture, gtated to me that he considered these leached ashes far more valuable by bu!k than a rich marl (accessible to me) containing 90 per cent of carbonate of lime. § This word (“reclaim”) has a provincial signification throughout the North, when applied to land. It means “to render productive.” Unlike the words “fertilize,” “enrich,” etc., it implies degree, as well ag manner. ‘To “reclaim” land, therefore, is to fertilize or enrich it to such a degree that it will yield fhir crops. I shall use the word both as-a verb and a noun, to avoid the circumlocution otherwise necessare to express this idea. ; red d 68 SHEEP HUSBANDRY N THE SOUTH. ; whole Tertiary formation, or at least that portion of it extending througk the Atlantic States. ‘The second is the swamp mud, which, rich with xs “ alluvial deposition of ages, fills nearly every depression of the surface ca able of retaining water, in the whole tide-water zone. 3 Mr. Ruffin recommends the former as the best and most attainable fer- — tilizer on both of the classes of soils under examination. He seems to think it adequate, of itself, to their full and permanent amelioration. I do not desire a word which I shall say to bear, or even seem to bear, a con- troversial tone toward the views of this ardent and enlightened friend of Southern Agriculture. In expressing my dissent from them, my limits and the occasion only permit me to allude to a few well-settled principles and facts on which I have based my opinions. J.ime acts mechanically and chemically on soils. It stiffens loose and opens clayey ones. It is to a certain extent, one of the necessary constituents of plants ; it neutral izes acid substances in the soil; it forms compounds, and promotes the dissolution of existing ones, to prepare suitable food for plants; and some- times produces certain other minor beneficial effects. But its great, its chief object, is to produce the food of plants by its chemical action on the organic matter in the soil. Hence, says Johnston : “Lime has little or no effect npon soils in which organic matter is deficient ;” and he far- ther says: ‘‘ Under the influence of lime the organic matter disappears more rapidly than it otherwise would do, and that after it has thus disappeared, fresh additions of ime produce no farther good effect; . . . it causes the organic matter itself ultimately to disappear.” “Tt is scarcely practicable,” says Brown, ‘to restore fertility to land even of the best natural quality, which has been thus abused; and thin moorish soils, after being exhausted by lime, are not to be restored.” “An overdose of shell marl,” says Lord Kaimes, “ laid perhaps an inch thick, produces for a time large crops, but at last renders the soil capable of bearing neither corn (grain) nor grass, of which there are many examples in Scotland.”’ ‘‘ The same,” continues Johnston, “is true of lime in any form. The increased fertility continues as loug as there remains au adequate supply.of organic (animal and vegetable) matter in the soil; but as that disappears, — the crops every year diminish both in quantity and in quality.” “On poor arable lands, which are not naturally so, but which are worn out or exhausted by repeated liming and cropping, lime produces no good whatever.” (Anderson, Brown, Morton. )* Let us now turn to the opinions of some of the most eminent European Continental writers. The celebrated Thaér in his “ Principles of Agricul- ture ” (Section IV. Part I.) says: “On no soils are the effects of lime so beneficial as on those which contain a great quan- tity of sour humus prejudicial to vegetation, or on those which have been supplied more or less abundantly with animal manure for a considerable period, without receiving an appli- cation of lime, or some other substance of a similar nature. In the latter case it is frequently. much inore efficacious than an amelioration of stable manure would be ; but it soon impoy- erishes the soil so much that in a few years it becomes indispensably necessary to manure it abundantly with rich animal or vegetable matters. As some portion of the humus, al- though in all probability of an insoluble nature, always remains in arable lan.t even when it appears to be much exhausted, it of course follows that an pas of lime will always be productive of very marked effects even on the poorest soils, because it will call into ac- tion all the nutritive particles which they contain. A second amendment of a similar nature bestowed shortly after the first, will be productive of some, although in general of much less genefit; and the effect of each subsequent amelioration of this nature will be progressively diminished unless the soil receives an additional supply of humus. . . . The effect pro duced by lime on land of this nature (reclaimed bogs and marshes) is much more beneficial _ aud durable than that of any other manure. On the other hand, repeated amelivrations of lime will soon totally exhaust and impoverish poor and sandy soils, and reduce them to ab- solute sterility, even though each separate application seems to be productive of ete effect. . . . Many persons who have not rightly comprehended the cause of the effects produced by lime, prefer it to manure, and have believed in the possibility of doing entirely without the latter; but the total exhaustion of the soil which such a course of proceeding must sooner or later produce, caused them to fly to the opposite extreme. + . An ew * See ‘Tohnston’s Agricultural Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 139-142. SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 6S lightened and scientific agriculturist will soon perceive tl vt the use of lime can never super \ sede that of dung, but that it renders this kind of manure more energetic in its action. ...- In many places where its ameliorating effects were known and appreciated, many agricul- turists have calculated that marl would prove a cheaper manure than stable dung; and have, consequently, determined to do without the latter altogether; and, therefore, have diminished their stock of cattle, and sold their hay and straw. It may easily be imagined that as soon as the chemical effects of the marl ceased to operate, as must be the case when the land no longer contained undecomposed or insoluble substances, the soil became sterile, and a second marling was incapable of producing any beneficial effects, there being no ha- mus for it to act upon.” Petzholdt, in his “Lectures to Farmers on Agricultural Chemistry,” (Lecture XVII.) says: , “ Quick-lime greatly accelerates the decomposition of humus, whether of animal or vege table origin, inducing a more speedy liberation of its salts than would otherwise take place. ‘This is the reason quick-lime has proved so advantageous in the cultivation of bogs; the lime not only accelerates the decomposition of the humus, but it may be said altogether to be the cause of the decay of humus, which, as it exists in peat, 1s scarcely by itself under- going the process at all. . . . Where there is neither humus in the soil, nor undecom- posed silicates, the application of lime as manure will be useless. . . . So much, how- ever, is deducible from all experience, that the mere applicatiomof marl to an exhausted soil is of no use whatever, unless it is carried on the field in such quantities as to constitute a new soil, covering the whole surface to the depth of a foot. . . . Inachemical point of view, marl is not of any value except where tke soil requires a supply of lime. . . Tha other mineral constituents of marl.are far too inconsiderable in amount to be reckoned upon.” Chaptal, in his “‘ Chemistry applied to Agriculture,” (Chap. ii1., Art. 2,) thus expresses himself: “It is acknowledged that lime is principally useful upon fallow lands which are broken up; upon grass lands, whether natural or artificial, which are prepared for cultivation: and upon muddy lands, which are to be put into a fit state for culture. It is well known that im all these cases there exists in the land a greater or less quantity of roots, which, by the ap- plication of lime, may be made to serve more immediately for manure, by the solubility it will give to the new products formed by them. . . . Independently of this effect, which, in my opinion, is the most important, lime exercises other powers, which make it a very valnable agent m Agriculture.” These authorities might be multiplied ad infinitum. On the alternately too loose or too hard soils of the dry and barren lands of the tide-water zone, lime would doubtless have two salutary effects— the mechanical one already noticed, and it would furnish one necessary food of plants. But of its power to render these soils, or the exhausted ones of the middle zone, anything more than transiently fertile, there is ne probability, if they are, as I suppose them to be, generally rather, and sometimes very, destitute of organic matter. This destitution I infer from ocular examination ;* also from the fact that they are covered with little vegetation, with the exception of the long-leaf pine, to produce by its an- nual decay a store of organic matter; and, finally, if this organic matter existed in these soils in any considerable quantity, they would not be ster- ile. They probably possess the ordinary inorganic constituents of dry Tertiary and granitic soils, and no properties directly deleterious to vege- tation. Organic matter, then, in my judgment, is what they principally stand in need of to render them fertile. Now, by applying lime to them, it would undoubtedly do good in two ways, as before admitted, but the considerable temporary apparent amelioration, as evinced in some instances Ly the increased growth of vegetation, is factitious, for the lime is only act- ing with ana exhausting the little organic matter in the soil, to leave it ¢o greater eventual sterility. Hence the saying that “ lime enriches the father but impoverishes the son,” is a true one when the lime is applied to soils ‘possessing but a small proportion of organic matter. On such, lime soon —— ~~ * J have seen no analyses of these soils, and mean therefore as J say, simply, examination t y the eye vy Ps , = A Le | Pf . aa ae ne j ays ' (nn eee Tita ra i A tes bites ane ‘ 4 : e ae aro eet 4 Tee OLE - j . i ¥ 70 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. leads to exhaustion, unless organic matter is added to the soil in proportion to the waste. ‘The theoretical and practical considerations which should govern in the application of this fertilizer to soils are discussed more fu aud, in my judgment, more ably by Johnston, in his Agricultural Chem- istry, than by any other writer. To him I take the liberty to refer you. Marl raised from pits, as it must necessarily be (except when denuded, or cut through, on the beds of streams, &c.) where it occurs only as an under-stratum in a flat country—where the pits, too, often require ma- chinery, or much manual labor, to keep them free from water while work- ing--must be an expensive manure. Irom its tendency to sink in the soi! it is not so ae a one as would naturally be expected. On reclaimed swamp lands—as, for example, on the rice lands—abounding in vegetable matter, it will be found a most efficacious manure, and, when needed, will repay the necessary outlay ; but I fear it will be found otherwise ultimate- ly, if not immediately, on the barren sands and exhausted granite soils of the South. Applied with swamp mud, it would constitute a fertilizer scarcely, perhaps, admitting of a superior, even on the latter soils. In their single effects, however, I cannot but believe that the best swamp mud —that which is black and fetid by the long continued accumulation of or- ganic substances (and especially if charged with shells, and the shields of Infusoria)—would be worth more per load than the richest marl. The mud, too, should be considerably cheaper than the marl, no deep excaya- tions being required to obtain it.* Digging and draught, and, in the case of the mud, draught alone, would render both decidedly expensive ma- nures, relatively to the value of the land after being ameliorated by them, even assuming that amelioration to be complete and permanent. On lands immediately contiguous to conveniently reached depositions of mud or marl, on a scale so limited that it could be carried on at spare intervals without encroaching on the regular routine of plantation labor, it might be good economy to haul out mud and marl, and thus gradually reclaim small pieces of laud.t It certainly would be better economy than to waste those intervals in idleness. But in anything like an extended and speedy system of reclamation—the fertilization of thirty, forty or fifty acres per annum, instead of one, two or three—the means above adverted to are, in my humble judgment, utterly out of the question. The labor would ab- sorb all the labor of man and beast on the plantation; and it is exceedingly questionable, in my mind, whether the land, when fertilized, would sell for the cost of the manure. Hard would it be for many a South Carolinian or Virginian to turn his back on the Lares and Penates of his race—forgetting many a proud local and ancestral association—but as a question of dollars and cents, some- times a necessary one, and, at all events, usually the paramount one, ! think it past a reasonable doubt that it would be better economy to de- sert the worn-out or naturally barren soils of our South-eastern coast, and purchase the virgin and fertile lands of the South-west (even including the extra expense of building and fencing), than to attempt to reclaim the former by means so expensive as those above indicated. What, then, is the resort? Are there any means by which those lands can be profitably reclaimed? I answer, Yes; and the resort is a mixed system of green and animal manuring—the latter made attainable by shee husbandry. Experience is the best test of all theories. And we have ha * | am inclized to think, however, that this mud, if spread directly on the surface, would contaminate te atmozphere with unhealthy miasma, generating agues und biliczs diseases. If so, it would require in- evrporation with the soil, by plowing. ' t It seems to me, however, that these expensive manures would be more ee applied in keeping wp the fertility of the best lands, or as assistants to other and cheaper means of -eclaiming the poor ones s Pe soo GST Ta oe ae 4 3 4 Josey ee pr eee SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOU1H. 71. so little experience in the premises, in our own country, let us turn to that of the first agricultural nation of the Old World. There is no foreign na- tion where so high a degree of intelligence is brought to bear on farming ‘operations—where cause and effect are so carefully studied and accurately noted—as in England. This care and accuracy are indispensably neces- Sary in a country where high rent and heavy taxation render good farming or bankruptcy unavoidable counter-alternations to the agriculturist. Pre- vailing conclusions among such a class of agriculturists—undtsputed con- clusions, too—are assuredly entitled to great respect, and may almost be regarded as settled facts. Now the farmers of England are perfectly fa miliar with every kind of manure accessible to our Southern farmers, un- less it be swamp mud and cotton seed. Lime, for example, is plentiful and cheap, and is much used in Agriculture all over the kingdom. If either this, or any of the manures of commerce, were considered, of them- selves, economical fertilizers of the poor, sandy or light upland soils of England, there is no country in the world where they are more plentiful, and, when the use of the soil and the price of products are taken into con- sideration, more cheap. What the settled conclusions of the English farmers are, in relation to the profitable amelioration of those soils, will be seen from the following undisputed testimony of some of the most eminent and respectable of them, taken before the Committee of the House of Lords, charged with the in- quiry into the state of the wool trade, &c. in Great Britain, in 1828, from which I have so freely quoted in preceding Letters. Mr. Wity.1am Pinkney, Salisbury Plain: land such as I occupy could not be main tained without the aid of sheep... . . The sheep are our principal dependence for sup- porting our crops; indeed, I could not occupy my farm without my fiock. Mr. Joun Eximan, Jr., Sussex: Ido not consider it possible for the light lands upen the Downs to be kept in cultivation without flocks. I could not keep the farm I now hold without sheep. . . On the South Downs the wool must be grown, let the price be what it will. Mi. Francis Hatz, Alringham, Suffolk: The description of land I occupy could not be kept in cultivation without-the aid of sheep. Mr. Henry Kine, Chilmark, Wiltshire :* The size of my farm is about 4,000 acres. I clip annually about 6,500 South-Down sheep. . . - Such lands as I occupy cannot be kept in cultivation without the aid of sheep. Mr. Joun WoottenGe, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk: An estate near the above place contains 8,890 acres, let to tenants, and consists principally of poor sandy and gravelly land, the produce of which in grain is very precarious, amounting in dry summers to little or nothing. The occupiers, therefore, depend almost entirely on their flocks of sheep for the payment of their rents and the employment and support of the population. . . . Iam of opinion that two-thirds of the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk may be comprehended in the sheep districts, and that they produce two pounds and a half of wool, and three-fourths of a iamb, to the acre, upon an average. . . . The produce of the land depends materi- ally upon the folding system; there is not sufficient straw for manure without the assistance of sheep. Mr. Witi1am ILort, Abbey Milton, Dorsetshire: I calculate the annual growth of wool in Dorsetshire at 10,000 packs of 246 lbs. each. It is estimated . . . that 800,000 sheep, or one sheep and one-seventh per acre, . . . are kept im this county. A considerable part ot the county of Dorset is composed of light lands, and can only be kept in tillage by the aid of sheep. C. C WesTERN, Esq.: It is utterly impossible that the Down Districts can be cultivated to advantage without sheep. We never fold our Merino or other sheep; the land is too wet. Lorp Narrer: If we had not sheep upon our lands (the highlands of Scotland), it would become the habitation of foxes and snipes, and return to waste; it would produce nothing but grouse and wild game of different sorts. Is it asked, Why are sheep preferred to horned cattle? Many of the reasons are given in my preceding Letter. Then, again, the scanty and short pasturage of light lands, on which sheep will thrive, will not afford sufficient “bite” (as it is provincially termed inthe Northern States) to y 72 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. —_—— profitabiy carry large stock. And, finally, there seems to be a settled con. viction among the English farmers that sheep give a better return for the fuod consumed, and therefore better repay the extraordinary expenditure necessary to bring poor lands in a fit state for the plow, than any other animal. In an able essay in the London “ Plough” (June, 1846), the fol- lowing remarks occur, which may be probably regarded as an expression ot the prevailing opinion in England: ee * 7 It is justly admitted that, of all the domestic animals reared and fed for profit in Great - Bctain, sheep are of the greatest consequence, both individually and in a national point ot view, and afford a better return than can be obtained either from the rearing or feeding of cattle ; the very fleece shorn annually from their backs is worthy of consideration. . . Sheep husbandry deserves to be esteemed in all its different branches, and claims the prior- ity of consideration among agriculturists.’’* The manner in which the “ very fleece” is here spoken of, shows that wool oceupies but a mere, subsidiary place in making up the profits of Kuglish sheep husbandry. I know many intelligent and experienced farm- ers in this country who think sheep feeding more profitable, or equally profitable, with cattle feeding, leaving the wool out of the account.t The experience of the English farmers accords with that of those of our own Northern and Eastern States, in relation to the superior advantages of sheep husbandry on poor and light soils. Observation has shown both that such soils do not profitably carry bullocks or other large animals, and that such animals are poorer manurers than sheep. But their methods of availing themselves of the advantages of this husbandry are entirely dis- similar. The English farmer finds mutton and grain the marketable pro ducts which pay best. The first returns a profit on the crop (turnips) which produces it, and at the same time fits the land for the latter. Tue high price and ready sale of mutton allows the English farmer to force the growth of turnips on poor soils, by the application of highly condensed manures.{ In the fall the sheep are turned upon small patches of them, surrounded by an inclosure of hurdles. The turnips are drawn, sliced, and laid in troughs for the sheep. When one patch is consumed, the hurdles are removed, and thus the field is gradually passed over—the sheep con- verting the whole crop into animal products and manure. The land is then plowed for grain, and a succession of crops are taken from it. By this means the land is soon reduced to its former level, and the same sys- tem is again entered upon. ' ~ After reading this and the preceding testimony, one cannot look back without a smile on the unac- countable monomania of that excellent man and public benefactor, Col. John Taylor, in relation to sheep. In one of the essays of “Arator,” he says: “My conclusions are that they require and consume far more food, in proportion to their size, than any — other stock ; that they are more liable to disease and death; and that they cannot be made a protitable ob- ject throughout the whole extent of the warm, dry climate and sandy soil of the United States, but by ban- ishing tillage from vast tracts of country.” . . . “It is probable that the hot constitution of sheep pro- duces a rapid digestion, and that insatiable appetite, by which the fact is accounted for of their flourishing only, to any extent, in fine meadows or extensive wildernesses. If this voraciousness is not gratified, the animal perishes or dwindles; if it is, he depopulates the country he inhabits. The sheep of Spain have kept out of existence, or sent out of it, more people than the wild beasts of the earth have destroyed from ehe creation ; and those of England may have caused a greater depopulation than all her extravagant wars, It may be owing to this animal, the independence of one country is almost overthrown, and of the othey tottering.” (!!!) He farther expresses the opinion that England, “ by the help of her moisture and verdure, ean raise wool cheaper than the United States.” (!) It would appear that Col. Taylor formed all his conclusions on a small flock kept by himself They my have been a bad and unthrifty flock. But it is strongly probable that he was influenced by deep-rooced prejudices, imbibed before his judgment was ripened, or his experience formed ; and that these, unknown to himeelf, warped all his views. I can account in no other way for the evident and palpable hallucination ~ under which he made nearly every statement in his Chapter on Sheep. + A gentleman who has been one of the most successful feeders of cattle and sheep in this State (P. N. Rust, Esq. of Syracuse) recently remarked to me in conversation that he had invariably found that sheep paid better for feeding than cattle. ; ¢ Bone-dust, and frequently guano or some other manure with it, is drilled in with the turnip seed, se that much cost is obviated by making a little go a great ways; and there is a remarkable congeninlity is the climate and atmosphere of [’ngland to the growth ¢ ~ this root. ’ aes \ $ ' SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 73 Inthe United States, much of this system would be inapplicable and _ unprofitable. Here wool, instead of mutton, is the principal object. Even in the Southern States, where the climate would render the English sys- ' tem practicable, the expense of producing either of these articles, by win- tet turnip feeding and folding, would add so much to its cost that it could not profitably compete with that grown in the ordinary manner. The same remark applies to the relative expense of the two systems of manur- ing. A constant repletion of rich succulent food, like turnips, would sen- sibly increase the amount of manure, and, by folding, it would be more evenly distributed. But neither of these considerations would begin to offset against the increased expense, in a country where good lands are so cheap and bread-stuffs so low. Besides, no good, but, on the other hand, positive injury, would result from thus annually fattening “store’”’* sheep, kept for the production of wool and for breeding.t The system of improving poor lands in the Northern and Eastern States by sheep husbandry, is mainly by summer pasturage. The droppings of the sheep gradually enrich them,t and consequently increase their herb- . age. Thus, in a few years, poor and scanty pastures are converted into rich, productive ones. This might be far more rapidly done by giving these pastures also the winter manure of the sheep, made in the feeding yards. But it is generally thought more profitable to give the winter ma- nure to the richer tillage lands, which are made to supply the grain and hay of the farm. The light pasture lands are thus kept permanently in pasture or are only plowed, by the provident, at very long intervals. This _ system is rendered necessary, or, at all events, convenient, by the tope- graphical features of our farms. Here the poorer and lighter are generally the higher and more broken lands, which are less convenient of aration, and for the hauling on of manure, or the hauling off of crops. In the Southern States, on lands which now yield even a smallish sup- ply of esculent grasses, the northern system is all that is necessarily re- quired. Those grasses will every year increase, and the land will be grad- ually fertilized, by the droppings of the sheep, without a cent’s expendi- ture on it of any kind; and every particle of herbage will be turned to its most profitable account, by being converted into wool, mutton and ma- nure. | But where there is not sufficient existing verdure to form the germ, so to speak, of a future good pasture—or, in other words, to support a suffi- cient number of sheep to convert it, within a reasonable time, into good pasturage—some other course must be adopted. Proper plowing and seeding, simply, will, I have not a doubt, be found adequate in a great many instances where it would hardly be suspected. It is very natural to take it for granted that a soil, not spontaneously producing the grasses, is not fertile enough to produce them, even if properly sown upon it. But experience has amply demonstrated the contrary in several of the North- western States. ‘There are various causes, besides a want of fertility, which may produce such nudity; but this is not the place to enter upon speculations on this topic. ‘Two very common and obvious causes are too great looseness or compactness of the surface, which prevents seeds from taking root, especially in a dry, hot climate. Plowing would always loosen —————_—————————————— ne * This convenient word is provincially applied, in the Northern and Eastern States, to sheep and swina which are to be kept over the year, to breed from (and the former to produce wool), as contradistinguished from those which are fattening for slaughter. + This point will again be adverted to. It is sufficient now to say that breeding-ewes, if brought to a high state of fatness, raise fewer lambs. The lambs are born weak, and are very apt to perish. ‘There are alse other objections. . ‘{ Aided by an occasional top-dressing with gypsum. 74 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. hard, and frequently stiffen loose surfaces.* The grass seed harrowed into a properly prepared soil, at the suitable season of the year, might se root itself as to withstand the subsequent heats, while those dropped on a hard or a loose surface by birds, or borne there by winds, would be exposed directly to the rays of the sun, which, if it did not entirely prevent germ- ination, would dry up and kill the tender roots before they could strike deep enough to resist its influence. Much will depend, in this experi- ment, upon a proper selection of the variety of grass sown. That variety should be sown which is found to flourish best on similar soils, in the same climate, even though relatively it may be an inferior grass.t By means as cheap and attainable as these, | have not a doubt that no inconsiderable portions of the nearly naked soils of the tide-witer zone might be brought into pasture sufficiently good to make their ultimate con- version into prime pastures, by means of sheep husvandry, certain. On the worn-out granite soils of the middle region, the once fertile red clay lands—now occupied only by dwarf pines, worthless broom-grass, ete. —deep plowing and thorough sowing (with the aid of steeps and the cheap top-dressing, before adverted to) would generally, I believe, bring these lands into pretty good pasture. These soils, having been subjected only to the one-horse plow, and hand tillage, ave worn out only on the surface. This is proved, in innumerable instances, in Fairfax, and other northern counties of Virginia. Lands considered entirely worn out, and sold for a mere trifle, are subjected to the northern two-horse plow, and from one to three inches of earth, never before disturbed, is brought to the surface, which readily supports grass, and even grain crops—the latter tempora- rily. Thus, most fortunately, the means are still left, with the aid 9f pas- turage, to make many of these lands profitably productive, and to restore them to much of their former fertility. We come now to another class of lands which may, in many cases, be worth reclaiming, but which will not, by merely being plowed and sown produce sufficient grass to make their fertilization by sheep husbandry at- tainable—or attainable within a moderate period of time. ‘These are the inferior (but not the worst) sands of the tide-water zone. Here green manuring must be resorted to, by means of plants which will better with- stand the climatic and other difficulties in the way of their getting well- rooted, and which will flourish in poorer soils than the grasses. Both of these conditions are answered by various plants. Spurry ( Spergula arven- sis) and white Lupins (Lupinus albus) will flourish on dry, barren, and even shifting sands, and are extensively used as green manuring crops on such soils, on the Continent of Europe. From their rapid growth and ex- traordinary productiveness, they are admirably adapted to this end. The introduction of these plants would probably supply an important desidera- tum in Southern Agriculture, unless, as I have already expressed the opin- ion,t the pea leaves little to wish for, as a green manuring crop on every class of southern soils. Soaked in a solution of nitre—rolled in lime—to dressed, after sprouting, with a slight sprinkling of ashes and gypsum||— * The sands of the tide-water zone are everywhere, at greater or less depths, underlaid by clay. These mizht in some cases be reached by the plow, and portions of them inc-rporated with the superincumbent soil t See Letter III. ¢ In Letter III. ; || Sprengel’s analysis, in Letter III, shows the large amount of potash required for the seed, and of line for the straw of the pea. The favorable effect of plaster on this, as on most other leguminosm, is well known, Ashes, plaster and lime can be purchased here at an average of less than ten cents a bushel. A bushel of gypsum, mixed with say two bushels of ashes, makes a top-dressing which will pay for itself @ aumber of times over, on any land to which I have ever seen it applied. In addition to rolling the seed in dime, a few bushels of it, or of marl, would make a good, und, where accessible and cheap, an econornical top-dressing. When I spenk of the price of lime here, | do not refer to mutt. The latter, in Its natural mate, could be cavetianed ae the beds for probably a shi’ ing « load, * : SHEEF HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 75 - the pea would probably take root and flourish in any soil whicr. the price of land in this country would justify an effort to render productive, now, or for a long term of years to come. Indeed, the capacity to produce this plant may afford the best practical test of the economy and expediency of attempting it in any given case. If a good green manuring crop can be made to grow on the soil without any more expensive aids than those above suggested, the /ever of improvement—cheap, but effectual—is placed in the hands of the planter, and, if he possesses the least degree of energy, he has no occasion to seek a new soil and home by emigration. Mr. Ruffin states, if I remember aright, that a few quarts per acre, of peas, are sown by the Southern planters. In the North, three bushels, at least, are sown; and this quantity would be little enough to produce the largest amount of green manure. Theory would indicate that the crop should be turned under before it comes into full flower,* but experience and convenience both deserve con- sulting in the premises. An active span of horses, with a Northern two-horse plow, and an ex- pert plowman, would readily plow two acres per diem, on sandy soils, and plow it well The expense of getting in a crop of peas can then be read- ily estimated. - If one crop can be made to take root and grow, and is plowed under when green, the great point is attained, and there will be neither difficulty nor uncertainty subsequently. The organic matter thus deposited in the soil is the basts on which future improvements can be effected ad libitum. As far south as South Carolina, at least two, and probably three crops coald be plowed in during a single season. This might be done in time for winter grain, and a crop of the latter sown as a covering crop with grass seeds. The grain would refund much of the previous expense. Plowing in two or three crops in succession may, at first view, seem at expensive process; but, with the exception of the extra seeding, it is no more labor than is bestowed on every wheat crop by a large proportion of the farmers of Western New-York! When the ground is summer fal- lowed, the ordinary practice on our wheat lands is to have it three times thoroughly plowed and harrowed, and the first time a crop of clover is plowed in. All this is a light outlay compared with thorough marling, or manuring with swamp mud. And, after either of the latter processes, the land has yet to be plowed and seeded.¢ . It would not be zecessary to plow in as many as three crops of peas, to Yay the foundation of ordinary pasture. Two, and possibly one, would suffice. The comparative utility of forcing forward the fertilization of land, rapidly or gradually, depends much upon the amount of capital which the landholder has to devote to this object. The amount of labor subtract- ed from the ordinary operations of the plantation would be very small, in any case, in proportion to the object to be attained. A single expert plowman, with a gooa team, could give even the three plowings to a large field.|| * “ Because flower-leaves,” says Johnston, ° give off nitrogen into the air; and, as this element is sup posed especially to promete the growth of plants, it is desirable to retain as much of it in the plant and soil es possible.’—Ag. Chem., vol. ii, p. 185. ¥ Perhaps more. That amount is frequently exceeded here, on stubtle lands. — So that the expense to be offsetted against one of those processes (in estimating their compara%va economy as a means of reclamation with green manuring) is plowing, harrowing, and seeding twice. || I have attempted to fix no definite data on this point, because you, who are acquainted with plowing Southeyn lands, are better competent to do s0. 1 would remark, in this connéction, that my convictions are very strong that the introduction of the two-horse plow of the North would lead to a decided improve. ment in your Agriculture, from the superior manner in which it does its work, and by leading to deeper plowing. The wheel will cause it to run as shallow as a one-horse plow, however where the charecter a: ‘the soil renders it desirable. ; 76 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. Even in the case of either of the two classes of soils before treated of (those now producing thinnish pasturage, or which can be converted inte- pastures simply by plowing and seeding), one or more green manuring_ crops would form a most excellent and accelerating initiatory step, and, where suflicient capital is possessed, I have no doubt, a most economica one, toward their fertilization. a In view of all my preceding statements, do you ask me if I advocate sheep husbandry exclusively, on all the lands at the South which already — are, or should be devoted to grazing? Most assuredly not. I have al-— ready laid it down as a maxim that “agricultural production should bo | controlled by the demand or want, and the adaptation of the country to ~ such production.” By this rule, the South should, at least, never import a— horse,* a mule, a pound of beef, pork, butter, cheese or wool. She wants them all, and she can produce them all more economically than she can — import them. That declared impossibility in politics, an tmperium in tm- — perio, should be in Agriculture, so far as it may be consistently with the— above maxim, the attitude of every farm and plantation. Each should be — independent to the greatest economical extent, so far as the production of — the necessaries, comforts and luxuries of life are concerned, of every other — farm or plantation in the world! This mixed and multifarious farming is _ objected to by theorists, inasmuch as it trenches on the division of labor — principle. But it favors rotation, and thereby prevents the exhaustion of — soils—leads to a more bountiful use of the every-day comforts of lifej— — and, finally, it is less hazardous. The one-crop farmer, if crop and market — are both in their most favorable state, realizes great profits. Butif the — market is poor, or the crop small, the less is proportionately large. The — farmer pursuing mixed husbandry will not generally fall greatly behind — tho dest profits of the cther, and his losses are rarely considerable. It is — better to piay for a Art than a gammon, where, as in the case of the small — capitalist, affluence or penury “stand the hazard of the die !” . If the above positions are true, the South is called upon to increase the — oreeding of other domestic animals as well as sheep. To an extent suffi- cient to supply her own wants, I consider her imperiously called upon so to do. I advocate the breeding of sheep specially—on a vastly more ex- — tended scale—because, as has been already shown, they are the best (if not the only) reclaimers of your unproductive lands; and because in that surplus of the products of grazing, which these extensive reclamations wil] — bring about, they furnish you the exportingt article (wool) for which you — can find the largest extra-limital market, and in growing which you can best — compete with other producers. Let us suppose, for the sake of the argument, that these newly reclaimed pasture lands would carry heavy beasts as well as sheep, and with equal benefit to the land. After supplying the home demand, what would be done with the surplus horses, mules and beeves? To what markets in the world could you export horses and mules, with the exception of some of the West India islands—the markets of which a few thousand head of these animals would annually glut? Do you ask me what would prevent your sending your surplus beef to England? Nothing. But neither the ~ South, nor the North, nor the East, can compete with the great North-west . * Unless for the improvement of breeds. 4 f i mean by this that the planter who raises all the necessaries of life will be more liberal of them than the oue who purchases them. t I do not use the word here in its technical sense. J mean carried beyond mere local limits for sale— whether tkat sale be effected in the same State, in some other part of the U. S., or abro SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ar, —- in producing beef (or pork*) for exportation to foreign countries. Its im- mense natural pastures—the profusion and cheapness with which Indian corn can be produced on its virgin soils—give it an advantage which in- ereased transportation by no means counterbalances. The question then arises— Why, for the same reasons, cannot the vast North-western plains produce wool more cheaply than the South, and undersell her in our own and the foreign markets? In the first place, the western pastures—that is Lo say, the wild or natural ones—which produce beef so cheaply, are, by reason of the coarseness and rankness of their verdure, not adapted t the srowmg of sheep. Secondly, the shortness and mildness of the south- ern winter give a decided advantage in wool growing, by affording green winter feed—an advantage not profitably available probably, on an extend- ed scale, with large grass-feeding animals. Again, in the North-west, though there is less snow, the winter is about as long, for all the practical purposes of husbandry, as in New-York.f Killing frosts come as early in autumn ; the naked ground is frozen as solidly, and far more deeply; and verdure puts forth but little if any earlier in the spring. The South then possesses the same great advantage with the North-west in the production of wool—cheap lands ; and, superadded to this, she has the short, mild winters, which give her a decided advantage over both the North and North-west. She has a marked advantage over the Northern and Eastern States in doth particulars, and, instead of importing manufactured woola from them, she eught to supply them, by export, with at least the raw ma- terial. And she will do this at no distant day, unless her sons are content, in the great struggle and battle of industrial interests, to sacrifice their own by apathy or irresolution. *Thave not alluded to the rearing of swine any more fully, as they are but partially a grazing animal. —But if the position assumed in the text be correct, it is another argument in favor of devoting your lands ts the production of surplus wool, instead of surplus corn. Oty as winter feeding of sheep in New York has already been stated to average about one hundred and Gays. 7 +n eae ie ee Me ee Ce ee ee oe ake on a ; AS Verran tole Set Se Gee | er Ene Pe ed TeV - s cy d . eee ieee é why ‘ - 78 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. LETTER VII. PROFITS OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.—3. BY GIV ING TO SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE A MIXED AND CONVERTIBLE CHAE- ACTER.—4. BY FURNISHING THE RAW MATERIAL FOR THE MANUFAC- TURE OF DOMESTIC WOOLENS. Expediency of Rotation in Crops. ..Consequences of omitting it on Wheat Lands of New-York...Mr Gay- lord’s views...Consequences in the Southern States...Mr. Roper’s Report in the Legislature of South Carolina—[Cotton Statistics of that State—Comparison with other States—General Agricultural Resources —necessity of new staples)...Judge Seabrook’s Report to the State Agricultural Society of South Caro- lina—[Agricultural Statistics— Remedies proposed for present “ distress” ]...Singular omission of Wool as one of the proposed new Staples. ..Southern prejudice on this subject—Causes. ..Impropriety of the one- crop system—Diminishes crops—Deteriorates land—Multiplies insects. ..Fertility sustained by Rotation— Causes...“ Resting’—Its inexpediency...Some of the Crops of every Rotation must be converted mainly into Manure—Superior economy of converting them into Animal Manure—Sheep the most profitable ani- mals for this purpose. .-Leading principles of a profitable Southern Rotation—Six-shift Course proposed— Five-shift Course—Six-shift Course for poor soils-..Col. Taylor’s Four-shift Course—Objections...Com- parative profit of growing Wool, Cotton and Rice, incidentally alluded to. ..Economy of producing the raw material for the Manufacture of Domestic Woolens...Cost of Slave Cloths per head per year. ..Prices now paid for these Cloths—Cost of manufacturing them—Data for estimating such cost...Great profits of Man- ufacturers in the Northern States—Their Dividends—Their method of exchanging Cloth for Wool—Work- ing Wool at the halves. ..Cost of Cloths obtained by these methods...''he South may obtain the same ud- vantages—Natural Facilities—Cost of Machinery—On what terms worked—Operations. ..Cloths spun and wove by hand cheaper than the imported ones—Cost of the several processes of manufacturing them— Estimate of Cost per yard at the North...Cost of establishing Carding and Cloth-Dressing Machinery. =a Home-made Fabrics diminishing at the North—Causes-...Same Causes will not operate to 80 great an ex tent at the South—Reasons...Probable Cost of Home-made Cloths, South. —— Dear Sir: The third great benefit claimed by me among the prefiis of sheep husbandry in the Southern States was, “its comparative efficacy in giving to Southern Agriculture a mixed and convertible character, and thereby sustaining (or improving) all the present good tillage lands, in the place of continuing the “new and old field” system (tilling land until it is worn out, then abandoning it and opening new lands), once so general, and even now by far too prevalent.” The first object of mixed husbandry has beeu already stated—the home supply of the various necessaries of life. Its second, and still more impor- tant one, is the preservation of existing fertility in all soils fit for tillage. — It certainly requires no proof or argument to demonstrate the superior ex- pediency of maintaining the fertility of soils, if it can be done, by a rota- tion of crops, even though each of these crops is not, separately considered, the one which would yield the greatest immediate profit. In the language of the hackneyed aphorism, it is never expedient to “ kill the goose which lays golden eggs.” This constant cropping with one plant was once extensively practiced on the wheat lands of New-York, as many of their present owners can_ bitterly attest. Even now there can be no doubt that, on nearly all of them, wheat returns too often in the rotation. These lands were once rapidly, and are still, I fear, slowly declining in value; while the grazing lands of Southern New-York, where men have been compelled to be more discreet, have been constantly improving and approximating to the former in market value.* ——_—— * This calls to mind a letter which | received from an old and valued correspondent, the late Willis Gay- tord, but a short time prior to his death. J had spoken of the advantages of his own, the wheat region, ever the grazing region in which I reside. Mr. G. combated this idea, He thought capital invested here SHEE? HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. TY The same system has prevailed on the rice, tobacco, and cotton lands of the South, and has, for a variety of reasons not necessary here to be dis- cussed, been, in the case of the two latter at least, more fatally persisted in. I have already alluded to the exhaustion of your soils consequent or this course of culture, but to show the wide extent of the evil—its pecu- niary consequences individually, and on whole States—the now adm:tted necessity of a rotation of crops—the equally conceded necessity of intro- ducing some new staple, or staples, to render the other crops in the rota- tion, besides cotton, rice, and tobacco, remunerative—and various other con siderations having a strong bearing on this whole question—I quote the following statements from Southern, as well as highly authoritative sources. The Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives of South Carolina, through their Chairman, Hon. R. W. Roper, made a Report to that body, Dec. 14, 1842, from which the following are extracts : ‘“« Let us now turn our consideration to one other great staple, cotton, of which the statis tics are so exact that we can ascertain by calculation what our prospects are as regards com- petition in that article. The United States produce at present 578,012,473 lbs.—more than one-half the crop of the whole world. South Carolina grows of this 43,927,171 lbs., or 1-12 part of the quantity; but from this source of profit her palmy days are past. Every year opens new lands in the West, where congeniality of soil and climate to this commodity in sreases the product per acre far beyond what can be reared at home, and consequently re duces the value infinitely below the costly prices which formerly enriched Carolina. These new lands produce, on an average, 2,500 lbs. of cotton per hand, while the lands in Carolina yield but 1,200 lbs., and the expenses of a laborer being about equal in either place, reduces the Carolina cotton 1o half its intrinsic value. We have also the declaration of Mr. Dixon H. Lewis, m a recent speech in Congress, that cotton, divested of Government embarrassments, might be grown in Alabama for three cents a pound. “Your Committee will avail itself of the lucid calculations of a distinguished and talented a dividual,* to present another view of the subject, startling in its details, and bearing strong *} an the propriety of summing up all our resources. The crop of the world amounts to £; 00,000,000 lbs., which would require, at the rate of 250 lbs. per acre, 4,000,000 of acres _ to grow this quantity. Now, the four States bordering on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico— viz., Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida—centain 130,000,000 of acres; proving hat, if only one acre in 32 were found capable of producing 250 lbs. to the acre, these four tates could, alone, supply the demand of all the markets in the world. In this calculatiun, the produce of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, with portions of other States, besides 150,000,000 acres in Texas, are entirely excluded. The lands of the Gulf States, therefore, and Texas, are sufficient to supply the demands of the world in all time ta come. Where, then, is the hope or prospect of South Carolina in the competition? . “South Carolina comprises within her borders 16,000,000 acres of land, of which only 1,300,000 are cultivated. Of this, cotton occupies 175,700 acres; rice, 80,000; Indian corn, 500,000; potatoes, 22,612; wheat, 24,079—making an aggregate of about 800,000 acres; the balance of 500,000 are taken up in oats, rye, barley, hay, tobacco, and a limited portion ot other articles necessary to the supplies of life. To what use, then, is the balance of our ter returned quite as good or better profits, than on the wheat lands. He thought, taken as a whole, the graz. ing farmers were doing better than the wheat farmers. ‘The latter. though ostensibly making an equal and frequently better per centage, were wasting their capital. ‘he grazing lands and the wheat lands were rap- idly approaching each other in market value, by the rise of the former and the deterioration of the latter May this not afford a parallel to what will one day be witnessed in the Southern States ? It is difficult for me to pass by the name of this accomplished writer—this pure, upright and philanthropic man—without throwing one stone on the cairn of his well-merited fame. He felt himself, from his infancy, cut off from the companionship of his kind, by disease and deformity ; but. notwithstanding the body was “ugly,” he “carried a precious jewel in his head.” Triumphing over constant physical sutterings which would have prostrated most men, he made attainments in general knowledge possessed by few of his con- temporaries. His range of reading and study was remarkable. In his beautiful and sparkling letters to me, every subject and almost every science is touched upon by him in a manner that shows that he at least hnd mastered their general principles ; and, in the abandon of private intercourse, they seem to have been to him as the flowerets of a garden, among which his spirit could roam with that playful and joyous activ ty which was denied to his poor, frail body, among the objects of the outer and physical world. Freely, unassumingly, and without an aspiration but for the good of his fellow men, his mind poured out ifs stores on a variety of topics in the publications of the day. Fortunately, he gave his principal attention to the subject of Agriculture, and, if not a discoverer (which he never claimed to be), he investigated and Collated with an industriousness of research, discrimination and perspicacity, which brought the truth from ail the different sources where discovery or experience had left its disjecta membra, into essays, so well com: zacted, so clearly arranged, that men of the most ordinary parts could not only understand his separate sen- — sences and positions, but their connection and aggregate bearing, and thus master the whole subject. Peace to his ashes ! © Gov Hammond 89 ritory, of 14,000,000 of acres, to be el 1d rene ? Are we forever to be supplied with stock from the West, bread-stuffs from the all that we can realize from our labor to be expended abroad? Nothing to be left for our /own improvements or our luxury? As one means of correcting this evil, your Committee — propose un Agricultural Survey of the State, to determine our natural advantages, develop — our facilities of improvement, exhibit our profits and expenditures, and awaken our citizens — to the importance of vying with the rest of the human family in all the improvements of which our location is susceptible i “The exposition which your Committee has given, showing the great competition of for- SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ‘a dle States, and manufactures from the North? 1a ic eign rice with our own, and that South Carolina cannot compete with the West in the cheap — production of cotton, and that she must, ere long, be driven from the market, demonstrates — the necessity of looking abroad and around us for other sources of advancement and profits than those we possess. . . + “We cannot expect that accident is continually to supply new staples suited to our soil and climate, and place us beyond the reach of contingent circumstances. to science to improve our Agriculture, and to machinery to enlarge and prepare present arti- cles of culture, or transplant and acclimate new products, which will again, like those we have lost and will lose, lead off for a period in the employment of capital, amassing of wealth and diffusion of human happiness. : The House and Senate agreed with the Report, the same day, and its principal recommendation, an Agricultural Survey of the State, was adopted. The Committee appointed by the South Carolina State Agricuttural So- ciety to consider the scheme of Col. Davie to reduce the quantity of cotton grown, made a Report, through their Chairman, Judge Seabrook, at the winter meeting of the Society, 1845-6, from which the following are ex- tracts :* ‘«’ Another cause of our distress is that, in a large portion of the southern country, cotton is — cultivated, when its production does not now, and never can, at all compensate the planter for the labor bestowed. should be pursued. . . . neglect of the other products necessary to support or comfort. Every planter should prompt- ly render himself independent in reference to those articles which could be produced on hia In this way he would profitably curtail the quantity of land devoted to the cot- plantation. ton crop. An abandonment of the present extremely defective mode of culture, and the sub- stitution of a better, would insure a larger quantity of cotton than would be lost by diversify- tng the products of industry. wheat, rice, oats, barley, horses, mules, hogs, cattle, sheep, butter and vegetab the produce of his farm. “Tf, however, the cotton crop is to be given up one-half, after all the reductions of it which we have sanctioned, to what else can the planter of the South so profitably turn his attention ? To grain? He already, in ordinary years, produces twice as much as the Middle States, and about one-eighth more than the West. her last census, was 300 million bushels. able business, much more is the grain raised. . . . including the lower country, are admirably adapted to the raising of rich grasses. might be added as another branch of industry, from which reasonable profits might be real ized, and might very well be added to the cotton planter’s income. and the manufactures of leather might be and ought to be enlarged. means of a successful pursuit of this branch of industry are at hand and within the reach of Hides, lime, bark and mechanics (slaves) are abundant.” every one. The remarks in both of the above extracts, though made exclusively in reference to South Carolina, will apply equally well, in many obvious par- ticulars, to all the old cotton and tobacco growing States. To a Northern man, accustomed from his childhood to see sheep lius- bandry blended, to a greater or less extent, in the operations of nearly every farm, and to live among farmers who regard it just as indispensable, and as much a matter of course, as the production of bread-stuffs, it seems singular enough that neither of the above able Committees, in looking for * As has Bean inelore stated, the other members of the Committee were Judge O'Neall and W. J. Allston, Mr. A. did n over-production of cotton. braced jin the extracts given, he concurred in the Report. > Esq. We must resort _ There it is desirable for every one that other branches of industry We do not intend to encourage the cultivation of cotton to the In other words, his cotton crop would be larger; his corn, les, would be In Indian corn alone, the produce of the South, by If the planter of cotton is engaged in an unprofit Millions of acres in South Carolina, This The business of tanning In this State, all the f=) concur with his colleagues in the proposition that there was not already an absolute — He believed there was. In all other particulars, and consequently in all em- at SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. | 8] a other sources of advancement ”-—“new products”—“cther branches of industry ”—hoth to bring into use millions of acres of unproductive terri- tory “admirably adapted to the raising of rich grasses,” and to render profitable and preserve the fertility of the tillage lands of the State, should not have thought of wool growing—or only thought of it, as it were, inci- dentally—at the very heel of a catalogue of farm products, and in refer- ence solely to supplying the home want! Indeed, the estimate which has been set upon sheep husbandry gener- ally, and by all classes of agriculturists, South, is a source of unmixed sur- prise to-one acquainted with this pursuit, and with the resources of that region for sustaining it. There appears among many, if I may credit your own writers,* to be even a prejudice against sheep and sheep husbandry, per se! Is this because these animais bear a staple, and give employment to manufactories, which have claimed the “ protection” of Government, to the prejudice, in the opinion of Southern politicians, of Southern interests t+ [s any portion of it due to the scornful denunciations of the brilliant, but eccentric and cynical, statesman of Roanoke, who “ would at any time go out of his way to kick a sheep”? Or is it owing to the, in most respects, justly popular writings of Col. Taylor, of Virginia? Hon. Andrew Ste- venson, of the same State, in a letter to John S. Skinner, Esq., says :t “ The prejudice which the late Col. John Taylor, of Caroline (who, by-the-by, did more for Agriculture than any man in America), had against sheep, has been the means of render- ing this description of stock unpopular in many parts of the southern country. . . . If this distinguished patriot and statesman had lived at this day, he would have changed his opinion.” The impropriety and inexpediency of giving all the labor and prime land of the country to the exclusive cultivation of one or two crops, even leav- _ ing the deterioration of the lands, consequent on such a course, out cf tne question, is forcibly set forth in the Reports above quoted from. But that deterioration is an infinitely more fatal evil, both to individuals and States. ‘An injudicious course of cropping can be easily changed; but, if the land is entirely impoverished, the change comes too late, until labor and capital have been employed on its restoration. The tendency, nay, the absolute connection as cause and effect, between the one-crop system and such dete- rioration, has been proved by too sad an experience at the South—is too universally recognized and conceded—to find a single questioner who pos- oo sesses ordinary intelligence. Whether the consequent phenomena are solved by the excretionary theory of De Candolle, or the more ordinary one of the exhaustion of some of those substances which constitute the ne- cessary food of plants, the facts presented are the same.|| The soil yields constantly diminishing crops, until it becomes incapable of producing more than scattering and feeble plants; and the insect enemies of the latter, which would perish if deprived of their aliment by the substitution of some other plants, multiply in a constantly ascending rati \.§ * Hon. Andrew Stevenson, John S. Skinner, et al. in Monthly Journal of Agriculture, dc. i t If such protection has prejudiced the South, what stronger reason why she should remunerate herself by appropriating a share of it! ft Monthly Journal of Agriculture, July, 1845. || The theory of M. De Candolle, apparently so strongly supported by the experiments of M. Macaire, has found many believers. But the statements of the latter have been contradicted by M. Braconnet, M. Mir bel, and finally are totally overthrown, in my judginent, by the experiments and investigations of Mr. Alfcd Gyde, of Scotland. Mr. Gyde shows that the minute excretions of plants have the same composition with their sap; and he also watered plants with a solution of their excretions, not only without injury, but to their manifest benefit! For Mr. Gyde’s able Prize Essay on this subject, see the Transactions of the High- land and Agricultural Society of Scotland (March, 1846). I am not aware that this essay has been repub- lished in our country. It certainly should be. $ Of the latter evil, the past year furnished a pregnant example. JI saw it stated last winter, in the South Carolinian (published at Columbia, S. C.), on the authority of an Unite States Senator, that the falling off {n the cotton crop would be enormous, by reason of the depredation of worms. ‘This evil is constantly in creasing, and must continue to, while the planter continues to provide aliment for each succeeding horde of destroyers, hy continuing on the soil the plants on which they prey. 82 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. — Experience has shown that if vegetables of different classes are made follow each other, the soil will much longer retain its productiveness— Even when “ exhausted” of some one or more of those ingredients neces. — sary for the healthy production of a particular plant, it is found to produce — others luxuriantly which do not require the lacking ingredients, or fine very minute portions of them And, by a most beautiful arrangement of phys-— ical causes and effects, when a plant is removed from the soil, and notwith- standing its place is occupied by others, a process of restoration at once commences to replace all that the absent plant has appropriated, and to repare the kindly bosom of the earth again for its reception. Nature — Fosse in ministering to this beneficent end, becomes a great laboratory: and in her most ordinary, as well as her most unusual operations, she is” constantly producing those chemical changes, and furnishing those chem-— ical ingredients, which restore what has been abstracted by man’s cupid- — ity, or lost by his improvidence. The gentle rain brings down ammonia and carbon to plants. The frost rives the solid rocks, to disengage their fertilizing constituents. The sun, in his flaming path, looks down not only to warm and give us light, but to perform functions in the vegetable econ- omy without which all herbage, except a few miserable fungi, would per- ish; and to all he imparts their varied and beautiful coloring. The thun- — der which shakes the walls of cities, and strikes man with awe, brings to | our aid one of the most efficient promoters of vegetation. Hyen the burst-— ing volcano converts its fiery crater into a crucible and retort, and gives off that gas which forms so large a portion of all the vegetable and animal — productions of the globe: and the wild winds, which strand navies in their course, equally diffuse it over the earth. It follows from the above positions that naturally good lands* which are | more or less exhausted will be gradually resuscitated by “rest,” or an en- tire exemption from tillage ; and hence the absurd idea that lands require j physical “rest,” in the same sense in which the tired animal muscle re- quires it, after continuous exertion. But, apart from the thecry, the prac- tice of “resting” lands is inexpedient, for the following reasons: If a plant is not continued on a soil until it conswmes any of those inorganic — constituents necessary to its production—if, on the other hand, it is suc-_ ceeded by a plant which makes its heaviest drafts on those inorganic sub- | stances which its predecessor required the least of, and vice versa—the — natural recuperative process above adverted to, azded by means which lose — to us none of the value of the crops, will repair the waste made by each — plant, before it again occupies the soil, in a judicious rotation. Hence, by . a rotation of crops, fertility can be indefinitely sustained, and the earth each year return its increase. Thus the ends of “rest” are attained, with- — out its great and unprofitable sacrifices. To sustain the fertility of the soil, some portion of the crops of every rotation must be converted into manure. These are the “ aiding means” above alluded to. They may be converted into green or animal manure ~ Jf the former, the whole crop is plowed under. If the latter, the crop 1s — rst partly converted into animal manure, by animals depastured on it, and . then this animal manure, with the remaining vegetation, is plowed under. The last is always the most economical method, on good lands,+ because — the crop is worth almost as much for manure, after passing through the ~~.” * Isay “naturally good lands,” for those entirely deficient in several of the necessary constituents of a fertile soil might require ages of rest to obtain these constituents—if, indeed, they ever would, by merely natural causes. ; ¢ Ihave limited the assertion to “good lands,” because a crop of green manure, turned under atthe — per stage of its growth, will undoubtedly make rather more manure .2an in any other way; and it may — Be copndtent many times to give poor lands all. This is especially true in the reclamation of barren lands | i aS ca a SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 83 bodves of animals, as it would be turned under green; and then we have all the profit made on or by the animals—meat, wool, &c.—without any additional cost. Sheep, being the best manurers, and otherwise the most profitable animals, will (with enough other animals to supply all the home demand for the necessaries furnished by them) best sustain a profitable ro- tation. Here, perhaps, the discussion of this topic in connection with the sub- ject matter of these letters should terminate ; but I am unwilling to aban don it, without making a few practical suggestions as to the rotation which would be found most profitable at the Scuth—more particularly on the valuable cotton lands, which are suffering most for the want of it. It is manifestly impossible to lay down any rule or rules on this subject, which ean or should be rigidly acted upon, in all instances. Leading principles can only be declared, and, if correct, the intelligent man can always vary their application so as to meet the exigencies of his particular case. First, I should consider it indispensable on all cotton (or tobacco) lands,* under all circumstances, to keep at least one-third of them in pasturage, to insure the proper amount of manure, over and above cotton seed, and such occasional supplies of swamp mud and marl as might be obtained at spare intervals—and all other incidental manures. Another third, | be- lieve, should be generally devoted to grain for bread stuffs, for fattening the necessary amount of bacon, and for the winter forage of horses, mules, swine, &c. Unless the horses and mules, and, perhaps I should add, the cows, were wintered entirely, or in great part, on grain and the offal of the grain crops, one-third of the cultivated land in grass, would not support animals enough to produce the manure requisite for two-thirds in cotton and grain. But in making the above division, I spoke only of the arable: lands fit for the growth of cotton. Most plantations have poor, or swampy or rough lands, which would most profitably be kept permanently in grass- and these would supply the deficit. The remaining third of the arable. lands might be devoted to cotton, or, in the tobacco region, to tobacco. By the course above proposed, the cotton (or tobacco) and wool would’ be made the salable products. The grain, grass, dairy products, bacon, &c., would be consumed on the plantation. This is as it should be. Eu-- ropean famine has given a stir to the latter products this year, (and it may. for a year more,) in the Southern markets; but with the ordinary Euro-- pean demand, the old Southern Atlantic States cannot, as we have seen,, compete at a profit with these commodities, which debouch through the: Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, and the northern canals. With the two. wools, as they are sometimes called, the ‘‘ vegetable and animal,” these- States can undoubtedly sustain themselves against the pressure of any out- ward competition. Such a division of crops as the one above proposed, could be effected: by a six-course system of rotation. Let us suppose the land of the planta- tion fit to grow corn and cotton, divided into six equal fields. I then pro-- pose the following rotation : ist year, Grass depastured. 1st year, Grass depastured. Ist year, Cotton. Wil as do. do. 2d .. Cotton. 2d .. Cotton with yard ma» 3d... Cottor 3d .. Cotton with yard ma- _ —nure, &ce. ati .. Cotton with yard ma- nure, &c. 3d .- Corn with peas.. nure, &c. \4th .. Corn with peas. 4th .. Small grains with grass: Sth .. Corn with peas. 5th .. Small grains with grass seed. 6th .. Smallgrains with grass}; » seed. 5th .. Grass depastured. seed. lth -- Grass depastured. 6th .. do. do. * Thave not included the rice lands, because being deep beds of alluvial deposits, composed‘in a great | measure of organic matter, an¢ being susceptible of irrigation, they will not wear out like ordinary sous, | and stand less in need of rotat’ n in their crops. 84 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH, lat year, Cotton with yard ma-j1st year, Corn with peas. 1st year, Small grains with grasa i nure, &c. 2d... Smallgrains with grass sced. 2d .. Corn with peas. seeds. 2d .. Grass depastured. 3d .. Small grains with grassj3d .. Grass depastured. 50,7 = do. do. seed 4th .. do. do. 4th .. Cotton. 4th .. Grass depastured. 5th .. Cotton. 5th .. Cotton with yard ma- ee do. do. 6th .. Cotton with yard sy nure, &e. fth .. Cotton. nure, &c. 6th .. Corn with peas. Supposing each of these fields to contain 50 acres, this would give 106 acres of grass, 100 of cotton, and 100 of grain (50 of corn and 50 of small grains) annually. . - ¢ By this course all the hauled* manure, each year, would be given to one-sixth of the land, and consequently tiie same field would not receive | it but once in six years—yet every crop would be adequately manured. The first cotton crop would receive an ample amount from the grass roots and the droppings of animals for two years; the second, from the hauled manure; the corn, from the manure left by the previous crop, and, if needed, by a small amount of cotton seed, ashes, (or some other mineral fertilizer,) in the hill; the small grain crop would be amply manured by the peas sown with the preceding corn; and the land would go back into grass in excellent “heart,” and, if the previous tillage was what it should be, entireiy free from weeds. The corn might intervene between the two cotton crops, and thus remove the objection which exists against taking zwo crops of the same kind in succession. But I placed cotton 4th, be- zause there should come a manured crop at this period of the rotation, and I thought it better to give the manure to the more valuable crop, and be- cause cotton, as the 5th crop, would not admit of the cultivation of the pea, to provide manure for the small grain succeeding. The rotation miglit be thus varied, however, if circumstances should seem to render it desirable. I have put down no meadow in the rotation on the arable lands. But I believe the growth of hay to a certain extent, not only to supply any or- dinary deficiency in winter feed beyond the quantity furnished by the usual sources—but to guard against contingencies, would be good econo- my in all cases. All farm animals must be well wintered, to give a prof- itable return in summer; and those occasional scarcities of fodder always liable to overtake the farmer, should be providently guarded against. It is never considered poor economy, in the North, to have a few tons of hay even to summer over. The necessary meadows for the plantation might be made on some of the less arable lands before referred to—and, when the tillage lands are in an uncommonly fertile state and pasturage plenty, it would do to mow one of the grass crops (the second one) of the above rotation, though, if avoidable, I should think the other course entirely pref- erable. On poorer lands—the poorest class which can be profitably devoted to cotton growing—I would propose a five-shift course, as follows : lst year, Grass depastured. 3d year, Cotton. 2d do. do. 4th .. Corn with peas. 5th year, Small grains with grass seed. The manure to be given to the third or fourth crop, according to cireuin stances, or divided between them, On lands of a still inferior grade, but which it may be expedien te plow at intervals, I would propose the following : lst year Grass depastured. 4th year. Grass depastured (or mown.) 2d. do. do. 5th .. Corn with peas. ad. edo. do. 6th .- Small grains with grass seed. * | mean by this, the manure from every source which is carted upon the land in quantity, as contradis- tinguished from that which is dropped there by animals made by plowing under vegetables, or carried om — ‘m small quantities to drop in the hill, &c. 4 SHELP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 85 The number of years depastured to depend upon fertility—the poorer the land, the longer it should be kept in pasture. The following is the rotation which was introduced by Col. Taylor, north of the cotton-growing region: Ist year, Corn. 3d year, Clover (and weeds) not mown nor ' 2d .. Wheat and clover sown—if too grazed. poor for wheat, left at rest and uot grazed. 4th .. Clover not mown nor grazed. Of this, Mr. John J. Thomas, one of the Editors of the Albany Culti vator, very justly remarks : “It was materially opposed to the principles of good husbandry in several respects. It furnished vegetable manure only to the land. A large portion of the value of this vegetable growth was lost, by dissipation into the air, during its decay. The returns from the land were necessarily small, as only two years out of four produced crops for harvesting. And it greatly increased the labors of tillage, by the increase of noxious weeds.” Had this clover been fed off by sheep, a portion of the above objections would be inapplicable, and there would be no danger of the corn leaving the soil too impoyerished for wheat, particularly if peas were sown with the former, to be plowed under. A crop of weeds is, of all others, the most to be avoided, as the seeds deposited by it will continue to sprout for years with the subsequent tillage crops, rendering them foul and difficult of cultivation. I may be in a profound error, but I cannot but believe, after carefully studying Southern Agriculture, and the circumstances which invest it, that by adopting the six-shift system of rotation above recommended, or something analogous to it, on the cotton lands, the desideratum expressed in Judge Seabrook’s Report will be attained. More cotton will ulti- mately, if not even now, be produced from less land: the other necessa- ries of life will become mainly the product of the plantation ; a new staple will be introduced to employ the surplus capital, as profitable at least in its acreable products as cotton, and tending to the constant reparation, as cotton tends to the constant waste of the fertility of the land. T will not tire you, Sir, with a comparison between the relative profits of wool and cotton growing. On looking over the answers of Southern gentlemen to Mr. Walker’s Treasury Circular, (1845,) I find that the stated profits on cotton in the Atlantic and Gulf States, west of Louisiana, range from 1 to 8 per cent. on capital invested—the average of all the statements being about 44 per cent. ! I may remark incidentally that in your own able replies to that Circular, you set down the profits of rice growing between 1842 and 1845, at 74 per cent.; for the ten preceding years, at ‘“‘ about 8 per cent.” A reference to Letter V. will show you how these profits compare with those of wool-growing. Admitting the accuracy of the data therein given, there is no very great difference in the cost of growing a pound of wool and a pound of cotton! We come now to the fourth point of view in which we are to regard the profits of sheep husbandry in the Southern States—‘ whether independent of preceding considerations, and even if the staples furnished by sheep hus- bandry proved no more profitable, in direct returns on capital invested, _ than some of the present peas it would not be better economy, on the whole, for the South to produce the raw material and manufacture do- mestic woolens, particularly for the apparel and bedding of slaves, than to be dependent for them on England and Massachusetts ?” The woolen apparel and bedding of slaves, when no part of it is manu factured on the plantation, costs about $6 per head per annum. The blankets imported from England weigh about 44 lbs. and cost a little aver &6 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. $3. Th» Welsh plains, imported from England, weigh usually not far from — i3 ounces per yard, and cost from 65 to 70 cents; and the Chelmsfords, a heavy, coarse article, from Massachusetts, from 50 to 58 cents. Now what is the cost of manufacturing (including wool and every other expense,) cloth of the same amount of stock, and better quality, than Welsh lains? To the present weight of the cloth per yard add one-third, and you have the weight of the wool in the fleece—as bought of the farmer.* If hen, the Welsh plains weigh 13 ounces per yard, they required 174 ounces of fleece-wool as stock. Wool of the quality worked into “ plain cloth” or “sheep’s gray,” in this State, (New-York,) many shades better in qual- ity than the stock of Welsh plains, has averaged from June to December, 1846, from, say, 20 to 22 cents a poundf—or, if pulled from the pelts of slaughtered sheep, as is the case with large quantities of it worked inte these cloths, it did not, during the same period, stand the purchaser-in ta exceed 18 cents per pound. Assume the average to be 21 cents per pound, and the stock of a yard of these cloths (174 ounces) would cost 22% cents. You are familiar with the character of the “sheep’s grays” of New- York. They are worn almost universally by our farmers. Of the twenty- five thousand men you saw at the State Fair at Rochester, at least three- fourths of them ordinarily wear this quality of cloth for pantaloons, and say one-half of them for coats. Its ordinary weight is from that of the Welsh plain to 16 ounces per yard, and its style and expense of manufac ture are superior to those of the former. It can be manufactured, in cluding use of machinery, &c., and every process after the wool is received in the fleece, to fitting it for market, for eleven cents per yard! ‘A mer- chant of this State owns a manufactory, employing say $25,000 or $30,000 of capital, which turns off from 500 to 600 yards of cloth per diem—the fleece-wool being converted into finished cloth in eight days, His whole expenses, including use of manufactory, averages, according to his own statements, not to exceed the above named price per yard. Add this sum. to the cost of wool, and cloths containing an equal quantity and quality of stock with Welsh plains would cost 332 cents per yard; and you there- fore pay for this class of cloths about one hundred per cent. beyond the first cost, for transportation, duties, and manufacturer’s profits. The latter, of course, absorbs most of the immense sum thus paid, or rather thrown away, annually by the Southern States. The Chelmsfords, and various other woolen goods imported by you, are probably manufactured at nearly equal profits. Is it singular, then, that “acres of woolen manufactories” are now in the process of erection in the North? or that existing establishments are declaring dividends of from ten to fifteen per cent. ?¢ But I have not done with the data of manufacturing. The manufac- turer above alluded to has, to my certain knowledge, exchanged “sheep’s grays” requiring a pound of stock per yard, for wool of the same quality as the stock, giving a yard of cloth for 1} lbs. of wool. Calling this wool * After being washed in the ordinary manner on the back of the sheep. f Wool has risen since December. {1 did contemplate an enumeration of the new weolen manufactories now building, or in contempla don, within my knowledge, in this State and New-England , but will mention but a few of the most im. portant ones. The Bay State Mills, now in process of erection in the new city of Lawrence, Mass., will work up 2,000,000 Ibs. of wool per annum. One of the mills, 200 feet long and six stories high, will gointa operation this summer. The machine-shop, wool-house, etc., (the mere offices,) will be, including wings, thirteen hundred feet in length, and three stories high. Their very sewer will cost $25,000! A splendid steam mill has just gone into operation in Utica, in this State, which will work up 1,000,000 lbs. of woul per annum. Another of the same size is in contemplation, in Utica; another in Syracuse; another in Auburn, &c.! There never was a time when American manufactures stood on a firmer basis, or were making bet ter protits with a prospect of having them continuous. ‘This is conceded by the ablest of the manufacturers etemerives 181 shall, in the proper place, show. ' er SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. &7 21 cents per pound, the cloth would thus cost the purchaser 363 cents pert yard. : : _ Any of the manufactories doing custom-work will manufacture these goods “at the halves,” so that a yard requiring a pound of stock would cost two pounds «f wool, or 42 cents. That as heavy as Welsh plains would thus cost 455 cents, it being from 19} to 244 cents per yard Jess than you now pay. Yet here the manufacturer of custom-work admits the sufh ciency of the profit, by asking no more. Blankets are of still coarser wool, having the appearance of Smyrna, or inferior South American. They are not “ sheared,’* which diminishes the waste. Neither do they need dyeing matter. But independent of these considerations, calling cost of stock per pound, and the waste from all causes the same, 6 lbs. of fleece-wool would make a blanket. To the wool costing 21 cents a pound add 11 cents per pound (of the stock) for ‘ manufacturing, and the actual cost of the blanket is $192. Have them manufactured by the halves, and they would cost you 12 lbs. of wool each, or $2 52. I have in the previous estimates, based my calculations on the market price of the lower quality of medium wools.t But there is another and a most important view of the subject. It has already been shown that the South can produce wool, to any desirable extent, at a sum not exceeding 8 cents per pound—and, in favored localities, at a much lower rate. By the exchanging system (wool for cloth) you would get a yard of cloth equaling the Welsh plain in stock, and superior in quality, for 2 lbs. 22 oz. of wool, costing the producer just 174 cents! A blanket weighing 4 lbs. would be obtained for 12 lbs. of wool, costing 96 cents ! Does this sound a little like dreaming, Sir? I ask you to carefully examine the premises, and see if there is any escaping from these con clusions ¢ Will the South continue to slumber on, thus throwing away the fruits of her industry? Do you tell me that her people know nothing about manufacturing, and have no taste for it? The necessary knowledge is as readily acquired by a Southern as a Northern man; and when that is oh. tained, and there is a prospect of profit ahead, the taste will not long be wanting! You have the capital: you have natural facilities to an un- bounded extent both to propel the machinery and produce the staple. What more do you want ! What more can you ask? A joint stock asso- ciation of planters, at any suitable point, might cause a manufactory to be erected worth say $25,000, under the direction of a skillful and expeti- enced machinist. This would turn off, say, 500 yards of cloth per diem. If the machinery was in all respects good, and the water-power sufficient and unfailing, a competent and responsible Northern manufacturer could be obtained (if desired), to take the establishment, furnishing hands, &c., and work the wool furnished him into cloth of the kind before described— containing about the same stock with Welsh plains, and fitting it for mar ! * After a sufficient number of fibres have been torn up from the threads by the teazles or cards of the “ gig-mill” to furm a sufficiently thick nap on the surface, these fibres are cropped or “sheared” by a ma- ehine for that purpose ; and in superfine cloths the pracess is several times repeated, each time cutting off an additional portion of fibre, which is called “flocks.” A dishonest custom now prevails amohg some manufacturers of working these flocks again into the body of the cloth to give them weight, denseness, and &pparent firmness. By this means the gigging and shearing process can be continued on thinnish cloths un- til a beautiful surface is obtained, without the additional thinness and lightness consequent thereon being apparent to any but an experienced eye. Sheep’s grays and other coarse cloths are gigged and sheared but slightly. In some manufactories the former process is altogether omitted, and the cloth is simply “brushed” prior to shearing. Such cloths are stronger, but do not look as well. t Say of the quality of common South-Down‘' and Native and Long wools, with a sufficient dash of Me- rino blood in the last to make them carding-wools, and to bring them to about the same fineness with she firs: ramed 8g SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. tr eee ket, for eight or nine cents a yard.* 1 know of a manufacturer, at no great distance from me, who thus takes a manufactory worth perhaps $8,000 or | $10,000, and furnishes the cloth (of the above stamp,) fitted for market, for nine cents a yard, the owner furnishing the wool, the use of the manufac- tory, and the dyeing matter.t The supply of water at this establishment fails during two or three months each year; and one competent to judge informs me that seven cents would be better pay per yard, if the machine- — ry could be kept in motion the year round. It is probable that it would cost rather more at the South to provide the necessary fixtures, obtain machinery, etc.; and it would also cost more, for a period, to carry on. manufacturing, from the greater difficulty of obtaining operatives in case¢ of losing any of those attached to the establishment. All these disadyan- tages, however, not of much importance at the first, will soon disappear. : eae = | : w Slaves should, as rapidly as the nature of the case admits of, be converted into operatives, ard when the number becomes once adequate to the end, it . might be indefinitely multiplied, without those embarrassments which so — commonly attend the attempt to mingle white and black labor. | It is cheaper to manufacture by hand,t (with the exception of carding, fulling, and dressing,) than to purchase your slave cloths at present prices, if slave costs no more than free labor. On the average, 15 knots of warp, and 15 of filling, make one yard of flannel about 5 quarters wide. The ordinary shrinkage of this, in fulling it into cloth, is one quarter in length and width. It would therefwre re- quire 40 knots to make a yard of fulled cloth. The carding here in small parcels costs 3 cents per pound, and 18% cents per pound for fulling, dye- ing anddressing. In considerable quantities, the carding can be hired done for 2 cents per pound, and the other processes for one shilling per yard. Spinning (by considerable quantities and for “cash-pay,”||) can be hired done for 7 cents a 7un (20 knots) for warp, and 5 cents for filling—averag- ing 6 cents for both. Weaving can be hired done for 6 cents per yard (of Hannel), which brings it, in the dressed cloth, to 8 cents per yard. The ac- count would then stand thus: | lie Small parcels. | Large parcels, | 1 Ib. of WOO! . 2522012 occ eee cee nese ewe e eens cee 21 cents. 21 cents. Carding same..........--------------+---+++------- Sa 2 8 Spinning --..-----.- 2 --- eee ewww ewe nee wee nn nn enn raya 1255 RUVie HIN neete ee lalaie'alaiciwie ais oln'= SOO mE SOU GEA pe ce 10 Sig Dyeing, fulling and dressing ........-.-------------- 18} “ 123 « 1Ye( Fale GOS Ase See pecOrse hada once cue oF 55% cents. Making 551 cents the price of a yard of domestic cloth, estimating the wool at market price: estimating the latter at cost of production (8 cents) the price of the finished cloth would be 42} cents per yard, and it is & better article for wear than either the Welsh plains or Chelmsfords.§ * [have no doubt it could be done at a fair profit in the North for 7 cents per yard. I am understood, of course, to mean that the manufacturer pays no rent, insurance, nor for repairs. The stockholders furnish the wool, which is worked oe by the former, at the stipulated price. + Modern ingenuity has reduced the expense of this to a mere trifle. Most of the “sheep's grays,” you bave observed, are of ferruginous hue. ‘Those of this color are dyed principally by tan pe ee e bark cf the hemlock (Abies canadensis), which is sold here at $1 75 to $2a cord! I] am aware that to “manufacture” is to make by hand, but I use the word in its popular and more gen. eral signification. It would have been better to have compounded a word from the Latin machina and facio (machinfacture ?) to signify made by machinery, and thus expressed the two ideas by properly de rived and definitive words. || This word “ cash-pay” is one of mighty import in the regulation of prices in the interior, where a very eneral (but now decreasing) system of barter prevails, and under which Wealth too often dictates te Want what it shall receive for its labor, and also prescribes the prices of the commodities in which it pays. § Home-made fabries are usually stronger and wear better than those made by machinery, (or, in other words, manufactured cloths outwear machinfactured ones!) but this is not necessarily so. The several rocesses ‘an be done undoubtedly, and probably, generally are more perfectly by machinery than by Fond: But in machine-mude cloths the yarn is commonly spun finer, so there is less stock in a yard, And they are submitted to processes, described in a previous Note, which farther impuir their strength. J SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 89 _ $1,500 will set up a carding and cloth-dressing factory, which, with three good hands, will turn off 50 yards of cloth per diem. By Table I. it appears that im 1839 there were but 114 of these factories south of the Potomac and west of the Mississippi, doing an annual business of $320,- 938, while in the single State of New-York there were 323 factories, doing an annual business of $3,537,337! Of the 114 Southern factories 66 were in the States of Kentucky and Tennessee; 41 in Virginia; 3 in each o. the Carolinas; 1 in Georgia, and in the remaining four, none / The number is decreasmg in New-York, as manufactories of the com- mon fabrics, worn by farmers and other laboring men, are increasing in every direction—many of them doing custom-work either at the halves, or at a fixed sum per yard—and all of them exchanging cloth for wool. By either of these methods, the cloth can be obtained as cheaply, perhaps cheaper, than to manufacture it in families. But circumstanced as you are at the South, you can, as before asserted, manufacture more cheaply by hand (excepting carding, fulling and dressing), than to import your slave cloths at present prices, if provided with factories to perform the ex- cepted processes. Where the institution of slavery exists, and where spinning, weaving, etc., can be done in those intervals of bad weather when the time of laborers would otherwise be entirely thrown away, it is doubtful whether any extension of even the coarse cloth manufactories would, or ought to, in an economical point of view, banish the home-made article. If we count the slave labor thus saved one-half the value of free labor, and dispense with the fulling and dressing* (which we usually dis- pensed with in manufacturing domestic slave cloths, in the interior of the Carolinas, Georgia, etc.), the cloth would cost but 20 cents a yard, and the dyeing might carry it to 22 cents. Let one-half the fabric be made of cot- ton, and the cost would be still farther reduced.t Since the above was written, I have received the samples of Welsh plains, Chelmsford plains, and slave blankets forwarded by you. None of these goods exceed in quantity the estimate I have put upon thein in my preceding remarks. The Welsh plain which you state cost 65 cents per yard by the piece, (32 inches wide,) is about the thickness of rather heavy—but not the heaviest—sheep’s gray. It is not, however, by many shades, so close and firm a cloth, for the want of equal fulling; and perhaps even this would not give it equal firmness, by reason of the loose twist of the yarn. The yarn is considerably coarser, (larger in diameter,) than that ordinarily em- ployed in sheep’s gray—but it derives no inconsiderable portion of its bulk (which gives the cloth its thickness) from the loose and imperfect man ner in which it was twisted in spinning. This is particularly the case with the filling, which you can scarcely detach from even so open a web, without its breaking in pieces. Accordingly, the cloth tears very easily lengthwise, for that presenting such an apparent amount of stock. With a sufficient amount of fulling, dyeing, (it is white,) and a little gigging and shearing—or simply brushing—it would become identical 2a * But still you want carding-machines, to card the wool; for, by hand, it is a slow and expensive process. 71 was shown a new article of satinets a day or two since. It was double or broadcloth width, black, and the cotton warp dyed black, and could only be distinguished from a very fair piece of black broad- cioth by examining the cut edge. The manufacturer stated that the cotton warp weighed but 3 oz. per yard ; but I do not credit the assertion. One is strongly inclined to suspect that a cloth of this character could not have been “got up” for any very legitimate purpose, but that it belongs in the wooden-nutmeg and horn-flint category ! The ordinary Fatinet, when well made, is a profitable, cheap cloth. 90 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH African (“ Smyrna” or ** Mogadore’) wools; and this intermixed with occasional still coarser sharp pointed hairs, which could come only from an animal not many removes from the wild Argali.* In both, there is a peculiarly dry, harsh, wiry feeling, not found in North American wools, and which is more indicative of an inferior staple—of brittleness, and want of felting properties—than even their coarseness. ‘The staple is not appa- rently a very long one. I conjecture that it is Iceland wool—or that, mixed with Orkney, or some of the coarsest short or medium staple wools of Scotland. The Chelmsfords, (31 inches wide,) twilled, undyed,t cost, you inform me, 58 cents per yard. The plain article, (7. e. untwilled,) 28 inches wide, costs 50 cents per yard.. The sample of the twilled, forwarded by you, is a thicker, decidedly stronger cloth, with larger and far more tightly twisted yain, than the sample of Welsh plains. The wool is of about the same quality, though at first view it strikes you as decidedly coarser, as the longer nap shows more of the coarse fibres on the surface, and these are rendered more conspicuous still by their variety of color. But on re- solving portions of each cloth back into unmanufactured wool, I can detect little or no difference in its fineness, unless it be that the stock of the Chelmsford plains possesses none of those peculiarly coarse fibres or hairs which characterize the other. The wool used in the Chelmsfords is ap- parently of a 1onger staple. It is probably South American, though +t may be Smyrna or Mogadore, as it bears a strong resemblance to the w.< of the broad-tailed sheep of Asia and Africa. You state that the Welsh is generally thought to outwear the Chelmsfcrd plain. This may be true of the ordinary articles, but I think it cannot be of the samples forwarded. Of these, the latter possesses nearly double the strength of the former and is much the heaviest cloth. The slave blanket, 6 feet 11 inches long, by ‘6 feet 5 inches wide, weigh- ing 44 lbs., you state cost about $3 12} by the piece (a piece containing avpearance with heavy sheep’s gray, excepting in the quality of the wool. ‘That is inferior to any I ever saw in a single piece of the former. — it appears tu be vf two qualities, the finest about like the Asia Minor or — 16 blankets costs $50). It is manufactured of a very coarse and a long ~ stapled wool—not much fulled—with a long nap raised on both surfaces. The wool in quality resembles that used in the Chelmsfords. On the receipt of these samples, I forwarded a specimen of the Welsh plains to two manufacturers of experience and perfect pecuniary respon- sibility, asking them at what price per yard they would contract to furnish me 100,000 yards of cloth of the same style and equal quality with the sample. The question was put to both of these gentlemen and received by them, as purely a commercial one—the opening of a commercial nego- tiation. Each stood ready to enter immediately on the fulfillment of a contract, based on his offer. The following is the answer of one of the above named gentlemen : Henny S. RanDALL, Esq. MoRRIsvILLE, N. Y., April 20, 1847. Dear Sir: Yours of the 13th is at hand and daly noticed. I have no wool of the quality of the sample sent, and do not wish to work foreign wool. I would like to make for you 100,000 yards like the sample, out of our American or domestic wool. Ivwould make it as thick and tight as the sample sent, 32 inches wide, at 40 cents per yard. I could not say how much less it would coet to get up the article from the same kind of wool with that used in the sample. I do not know what that kind of wool is now worth in market. I have not worked any of it for two jon. Yours, truly, Cc. TILLING T. * Many of the unimproved breeds have, as is common with wild animals, a coating of hair over a finer po — beneath, and itis difficult to perfectly separate them. i A small portion of the wool employed in the filling is black, giving the cloth a dirty drab or ash colur Bat this | take to be the natural color of the wool SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 91 The first answer of the other manufacturer, S. Newton Dexter, Esq. of Whitestown, Oneida Co., N. Y., (head of the Oriskany Manufacturing Company,) it is not necessary to transcribe entire. Mr. Dexter informed me that his machinery is calculated for the manufacture of fine cloth; that the carding of coarse wool would injure his cards; that its manufacture would throw him out of his regular course of business; that he had no wool of the quality used in the sample on hand; that he should be com pelled to use domestic wool; and that for these reasons and some other named by him, he could not undertake to fill the contract at less than 42 cents per yard—which he knew would be considered a high price. Mr. Dexter being a gentleman equally distinguished for his correct and able business character, and for that capacity and range of information which give value to his opinions on all the topics connected with this in- vestigation, I addressed him a second communication, asking him what he could manufacture the cloth for, giving him time to procure stock of the same quality used in the sample. I also inclosed him proof-sheets of the preceding part of this letter, asking him his opinion of the correctness of my statements, in relation to the general cost of manufacturing, &c. The following extracts from his reply will be read with interest : Col. Henry S. RANDALL: WUITESTOWN, April 24, 1847. Dear Sir: Yours reached me on Wednesday. There is no doubt at all but what if I felt cer- tain that wool could be procured of the quality of which your sample was made, at a price pro- portionably low, I could have afforded to have manufactured the cloth at 37 cents per yard, as well as at 42, and use our coarse native wool, at a probable cost of 25 cents... .. There has been an advance of more than 70 per cent. in the price of lard oil. The price a short time since waa 55 cents. The last 1 bought cost 95 cents in New-York. Five quarts of this oil are wanted te every 80 yards ofthese cloths..... I cannot imagine where the wool was from out of which the sample was made, probably from Iceland—for I recollect some twenty years ago the Oriskany Manufacturing Company obtained just such wool somewhere, when American wool was deemed too high, and manufactured it into miserable satinets, by which they lost a great deal of money The wool was said to have been imported from Iceland. I was one of the Directors of the mill then, but had nothing to do with “operating” it..... You request my opinion as to the correctness of your statements of the: probable cost of Welsh plains, &c., and generally of the statements put forth by you on the subject of woollen manufac- tories. I am not very good authority as to the cost of manufacturing coarse woolens, never hav- ing done much in that way. Iam free to say, however, that your estimates may generally be relied on. Certainly you have allowed liberally for what would have been the cost of such wool by the pound last year; but I think your estimate of 173 oz. of wool in the fleece, out of which ta manufacture one yard of cloth 32 inches wide, similar to the sample inclosed in your letter, too low. {should think it would certainly take 20 oz., or 13 pounds. The allowance of 11 cents for manufacturing will, I am inclined to think, pay charges, but it will not afford any profit, nor in- terest on capital, nor leave anything for keeping machinery in repair. It isa very close calcula. tion, when fuller’s soap, lard-oil, &c., are so high. d The sheep’s gray cloths that you speak of, you will observe, are generally not quite 3 wide— say 26 inches—while the sample you sent me was 32 inches. One pound of well washed fleece wool wzll make a yard of sheep’s gray of medium quality; but unless the goods are flocked, the calculation is a very close one indeed. I am inclined to think that you overestimate the profit of manufacturing woolen goods, although TI admit that in well-managed institutions, that have the most improved machinery, with an abun- dant capital, the profits have, at times, been very large indeed, and our friend Samuel Law- rence, of whom you speak, is the most prominent example of such a manufacturer within my knowledge. .... Every new manufactory erected, if built with judgment, has one advantage over those already in operation, and that is, they have availed themselves of all the improvements of those in operation. And as machinery is constantly being produced at cheaper rates, a factory of increased capacity will probably have cost less money The Oriskany Manufacturing Company is the oldest company now manufacturing woolen goods in the United States. They have made satinets which have sold readily at $3 50 per yard, and have made cloths which have as readily sold for $12 per yard. Satinets full as good can now be bought at 75 cents, and handsomer, if not better cloths, for $3. What a change is here ! And yet the Oriskany Manufacturing Company was perhaps never doing better than now. ‘This Company availed itself of the opportunities offered last year to obtain wool very low, to purchase a supply for nearly two years. This year the business will be good, that is, pay a profit of 10 per sent. on investments, even where wool is purchased at current rates; but I do not believe it will pay more. 1 svill furnish you with a brief estimate : ~ eS eye ae Fay oe! ey Pee pe cena eee Me eu’ Se 7 . P * as » * \ 92 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH, A mill with aeapital of $100,000 wili manufacture, say 90,000 yards of 6-4 cloth, which will bring in market an average Of 8L 50 per yard, OY «0.0... eee eee eee ee ences To get these cloths into cash (for they are sold at 8 months, and are charged with commission of 5 per cent.. and other charges equal, in all, incluging in- terest, boxing and transportation, to 12 per CONL..... 200+... -e 2 eee e eee eeee- $16,200 Cost of 225,000 ths. of wool at 30 cents... --. .-2eee enc ene cwneerenencrcncnnsce 67.500 he 3.300 gallons sperm and lard oil at $1....-..----+ -----+ .ee- ee eee - 3,300 e- Soap, soft and bard.......-------c0c- cece nen cen wc cen ert encenccnpene 3.500 we. 800000 tangle deacn a mak ede s honensicadSecnnaneenaealnuM meaain ame® 1,000 -- Dyeing materials of all kinds .......-...----2-+-+ .----+ eeeeee eee eee 11,500 oe. ” RuGlscac cents iene eae ida sane ” bak a ee PROSPECTS OF THE WOOL MARKET—FUTURE DEMAND AND SUPPLY. ; ‘ J ' 5 % SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 94 furnish such a surplus? Where is the present supply to be diminished, or the demand increased ? Where agricultural competition exists, as a matter of course the pro | ducer who can supply the market with the least expense to himself, has an advantage which nothing but a disparity greatly against him in capital can overcome. Large capital, satisfied with less gains than small capital, svill sometimes sustain competition with the latter, with the advantages of the cheapness of production somewhat against it. But where the differ- ence in first cost is considerable, the cheaper producer can always drive his rival from the market. The aggregate agricultural capital in a region of given size in New-York, probably would ordinarily exceed that of an equal territory in South Carolina or Georgia. But it is not so with indi- vidual or personal capital. While the agricultural territory and capabilities of the latter States are in a comparatively few hands, those of New-York and New-England are parceled out among a multitude of small holders, who must realize the first class of agricultural profits, to support them- selves and their families. The advantage of capitai is therefore, in reality, on the side of the South. But independent of this consideration, I have already attempted to show that the South can produce wool so much cheaper than New-York, that the latter will stand no chance whatever in competing with her more favored rival—so soon as that rival sees fit to avail herself of her advan- tages. North of latitude 40° there will be but little disparity im the cost of producing wool ; and therefore if the South can drive New-York to relin- quish the production of this staple, she can do the same with all portions of the United States lying north of this parallel, unless on the shores of the Pacific, where the isothermal line is at least 5° north of its course east of the Missouri. I will now enter upon some specifications, and, where ne- ceasary, proofs, to sustain this proposition. New-England has, concededly, no advantages over New-York for the vheap production of wool. Northern Pennsylvania is higher, colder, and more sterile than most of southern New-York. South-eastern Pennsy]l- vania, and the fertile portions of New-Jersey, are the natural producers of bread-stuffs for the less favored regions of those States, and of provisions of all kinds for the New-York City and Philadelphia markets. The high price which good lands bear in the vicinity of such markets, would prevent them from competing with cheap interior lands in wool-growing. There are sheep lands of good quality in western Pennsylvania; and in the southern section, the winters are perceptibly a little shorter than in New- York. This will render the production of wool upon them somewhat less expensive than in the latter State, but it will not reduce it low enough to allow them to compete with the cheaper lands and still shorter win- ters of the South. The same remarks will apply to the hilly region con stituting the south-eastern portion of Ohio. . Proceeding still farther west, we find a region extending to a vast distance whose topographical and geological features, flora, &¢., taken in connec- tion, effectually distinguish it from the territory lying east of the Missis- sippi and Ohio. Vast plains, called prairies, (so named by the early French settlers from the French word signifying meadow,) which can be purchased of the Government in the natural state for $1 25 per acre, and which are usually covered with natural grasses—would seem, if these grasses are adapted to the summer and winter subsistence of sheep, and there are no counterbalancing disadvantages, to unite facilities for the cheap production of wool not possessed in any other region of our country. And such supe- riority has actually and often been claimed for them. 96 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH, . . P g ‘ if I propose to investigate this question at considerable length, because there — are various considerations which, at first view, give great plausibility to this claim. And if the prairies can produce wool cheaper than the South, it is in vain for the latter to embark in the business—at least, beyond the ex- tent of supplying the home demand—for so limitless is the extent of these natural pastures throughout the whole northern basin of the Mississippi, that they could, perhaps, supply the entire market demand of the United States for this staple, for an indefinite period, vast as that demand is des tined to be. But a very few years have elapsed since the most sanguine anticipations were indulged in, by large numbers of our Northern and Eastern flock- masters, in relation to the superior capabilities and advantages of the prai- ries over Eastern lands for sheep-walks ; and large flocks were driven hun- _ dreds of miles, lands purchased, and establishments created, to realize these supposed advantages. It is not too much to say that these anticipa- tions—so far at least, as keeping sheep on the natural herbage of the prai- ries is concerned, were briefly and summarily blasted. Many of the tiocks driven there, actually perished in the midst of seeming plenty. On the whole, the experiment is generally conceded to have resulted in failure, let us see whether this was occasioned by mismanagement—temporary and removable causes—or whether we must look for those causes in na- tural and unchangeable circumstances. A portion of the wild prairie grasses are relished by sheep, and they thrive on them; but these grasses, as well as all the other varieties growing there, flourish during but an unusually limited portion of the season. They be- gin to dry up and lose their nutritive qualities in midsummer, and long be- fore the foddering season has commenced on the bleakest highlands of New-England, they are as unfit for the subsistence of sheep, as dry brush ! Where the natural grasses are alone depended upon, the foddering season on the prairies, north of latitude 40°, will range from six to seven months -—rarely, perhaps, fall short of six, on lands which have been previously depastured, provided the sheep are maintained in good condition. And there is another material difficulty with the prairie grasses which sheep feed on. They soon—many of them even in a single season—be- come extirpated if kept fed down while growing. This is so singular a fact in vegetable physiology, that I chose to state it in the words of an in- telligent resident of the prairie region—whose local pride and partiali- ties would naturally prompt him to give as favorable a coloring to the agricultural advantages of his chosen home, as a regard for truth would admit of. From a communication of J. Ambrose Wight, Esgq., Editor of the Prairie Farmer, to L. A. Morrel*—replete with useful information, and characterized by an admirable candor—I make the following extracts : Sheep or other stock, but more particularly the former, put upon a given piece of wild prairie, and confined to it, unless the range be very large, would not contmue to kee fat one season after another, though they would at first; but if allowed a new range eac season, they would always keep fat. The reason is this: Sheep in such cases will ge over their range and select such food as they prefer, and will keep at it until it is gone. Hence the wild bean and pea vine, and a few other kinds of plants, will obtain their constant at- tentions, and will be kept so short that they will, on a given piece of land, die out the first year. Therefore if turned out on the same grounds another season, the best food will be goue, and the poorer, with which they must then take up, and which itself gets continually pourer, will not sustain them in their first condition. A small flock of sheep will thus ran over a large extent of ground. Hence the utter hollowness of a supposition which appears to be common at the East, that large flocks of sheep can be sustained on the wild grass of the prairies alone. There are many places, it is true, where a farmer might keep a large flock on ths wild prairics * American Shepherd pp. 138—145. t, — ae SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 9 —_— during the summer months with profit, provided he had not too many neighbors in the _ same business. But such flocks would continually lessen their own range, at the same time that it is lessening by immigration, settlement and extended culture. I have been in the coun- try about nine years ; having gone, at the first, into an entirely unsettled region, and have paid much attention to the matter ; and it is my belief that the wild prairies are desirable for wool-growing to a very limited degree ; but that the cultivated prairies are desirable for » this purpose to an almost limitless extent.” ' The, following fully sustains my preceding statements in relation to the time of foddering. In answer to Mr. Morrel’s question, “ what length of time is foddering necessary in Northern Hlinois ?’? Mr. Wight Says: ‘The seasons have been extremely variable since my residence here—now nearly nine years. The winter of 1842 and ’43 was the severest one since the settlement of the State: and the foddering season lasted from the middle of October to the middle of April. The winter of 1843 and ’44, and the present one (1844-5) would require foddering for a less time by fulltwo months. This is on the supposition, however, that good artificial pasturage is provided. If the wild prairies are relied on alone for pasture and hay, full two months must be added to the foddering season; and stock would barely get through at that; and [ think that sheep, in multitudes of instances, would perish. In this latitude with Timothy, Red-top and Clover pastures, the average time would be from 44 to 5 months. Ifa eood blue-grass pasture were provided, in such winters as the last and present, it might be reduced to two months, and I am told that some so provided for, one hundred miles south of here have, the present winter, scarcely foddered at all. I apprehend, however, that our winte1 here will always be variable, and that it will be far more difficult to predict their lenct’ and intensity than in New-England.” cael {n another place Mr. Wight says: “Tf, however, the question is asked, ‘ Does not the pasture on the prairies fail early in au tum, so as to compel the removal of sheep to other pasture before it is time to go into winte> quarters ?” I answer, yes—long before. In many sections the prairies afford no adequate asture for dairy purposes after the first of September. . . . . The wild grasses are extreme y vigorous while they last, but are all, without an exception, short-lived.” ‘The great diminution of the foddering season, where the domestic ot cultivated grasses are already made use of, which Mr. W. anticipates may result from the introduction of blue-grass, will be found utterly unattain- able. Blue-grass (known as June or spear grass), is one of the common- est varieties in New-York and New-England. Peoria, in Illinois, is in about the same latitude with the City of New-York, and consequently that portion of Illinois north of Peoria, corresponds with a considerable portion of New-York, and all of Connecticut and Rhode Island. And the climate of the former is not less rigorous, and is far more variable, than in the lat- ter named States, as I shall presently show. Now in no portion of New- York or New-England will the blue-grass reduce the foddering season to two months, or anything like it. It is true that small flocks will pick up a subsistence on this and other grasses in the winter, when the cround is _not covered with snow, and if the pastures are not fed down in the fall. Tc suppose, however, that this or any other herbage will continue to grow, when the earth is frozen almiost to the consistency of a solid rock, far be- low its lowest roots, is an obvious error. In New-York, the ground remains so frozen usually during the entire winter, and in Northern Illinois the cold is equally intense, and there is less snow to protect the earth from its ef. fects. The ground, therefore, is frozen quite as solidly, and considerably deeper than in the former. Grass left standing for winter cons'mption, in either State, becomes, by freezing and thawing, tough and innutritious, In New-York, the larger flock-masters have long since ceased to make any provision of this kind, for winter-feeding—preferring to keep their sheep in yards, and entirely from grass. As Mr. Wight himself very accurately remarks in another part of his communication, “It is found to be decidedly better to keep sheep up in small flocks, witk very little ground ne run over, while kept on hay, than 98 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH, to let them run out a part of the time and get such grass as they can pick, while there is not enough to sustain them.” But the reason for this given by Mr. W., that “they eat much dirt, are liable to be poisoned and lose their appetite for hay,” is very far from being the correct one. Green grass always, in a great measure, de aprives sheep of their a; petite for dry hay. T he or ass thus left standing loses its nutritive qualities, so that it will but imperfectly sustain animals, and when the snow falls and covers it, sheep not only cannot obtain it, but they are left without appetite for other food. Open winters, @. e., winters without snow, are always particu- larly fatal to sheep which are suffered to run on the pastures, in this climate, and for the reasons above assigned. They sometimes appear to be doing well enough up to toward the close of February ; but they are imperceptibly losing condition and strength, and when the trying month of March, with its stormy and fickle weather, sets in, they begin to drop off, and all sorts of diseases—grub in the head, “the distemper,” etc.—are assigned as the causes It is in vain to attempt to shorten the foddering season north of latitude 40°, on this side of the Rocky Mountains, by seeking for any plant to con- tinue its growth and thus produce green feed in winter, unless in limited districts, and on the margins of large bodies of water. No plant can draw its nutriment from solidly frozen ground. Mr. Wight proposes burning over portions of the prairies at intervals, to cause the vegetation to start afresh, and thus prolong the grazing sea- son on the prairies. Mr. Flower makes the same suggestion. In some localities, and under favorable circumstances, this might, temporarily, ac- complish the desired object ; but as population increases, and buildings and inclosures are erected, it would constantly lead to those unfortunate accidents, which have already, I believe, led at least one of the Western States to prohibit by severe penal enactments, the setting fire to the dead grass of the prairies. Besides, we have Mr. Wight’s own authority for stating that sheep actually extirpate those of the prairie grasses which they will feed on, so that burning over could not cause these to re-sprout the same season or afterward. It requires but little knowledge of the habits of the sheep to know that grasses rejected by it in summer, will not constitute a proper aliment for it in winter, and that if confined to such food, it will not prosper. “ ___. deep myrrh-thickets blowing round The stately cedar, tamarisks, Thick roseries of scented thorn, Tall orient shrubs, and obelisks Graven with emblems of the time, In honor of the golden prime. Of good Haroun Alraschid.” There are portions of Persia where the soil is rich and the climate delightful—but, as a whole, it is a heat. wt: ile, unfruitfnl country—large portions of it covered with rugged mountains or saline deserte—with e enmate remarkable for the rapidity 4nd extent of its variations. « SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN I'HE SOUTH. 10é —— —— flora of Northern Germany—spirits freeze and quicksilver becomes malle- able. But it is unnecessary to continue this enumeration. Let us now take a rapid view of the wool-growing countries embraced in the specified zones. And we will first complete the deacription of our own continent. Mexico—that portion of it north of latitude 30°—bears too close a re- semblance to our Western Territories conterminous with it, to require weparate notice. But a small proportion of the great peninsula of South America is in- cluded between the 30th and 45th parallels of latitude, and admitting, what seems probable, that the contiguity of two great oceans would su af- fect the climate as to carry the northern line ot the wool zone a little nearer to the Equator, this zone would still embrace but, say, two-thirds vt Buenos Ayres, nearly all of Chili, the little State of Uraguay, a mere point of Brazil, and the north of Patagonia. ’ The growing of wool has already been commenced on the vast pampas®™ of Buenos Ayres—though as yet to a but limited extent. In 1832, the ex- port.of wool to Great Britain was 32,052 arrobas ;t but the same year the import of English woolens considerably exceeded it in value. The United States Tariff on foreign wools costing 7 cents per pound or under being then but 5 per cent. ad valorem, the importation of wool of that quality from the Argentine Republict into our country in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1846, was 4,295,659 lbs., and of wool costing more than 7 cents (paying a duty of 30 per cent. ad valorem, and a specific duty of 3 cents per pound) the import was 43,831 Ibs.|| The pampas resemble the North American prairies, being plains cov- ered with wild grasses, and entirely destitute of timber. The land is di- vided by the Government into estates a league square (5,760 acres,) and sold at 10 cents per acre. Until recently the pampas were depastured al- most exclusively by horses and cattle, and so plenty and cheap were they, that they were frequently killed for their hides alone. The herds- men and shepherds live in miserable huts, and temporary folds are formed of the trunks of peach-trees. Western or south-western winds called pam- peros often sweep. the country with destructive fury, and there are ir stances in which flocks of sheep have been forced by them into streams and have perished. - The inhabitants of the pampas are, on the north, the Gauchos—descend- ants of Spaniards—who, living in the saddle, and content to subsist on jerked beef and cold water—having few wants, and none svhich the dasso will not supply—lead a life of wild and roving liberty. Tribes of mount- ed Indians, wild, predatory, and constantly at war with the Gauchos, oc- cupy the southern pampas. _ The facilities for producing wool here closely resemble those of the North American prairies, though wood is wanting over much more exten- sive tracts. The price of land on the pampas is less, but they are more remote from markets, as there is little or no manufacturing done in South, America. Besides the cost of transportation, wool must pay, before reach- ng market, the duties levied by some foreign nation. The duty in the United States, by the Tariff of 1846, is 30 per centum ad valorem, with- out regard to quality, thus discontinuing that great discrimination in favor of the coarse article, which allowed a large proportion of the wools of * This word, like anos in the Northern States of South America, and prairies in vhe No-th Westerr Wnited States, is applied to extensive plains. ‘hose in the North of Chili are called pampas del sacraments t McCulloch’s Commercial Dictionary. An arroba is 1014 lbs. avoirdupois. : { Buenos Ayres is so known in all the official documents of the United States. ) Report of the Register of the Treasury, ahi 1846. i | L06 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN [HE SOUTH. ee wee Bienes Ayres, Africa, Turkey, &c., to enter our ports ander a merely nominal duty. ‘The present Tariff raised the duty on these wools to sia Jimes the former rate, ¢. €., on wools costing 7 cents, from 34 mills to 2 cents and 1 mill per pound. This will make an important difference to the for eign grower aud exporter. If these wools continue, as hitherto, to be im orted in the grease and dirt, from which state they lose about half weight in being brought as clean as well washed United States wool, every pound of them so imported will actually pay a double duty, or 4 cents and 2 mills, half of this being paid for dit. If, on the other hand, they are washed prior to exportation, a reduction of 50 per cent. in their weight will call for a corresponding advance in their price. Wool now costing 7 cents at Buenos Ayres or Smyrna, will cost 14 cents; and if this is exported into the United States, it must pay a duty of 30 per cent., or 4 cents and 2 mills per pound. It will be seen, therefore, that the lowest priced foreign wools cannot enter our country without paying about this duty (4 cents) per ‘pound, unless under fraudulent invoices ; and this, as has been already shown, is ha/f the cost of producing wool throughout a region of the United States much greater in extent than all that portion of South America in- cluded within the wool-growing zone. The English duty on wools costing less than 24 cents is 1 cent per pound; over 24 cents, 2 cents per pound. The French duty is 22 per cent. ad valorem, without regard to cost. The security of life and property is far less in Buenos Ayres than in the — United States; the character of the agricultural population less industri- ous, less skillful, and less methodical. Capitalists from other countries may, on account of the cheapness of the lands, make it profitable to pu> chase large estancias, and raise vast flocks of sheep; and this has already — been done by a few Europeans. But the pampas are subject to the same general objections* with the North American prairies, and when the con- tagious diseases, adverted. to in speaking of the latter, once obtain a foot-— ing on them, it is not difficult to predict how those diseases will be en- countered by the wild and, so far as agricultural labor is concerned, indo- lent Gaucho. The difficulty of encountering them, with the best skill and industry, under such circumstances—of preventing their unlimited spread, constant return and frightful mortality, on plains without inclosures, where flocks have access to each other, or straggling sheep from one flock are liable, by every-day casualties, to be thrown among those of another flock —has been stated. It is not improbable that while land remains so low, and the sheep _ healthy, the actual cost of production in Buenos Ayres will be somewhat Jess than in the United States ; but taking all things into consideration, and — looking to the future, I Avanld sooner advise any one, even in an Geuinl sively economical point of view, to purchase the cheap lands of our own Southern States for the objects of Sheep Husbandry, than any part of — South America. With the present duty and the cost of transportation — against the latter, there is no fear that it can undersell, in our markets, — the produce of the former. The 7-cent South American wools, washed, will cost 14 cents, and washing will add about 1 cent a pound to the cost | Add another cent for agent’s commission, and also the U. S. duty, and the © wvol is brought to 20 cents a pound, independent of freight and insurance, which wil carry it, I should think, to about two shillings. The United — States producer can furnish wool of much better quality “than the coarse | South American article, at this price, and realize a high profit. * Unless it be climatic ones. On this point I have no information. * This wil) be attended with much trouble on large porti »ns of th? pampas, as on our prairies, * | | { q « SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 107 —— But is it said that the 7-cent South American wool sold in ovr markets in 1845 and 1846, was not all coarse—that much of it was actually of a superior quality This is true. Many of the bales were partly made up _ of an article ranging with American Merino and Saxony wools. But there is little doubt that, to say the least of it, in very many such cases, if the in- voice of the wool was not fraudulent, nominally, it was rendered so, in teality, by a previous fraud. The modus operandi is said to have been as follows: A sends his agent B to Buenos Ayres with instructions to pur- chase the best lots of wool and pay their market price; and he farther gives him secret instructions to re-sell these wools to C (a second agent) for 7 cents per pound, ostensibly in the ordinary course of business. The second agent C is subsequently sent out to buy, with no information of the mission of his predecessor; if he swspect the fraud, he has no direct know!l- edge of it, and having purchased wool for 7 cents which cost B 15 cents, he can invoice it at the former rate and support the invoice by his oath. I have no direct proof of an imstance of this species of fraud. The commonness of such transactions, however, was claimed to be a matter of perfect notoriety, by individuals who had investigated the subject. Allegations of this kind have appeared again and again in the most public manner, and IJ have yet to listen to the first denial of them, public or private. Fraudulent invoices are no new thing in our commercial his- tory,* and the great discrimination made by the Tariff of 1842, in the du- ties on wool, offered the strongest temptations to them. The same kind of fraud may be still practiced, but the inducement to risk seizure for un- dervaluation is less where the diminution of duty is merely pro rata with the diminution of cost, and where getting the latter invoiced at as low a rate as 7 cents, is not followed, as before, by escape from a specific duty and a sudden descent of five-stxths in the ad valorem one. Iam free to confess, however, that it has always seemed to me that ¢ determination to vigorously and faithfully discharge their duty in the premises, with a competent practical knowledge of the quality of the arti- cle, in the proper Custom-House officials, would always, in an unmanu- factured staple, and one so readily classified and valued as wool, be a suf- ficient safeguard against fraudulent undervaluation, to any extent, in the invoice. They might perhaps be undervalued one or two cents on the pound, without making a case strong and obvious enough to justify ap- raisers in legalizing a seizure; but it is not for gains like these that per- sJuries would be ventured upon, or double agents and other expensive ar- rangements for the perpetration of more roundabout frauds, be found profitable. ‘ Not having room, within the limits of this letter, to discuss the capa- bilities of the Old World to compete with us in wool growing, I will reserve that subject for my next. \ * ¥f any one dreams they are, let him read a speech on the Tariff made by Mr. Buchanan in the U. 5 Bewate in 1849—another by Mr. Webster on ad valorem: duties, made in the same body July 25, 1846, &c. LETTER IX. PROSPECTS OF THE WOOL MARKET—FUTURE DEMAND AND SUPPLY. ~ The Imports and Exports of Trans-Atlantic Nations...Means of ascertaining their Comparative Produe tion... Table of the Imports of England...Amount of Wool grown in the United Kingdom, Consumption, Export, Facilities, including Soils and Climate, for its Cheap Production, and Prospect of its Increase or Dit. inution—Same of France—Same of Spain— Same of Italy—Same of Turkey in Kurope—Same of Germany, including Prussia and Austria, with the exception of Hungary—Same of Hungary—Same of Russia—Sam of Asia Minor—Same of Persia—Same of Independent ‘Tartary—Same of Afghanistan and Beloochistan Same of Thibet, Little Bucharia, and the remainder of China—Same of the Cape of Good Hope—Same of Australia and Van Diemen’s Land...Conclusions in regard to Comparative Facilities, etc., of above Na- tions and the United States...'The Northern States can compete with the most favored of them—and o course the South can, to much greater advantage..-The South might safely embark in Wool-Growing, re- lying on the European Market alone...Rapid Extension of that Market Past and Future...But the Ameri- can Wool-Grower is not compelled to eeek a Foreign Market...Our Production does not meet the Demand of our own Manufactories...'Table of the Imports of Wool into the United States...Table showing whence we Import Wool...Letter from Samuel Lawrence, Esq., showing the increasing call for Man ufactories—The Stability of existing ones—and their ability to compete with those of Foreign Countries. . — Extent of our Consumption of Woolens above the Supply made by our Manufactories...Table of Imports of Woolens..-Probable Increase of our Manufactories...Reflections on the ‘aritf...Rapidly Increasing Consumption of our Population—Amount Consumed per head...Table of Increase of our Population. .- Future Increase--.'The Amount of Wool Necessary at various Future Periods. Dear Sir: Probably there are few men who now dream of any danger to the wool-grower of the United States, in the home market, from ¢rans-At-_ lantic competition. But there is another point of view, in which a glance at the facilities of the eastern nations, for the production of this staple, may not be uninteresting. May we not undersell them with the raw material, in their own markets ! He who carefully and intelligently examines all the facts involved in the solution of this question, will find, in spite of the vague popular impressions which prevail on the subject, that so far at least as those nations are concerned, which zow produce the greatest amount of the wool which supplies the markets of the Old World, the United States can, if satisfied with equal profits, easzly wndersell them. As an importer of the raw and exporter of the manufactured article, England occupies the first place. In these particulars, she probak.y ey- ceeds, by fully one-half, a// the other nations of the Old World. France: ranks next, and largely takes precedence of the remaining nations. Hot land, though shorn, by disastrous political revolutions, of much of Per an cient importance in this class of manufactures, still maintains a treae of — some magnitude. Several of the German and Prussian States export par- — ticular descriptions of woolens; Italy sends out some light ciotns ; and — Turkey the carpets of that name. A full exhibit of the exports of all the wool-producing nations, would not, of course, lead us to an accurate knowl- edge of the amount of their production—for there is no one which does not manufacture the raw material to some extent. But with what knowl-— edge we can obtain of their manufactures, the former information would enable us to ascertain, approximately at least, the amount of their produe- ticn. This is all that is necessary for our present purpose, for we do no! — now, in reality, so much seek their actual as their comparative production England, as I have before remarked, is the great importer and exporter Her duties on imported wool are, as has been seen,* exceedingly low, and she makes no discrimination in tnis particular, in relation to bottoms, o« the places of export.t The vastness and variety of her dersaad give a — * See Letter VIII. « With the exception, of course of her own Colonies, from which it is exported free. _ 1) Vico CAs \ rg) ») SHEEP HUSBANDRY .N THE SOUTH. 109 ee greater certainty to the exporter of prompt and favorable sales, in het ‘markets, than in those of any other nation. France possesses the advan- tage of maritime contiguity, for securing the raw product of the nations ‘bordering on the Mediterranean; and therefore, in some instances, as in _ the case of Turkey, she receives more of that product, in proportion to her ' manufacturing consumption, than England. But in one respect the latter _ has the advantage in securing the trade of the Levant. Between the na- tural products, and, of consequence, the exports of France and those of _ the other nations bordering on the Mediterranean, there exists a great simi- larity. She cannot send her wines to Hungary, nor these nor her silks to | Italy, in exchange for wool. Her fruits, and indeed all of her natural pro- ducts are the same with those of the whole south of Europe. England, _ the producer, and the great mart of the products of Northern Europe, can offer these in the Mediterranean on better terms than France; and in the manufacture of cotton goods, the main article of dress, and consequently one of the great ones of import throughout the whole Levant, the former ee a decided superiority. All these natural and artificial circumstances ave their weight, sometimes in favor of one, and sometimes the other of these nations, in determining the course of trade—and habit, ancient com- mercial associations, and even national predilections also throw their weight ‘into the scale. In looking at the subject as a whole, however, all these facts, unless in a very few instances, so far offset each other, that in obtain- ing a view of the :vool trade of England—her imports—we obtain a suff- ciently accu:ate picture or index of the proportionable exports of all the aatlons of the Old World. _ Before proceeding to ascertain the actual facilities of the several coun- tries named in the Table, for the purposes of wool-growing, it may be well to briefly glance at that of England herself. Mr. Luccock* estimated the produce of wool in England and Wales, in 1800, to be 393,236 packs,{ or 94,376,640 lbs.; and in 1828, Mr. Hubbard t placed it at 463,169 packs, or 111,160,560 lbs. According to a Table formed by order of a Committee of the House of Lords, the same year, the quantity produced on an average of years, in England, is 111,160,560 Ibs. According to Mr. Luccock’s estimate, (in 1800,) the number of sheep in England and Wales was 26,148,463. It is not thought to have. varied much since. The Encyclopedia Americana,|| (published 1835,) on the authority of the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, sets down the then present ‘aumber of sheep in the United Kingdom as follows: in Scotland 3,500,000 ; ‘wm Ireland probably under 2,000,000; in England and Wales the same |number as in the time of Mr. Luccock;—so that the ageregate number | would be about 32,000,000. It will thus be seen that England and Wales, |with an area much less than that of Virginia,§ have almost 7,000,0U0 \ more sheep than the whole number in the United States in 1839 ! Large as is the amount of wool produced in the United Kingdom, it does not meet, in the number of pounds, the amount required for woolens ‘consumed in the United Kingdom alone.f] It is true that England has ‘exported some combing wool, of her own growth, to meet the wants of a eertain class of manufactories (of worsted) in France, which could not ob- |tain stock of equal quality in any other quarter; and she has also exported |considerable quantities of her own coarse short wools. Of the latter, I jam ashamed to say, the United States have been considerable purchasers. | The whole export of England, in 1824, amounted to but little over 18,00C * See Luccock on Wool, p. 341 and Table. t A pack of wool is 240 Ibs. | * Quoted by Mr. Bischoft—See vol. ii., Appendix. || Encyclopedia Americana—ert. Sheep Raising | The area of Virginia is 70,000 square miles, that of Engiand and Waas 60,000, ; H ae ‘ i } | | ee — 2 | | | | ‘J See Bischoff, vol. ii, p. 171. 110 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. lbs. From that time it has gradually increased, and in 1838 it reached 5,851,340 lbs. ; ‘in 1839, 4,603,799 lbs. ; in 1840, 4,810,387 lbs.* Under last year of the late Tariff, we received from England, of wools not costing to exceed 7 cents per pound, 1,188,800 lbs., and of those exceeding 7 cents, 28,406 lbs.; and from Scotland, of the cheaper class, 21,132 Ibs.| This, however, only shows a surplus in kind, not in quantity. The Eng- lish short wools have, as has been abundantly shown by the testimony of her most eminent manufacturers, t a harshness and want of felting prop. erties which render them unfit, unmixed with a better stamp of foreigr wools, for any but the very lowest description of cloths and stuffs, such as blankets, baizes, army cloths, flushings or bearskins, &c. Nor will they; make prime articles, even of these low descriptions. England, therefore after consuming such portions of these wools as she can, in the manufae- ture of the above-named and similar articles, and by mixing them, in the: nature of an alloy, with better foreign wools in a low class of fabrics, such: as flannels, livery and sergeant’s cloth, etc., exports the balance to suc nations as are foolish enough to purchase it.|| The following Table, compiled from official sources, from Bischoff’ “Comprehensive History of the Woolen and Worsted Manufactures, &c.,”§ gives the imports of England every fifth year from 1810 to 1840) TABLE No. 8. ' pebaaetries Sm.which Imp'ted| 1810. 1815. 1820. 1825. 1830. 1835. 1840. Russia ...----8--eneenene 32,149 297,611 75,614] 1,992,101 202,871| 4,024,740) 4,518,563 YNorway. .----------+---- 11.930] 40,984 302 554,213] 179,717] 366,444 3,497 380 1,431 Denmark. --ks--s0c-ceus 351,741 424,82. ASVOOEN oc satianeioeceaiem 3 15,424 32,889 13,527 PIiseia.. scneeec2sc cen ee 123,057 105,073 107,101 131,100 713,246 256,147 Germany........----<<.. 778,835) 3,137,438] 5,113,442) 28,799,661) 26,073,882) 23,792,196 Hollentl=-.ccdeenacease eee a 301,855 Reisiunieeee ee 2,873 432,832 186,051] 1,059,243 939,123 § 931/999 1 756,427 230,999 436.678 45,093 104,535) 95,187 953,793 461,942 683,231 5,952,407] 3,929,579 8,206,427| 1,643,515} 1,602,752 3,936,229 349,053 12,891 3,051 19,25 476,737 21,554 97,679 2,815 227,453 9,461} 1,051,005 5,050 72,131 39,913 25,983 816,625 189,584) 513,414 1,281,839 13,869 27,619 191,624 Cape of Good Hope...--- 5,102 Africa, other parts..-.-...- St Helens. 2-.s-kee . ] 5 ht te ite ae | i “d ‘ > - ’ a7 0 fi f eI cv “ 116 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTR. lains of the North that you afterward find large flocks and herds, under the care of keepers, mer close together; for as they have no fences, they are under the momentary peril of mak _ mg ravages on their neighbor's crops.” . Between Leipsic and Berlin, on the plains of Saxony, Mr. Howitt first saw flocks of sheep in the field, and he says : ‘One thing which surprises an Englishman is to see what wretched creatures are the sheep which produce the famous Saxony wool... . « In fact, it is a prevailing idea thai the leaner the sheep the finer the wool. It is the wool to which all the attention of the grow er is devoted, and therefore, generally speaking, a more miserable assemblage of animals than a flock of German sheep is not to be seen. ... . On the plains they wander under cave of a shepherd, and for the most part on fullows and stubbles, to pick up odds and enda, rather than to enjoy a regular pasture. You may see them penned on a blazing fallow, where not a trace of vegetable matter is to be seen, for the greater part ofa summer day, which in this climate is pretty much like being roasted alive. . . . . For what purpose they are here, except to starve and melt them into !eanness, I never could discover, . . . . The sheep, be sides being lean, are generally dreadfully lame with that pestilent complaint the foot-rot. and their keepers, apparently, trouble themselves very little about it.” j Mr. Howitt states that it is necessary to economize the land so closely, to’ sustain the population, in some parts of Germany, that the peasants actual» ly convey earth up steep hill-sides in baskets, and cover the rocks with it to thus add to the tillable soil! In reviewing the preceding facts, you are struck with no one which would indicate particular natural advantages for sheep rearing in the States of Germany, Prussia, and—with an exception presently to be named Austria. ‘The climate of the North is humid, fickle andtempestuous ; that of the middle cold with long winters. Neither possess any advantages over our own Northern States—and in some respects are decidedly inferior to them. This was the opinion of that eminent sheep-breeder and excel- lent man, Henry D. Grove, of this State, who was a native of Prussian Saxony, and who certainly would never be suspected by any one who knew him personally, of any want of partiality for anything pertaining te his Fatherland ! In his letter to Benton and Barry on wool-growing, &c.. he says: “Ten years’ experience has fully satisfied me on this point. In some respects, we posses@ natural advantages over Germany.” In what particulars he awarded the preference to the United States, his letters and oral declarations to me, leave no uncertainty. It was both in soil and climate, and in instituting the comparison, he had his eye not onthe most favored sections of our country, but on the hills of Rensselaer County in this State, where he resided. . lf in natural advantages we surpass Germany, how much more we do in artificial ones, may be estimated from the preceding extracts from Messrs. Jacob and Howitt. To these general remarks portions of Hurga- ry form an exception. In these, the climate is fine, the soil rich, and, the feudal tenures remaining unabolished, the land is yet held in those large estates so favorable to Sheep Husbandry. Prince Esterhazy, the former Austrian Ambassador to England, says Mr. Paget,* owns an estate of some- thing more than 7,000 square miles, including 130 villages, 40 towns, and castles. Hissheep are said to amount to 3,000,000.t Other nobles own flocks of from ten to thirty thousand.. The demi-savage Magyar serf, whose labor costs nothing, whose principal garment is a sheep-skin, and whose miserable and scanty food is more than half stolen,t makes a most econo ical shepherd! Hungary lacks facilities for internal communication, an¢ her convenience to the Mediterranean markets—excepting Turkey—so a * Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, vol. i.p, 46. t Youat. t See Paget's Hunga y, &c., p. 13 to 19, SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. SEE? to first throw her agricultural products into ports where the demand is good, is decidedly inferior to that of Italy, France and Spain. The Danube | is the only natural outlet to her commerce—which, thanks to a liberality | of policy on the part of Turkey,* contrasting most favorably with that | of several enlightened nationst under similar ci1cumstances, she enjoys | without limitation. To reach Trieste, a long land carriage is indispensa- | ble. Her exports too, are embarrassed by the imposts and narrow restric- | sions of the Imperial Government. She cannot, therefore, export cheap | heavy articles, such as provisions, to so great advantage as the Levantine | nations: but every circumstance points: to her as a country which should | be one of the first on the Eastern Continent, for the production of wine, silk, | wool, &c. Separated from Hungary and Transylvania only by the Carpathian Moun- tains and Turkish Moldavia, lie the fertile provinces of South-eastern Rus- | sia, the basins of the Dniester, the Dnieper, and the Don. From the Car- | pathians to the Caspian, across the entire extent of the plains of ancient “Scythia, not an elevation which could be properly dignified with the ap- ) pellation of a mountain, breaks the immense expanse! The lower valley | of the Dniester or Borysthenes, formerly known as the Ukraine, has been ) celebrated for centuries for its pasturage—for its horses { and cattle: and re- _ cently flocks of Merino sheep have been introduced there and successfully crossed with the native variety. In 1839, Mr. Slade states that many of _ the colonists on the Steppe and in Bessarabia had 20,000 sheep. Merinos were introduced into Crimea or Taurida, by M. Rouvier, a French ad- | venturer, in about 1802.|| In,this favored peninsula, which the learned Pallas describes as little less than an earthly Paradise, they have multiplied ) exceedingly, and extended to Cherson, Ekatherinoslav, Bessarabia and other provincial Governments.§ The export. of wool from Odessa in 1829 “was 3,402 lbs.; in 1830, 21,361 lbs.; in 1831, 35,058 lbs.; in 1832, 41,558 ‘Ibs.; in 1833, 66,457 Ibs.; in 1834, 66,901 lbs.§] In one respect Southern Russia has the advantage over Hungary. Itis /more sparsely populated, and land is perhaps in still lower estimation. As ‘in the latter, the land, much of it, is fertile and well adapted to pasturage,. jand the price of labor is next to nothing. But for causes adverted to in the opening part of my eighth Letter, there is a wide disparity in the climates of the two countries, if we leave Crimea out.of view. That of Russia, affect- ed by the north and north-east winds—which the Carpathians exclude from Hungary—has a winter which for length and intensity is entirely unequaled ‘in the latter, excepting in its northern mountainous regions, Sheep must be housed, and fed for some months on dry food, in Southern Russia. . Taking Into view the broad, level steppes** and their luxuriant natural verdure— \taking into view the climate, warm in summer, cold and exposed to winds |of great severity in winter, it strikes me that there must be no inconsider- able resemblance between this portion of Russia and our own north- |western prairies in corresponding latitudes (45° to 46°). But when the sost of land and labor is taken into consideration, wool can be. produced icheaper, in my judgment, in South-western Russia than in Spain, France, Germany, Italy or any other portion of Europe, excepting Hungary. Were | * This power is remarkable for its liberality in all its regulations which affect the trade and commerce ‘other nations. te. g., the policy of England in relation to the navigation of the St. Lawrence. | {This wild region and its horses have been rendered classic by Mazeppa. Who, that ever read, has for- got the description of the horse on which the Hetman-performed his fiery and perilous ride } | || For an interesting account of the adventures of this fortunate French Jason, see Slade’s “ Travels in ea and Russia,” published London, 1840. § See Slade’s Travels; also McCulloch’s Com. Dic.—art. Odessa. | 4 McCulloch's Com. Dic.—art. Odessa. =* This Russian word has a similar signification to prairie, pampas, llanos, &c 118 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. European Turkey differently populated, and under different institutions, t might constitute auother exception. ; Central and Northern Russia, like the States north of Germany, are north of the wool zone. Their winters are too long and severe to allow them to compete with regions lying farther south, in wool-growing, Asia Minor, or Turkey in Asia, and Persia have been alluded to—the former, much of it, a fine country with a most delightful climate, but its natural advantages all neutralized by its political systems and the charae- ter of its population—the latter, except in occasional favored positions, such as the valleys of Shiraz and Ispahan, a land of mountain and desert, of intense heat and intense cold. Independent Tartary, lying immediately north of it, is less exposed to the hot winds of Arabia, but more so to the freezing ones of Siberia. Its vast dry plains are usually deserts, excepting on the borders of its exceed- ly rare streams. Great Bucharia, however, in the south-east, on the head waters of the Amoo (Oxus)—from the Capital of which Timour (Tamer lane) issued on his desolating path of conquest—is a country of great fer- tility. Its natural beauties constitute a favorite theme with the poets and geographers of Persia and Arabia. Since the opening of the navigation of - the Indus, it has annually sent some wool to Bombay, which constitutes a part of that which is shipped thence to England, and is known in Table 8 as East Indian wool. Afghanistan and Beloochistan, protected on the north from the Siberian winds by the lofty Hindoo Koosh mountains, and less exposed on the south: to those of Arabia, exhibits a milder and less variable climate than that of the conterminous regions of Persia. Among the Highlands of the nort and those skirting the Indus on the east, there is much good pasturage Sir Alexander Barnes states that four-fifths of the whole surface of Cabul, a Province of the former, is excellent pasture land. The wool of the broad tailed sheep of these countries also finds its way, by the Indus, to Bombay, and is classed as East India wool in the Table. p From the high, cold, mountain regions of Thibet, Little Bucharia, &c., some wools are exported, through the same channels, which come under the same classification. These countries also export shawl wool.* Mos of China north of the great Desert of Cobi is a cold, mountainous country. The southern portion, or China Proper, is too densely populated and closely cultivated to be devoted to pasturage. The wool trade which followed the opening of the Indus (the raw ma- terial being supplied by Afghanistan, Great Bucharia, Thibet and some of the Hindostanese Provinces) might doubtless be swelled into one of great importance, particularly by introducing finer breeds of sheep; but we can scarcely expect this, from what we know of the habits, agri- cultural and commercial, of the population. Among constant political changes wrought by the only Asiatic argument—the sword—the personal habits and occupations of the Asiatic remain ever the same, and are, per haps, the best type of persistency to be found in anything short of im mobile matter. Indeed, the stony features of the Sphinx have change scarcely less through revolving generations, than have the ethnic ones of this great family of the human race! Let us now pass to those regions of the Old World, south of the Equa- tor, included in the wool-growing zone. The southern extremity of Africa—the Cape of Good Hope—is included * The table-land of Thibet is elevated 15,000 feet above the level of thesea. Mr. Trail remarks that eve animal here, including Carnivora, produce that down under their hair which is known as shawl though that manufactured comes mainly from a species of goat. SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 119 in the wool-growing zone. The following description of it is by Rey Robert Moffat, for twenty-three years a resident of it as the agent of the London Missionary Society :* _ * The Colony extends from west to east about six hundred miles, its average breadth being about two hundred. .... Between the coast and the vast chain of mountains, beyond which lie the Karoo, the country is well watered, fertile and temperate. The other portions of the Colony, with few exceptions, and without a change in the seasons, appear to be doomed to perpetual sterility and drouth. The Karoo country, which is in the background of the _ Colony, is, as Lichstenstein correctly describes it, a parched and arid plain, stretching out to | such an extent that the vast hills by which it is terminated, or rather which divide it from other plains, are lost in the distance. The beds of numberless little rivers, (in which _ water is rarely to be found) cross, like veins, in a thousand directions, this enormous space. | The course of them might, in some places, be clearly distinguished by the dark green of the | mimosas spreading along their banks. Excepting these, as far as the eye can reach, no tree or shrub is visible... . . But even on these hills and sunburnt plains thousands of sheep _ pasture on a thin sprinkling of verdure and esculents. . .. . The entire country, extending in some places hundreds of miles on each side of the Orange River, and from where it emp- _ ties itself im the Atlantic, to beyond the 24th degree of east longitude, appears to have the curse of Gilboa resting upon it. It is rare that rains to any extent or quantity fall in those _ regions. Extreme drouth continues for years together. The fountains are exceedingly few, _ precarious, and latterly many of these have been dried up altogether.” According to Barrow, nearly seven-tenths of the Colony are destitute of vegetation during a greater part of the year. Sand drives before the ‘winds, exercising an unfavorable influence on sheep and wool. Lions, lgers, wolves, hyenas, jackals, wild dogs, etc., are numerous on the very skirts of the settlements, making much vigilance necessary for the protec- tion of the sheep; and they must be nightly driven into the settlements ts be folded. But the natives have proved a vastly more destructive enemy than these.t| The sheep introduced by the English colonists will probably eventually considerably increase beyond their present number in a country of so great extent, but we are scarcely authorized to believe that the Cape will ever take a high rank among the wool-producing countries of the world. That great island, or continent, known as New South Wales, or Aus- tralia, has a superficial area equaling that of the United States. But a limited portion of it, however, is included in the wool zone. All of Van Diemen’s Land, or Tasmania, is in that zone. The export of wool from these countries, as will be seen from the Table,t reached nearly ten million pounds in 1840—nearly half that of Germany, including Austria and | Prussia, and almost eght times that of Spain! Here, as at the Cape of | Good Hope, there are no woolen manufactories, and being Colonies of England, their export to that country exhibits their whole production. __ The soil, products, &c. of Australia are thus spoken of by Mr. McCul- loch : || “ The fertility of the soil in most parts of New-Holland that have been explored with any | care, is very far indeed from corresponding with the glowing descriptions of some of its casual _ visitors, whose imaginations seem to have been dazzled by the magnificence of its botanica! | Becdur dons and the clearness and beauty of the climate. The truth is that the bad land ears a much greater proportion to the good in New-Holland than in almost any other coun- | try with which we are acauainted. . . . . Of course it is not to be supposed Dut that ina | country of such vast extent there must be some fertile districts; but along the east coast, with | which we are best acquainted, these seem to be much more confined than might have been _ expected; and the little experience we have had on the west side, at Swan River and other places, does not seem to lead to any more favorable conclusions.” After stating that if the Government price of lands “is not a great deal * Missionary Labors and Scenes in Southern Africa, pp. 23—24. +See Letter V., and Note. apuncliding Port Philip, Swan River, and Scutk Australia, the exports of which are carried out separately @ Table 8. ) McCulloch's Com. Dic.—Art. Sydney. PES aR EON OL Se ee Or en j ' : eae ee Cy Le ae 120 S}.£EP 1kVSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. S | above the mark in New-Holland, it must be a great deal below it in Upper Canada,” Professor MeCulloch continues : 4 “If the Americans exacted the same price for their public lands that we do, something might be found in favor of extending the principle to Canada. They, however, do nothing ul the sort, but sell much better land at a decidedly lower rate... .. If slaves could b imported into a Colony of this sort, there might be some chance of its succeeding. But while land of the very best quality may be had in the Valley of the Mississippi for about a dollar an acre or less, we think better of the common sense of our countrymen than to suppose thal vy one able to carry himself across the Atlantic will resort to Australia.” Of the climate he says : . “ The climate of such parts of New South Wales as have been explored by the English is particularly mild and salubrious. ... . On the other hand, however, it has the serious defect of being too dry, It seems to be subject to the periodical recurrence of severe drouths. These prevail sometimes for 2, 3, or even 4 years together, The last ‘ great drouth’ began in 1826, and did not terminate until 1829. Very little rain fell during whole of this lengthened period, and for more than six months there was not a single shower. Iu consequence, the whole surface of the ground was so parched and withered that all minor vegetation ceased; and even culinary vegetables were raised with much difficulty. There wus also a pretty severe drouth in 1835. This is the great drawback of the Colony; and were it more populous the drouths would expose it to still more serious difficulties.” Another drouth occurred in 1841, and Mr. Hood thus describes its ef- fects on the sheep :* 4 “Tt will be scarcely believed in England that the estimated number of sheep which have died within the last twelve months in the Colony from catarrh and drouth is 70,000 !! that colonists are compelled in order to save the dam from starvation, to cut the throat of her lamb; that no means are adopted for securing a stock of lambs for next year; or that a stockholder would offer 8,000 sheep to any one that would remove them from his runs, and finding that no one could be prevailed upon to taint his own flocks by accepting so dang ons a present, had recourse to consuming them by fire, and had actually killed end burnt 2 000 ie ce et Of the country Mr. Hocd remarks : “The first object on the arrivai ef every settler should be to procure a good country fo nis focks, and this, I have elsewhere said, is his grand difficulty. Let him be wary on this point. Almost every desirable or habitable spot in the old countries, as the early settled districts are called, is already occupied.” Some diseases seem to be peculiar to the country, ar, rather, peculiarly inveterate in it. Mr. Youatt says :t “The sheep frequently suffer from the wild and poachy nature of a considerable portion of the pasture. The foot-rot seems to assume a character of its own. . . . . If neglected, it speedily becomes inveterate and preys upon and destroys the animal. The losses occasioned by it in the early existence of the Colony were frightful.” p The astringency of the water and other causes have produced severe epidemics. In some years, some of the flockmasters have lost half of their sheep.{ The scab is a prevailing disease, and Doct. Lang says :|| “ When a convict shepherd has a pique against his master, or even against his overseer, it is often in his power to subject the whole of his master’s flock to this obnoxious disease, merely by driving his own flock a few miles from their usual pasture, and bringing them into contact with a diseased flock. The chief source of the wealth and prosperity of the Colony is thus, in a great measure, at the mercy of the most worthless of men.” PoE EN IRA gemma The cost of both land and labor is comparatively (¢d est, compared with the unoccupied lands of the United States) high. The Government min‘ mum is 5s, ($1 15) per acre, but very little if any good land is sold at that price. Mr. Hood states that the portion of Capt. McArthur’s immense estate which was obtained by purchase, cost, on the average, 7s. 6d ($1 72}) per acre. Shepherds receive from £15 to £20 ($69 to $92) with «Quoted by Spooner in “ History, Diseases, &c., of the Sheep.” London, 1844, p. 67. t Youatt on Sheep, p. 189. {See Spooner, pp. 417-421. ( Lang—Historical and Statistical Account, vol. i., p. 351 ¥ SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE. SOUTH. 7 12) a house and rations, per annum ; overseers of a superior description £50 te £60 ($230 to $276),* also with a house and rations.} The sheep are exposed to the depredations of various animals, but the wild dog is their most dangerous enemy, with the exception of the run- away convict. ‘The sheep are therefore folded nightly, guarded by a watchman with his dogs, and with a fire to scare away the wild beasts.j One shepherd usually takes care of about 300 sheep, and “in the more sterile parts of the Colony, where three acres of the uncultivated ground are scarcely sufficient for the support of one sheep, the labor is very severe.’ || Mr. Samuel Lawrence recently wrote me: ““T saw a gentleman from England a few months since who has an admirable flock in New South Wales, of twenty-five thousand sheep, and he assured me he had not received a penny of income from them since 1838.” Van Diemen’s Land (containing 28,000 square miles) is claimed by Mr Youatt§ to be superior in several respects to Australia as a wool-growing country. Table 8 does not, however, show that its exports increase any more rapidly. Both of these Islands, as colonies of Great Britain, send their wool to the latter duty free, and they save 1 cent per pound on wool costing less than 24 cents, and 2 cents on that exceeding that value. But this by no means offsets against the additional cost of freight, over that exported from the United States, Hungary, or the south of Russia. While it is only 3,375 miles from New-York to London, it is not less than 13,000. miles from Sydney or Hobart’s Town to the latter place. Professor McCulloch states (art. Sydney) that the expense of conveying a passenger to Sydney is about three times that of conveying one to Quebec. I see no reason why a corresponding difference should not exist in the freights; and in that case, freights from the United States would be two-thirds less then from Australia. [ pretend, Sir, to no pewer of vaticination on this subject, but the con. clusions which draw from a review of all the foregoing facts are as follows: 1. That wool-growing is never likely to permanently and importantly] increase in any of the countries of Europe, unless it be in Hungary, Tur- key, and the south of Russia. 2. That it is more likely to decrease than increase in Great Britain, France, Portugal and Italy. : 3. That such a decrease is next to certain in Spain and Germany, (in- cluding Prussia and Austria in the latter,) excepting Hungary and Tran- sylvania; that the decrease will be much more considerable in Germany ; that its rapidity and extent will be proportioned to the rapidity and extent with which the market is supplied from countries which can grow wool cheaper, such as North and South America, Hungary, Southern Russia, and Australia. 4, That wool-growing will undoubtedly largeiy increase in Hungary and Southern Russia—and that it ought to in Huropean and Asiatic Turkey but will not, extensively, until the character of the people and their pe itical institutions are changed. 5. That it will also increase at the Cape of Good Hope, Australia and Van Diemen’s Land; but that its economical extension in either of these countries is limited, especially if America becomes a competitor. * Calling the English shilling 23 cents, according to Report of Director of U. S. Mint, 1827, t Report vf a Committee, é&c., quoted by Mr. McCulloch—Com. Dic.; art. Sydney. £Cunningham’s Two Years in New South Wales, vol. i., p. 254. || Youatt on the Sheep, p. 188. § Quem vide, p. 190. {| say “importantly,” because Sweden, Norway, Denmark, &c., in that spirit of rendering themselves in dependent of foreign supplies, which characterizes all nations, may, and probably will extend their woa). culture; but it will be tou unprofitable a struggle against Nature, to be carried to a very great extent. 122 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. a _—_—_— 6. That no part of the Eastern Continent or its islands, all things con sidered, possess equal advantages for wool-growing with some parts ¢ the United States. 1. The climate of many portions of the latter (in the South) is not excelled by that of the most favored situations in Hungary or Australia; and in this respect it is decidedly superior to the south of Russia. 2. The soils of vast sections of the United States, with the above climate, are more uniformly fertile and adapted to pasturage than those of either Hungary or Southern Russia—and, as a whole, are entirely supe- rior to those of Australia. 3. The regions alluded to in the United States, are better watered with running streams than either of the other named countries—have not the vast and unhealthy morasses of Hungary—and are not subject to the destructive drouths of Australia. 4. The land is” cheaper in the United States than in Australia, and (my impression is) than in Hungary or Southern Russia; and, in the Southern States, labor costs no more than in the two latter, and far less than in the former. 5. In~ accessibility and nearness even to the great Ewropean wool market, the ~ United States stand on equal terms, at least, with Hungary and Southern — Russia, and the distance from Sydney (in Australia) to London is nearly four times the distance from New-York to London. 6. In no respect do either of these countries, the most favored in the Old World, excel, in my judgment, for the purposes of Sheep Husbandry, large portions of the ~ United States ; and I believe those portions of the United States can sell wool in the English market at a better profit on all the capital invested than either of the above countries, with the possible exception of the most favored portions of Hungary. Our surplus wools can, therefore, at any time, be exported to England at a reasonable profit. This is true, even of wools grown in the Northern — States. In 1845, the United States exported wool, (mainly to England,) to — the value of $22,153; and in 1846, to the value of $203,996. This was a commercial experiment, and although it is not understood to have resulted — in any profit to the exporters, the wool sold at an advance on the Ameri- can prices current—and would have sold so as to have realized a handsome profit to the exporters, had it been properly sorted and otherwise prepared to meet the requisitions of the English market. Statements of this kind have been published by one of the most prominent of the exporters. It would seem, from Mr. Lawrence’s statement, already quoted, that the prices of Australian wools have not yielded a profit over all expenses, during the same years. The quality and style of our wool have been praised by the English press, and are understood to have given high satis- faction to the English manufacturers. On the whole, then, we may regard — this experiment as a successful one. The American prices current of those — years were about 32 cents per pound. We have seen that the actual cost of wool (including all expenses, and 7 per cent. on price of land and sheep) - in the Northern Sice may be set down at about 27 cents per pound.* — These facts show that a remunerating price can be obtained for even North- ern wool in England—if a profit on investment considerably exceeding the highest legal rate of interest (7 per centum) is to be considered “ re- — munerating.” And if this,is true of the Northern wools of the United States, how much more so would it be of those of the South, the first cost of which has been estimated at less than one-third that of the former! t I see not, therefore, a shadow of a reason why our Southern States might not embark, at once, with perfect safety, in an extensive production of wool, if they had only the foreign market to look to. I hesitate not ta * See Letter V. + Ib. SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 123 assert that they could drive all the European nations from the market, with the two or three exceptions heretofore specified; and with these, as well as the most favored Austro-Oriental regions, they could main- tain a successful competition. ‘The same remark is true of the Austro- Occidental regions of our own continent. And it is difficult to foresee the ultimate extent of this trans-Atlantic demand for wool. Vast portions of the Old World, in those zones where wool must eventually become the principal article of clothing, are but just stepping within the verge of civilization—just laying aside the skins and peltry of the pastoral nomad _ and the savage hunter, for garments of cloth. In 1771, England imported 1,829,772 lbs. of wool; in 1840, the import was 52,959,221 lbs.!' In 1771, the export of woolens was £4,960,240. In 1840, the export of woolens was, £5,652,917, and of woolen and worsted yarn £3,796,644. Making all necessary allowance for the difference in prices, the increase in the ex- port bears no comparison whatever to that in the import. What seems to be the unavoidable conclusion? It is that the consumption of a population _ of 27,000,000 (the population of Great Britain and Ireland) has thus enor- mously swelled within the period of sixty-nine years! This too in a coun- try with a mild climate—which at the beginning of that period (1771) was as far advanced in social and political civilization, and the mass of whose _ people were as well clothed and better fed, than those of any nation on the Eastern Continent! It is not necessary to follow up this idea. Progress is an inseparable condition of humanity,* and civilization is its | fruit. With the latter, new wants—a demand for greater comforts and luxuries—steadily keep pace ; and with these again keeps pace the increase of population.t Both the latter causes conspire to swell the demand for cloths; and both causes are at work in this Nineteenth Century, in a ve- locity of ratio which would fill a Malthus and Ricardo with consternation— if, indeed, it did not convince them of the fallacy of their gloomy theories, I dare to predict that the time will come when the present Russian HEm- ° pire will consume a greater amount of woolens than the whole Eastern Continent now does! This may not come to pass in a day or a century— but unless retarded by unnatural, not to say wnusual causes, our posterity in the third or fourth remove will be likely to witnessit! Away, then, with those fallacious fears of over-production of cotton, bread-stuffs, etc—the opposite extreme of Malthusianism—which have disturbed the repose of producers who are not content to let the great natural currents of demand and supply regulate each other; or rather, who are not content with those fair and just profits which they would receive under such an order of things. ¢ But the American wool-grower is not compelled to look to the European market, unless he enormously increases his own production—and contin- ues to increase it with the increase of the population. The Census of 1846 shows that the number of sheep in the United States, in 1839, was nearly 20,000,000. These have been steadily increasing, and probably now greatly exceed that number. Yet these have never supplied the demand of ou | * This may not be thought to accord with preceding statements in relation to the unchangeability cl Asiatic character and customs. Particular families or races of mankind have always advanced slowly, but the course of the world, as a whole, is onward. The circle of civilization widens, and races which come in contact with it, receive it, or are conquered and absorbed by the civilized races. { When I speak of luxuries promoting the increase of population, I do not use the word in its invidious pea: I mean by it those things which, though not. strictly speaking, necessarics, tend to promote human eomfort. ¢ I mean this remark in no ultra spirit. Governments must be supported and resources raised. Inci- dental protection may be justly atforded to the products of agricultural or mechanical skill, under certain circumstances. But the fewer of these restrictions that are found necessary, the more rapidly, as a genera) rule, the wealth and comfort of mankind and nations are advanced. | + gi 124 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. _—--oeoorrorreor own manufactories alone. The following Table* will show the value of the imports of wool into the U. 8. from 1837 to 1847: TABLE No. 9. ins Average im-| Average im- {ports of 1837,{ports ef 1840,| * teapart of pa eee) anes 1838 & 1839.)1841 & 1842. 1845, 6. —————— | | | | Wool not costing to exceed 7 cts.| » $558,458 759,646 $190,352 $754,441 | $1,553,789 | $1,iC7 305 € lb wavcesn cere Exe’ding 7 cts.a lb 801,087 | 1,004,312 54 695 97,019 136,005 26,921 r Total.....2| $1,359,545 | $1,763,958 | $245,047 | $851,460 | $1,689,794 | 1,134,296 It may be a matter of interest to know from what countries these wools were imported. The following Tablet will give this information for the last fiscal year, (1846,) and will also give a general idea of our wool trade TABLE No. 10. Wools not exceeding 7 cents Wools exceeding 7 cents per pound. per pound. WHHENCE IMPORTED. | Quantity. Value. Quantity.) Value. 5 Pounds. | Dollars. Pounds, | Pounds. Russia..... ashtn a ecesee ate ee ence wees 955,163 60.678 Hanse Towns. ....-------- en cceeecee 6,966 330 13,820 8,433 Holland wecceeescse > achecukewdn dawecn 170 9y Dutch West Indies......--...------- 10,774 556 | Belgium......--2---se-seeeeeeeee ees 7,177 248 1,407 775 | Miip land: <2. ies taaecautees ES. 1,188,800 35,944 28,406 6,668 Scatland: <2. cacwivesexs Seale larietla|e see's 21,132 1,382 | Gibraltar. .... pucocucce eeecceccnsces 207,006 12,339 Cape of Good Hope......--.----- ace 83,662 6,810 British West Indies. .... eaten a eles orm 8.694 537 522 70 British American Colonies........... 2 168,589 9,543 39,346 4,562 WrancGs:sche k= 4s am Sesace ns Ascdac 84,799 5,424 396 40 Spain....... Ra ERE Se 4 5 20,730 1,425 i pa he On Senet ee eee eee 81,156 4,720 Trieste (Austria)........- oe oe 111,981 8,151 Tarke ys cec- sa ccoene ss scaseves=-- 5,744,328 398,822 Morocco (Africa)..... Bone Sc ebade Deets 72,816 4,554 Mexico...... Seamed eka sls sleschin a anie 425,148 26,984 Brazil i pie atcs'n'ew'ere = RR sa sadn = 45, 215 3,083 Argentine Republic. ............-.-- 4,295,659 $27,572 43,831 ~ € 911 CHI wd eke cate etee en cee wcus a 1,819,772 130,837 Perttxtc deste cece ease Bo wslcee sans 122,686 8.588 Asia, generally..........- Jae ane mse 945,729 58,778 2,397 269 YE ESET AE Rh 16,427,952 | 1,107,305 130,295 26,921 That the course of trade indicated bythe above Table, will, as has been already intimated, be materially affected by the New Tariff, I think there can be but little doubt. That of several of the places enumerated, too has been, heretofore, merely a transit one. To the following letter from the most extensive, and concededly leading American woolen manufacturer, I would call your particular attention Several of its declarations, placed in italics, by me, are highly significant LowELt, Mass., Feb. 10, 1847. Henry S. Ranpatrt, Esq., Cortland Village, N. Y My Dear Sir: Your very kind and interesting favor of the 27th ult. duly came to hand and should, if practicable, have received an earlier reply. The business of wool-growing in this country is destined to be of immense importance, and I am firm in the belief that zi twenty-five years we shall produce a greater quantity than any other nation. * Compiled by me from Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury. t The fiscal year 1842 ended on the 30th of September. Since then, the returns of imports and exports have been made up to the 3Mthjof June. This year, therefore, embraces the imports of rine months only ending on June 30, 1843; and subsequent years end 30th of June, 1844, 1845, and so on. t Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 1846, SHEEP HUSBANDRY 1N THE SOUTH. . 125 ——=_ _ You ask, “Is the present home demand supplied?” There is not enough annually raised in the country by 10,000,000 lbs. to meet the demand of the manufactones. You ask, “‘ What countries we can export wool to, &c.?” This‘country will not export wool regularly for fifteen years, for the reason that the consumption will increase as rapidly as the production. Ican point out articles made of wool now imported, which will require thirty millions of pounds of that of a medium and fine quality, to supply the conswmy BLOM) e/a) « The business of manufacturing wool in thts country is on a better basis than ever before, lgnasmuch as the character, skill and capital engaged in tt are such that FOREIGN COMPETI- TION IS DEFIED. A very few years and all articles of wool used here will be of home manu- acture. : i Now I beg of you to keep the wool-growers steady to the mark. Let them aim to excel m the blood and condition of their flocks, and the day is not distant when they will be amply remunerated. I shall always have great pleasure in hearing from you, and remain i Yours most truly, SAM. LAWRENCE. Mr. Lawrence has certainly got the annual deficit of home wools low enough. Table 10 shows that it was upward of 16,000,000 lbs. during the last fiscal year, 1846. ‘This, of itself, is something of a margin for the South, or some other new domestic producer, to fill! ; Hitherto we have simply considered the amount of wool necessary to supply our manufactories. But these establishments fall very far short of working up all the wool consumed in the United States, even exclusive of home-made fabrics. The following Table* will show the value of the woolens imported for twenty-five years, up to and including 1845: TABLE No. 11. 1821 .. $7,437,737|1826-.. $8,431,974|1831. $12,627,229 1822...12,185,904|1827-... 8742,701 1832... 9,992,424 1823... 8,268,088)1828-.. 8,679,505)1833...13,262,509 1824... 8,386,597/1829... 6,881,489)1834...11,879,328 1825..-11,392,264|1830... 5,776,396|1835...17,834,424 1836. $21,080,003 1837... 8,500,292 1838... 11,512,920 1839...18,575,945 1840... 9,071,184 1841. $11,001,939] 1842... 8,375,725 1843... 2,472,154 1844... 9,475,762 1845...10,666,176 Here is another and still broader “margin” for both the American Wool-Grower and the American Manufacturer to fill! With a country well adapted to the production of wool as any the sun shines on—which, all things considered, can produce it more cheaply than any extended portior of any trans-Atlantic country—shall we continue to import raw wool ? Whether we should continue to-import woolens is sufficiently answered by the last paragraph but one of Mr. Lawrence’s letter, fully sustained as the facts therein set forth are by those infallible tests—the dividends of our manufacturing establishments. The minimum of these, in well managed establishments, has already been stated to be about ten per centum pe1 annum,| and in Mr. Lawrence’s own great establishment the dividend ot 1846 was fifteen per cent. Does any one suppose that the manufacturers of England, with all the advantage they can derive from cheaper labor j— (but with vastly higher prices for suitable sites and buildings—land taxes, parochial taxes, income taxes—freights and duties on imported wools, etc. etc.)—do or can make dividends touching even the lowest rate above stated? They cannot.|| * Report of the Secretary of the 'l'reasury, 1845. t See Letter VII. t Though not directly advised on the point, I take it for granted that the cost of machinery, also, is some- “what less in England. 4 |! Itmay be said that the two last-named expenses fall on the consumer. They doubtless would, but the faelish manufacturer has to compete with those of France and the United States, a much larger propor- tion of whose stock is of home growth—the latter entirely, in fine fabrics. The abrogation of the Corn-Lawa will be of immense advantage to the English manufacturer, and enable him to better compete with other ¢ountries. But while the Bank of England ordinarily discounts paper at from 3 to 4 per cent., and while this is the common rate of interest in that country, it could not be expected that manufacturing capital would be allowed to draw 8 or 10, and much less 15 per cent. Such dividends, in a country whose ‘ninvested capital, or that drawing so low a rate of interest, is so superabundant, would at once invite 9 competition which would speedily bring the profits of manufacturing capital down to a \evel with those of ether commercial capital We may, tnerefere conclude that ne such dividends are made. 26 SHEE? HUSBANDRY IN THE 8S. U1TH, Is it said that our manufacturing companies have often been com- pelled to suspend, or break up, even under laws as favorable to them gaa those now in operation? The reason for this is toe pointedly and perti- nently stated by Mr. Lawrence to require any addition at my hands, ir the following extract from a letter to me, bearing date April 13, 1847; and it will be seen in the concluding sentence that the bold and manty deel: rations of his preceding Jetter were not the result of a casual or momeatar confidence, but are deliberately reiisserted ; “ The manufacture of wool has often been disastrous to parties who have embarked in it for many reasons, two of which ave suflicient—a want of capital and a want of skill. Th ese difficulties are being obviated. Capitalists are more ready to embark under certain auspicea, and the amount of skill is very fast increasing, so that this branch is on a footing not to be moved.” Undisturbed by those changes of vacillating legislation, or those move- ments in the National Legislature pointing to such changes—at one time enormously pampering the manufacturing interest, and leading to over-_ action and rash adventure—at another, threatening it with disaster and utter subversion—our manufacturers will steadily, nay, rapidly advance If Now LET ALONE, they will soon not only “ defy foreign competition” in the home market, but there is not a single good reason to prevent them from defying it in the great and opening market of South America, and even in the Old World. Some evils or errors in commercial legislation are less to be deprecated than constant changes. The present Tariff, so far as it affects wool and woolens, is the result of a compromise of inter- ests. It may not be perfect in principle or detail. But it does not seem to flagrantly favor or oppress any interest. I speak not in the spirit of a politician, or of the representative of an interest or section, when I express _ the hope that xo change will be made or attempted in this portion of the Tariff, until the lapse of years shall bring about other changes requiring it, or until ample experience shall clearly call for a revision of the system. I have spoken of two “ margins” to be filled by the American wool- grower—the present deficit in supplying our own manufactories, and sec — ondly, the prospective one, as our manufactures increase, so as to overtake and then keep pace with the consumption of an increasing population, The demands of our manufactories will advance pari passu with the pro- duction, Mr. Lawrence predicts, for at least fifteen years. Why not for fifty or a hundred! Let us glance at the prospective corsumption, and see if, independent of exportations, it is likely to require any curbs or limits to be placed on production or manufacture. ; In the debates in Congress on the Tariff in 1828-9, Mr. Mallary esti mated the consumption of woolens in our country at $72,000,000 per ann. ;—$10,000,000 imported ; $22,000,00) manufactured ; $40,000,000 home-made. ‘The Committee of the “ Friends of Domestic Industry,” who met in New-York in 1831, reported that the proportion between the amount of wool workea up in factories to that in families was as 3 to 2; that the entire annual product of wool and its manufactures in the U. 5, was $40,000,000. ‘Sf _hese are the only accessible published estimates which ow occur to me, The Census of 3540 shows that the value of woolens made in our manu- factories in 1839, was $20,696,999. The import of foreign woolens the same year was $18,575,945, and of raw wool* $1,359,445. It should be remarked, powever, that the import of woolens is considerably higher than that cf any year before or since. Taking the average of the same three ee — * (aking che average product of 1837-8-9, as in Table 9. The separate import of 1839 is not before ms _— SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 127 ears tor which the import of the raw wool is given,* (1837—8-9,) it would reach bur $12,863,051. If we suppose the consumption to,equal the sup- ply, this would give $33,560,050 as the value of the factory-made woolens consumed in the United States in 1839. I confess I have no data other than conjectural ones, to determine the amount of the home-made manufactures for that or any other year; nor do I know that any other person has, or can, have such intormation. The United States Census, singularly enough does not include this as a separate item. It strikes me, however, that Mr Mallary’s estimate is too high, and that of the Report of the “ Friends of Domestic Industry ” too low. The proportion of home-made to factory woolens is, no doubt, annually decreasing, for reasons already stated ;+ but as far back as 1839, it would perhaps be a fair estimate to set them down as even. This would give $67,120,100 as the value of the woolens con- sumed by a population of 17,069,453, or nearly $4 per head. Allowing that every dollar in the manufactured article would represent one pound of stock, or raw wool—and taking slave-cloths, blankets, carpets, coarse home-made fabrics, factory plains, etc., all into account, a dollar is an am ple sum to offset against every pound of the raw material—it follows thai our whole’ population annually consume four pounds of wool per head. Judge Beatty of Kentucky, in an estimate published originally in the American Agriculturist, which has been much quoted, sets down the con- sumption as about 6 lbs. per head. An ordinary Northern farmer or la- borer, in comfortable circumstances, will consume about 20 lbs. per an- num :{ the poorer one not far from 15 lbs.; a boy of 8 years old, full 4 Ibs. ; a girl of that age (in the country, where females are dressed in woolens,) something more than half of that amount. In the cities and villages there is a large eles whose consumption for dress ranges from 30 to 40 and even 50 Its., and, including carpets, much more. A Southern slave consumes from 3 to 10 Ibs. Four pounds, therefore, would not seem to be a high es- timate, per head, for our whole population. Let us now take a glance at the increase of population in the United States. The six different Censuses give the following results : TABLE 12. ; ZO 0NPopulation ss soe: 3,929,827 | 1820, Population................ 9,638,191 1800, Bree ave Ul et Ne 5,305,941 | 1830, BET VAMa nen epee ZeUVV AR 12,866,020 1810, Le SEARS SS ear 7,239,814 | 1840, wat hin VAR Hroretafeeteniaie eter ee 17,069,453 It will thus be seen that our population increases at a compound ratio of about three per cent. per annum, which would double it—assuming three per cent. to be the precise rate of increase—in 23 years 164 days. Cheap and abundant provisions—a supply of fertile lands for all who choose to occupy them, &c.—the causes which. have conspired to give so rapid an increase, hitherto, still operate to as great an extent as ever, and will continue to, at al! events, for half a century, after the Census of 1840. Suppose the rate of increase, then, decreases to two per cent., which would double the population, reckoning as before, once in about 38 years, and — “Tu Table 9. { Letter VII. ¢ He will wear out, during a year, 1 coat, 4 yards; 1 pair pants, 3 yards; 1 vest, 1 yard; 1 pair flannel drawers, 2 yards; 1 flannel shirt, 24 yards; 4 pair hose, mittens, &c, 14 lbs., which, calling ayard a pound of wool, all round, would amount to 14 lbs. Bis extra or holiday suit, 8 yards, will last 3 years, and his overcoat, 6 yards, 4 years—making the annual consumption of both, 31-6 yards. ‘Iwo flannel shirts, 16 yards, will last two persons say 3 years, making the annual consumption of one, 1 1-9 yards. No account is here made of coverlids, wool hats, carpets, still used by many, and the latter, more or less of it, to be found in the houses of nearly ll farmers in “ comfortable circumstances.” It will be seen that 20 Ibs. of wool per head is a moderate estimate. The above enumeration would not equal to exceed two-thirds, and in sume cases half the clothing annually consumed by the smurtly dressing young men who have /abored on my 1 TENS ENE ACRES Re, SNR Rese Cera han i if ‘ a 5 hy Pets | é hoe Ye + ne a ‘ . site pt wt), ee a pe "% 24 a? the. oe . ar ois she dae. ~~ so ay Ma cae 6, ee 7s os 128 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH, 2) ,be that it doubles twice at this rate—and the following would be the result and the amount of wool required by the population at the periods indicate¢ TABLE No. 13. . 7 Amount of Wool. arr. Popula Amount of Wool. ear, Population. 1863-4......--| 94,138,906 136,555,624 1925 nacnne e-| 136,555,624 546,222,496 © 1886-7 .. ....- 68,277,812 273.111.248 ||1963........ 273.111.248 1,092,444,992 Thus in a little over one hundred years, our population is likely to ox. ceed the present one of Europe, (which is 233,500,000,) and we have now sufficient territory to sustain it! At 3 lbs. of wool per head the number of sheep requisite to supply the home demand in 1963, would be over 364,000,000 !—far more than are now to be found on the whole globe !— Such are some of the reasonable expectations which may be formed of the - future prospects of the Home woo! market. EE UT EE TAPE ES SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH.: - 129 a LETTER X. BREEDS OF SHEEP IN THE UNITED STATES Enumeration of Imported Breeds-..No indigenous ones. ..“‘ Native ” Sheep—their Origin—Views of Mr Youatt—Mr. Livingston—their true Origin—their Early Increase in New-England -. Vanderdonk’s description of the Sheep and their increase introduced from Holland into New-Netherland (New-York). ..Character- istics of the Native Sheep.-.Account of the Introduction of Merinos into the United States..-Their valua- tion at different periods-.-.he Spanish sub-varieties—Merged in the United States...Purity of blood of the descendants of the Early Importations-.--Spurious Merinos...Weight of Fleece of the Spanish and French (Rambouillet) families... Description of the latter. .-American Families—their Characteristics. .Doctor Em- qmons’s Measurements of the Fineness of Wool of individuals of the American, Spanish, and French families —also of other breeds--The Characteristics of the Merino—its Crosses.-.The Saxon Sheep—its Origin— Varieties—Treatment in Germany-..Jntroduction into the United States--.-Purity of blood in our present flocks—Weight of Fleece—Characteristics...The New Leicester or “ Bakewell”—Origin—Character in Encland—Introduction into the United States—Valuation in the latter—Characteristics...South-Down’ Sheep—Origin—Characteristics—Introduction into the United States. -Mr. Ellman’s description of a perfect animal. . Cotswold Sheep—Original Stock—Crossed—the improved variety—Characteristics of—Introduction ‘into the United States..Cheviot Sheep—Importation into the United States—Original Stock—Crossed— improved variety—Characteristics. . -Broad-Tailed Sheep—Introduction into our Country—Characteristics. Dear Sir : It is believed by those competent to judge, and who have _ investigated the subject, that our country now possesses every known breed < of sheep which could be of particular benefit to its husbandry. In pro- ceeding to give an account of the sheep of the United States, I do not deem it necessary to take up your time with a detailed history of each race. The zodlogist or breeder anxious to obtain this information, will find it given with great elaboration and accuracy, in the admirable work on Sheep by the late Mr. Youatt.* The principal breeds in the United States are the “ Native,” (so called) ; the Spanish and Saxon Merinos, introduced from the countries whose names they bear; the New Leicester or Bakewell, the South-Down, the Cotswold, the Cheviot, and the Lincoln from England. The common sheep of Holland were early imported by the Dutch emigrants who origi- nally colonized New-York, but have long since ceased to exist as a dis- tinct variety. The Broad-Tailed Sheep of Asia and Africa have several times been introduced from Persia, Tunis, Asia Minor, etc. Chancellor Livingston also speaks of two “races as ‘indigenous to this country, which we have not enumerated, as it is not known to the Com- mittee + that they are now bred in any portion of the United States, viz., the Otter and Smith’s Island Sheep, breeds said to have been discov- ered en two islands on our Atlantic coast. An almost infinite variety of crosses have taken place between the Spanish, English, and ‘ native’ fami- lies. Toso great an extent, indeed, has this been carried, that there are, * Also in Mr. Bischoff’s, Spooner’s, etc., (English) works, and Mr. Morrel’s ‘American Shepherd ”—the historical parts of all of which are compiled mainly from Mr. Youatt. + At the Annual Meeting of the New-York State Agricultural Society, 1837, a Committee was appointed to report at the next Annual Meeting of the Society, on the “ Condition an Comparative Value of the Several ‘Breeds of Sheep in the United States.” The Committee consisted of rlenry S. Randall of Cortland, Henry PD. Grove of Rensselaer, John B, Duane of Schenectady, Francis Rotch of Otsego, and C. N Bement of Alba- ny. These gentlemen were at the time breeders of all or nearly all the most important varieties, and it was expected that each would write that portion of the Report treating of the one or ones bred by himself The Committee, however, desired—or rather required me to write the whcle Report, which I did, with the exception of quotations from authors. ‘The Committee metan Albany, prior to the presentation of the Re- port, and the late Thomas Dunn and several other breeders were present by invitation. The Report was unanimously adopted by the Committee, and assented to by the breeders present. I do not now quote or _ adopt ail the conclusions of that Report. Experience has compelled me to modify some of my opinions, and actual changes in the breeds have taken place: But I have mentioned the above facts, to show the au- thority on which the statements which I have quoted, rest; and also because the Report has been often _ guoted from, sometimes without any credit, and sometimes erroneously credited. - [To save constant reference, it will be understood that all the matter quoted in this Letter from the Re- port will, unlike the cases where Mr. Randall quotes at any length from the writings of others, be printed in the same type with the body of the Letter, and simply marked with quotation points. Publisher.) Nee | 130 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. comparatively speaking, few flocks in the United States that preserve em tire the distinctive characteristics of any one breed, or that can lay claim te’ unmixed purity of blood.” Native Sueer.—* Although this name is popularly applied to the com mon coarse-wooled sheep of the country, which existed here previous] . to the importation of the improved breeds, there is, properly speaking, no” race of sheep ‘native’ to North America. Mr. Livingston, in speaking of a race as ‘indigenous,’ only quoted the language of another,* and hig informant was either mistaken as to the fact, or misapprehended the term, ‘The only animal of the genus Ovis Aries, originally inhabiting this coun- try, is the Argali,t known to our enterprising travelers and traders who have penetrated to the Rocky Mountains, where the animal is found, as the Big Horn.t Though the pelage of the Argali approximates but little to the wool of the domestic sheep, they are, as is well known, considered by naturalists to have belonged originally to the same species; and the changes which have taken place in the form, covering, and habits of the latter, are attributed to his domestication, and the care and skill of Man during a long succession of years. “The common sheep of the United States were of foreign and mostly of English origin. The writer of the volume on Sheep in the ‘ Farmer’s Se- ries,’ [Mr. Youatt,] speaks of them as ‘ although somewhat differing in va- rious districts, consisting chiefly of a coarse kind of Leicester, originally of British breed.’|| Others have seen, or fancied they saw, in some Of © them, a strong resemblance to the South-Downs. Mr. Livingston was of - this number.§ But it is far more probable that they can claim a common descent from no one stock. Our ancestors emigrated from different sec- tions of the British Dominions, and some portion of them from other parts of Europe. They brought their implements of husbandry, and their do- mestic animals, to fertilize the wilderness. Each, it would be natural to suppose, made choice of the favorite breed of his own immediate district to transport to the New World, and the admixture of these various races — formed the mongrel family now under consideration. Amid the perils of war, and the incursion of beasts of prey, they were preserved with sedu- lous care. As early as 1676, Mr. Edward Randolph, in a ‘ Narrative to the Lords of the Privy Seal,’ speaks of New-England as ‘ abounding with sheep.’ | Vanderdonk, writing in 1790, thus speaks of the sheep introduced from Holland into New-Netherland (now New-York) by the Dutch emi- grants :— ‘ “ Sheep are also kept in the New-Netherlands, but not as many as in New-England, where the weaving business 1s carried on, and where much more attention is paid to them than by the New-Netherlanders. The sheep, however, thrive well, and become fat enough. I have seen mutton there so exceedingly fat that it was too luscious and offensive. The sheep breed | well and are healthy ; they fiud good pasture in summer, and good hay in winter; but the flocks require to be guarded and tended on account of the wolves, for which purpose men cannot be spared. There is also a more important hindrance to the keeping of sheep, which” are chiefly cultivated for their wool. New-Netherland is a woody country throughout, being almost everywhere beset with trees, stumps and brushwood, wherein the sheep pasture, and by which they lose most of their wool. ‘This is not apparent until they are sheared, wnen the fleeces turn out very light.” ‘The common sheep yielded a wool only suited to the coarsest fabrics averaging, in the hands of good farmers, from 3 to 3} lbs of wool to the Livingston’s Essay on Sheep, pp. 56, 60. + Godman’s American Natural History. a t The “ wooly sheep” of the Rocky Mountains, the description of which is quoted by Mr Morrel, (Ameri can Shepherd, p 131,) from Capt. Bonneville, is a goat. _It will be found described in Godman’s Natura History, vol ii. p. 326, & supra. : 4 Vol. on Sheep p 134, § Essay on Sheep, p 53. {| Colonial papers of Massachusctte. ‘ h. ‘SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 131 \Heece. They were slow in arriving at maturity, compared with the im- proved English breeds, and yielded when fully grown, from 10 to-14 lbs of a middling quality of mutton to the quarter. They were usually long: \legged, light in the fore-quarter, and narrow on the breast and back, al- |though some rare instances might be found of flocks with the short, legs, /and some approximation to the general form of the improved breeds. The /common sheep were excellent breeders, often rearing, almost entirely des- |titute of care, and without shelter, one hundred per cent. of lambs, and ir (small flocks a still larger proportion. These, too, were usually dropped ix | March or the earlier part of April. Restless in their disposition, their impa- |tience of restraint almost equaled that of the untamed Argali, from which they were descended ; and in many sections of our country it was common \to see from twenty to fifty of them roving, with little regard to inclosures, jover the possessions of their owner and his neighbors, leaving a large por- (gon of their wool adhering to bushes and thorns, and the remainder placed iearly beyond the possibility of carding by the Tory weed'( Cynoglossum ‘oficinale) and Burdock (Arctium lappa) so common on new lands. “ The old common stock of sheep, as a distinct family, have nearly disap- peared, having been universally crossed, to a greater or less extent, with the foreign breeds of later introduction. The first and second cross with ‘the Merino, resulted in a decided improvement, and produced a variety xceedingly valuable for the farmer who rears wool only for domestic pur- poses. The fleeces are of uneven fineness, being hairy on the thighs, dew- Jap, &c.; but the general quality is much improved ; the quantity is con- siderably augmented ; the carcassis more compact and nearer the ground ; pnd they have lost their unquiet and roving propensities. The cross with the ‘axon, for reasons which we shall hereafter allude to, has not been generally po successful. With the Leicester and Downs the improvement, so far as form, size, and a propensity to take on fat are concerned, is manifest.” MERINO RAM. [Defiance 1 months old, bred by and the property of Henry S. Randall.) 132 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. Spanisu: Merino.—* The history of this celebrated race of sheep, so as it is known, has so often been brought before the public that it is deemec unnecessary here to recapitulate it. The first importation of them inte the United States took place in 1801. Four were shipped by Mr Delessert, a banker of Paris, three of which perished on the passage, The fourth arrived in safety at Rosendale, a farm owned by that gentle. man near Kingston, in this State. ‘Fhe same year Mr. Seth Adams, of Massachusetts, imported a pair from France. In 1802, two pairs we sent from France by Mr. Livingston, the American Minister, to his estate on the Hudson; and later the same year, Mr. Humphrys, our Spanish Minister, shipped two hundred, on his departure from that country, for the United States.” Hon. William Jarvis, of Weathersfield, Vermont, then American Consul at Lisbon, sent home large and valuable flocks in 1809, 1810, and 1811. The particularly favorable circumstances for obtaining the choicest sheep of Spain, under which these were procured, you wil find detailed in a letter to me from Mr. Jarvis, dated December, 1841, pub- lished in the Transactions of the New-York State Agricultural Society of that year. Various subsequent importations took place, which it is not important to particularize. The Merinos “attracted little notice, until our difficulties with England led toa cessation of commercial intercourse with that power, in 1808 and 1809. The attention of the country being’then directed toward manufacturing and wool-growing, the Merino rose into importance. So great, indeed was the interest excited, that from athousand to fourteen hundred dollars a head was paid for them.”’ Unfortunately some of the later importations “ ar rived in the worst condition, bringing with them those scourges of t ovine race, the scab and foot-rot. These evils and the increased supply soon brought them down to less than a twentieth part of their forme price ; they could now be bought for $20 a head. When, however, it wa: established, by actual experiment, that their wool did not deteriorate, a had been feared by many, in this country, and that they became readil acclimated, they again rose into favor. But the prostration of our manu factories, which soon after ensued, rendered the Merino comparatively of little value, and brought ruin to numbers who had purchased them at the previous high prices. The rise which has since taken place in the val of fine wool, as well as the causes which led to it, are too recent and we understood to require particular notice. With the mse of wool, the valua tion of the sheep which bear it, has of course kept pace. “The Merino has been variously described. ‘This arises from the fae that it is but the general appellation of a breed, comprising several varie ties, presenting essential points of difference in size, form, quality and quantity of wool.” And writers of high authority differ even in thei descriptions of these families or varieties. M. Lasteyrie, so celebrated ai a writer on sheep, and particularly on the Merino, and Mr. Jarvis direct. contradict each other on several points.t It is scarcely necessary nov to quote their conflicting statements, or inquire which is right—as the ques tions involved possess no practical importance. These families have, gen erally, been merged, by interbreeding, in the United States and othe countries which have received the race from Spain. Purity of Meri viood, and actual excellence in the individual and its ancestors, has lon; siace been the only standard which has guided sensible men in selectin sheep of this breed. Families have indeed sprung up, in this country, e * Archives of Useful Knowledge.—Cultivator, vol. i. p. 183. - 1 See Lasteyrie on Sheep—or, if not accessible—his statements quoted by Mr. Youatt, p. 156. For Jarvis'’s statements, see his Letter t> L. D. Gregory, quoted in American Shepherd, pp. 73, 74. A SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 133 hibitine wider points of difference than did those of Spain. In some cases they doubtless owe it to particular courses of breeding—but more often, probably, to concealed or forgotten infusions of other blood. The point has, indeed, been occasionally mocted, whether there are any Merinos in the United States, descendants of the early importations, of unquestionable purity of blood. That there are, has been recently defi nitely settled by a connected chain of undisputable and undisputed testimo- ny,* not necessary here to be repeated. ‘That, on the other hand, in the recent rush of speculation, a marvelous facility has been evinced, in some instances, it suddenly recollecting lost links in the chain of pedigree—or in forgetting others which it would not be expedient to remember, no one would require any proof who has seen some of the animals which have been hawked through the country as full-bloods. “Taken collectively, the Spanish rams, according to Chancellor Living- ‘ston, yield about eight and a half pounds of wool, and the ewes five, which loses half in washing—making four pounds and a quarter the average weight of fleece of the rams, and two and a half the average of the ewes.t ‘Some varieties considerably exceed this estimate, and probably it would fall short if applied to the prime sheep of any variety.” _ The fleeces of the Merinos at Rambovillet in France, it is stated in the Report of M. Gilbert, to the National Institute, quoted by Mr. Living- ‘ston,t weigh, in the rams, from twelve to thirteen pounds (unwashed) wool —taking rams and ewes together, it has “not quite attained to eight pounds, after deducting the tags and the wool of the belly, which are sold sepa- rately.” Mr. Livingston remarks that the French pound is about one- ‘twelfth heavier than the English; but on the other hand, that from the man- ner of folding and housing sheep and feeding them on fallows in France, they are very dirty, and lose 60 per cent. in washing.’”’|| This would bring the average of the Rambouillet flock to about four pounds, exclusive of 1800, S lbs.; 1801, 9 lbs. 1 oz—This is unwashed wool, and will lose half m washing. Mr. Livingston’s imported ewes averaged 5 lbs. 2 0z.; his vams 6 lbs. 7 oz., of unwashed wool.§ The later importations will, judg- img from the specimens I have seen, average much higher than the latter. They are a large sheep, with good, but not the best, quality of Merino wool—some of the larger stocks being rather coarse—and not very uni- form, one with another, either in their appearance or fleeces—and are most remarkable for the loose pendulous skin which hangs about their necks, and lies in folds about their bodies. They are free from hair— their wool, which is of good style, opens with a creamy color, and rich lus- tre, on a fine rose-colored skin. Their wool is long on the back, shortist on the belly—thick, but not so thick as that of many of the American Me- rinos—very yolky, but destitute of concrete external gum. _ The American Merino has, as already intimated, diverged into families or varieties presenting wide points of difference. The minor distinctions ara numerous, but they may all, perhaps, be classed under three general xeads. The first, is a large, short-legged, strong, exceedingly hardy sheep, 2rrying a heavy fleece, ranging from medium to fine—free from hair in properly bred flocks—somewhat inclined to throatiness, but not so much 30 as the Rambouillets—bred to exhibit external concrete gum in some | * This testimony will be found in a Letter from me to A. B. Allen, Esq., in the December No of the American Agriculturist, 1844, and in the Cultivator, I thirk, of the same date—if not, the succeeding No. ‘+ Livingston’s Essay on Sheep, p. 39. t Ibid., p. 49, & supra. {i Livingston’s Essay on Sheey, p. 51. § Ibid., Appendix. ; 134 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. flocks, but not commonly so—their wool longish on both back and betiy and exceedingly dense—wool whiter within than the Rambouillets—skin- the same rich rose-color. The ram on page 131is a good specimen of this variety, though his age is not sufficient to give him the substance and com- pactness of an older animal, and the apparent want in these particulars ig hightened by recent shearing.” His first fleece of well-washed wool at thirteen months old, was 8 lbs.; was of beautiful quality, and entiraly | destitute of hair. At three years old he would have sheared from 10 te 12 lbs. of well-washed wool.t MERINO EWE. The second general class of American Merinos are smaller than the pre ceding—less hardy—wool as a general thing finer—covered with a black pitchy gum on its extremities—fleece about one-fourth lighter than in clas first. The third class, which have been bred mostly South, are still smaller and Jess hardy—and carry still finer and lighter fleeces. The fleece is desti- tute of external gum. The sheep and wool bear a close resemblance te the Saxon; and if not actually mixed with that blood,t they have been formed into a similar variety, by a similar course of breeding. Class first are a larger and stronger sheep than those originally imported from Spain, carry much heavier fleeces, and in well selected flocks, or in- dividuals, the fleece is of a, decidedly better quality. The ewe from my flock—the portrait of which is given above—sheared 7 lbs. 10 oz. of well- washed wool.||_ The fibre numbered 1. in fig. 1, in the succeeding measure: ments by Dr. Emmons, is from this fleece. The fleece is exceedingly eve und entirely destitute of hair. Tor the purpose of exhibiting the comparative quality of the wool « The portrait, on the whole, is strikingly accurate, but the skill of the artist does not compensate for h want of experience, in animal painting, in giving the anatomical details and expression of the countenan The same remark applies to the portrait of the ewe. f This valuable animal died since the above res was painted, and ips to his second shearing. i! am not aware what pedigree is claimed for them. They are usually spoken of as Morinos, i. e— washed as clean as practicable in a brook, under a heavy sheet ot falling water. y SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 135 the American, Rambouillet, and early imported Spanish Merinos, 1 copy the following, from the pen of Ebenezer Emmons, M. D., State Geologist, in the American Quarterly Journal of Agriculture and Science, of which publication Dr. E. is the Editor. “Having given you a pretty full report of the farm and stock of Mr. Randall, embracing many details also in the several branches of husbandry, I now propose adding a few words ps an appendix to that report. I gave some intimation, when speaking of the fineness of he wool of Mr. R.’s sheep, that on my return home I would furnish something more’ exact _ asa test for fineness than the naked eye. In fulfillment of this intimation, I have been en- _ gaged since I returned, in measuring the diameter of the different staples which I procured while at Cortlandville, and which I have compared with others obtained of our mutual friend, Luther Tucker, Esq., of the Cultivator. “‘ The different kinds are indicated by numbers. I have prepared a scale which is equal - to 100 millimeters ; a millimeter is equal to 0-039 of an inch. The hundredth of a millime- _ ter,* and the fibres of wool, are all subjected to the same magnifying power of an excellent | Chevalier’s compound microscope. The comparison is both absolute and relative; but it is | highly interesting to see the perceptible difference between the different fibres of wool. The _ microscope also reveals other differences; some of the fibres appeared rather uneven or flat- tened, and destitute of a clear and distinct pith or tube; and, in fact, I may remark that the microscope is really the best method of testing the real quality of wool.” .. . *‘No. 1, Mr. Randall’s; No. 1a, fibre of Mr. Randall’s prize Merino buck ;t No. 18, fibre ‘from one of Mr. Randall’s fleeces; No. 2 and 2a, fibres from Mr. Seth Adams’s wool; No. | 4, Remilles wool, Shoreham, Vt.; No. 5, fibre of 8. O. Burchard’s fine wool, Shoreham; | No. 3, fibre of Charles L. Smith’s wool, Shoreham; No. 6, fibre from Collins’s Grandee. The last five were taken from wool left at the Cultivator office. In all the fibres examined there is a great uniformity in the parcels; only slight differences, in fact, could be detected in the eeveral diameters. No. 7 shows the structure of wool as seen under the microscope. In the corner is the scale of measurement. The finest fibre as magnified in this cut is equal tu about eighteen-hundredths of an inch in diameter. _ “ Another inquiry equally important with the preceding came up in this place: What is the strength of a single fibre of wool, and is the coarser comparatively stronger than the fine? I set about answering those inquiries at once, and now give you the result below: “Mr. Randall’s No. 16, on three trials, supported on an average 62 grains; or, rather, broke when tried with the weight of 62 grains. “Mr. R.’s No. 1a broke with 57:1 grains. : “« The fibre from Collins’s Grandee, on three trials, supported on an average 84:6 grains. “Mr. Smith’s specimen of Shoreham, Vt., on three trials, gave an average of 65:6 grains.” No. 1a is the wool of my ram “ Premium,” which received the first prize es About 1-2500 of an inck. tTaken from the animal by Doct. Emmons. \ ea? «4 » & ww P< “vr “Sg ae ‘ a) 136 SHEEP HUSBANLGRY IN THE SOUTH. at the State Fair at Poughkeepsie, 1844,* and his fleece weighed 10 Ibs, of well washed wool. No. 2 and 2a, (Mr. Seth Adams’s wool,) were from the sheep imported by that gentleman. N o. 6 was from Grandee, the best ram of Mr. Collins’s Rambouillet im- portation. It will be observed, first, that the American wool is the finest, and second, its strength is greatest in proportion to its diameter. It will probably be as well to bring Doct. Emmons’s subsequent meas- urements of the wool of other individuals and varieties together at this lace, as to scatter them through the descriptions of the several breeds t will render a comparison between them more conyenient. I would re- mark that the cuts are copied from those of Doct. Emmons, with the strictest fidelity.t Indeed they are perfect fac similes. Fig 2. 1 B 2 2 iN 1 “ Figure 2 (scale of measurement same as in Fig. 1) exhibits the comparative diameters c : the wool fibre of two premium Saxon sheep exhibited at the State Fair at Utica, 1845, AT is a fibre of wool from the shoulder of the 2d premium sheep (Mr. Church’s) ; 2 do. frem the ank. 3 1, fibre from the shoulder of the first premium sheep (Mr. Crocker's) ; 2 do. flank. é Fig. 3, UI ‘ Fig, 3, No. 1. fibre of Bakewell—about the average fineness of this kind of wovi. No. fibre from Merino ewe belonging to Col. Sherwood, 3 years old (Blakesley sheep.) No. do. Mr. Bailey’s ewe. No. 4 do. Mr. Atwood’s. Fig. 4. ° NAME ‘¥ig. 4.—No. 5, fibre of Mr. Ellis’s ewe, fleece weighing 6 lbs. 13 oz. _ No. 6 do, Mr. Ne - tleton’s yearling Merino buck. No.7 do. a sample from the imported 5 per cent. South American wool, which is seen to be nearly as fine as the best of our flocks. No. 8 do. Col. * This is the only time my sheep have ever been shown at a State Fair, and I first made arrange for exhibiting, in the expectation of having the privilege of comparing my sheep with the imported Rai bouillets of Mr. Collins. Mr. C., however, declined my invitation to show. I received the firat prize rams, and the first and second on ewes. ; t Executed by William Howland, of New-York, whom I take pleasure in recommending to all wishing ta ebtaip wood engravings, as an accurate and most obliging artist. fine; being only the ~4,th part of an inch in * , js SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. __ 137 Sherwood’s three-year-old buck, sheared 84 lbs. of wool. No. 9 do. finest Saxon wool in market. Fig. 5.—No. 10, fine Ohio wool. No. 12, do. Saxon Fig. 5. ef the late Mr. Grove’s excellent flock. No. 13, do. } sriginal imported Spanish wool by Seth Adams. No. 14, Mr. L. A. Morrell’s Saxon The following cut, copied from Youatt, exhibits a fibre of Merino wool viewed 10 12 138 14 both as an opaque and transparent object, with a microscope manufac- tured by Mr. Powell, of London. The serrations or ‘“‘ beards,” which constitute the felting property of wool, are beautifully distinct and sharp. It was a picklock from a Negretti fleece, and Mr. Youatt says it is “very : diameter.” By consulting Doct. Emmons’s preceding statements, it will be seen that the wool of my prize ram “ Pre- mium”’ is only about >, 55th of an inch in diameter! This forcibly shows the improvement which has been made on the Merino wool of. Spain in the United States. “The Merino, though the native of a warm climate, becomes readily in ured to the greatest extremes of cold, flourishing as far north as Sweden, without degenerating in fleece or form. It isa patient, docile animal, bear- ing much confinement without injury to health, and possesses none of that peculiar ‘ yoraciousness of appetite,’ ascribed to it by English writers.*— Accurately conducted experiments have shown that it consumes” a little over “two pounds of hay per diem, in winter; the Leicester consumes from three and a half to four; and the common wooled American sheep would aot probably fall short of three. The mutton of the Merino, in spite of the prejudice which exists on the subject, is short grained and of good flavor, when killed at a proper age,” and weighs from ten to fourteen pounds to tothe quarter. “It is remarkable for its longevity, retaining its teeth and continuing to breed two or three years longer than the commou sheep,” ana at least half a dozen years longer than the improved English Breeds; “ but it should be remarked in connection with this fact, that it is corres. pondingly slow in arriving at maturity. It does not attain its full growth before three years old, and the ewes in the best managed flocks, are rarely permitted to breed before they reach that age.” The Merino is a far better breeder than any other fine-wooled sheep, and my experience goes to show that its lambs, when newly dropped, are hardier than the Bakewell, and equally so with the high bred South- Down. The ewe is not so good a nurse, however, as the latter, and will not usually do full justice to more than one lamb. Eighty or ninety per cent. is about the ordinary number of lambs usually reared, though it often reaches one hundred per cent. in carefully managed or small flocks. “We have already adverted to the cross between the Merino and the ative sheep. On the introduction of the Saxon family of the Merinos, they were universally engrafted on the parent stock, and the cross was contin- ued until the Spanish blood was nearly bred out.” When the admixture ‘tock place with judiciously selected Saxons, it resulted not unfavor- ably for certain purposes. But unfortunately these instances of judicious crossing were rare. Our country was flooded by eager speculators, with the feeblest and least hardy Merinos of Germany. Fineness of wool during * Youatt, p. 149. Ss 138 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. the period of this strange excitement, was made the only test of excellence, no matter how scanty its quantity, no matter how diminutive or miserable the carcass. Governed by such views, the holders of most of our Merina flocks purchased these over-delicate Saxons, and the consequence was a8 might have been foreseen—their flocks were ruined.” SAXON RAM Saxons.—“ In the year 1765, Augustus Frederick, Elector of Saxony, ob tained permission from the Spanish Court to import two hundred Merin selected from the choicest flocks of Spain. They were chosen principally from the Escurial flock, and on their arrival in Saxony, were placed on a rivate estate belonging to the Elector, under the care of Spanish shepherds BS much importance was attached to the experiment, as it was then con sidered, that a commission was appointed to superintend the affairs of the establishment; and it was made its duty to diffuse information in relation to the management of the new breed ; to dispose of the surplus rams at prices which would place them within the reach of all holders of sheep; and finally, by explaining the superior value of the Merinos, to induce the Saxon farmers to cross them with their native breeds. Popular preju- dice, however, was strong against them, and this was hightened by the rava- ges of the scab, which had been introduced with them from Spain, and which proved very destructive before it was finally eradicated. But when it became apparent that the Merino, so far from degenerating, had im- proved” in the quality of its wool, in Saxony, “ the wise and patriotic efforts of the Elector began to reap their merited success, and a revolution took place in popular sentiment. The call for rams became so great that the Government resolved on a new importation, to enable them more effec- tually to meet it, and to improve still farther the stock already obtained. lor this purpose an individual, considered one of the best judges of sheep in Saxony, was dispatched to Spain in 1777, with orders to select three hun dred. Forsome reason, probably because he experienced difficulty in obtai ing a greater number presenting all the quaiifications he sought, he return- SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 139 ed with but one hundred and ten. They were from nearly all the different flocks of Spain, but principally the Escurial—and were considered decided- ly superior to the first importation. In addition to the establishment at Stolpen, already founded, others were now commenced at Rennersdorf, Lohmen, &c.; schools were established for the education of shepherds; publications were distributed by the commissioners to throw information on the subject before the people; and the Crown tenants, it is said, were each required to purchase a certain number of the sheep.” Mr. Spooner* states that there are two distinct breeds of the Saxon Me- rino sheep, the first “having stouter legs, stouter bodies, head and neck com- paratively short and broad, body round. The wool grows most on the face and legs—the grease in the wool is almost pitchy.” The other breed call- ed Escurial have longer legs, with a long, spare neck and head, with very little wool on the latter, and a finer, shorter and softer character in its fleece, but less in quantity. The fleece in the Escurial averages from one and a half to two pounds in ewes, and two to three pounds in rams and wethers, while in the others it is from two and a quarter to three and a quarter in ewes, and from four to six pounds in ram and wethers. These varieties cannot be amalgamated successfully. The preceding portrait is a favorable specimen of the Escurial Saxon, copied trom a cut, after a drawing by Harvey, in Mr. Spooner’s work. That the German shepherds have sacrificed the hardiness of the Merino. and indeed almost everything else, for fineness of staple, there can be but little doubt. Their method of managing the sheep and its effects are thus described by Mr. Carr, a large sheep-owner of Germany :t “They are always housed at night, even insummer, except in the very finest weather, | when they are sometimes folded in the distant fallows, but never taken to pasture until the _ dew is off the grass. In the winter they are kept within doors altogether, andare fed witha | small quantity of sound hay, and every variety of straw, which has not suffered from wet, aud which is varied at each feed; they pick it over carefully, eating the finer parts, and any grain that may have been left by the threshers. Abundance of good water to drink, and rock- salt in their cribs, are indispensables. .... They cannot thrive in a damp climate, and it 1s quite necessary that they should have a wide range of dry and hilly pasture of short and not over-nutritious herbage. If allowed to feed on swampy or marshy ground, even once or twice, in autumn, they are sure to die of liver-complaint in the following spring. If they are permitted to eat wet grass, or exposed frequently to rain, they disappear by hundreds with consumption. In these countriesit is found the higher bred the sheep is, especially the Escurial, the more tender !”’ Such are the common views of the sheep, and their treatment over Germany, Prussia, and Austria. Various statements of the methods adopt- ed by Baron Geisler, Graf Hunyadi, and other eminent flockmasters, will be found in Dr. Bright’s Travels in Lower Hungary, Paget’s Travels in Hungary and Transylvania, Jacob’s Travels in Germany, &c. The qualities of the Saxons as breeders and nurses, may be inferred from the following regulations, for the management of his flock, by Baron Geisler.t “ During the lambing period, a shepherd should be constantly day and night in the cute, in order that he may place the lamb, a soon as it is cleaned, together with its mother, in a separate pen, which has been before prepared. The ewes which have lambed should, during a week, be driven neither to water or pasture; but low troughs of water for this pur pose are to be introduced into each partition, in order that they may easily and at all times | ease their thirst. It is also very useful to put a small quantity of barley-meal into the water; tor by this means the quantity of the ewe’s milk is much increased. When the lambs are so strong that they can eat, they are to be separated by degrees from their mothers, and fed with the best and finest oats, being suffered at first to go to them but three times a day, early in the morning, at mid-day, and in the evening, and so to continue till they can travel te pasture, and fully satisfy themselves.” | * Spooner, p. 57 t Quoted by Spooner, p. 58. t Ibid., p. 59. 1:0 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. The following history of the introduction of the Saxons into the Unite States, was compiled by me from written memoranda, and the oral state. ments of Mr. Grove, submitted to the Committee of New-York State Ag: ricultural Society, already alluded to, of which I was Chairman, and wag published in my Report, credited, of course, to Mr. Grove individually, aa no other member of the Committee was conversant with the facts nare rated.* ‘“ The first importation of Saxony sheep into the United States was made by Mr. Samuel Hfenshaw, a merchant of Boston, at the instance of Col. James Shepherd, of Northampton. They were but six or seven in number. In 1824, Messrs. G. & T. Searle, of Boston, import. ed 77 Saxon sheep. They were selected and purchased by a Mr. Kretchman, a correspond: ent of the above firm, residing in Leipsic, and shipped at Bremen on board the American schooner Velocity. I was engaged to take charge of the sheep on the passage, and I also shipped six on my own account. I am sorry to say that as many as one-third of the sheep purchased by Kretchman, (who shared profit and loss in the undertaking,) were not pure- blooded sheep. ‘The cargo were sold at auction at Brooklyn, as ‘ pure-blooded electoral Sax- ous,’ and thus unfortunately in the very outset the pure and impure became irrevocably mix- ed. But I feel the greatest certainty that the Messrs. Searle intended to import none but the pure stock—the fault lay with Kretchman. In the fall of 1824, I entered into an arrange- ment with the Messrs. Searle to return to Saxony, and purchase in connection with Kretch- man, from 160 to 200 Electoral sheep. I was detained at sea seven weeks, which gave rise to the belief that I was shipwrecked and lost. When I finally arrived, the sheep had been al- ready bought by Kretchman. On being informed of what the purchase consisted, I protested against taking them to America, and insisted on a better selection, but to no purpose. A quarrel ensued between us, and Kretchman even went so far as to engage another to take charge of the sheep on their passage. My friends interposing, I was finally induced to take charge of them. ‘The number shipped was 167, 15 of which perished on the passage. They were sold at Brighton, some of them going as high as from $400 to $450. A portion of this unportation consisted of grade sheep, which sold as high as the pure-bloods, for the Ameri- can purchasers could not know the difference. It may ‘be readily imagined what an induce ment the Brighton sale held out to speculation, both in this country and Saxony. The Ger- man newspapers teemed with advertisements of sheep for sale, headed ‘ Good bor the Ameri- can Market;’ and these sheep, in many instances, were actually bought up for the American market at five, eight or ten dollars a head, when the pure-bloods could not be purchased at trom less than $30 to $40. In 1836, Messrs. Searle imported three cargoes, amounting in the ag- gregate to513 sheep. They were of about the same character with their prior importations, in the main good, but mixed with some grade sheep. On the same year a cargo of 221 arrived, on German account, Emil Bach, of Leipsic, supercargo. A few were good sheep and of pure blood; but taken as a lot they were miserable. The owners sunk about $3,000. Next came a cargo of 210 on German account; Wasmuss and Multer, owners. The whole cost of these was about $1,125, in Germany. With the exception of a small number, procured to make a flourish on, in their advertisements of sale they were sheep having no pretensions to purity of blood. In 1827, the same individuals brought out another cargo. These were sclectell exclusively from grade flocks of low character. On the same year the Messrs. Searle made their last importation, consisting of 182 sheep. Of these I know little. My friends in Ger- many wrote me that they were like their other importations, a mixture of pure and impure blooded sheep. It is due, however, to the Messrs. Seale to say that, as a whole, their im- portations were much better than any other made into Boston. “‘T will now turn your attention to the importations made into other ports. In 1825, 13 Saxons arrived in Portsmouth. They were miserable creatures. In 1826, 191 sheep arrived in New-York, per brig William, on German account. A portion of these were well descend- ed and valuable animals, the rest were grade sheep. In June the same year, the brig Lou- isa brought out 173 on German account. Not more than one-third of them had the least pre tensions to purity of blood. Next we find 158, shipped at Bremen, on German account.— Some were diseased before they left Bremen, and I am happy to state that twenty-two die before their arrival in New-York. All I intend to say of them is, that they were a most cu” rious and motley mess of wretched animals. The next cargo imported arrived in the b Maria Elizabeth, under my own care. They were 165 in number, belonging to myself 4 _ F. Gebhard, of New-York. These sheep cost me $65 a head when landed in New-York.— They sold at an average of $50 a head, thus sinking about $2,400! I need not say that they were exclusively of pure blood. A cargo of 81 arrived soon after, but I know nothing of their quality. The next importation consisted of 184, on German account, pee brig Warren. With a few exceptions they were pure-blooded and good sheep. We next have an imports tion of 200 by the Bremen ship Louisa. They were commonly called the ‘ stop sale shee = * Mr. Morrel in his American Shepherd, quotes this as a “ Report” drawn and read by Mr. Grove, (one ig eft to infer,) before the New-York State Agricultural Society. ‘This is doubtless an inadvertance. , SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN rHE SOUTH. 14} They were of the most miserable character, some of them being hardly half-grade sheep.— | The ship Phebe Ann brought 120 sheep, of which I know little; and 60 were landed al | Philadelphia, with the character of which I am unacquainted. Having determmed to settle | in America, I returned to Saxony, and spent the winter of 1826-7 in visiting and examining | many flocks. I selected 115 from the celebrated flock of Machern, embarked on board the ship Albion, and landed in New-York June 27, 1827. In 1828, I received 80 more from tke | same flock, selected by a friend of mine, an excellent judge of sheep. I first drove them ta | Shaftsbury, adjoming the town of Hosic, where I now reside. On their arrival they stood | me in $70 a head, and the lambs half that sum.” | ‘Tt will be inferred: from the facts above stated that there are few Sax- on flocks in the United States that have not been reduced to the quality _of grade sheep, by the promiscuous admixture of the pure and the impure _ which were imported together, and a/Z sold to our breeders as pure stock.” | And independent of this, there are but exceedingly few flocks which have not been agazm crossed with the Native or Merino sheep of our coun- try, or both. Those who early purchased the Merino, crossed them with 'the Native ; and, when the Saxons arrived, these mongrels were bred ta ‘Saxon rams. This is the history of probably three-quarters of the “ Sax- 'on” flocks of the United States, and among them some, as I know, among the most celebrated. As these sheep have now so long been bred toward the Saxon that their vool equals that of the pure-bloods, it is exceedingly problematical in my mind whether they are any worse for the admixture: when crossed only with the Merino, it is undoubtedly to their advantage. Though I once thought differently, experience has satisfied me that the American Saxon, with these early crosses in its pedigree, is a hardier and more easily kept animal than the pure Escurial or Electoral Saxon. As with the Merino, climate, feed, and other causes, have doubtless conspired to add to their ize and vigor; but, after all, I have not a doubt they usually owe more of it to those early crosses. The fleeces of the American Saxons weigh, on the average, from 2 or 21 to 3 lbs. They are, comparatively speaking, a tender sheep, requiring regular supplies of good food, good shelter in winter, and protection in cool weather from storms of all kinds; but they are evidently hardier than the parent German stock. In docility and patience under confinement, late maturity, and longevity, they resemble the Merinos, from which they are descended ; though they do not mature so early as the Merino, nor ordinarily live so long. ‘They are poorer nurses; their lambs smaller, fee- bler, and far more likely to perish, unless sheltered and carefully watched. They do not fatten so well, and, being considerably lighter, they consume ‘an amount of food correspondingly less. Taken together, the American Saxons bear a much finer wool than the American Merinos; but Dr. Emmons’s measurements show that this is not always the case, and many breeders of Saxons are now crossing with the Merino, in the expectation of increasing the weight of their fleeces without deteriorating its quality.* Though I am in possession of wool from Saxons in Connecticut and Ohio, which compares well with the higher grades of German wool,t and though there are doubtless other flocks of equa: quality in the country,t our Saxon wool, as a whole, falls considerably below that of Germany; and I never have seen a single lock of the American equaling some samples, given me by a friend recently * Mr. Lawrence believes this practicable, and Mr. Morrel and various other Saxon breeders have for some time bred in this way. f Fully equaling, and, I think, better than some German wool IJ recently’ saw, which, all expenses ine eluded, stood the purchaser in $1 60 per pound! } Mr. Emmons stated, subsequently to his measurements above, that he had received wool from the Socks of Dr. Beekrnan. considerably finer than the Say.n wool figured. }42 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ; ae ee eer A SE A SR from Europe, which came from Styria, south of Vienna, in Austria, T inferiority of the American to the German wool is not due to climate or other natural causes, nor is it owing to a want of skill on the part of out breeders. It is owing to the fact that but a very few of our manufactur ers have ever felt willing to make that discrimination in prices which woul render it profitable to breed those small and delicate animals which pr duce this exquisite quality of wool. No American breeder thinks of hous. ing his sheep from the summer rains and dew, or observing any of the ho house regulations—at least in the summer—of Graf Hunyadi, or Baron Geisler! Ifhe did, his wool would not probably pay da// of its first cost, When our manufacturers wish to find these wools in the home market, they must learn to pay for them in the dome market as liberally as they are compelled to to obtain them in foreign ones! > THE NEW LEICESTER, OR BAKEWELL. The portrait above is copied from one of a sheep of this variety, belong: ing to the Duke of Bedford, given in Mr. Youatt’s work on Sheep. “The unimproved Leicester was a ‘ large, heavy, coarse-wooled breed’ of sheep, inhabiting the midland counties of England. It is described alse as having been ‘a slow feeder, and its flesh coarse-grained, and with little flavor. The breeders of that period regarded only size and weight of fieece. The celebrated Mr. Bakewell, of Dishley, was the first who adopt- ed a system more in accordance with the true principles of breeding. He selected from the flocks about him those sheep ‘whose shape possessed the peculiarities which he considered would produce the largest propo tion of valuable meat, and offal,’ and having observed that animals of me- dium size possess a greater aptitude to take on flesh, and consume less food than those which are larger, and that prime fattening qualities are rarely found in sheep carrying a great weight of wool, he gave the prefes ence to those of smaller size, and was satisfied with lighter fleeces.” To reach the wonderful results obtained by Mr. Bakewell, it was supposed that he resorted to a cross with some other varieties, but it is believed by some that he owed his success only to a judicious principle of selection end _teady adherence to certain principles of breeding. eae ey) SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 143 | It is exceedingly unfortunate that this eminent breeder has left us sc /much in the dark in relation to those principles of breeding, adopted by |him, which led to such signal success in his efforts to improve both the | cattle and sheep of the region in England in which he resided. All of hia | measures were veiled in impenetrable secrecy even from his most intimate | friends, and he died without voluntarily throwing the least light on the subject. The whole inception and management of his famous “ Dishley ‘Society’* betrays selfishness the most intense, and, in plain English, mean- |mess the most unalloyed. Should a man claiming to be a gentleman, ir | thts country, make valuable discoveries in breeding, or in any other de- | partment of husbandry, and closely conceal them from the public, his con- | duct would meet with universal reprehension and contempt ;t yet the thing | seems to be considered a matter of course, or is at least passed over with- out censure, in Youatt, Spooner, Bischoff, and a host of earlier writers, | all of whom laud Mr. Bakewell to the echo! “The improved Leicester is of large size, but somewhat smaller thar. | the original stock, and in this respect falls considerably below the coarser varieties of Cotswold, Lincoln, &c. Where there is a sufficiency of feed, | the New Leicester is unrivaled for its fattening properties, but it will not | bear hard stocking, nor must it be compelled to travel far in search of its /food. It is, in fact, properly and exclusively a lowland sheep.- In its ap- | propriate situation, on the luxuriant herbage of the highly cultivated lands / of England, it possesses unrivaled earliness of maturity ; and its mutton, _ when not too fat, is of a good quality, but is usually coarse, and compara- ‘tively deficient in flavor, owing to that unnatural state of fatness which it /so readily assumes, and which the breeder, to gain weight, so generally feeds for. The wethers, having reached their second year, are turned off ir the succeeding February or March, and weigh at that age from thirty to thirty-five pounds to the quarter. The wool of the New Leicester is long—averaging, after the first shearing, about six inches; and the fleece of the American animal weighs about six pounds. It is of coarse quality, and little used in the manufacture of cloths, on account of its length, and that deficiency of felting properties common, in a greater or less extent, te all the English breeds. As a combing wool, however, it stands first, and is used in ‘the manufacture of the finest worsteds, &c. “ The high bred Leicesters of Mr. Bakewell’s stock became shy breed- ers and poor nurses, but crosses subsequently adopted” have, to some ex- tent, obviated these defects. So far as my experience has extended in this country, however, the lambs are not very hardy, and require considerable attention at the time of yeaning, particularly if the weather is even moder- ately cold or stormy. Neither can the grown sheep be considered, in my opinion, very hardy. ‘They are much affected by sudden changes in the weather, and a sudden change to cold is pretty sure to be registered on their noses by unmistakable indications of catarrh or ‘ snuffles.’ “In England, where mutton is generally eaten by the laboring classes, the meat of this variety is in very great demand; and the consequent re- turn which a sheep possessing such fine feeding qualities is enabled te make, renders it a general favorite with the breeder. Instances are re- cor led of the most extraordinary prices having been-paid for these ani- * For the Regulations of this Society, see Youatt, p. 317. { Of course I do not include in this category those nameless venders of recipes for killing Canada This. tles, rats, &c. &c.; and men who spend their time and property in inventing improved implements, etc., ‘are entitled to the pay offered by the Patent laws. But, among our agriculturists of standing, who has evet known of a single instance of a valuable discovery in the operations of husbandry being concealed or with. held from the public? Who has known a breeder of rank wheedle a partner out of one-half of a valuable bull, and then refuse the quondam partner the services of that bull at any price, lest he should prove dangerous rival in breeding? Yet, what English writer has expressed any contempt for such meanness These things would not * go down” among us “ repudiators” ! 144 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. mals, and Mr. Bakewell’s celebrated buck “ ‘Two Pounder” was let for the enormous price of four hundred guineas for a single season! he New Leicester has spread into all parts of the British Dominions, and been imported into the other countries of Europe and the United States, They were first introduced into our own country by the late Christopher Dunn, Esq., of Albany, about twenty-five years since.* Subsequent impo ations have been made by Mr. Powel, of Philadelphia, and various othe gentlemen.” It is no more than justice to say that this breed has never proved a fa vorite with any large class of American farmers. Our long, cold winters, but more especially our dry, scorching summers, when it is often difficult to obtain the rich, green, tender feed in which the Leicester delights—the general want of green feed in the winter, robs it of its early maturity, and even of the ultimate size which it attains in England. Its mutton is too fat, and the fat and Jean are too little intermixed, to suit American taste. Its wool is not very salable, from the much to be regretted dearth of worsted manufactories in our country. Its early decay and loss of wool constitute an objection to it, in a country where it is often so difficult t advantageously turn off sheep, particularly ewes. But, notwithstanding all these disadvantages, on rich lowland farms, in the vicinities of consid erable markets, it will always probably make a proftable return. The following description of what constitutes the desirable characterist- ics of this breed, is from the pen of Mr. Youatt :t “The head should be hornless, long, small, tapering toward the muzzle, and projecting horizontally forward. The eyes prominent, but with a quiet expression. The ears thin, rather long, and directed backward. The neck full and broad at its base, where it proceeds from the chest, so that there is, with the slightest possible deviation, one continued horizon- tal line from the rump to the poll. The breast broad and full; the shoulders also broad an cound, and no uneven or angular formation where the shoulders join either the neck or the back—particularly no rising of the withers, or hollow behind the situation of these bones.— The arm fleshy through its whole extent, and even down to the knee. The bones of the leg small, standing wide apart; no looseness of skin about them, and comparatively bare of wool. The chest and barrel at once deep and round ; the ribs forming a considerable arch from the spine, so as in some cases, and especially when the animal is in good condition, to make the apparent width of the chest even greater than the depth. The barrel ribbed well home ; no irregularity of line on the back or belly, but on the sides; the carcass very ea ually diminishing in width toward the ramp. The quarters long and full, and, as with the fore legs, the muscles extending down to the hock; the thighs also wide and full. The le of a moderate length; the pelt also moderately thin, but soft and elastic, and covered wi a good quantity of white wool—not so long as in some breeds, but considerably finer.” Tur Sourn-Down.— This breed of sheep has existed for several centu ries in England, on a range of chalky hills called the South Downs. They were, 2s recently as 1776, small in size, and of a form not superior to the common wooled sheep of the United States. Since that period, a course of judicious breeding, pursued by one man (Mr. Ellman, of Glynde, in Sussex), has mainly contributed to raise this variety to its present high degree of per- fection, and that, too, without the admixture of the slightest degree of foreign blood. In our remarks on this breed of sheep, it will be understood that we speak of the pure improved family, as the original stock, presenting, with trifling modifications, the same characteristics which they exhibited sixty years since, are yet to be found in England-—and as the middle space is occupied by a variety of grades, rising or falling in value, as they approximate to or recede from the improved blood. , “The South-Down is an upland sheep, of medium size, and its wool, which in point of length belongs t> the middle class,” has been estimated to rank with half-blood Merino, and was so estimated in my Report, quo = Now about 35 years since. + Youas cz Sheep, p. 110, SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 145 tations from which constitute so large a portion of this Letter. But both subsequent experience, and information derived from other sources, have convinced me of the err-neousness of this opinion. South-Down wool is WO CLs : T Gath 7 TAH Uf Mir Ulte Ula SME RK HOWLAND. ht OO + SOUTH-DOWN RAM. essentially different from Merino wool of any grade, though the fibre in some of the finest fleeces may be of the same apparent fineness with half or one-quarter blood Merino. : The following cut from Youatt,* gives the microscopic appearance, says that gentleman, of a “prime specimen of picklock South-Down wool,” 1 being viewed as a transparent, and 2 as an opaque object.” The fibre is goth part of an inch in diameter. 1 The cups or leaves of 2 “are roughened irregular, and some of the leaves have ex- 2 ceedingly short angles,” but they are far sharper, more numerous and regular (the points which give wool its felting property) than in ordinary South-Down wool. In the latter, the cups are rounded and haye a “ rhomboidal” in- stead of that sharp and “hooked” character which distinguishes the Me- rino and Saxon. South-Down wool is deficient in felting properties. It makes a “ furzy, nairy ” cloth, and is no longer used in England, unless largely admixed _wita fereign wool, even for the lowest class of cloths. The following testimony was given by some of the most eminent manu facturers, wool-factors, staplers, and merchants of England, before the Yommittee of the House of Lords in 1828, several times previously al- luded to :t * Youam, p. 236 + See Biechoff, ce pp- 145 to 156, 4 p ’ Yow Pp abs ote Fy al ned le 4 TF hd 2 : 2 ? pe : 146 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. Mr. Cuarces Butt, wool agent, Lewes.—* Formerly it [South-Down wool] was used clothing purposes ; now it is impossible to sell it for that manufacture; . . . it is used for paizes and flannels in a very large way.” t Mr. Wittiam Cunntxetox, wool-stapler, Wiltshire.— The public will not wear the South-Down cloths, they are so very coarse.” Mr. James Fison, wool dealer, Thetford.—‘* There has been deterioration in the quali of (South-Down) wool; the general weight of the fleece 20 years ago was 2 pounds to 2h, and it is now 3 pounds to 34, our wool used to be made into cloths, and returned into Nor- folk, and used by myself and the agriculturists. We do not get the same cloth now; neither myself nor the farmer would wear it, because of the deterioration of quality.” Mr. James Hussarp, wool agent, Leeds.—South-Down wool is not “‘now employed for the purpose of making cloth; it has been forced down two or three steps in the scale of waol, and is now used for flannels and baize.... . The wool gets more frothy and open, and in manufacturing it does not felt and improve so well; it works more flannely.”.... Mr. Joun Brooke, manufacturer, Howley.—‘ Manufacture principally blue cloths from 7s. to 24s. and 25s. per yard, and also narrow cloths. ... « Had the Duke of Norfolk’s wool, Mr. Ellman, junior’s, clip from 1817 and 1822, and Mr. Ellman, senior’s, from 1817 to 1821... . Kept to English wool longer than any house in the neighborhood. ... . Ceased to manufac- ture it entirely in 1823 or 1824,... . found our neighbors were sending out better cloths than we were, not only at the same price, but better manufactured cloths, and we lost our cus- tomers.” Mr. Beysamty Gort, merchant and manufacturer, Leeds.—“ I formerly used 150 packs of English wool weekly; the disuse of English wool was gradual, commencing about tne year 1819, continuing to 1823 and 1824, about which time I began to manufacture excln- sively from foreign wool. The disuse of English wool arose from the quality and the ad- vantage of using foreign wool compared with our own. 1 could not now make an article which would be merchantable at all for the foreign market, (that remark applies equally to the home trade,) in certain descriptions of cloth, except of foreign wool.” . . . These wools (the domestic and foreign,) “ have different properties.” Mr. Wittiam Irevanp, Blackwell Hall factor, London.—“ We have been using English wool for second and livery cloths, but recently they have been so very much lowered in quality we have not been able to make use of them at all, and have been obliged to make use of low German and low Spanish wools for that purpose.” ‘ ‘Mr. J. Surctirre, wool-stapler, Huddersfield.—* South-Down wool was formerly ap plied for making cloth for home consumption regularly, for the clothing of servants, &ec. It was also used for army clothing. It is now no longer used for those purposes. It makes a furzy, soft, hairy piece; it has not that fastness in it that foreign wool has.” Many other individuals testify to the same effect, and the extremely low character of South-Down wool for carding purposes may be regarded as definitely settled. But as it has deteriorated it has increased in length of staple in England, and to such an extent that improved machinery enables itto be used as a combing wool—for the manufacture of worsteds. Where this has taken place it is quite as profitable, in England, as when it was finer and shorter. In the United States, where the demand for combing- wool is so small that it is easily met by a better article, perhaps thi would not be the case. And it may be problematical whether the proper combing length will be easily reached, or at least maintained in this coun- try, in the absence of that high feeding system which has undoubtedly given the wool its increased length in England.* . The average weight of fleece in the hill-fed sheep is 3 lbs.; on rich lowlands a little more. Mr. John Ellman, Jr., testified before the Com- mittee of the House of Lords that he was then “ keeping his sheep better than formerly—fattening them, which rendered the fleece heavier—that they then averaged about 3 lbs. of wool.” + “ But the Down is cultivated more particularly for its mutton, which for quality takes precedence of all other” (from sheep of good size) “in the English markets. Its early maturity “nd extreme aptitude to lay on flesh, render it peculiarly valuable for this purpose. The Down is turned off at two years old, and its weight at that age is, in England, from 80 to 100 lbs. High fed wethers have reached * Nearly or quite every individual who testifies to the deterioration and increased length ‘of the South Down wool betore the Lord’s Committee, assign this as the cause of the change. : % Bischoff, vol. ii., p. 137 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH 149 s3 from 32 to even 40 lbs. a quarter! Notwithstanding its weight, the Down has, in the language of Mr. Youatt, a patience of occasional short keep, and an endurance of hard stocking, equal to any other sheep. This gives it a decided advantage over the bulkier Leicester, Lincolns, &c., as a mutton sheep, in hilly districts and those producing short and scanty herbage. It is hardy and healthy, though in common with the other Eng- lish varieties much subject to the catarrh or “snufiles,” and no sheep bet- ter withstands our American winters. ‘The ewes are prolific breeders and good nursers.: The Down is quiet and docile in its habits, and though an industrious feeder, exhibiting little disposition to rove.” Like the Leices- ter, it is comparatively a short-lived animal, and the fleece continues t9 decrease in weight after it reaches maturity. It crosses better with short and middle wooled breeds than the Leicester. ‘‘ A sheep possessing such qualities must of course be valuable in upland districts in the vicinity of markets. They have been introduced into every part of the British Do- minions, and imported into various other countries. The Emperor of Russia paid Mr. Ellman three hundred guineas for two rams, and in 1800 “a ram belonging to the Duke of Bedford, was let for one season at eighty guineas, two others at forty guineas each, and four more at twenty-eight guineas each.’ These valuable sheep were introduced into the Unitea States a few years since by Col. J. H. Powell, of Philadelphia, and a small number was imported by one of the members of this Committee in 1834. The last were from the flock of Mr. Hillman, at a cost of $60 a head. Sev- eral other importations have since taken place.” _ The ram and ewe, the portraits of which are given, are the descendants of the importation of Francis Rotch, Esq., alluded to in the preceding paragraph. They are most spirited likenesses, and were kindly furnished me by that gentleman, to accompany this Letter. They are exceedingly — ies UG es) Wn \Y We hee Oa a NY «\ (ef ALPES AAC RRR yy Si w RU ; ies CE MU SSG ‘ ~— : Mh (Wie Via Vi] “if Le le td: +2, iy 1) SOUTH-DOWN EWE. characteristic of the Ellman stock. Not so large as the later importationa of Mr. Rotch from the celebrated flock of Mr. Webb, they are, in the = : mee’ 5” ° vr Nd arta 22 a ae a , a (A *y SZ ’ es wre y ete Te sald bt t ie a é * 6 SS Oe t/a 148 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. opinion of that gentleman, as well as in my own, a more beautifull formed and not less profitable animal. For compactness—great weight a small compass—they are perhaps unrivaled. The following is the description of the perfect South-Down by Mr. Ej man, the founder of the improved breed : “The head small and hornless ; the face speckled or gray and neither too long nor twa short; the lips tnin, and the space between the nose and the eyes narrow; the under jaw or chap fine ana thin; the ears tolerably wide and well covered with wool, and the fore. . head also, and the whole space between the ears well protected by it, as a defence against the fly. ‘ “ The eye full and bright but not prominent. The orbits of the eye, the eye-cap or bone» not too projecting, that it may not form a fatal obstacle in lambing. “The neck of a medium length, thin toward the head, but enlarging toward the shoul. . ders, where it should be broad and high and straight in its whole course above and below, The breast should be wide, deep, and projecting forward between the fore-legs, indicating a good constitution and a disposition to thrive. Corresponding with this, the shoulders should be on a level with the back, and not too wide above: they should bow outward from the > top to the breast, indicating a springing rib beneath, and leaving room for it. “ The ribs coming out horizontally from the spine, and extending far backward, and the last rib projecting more than others, the back flat from the shoulders to the setting on of the tail; the loin broad and flat; the rump broad and the tail set on high, and nearly on a level with the spine. The hips wide; the space between them and the last rib on ei ther side as narrow as possible, and the ribs generally presenting a circular form like a barrel. “The belly as straight as the back. “ The legs neither too long nor too short; the fore-legs straight from the breast to the foot: not bending inward at the knee, and standing far apart both before and behind; the hock having a direction rather outward, and the twist, or the meeting of the thighs behind, being particularly full, the bones fine, yet having no appearance of weakness, and of a speckled o1 dark color. The belly well defended with wool, and the wool coming down before and behind to the knee and to the hock ; the wool short, close, curled and fine, and free from spiry projectin fibres ” THE COTSWOLD SHEEP. The above cut is copied from one in Mr. Spooner’s work on Shee > the original drawing being by Harvey. i The Cotswolds, until improved by modern crosses, were a very larg SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 149 i coarse, long-legged, flat-ribbed variety, light in the fore-quarter-—shearing a long, heavy, coarse fleece of wool. They were hardy, prolific breeders and capital nurses. They were deficient in early maturity, and did not possess feeding properties equaling those of the Down or New Leicester. To a cross with the latter variety we owe the modern or improved Cots- wold. Having had no personal experience with the breed,* I prefer ‘quoting the descriptions of the later standard English writers, to the task of compilation. The following is from Spooner :t “The Cotswold is a large breed of sheep, with a long and abundant fleece, and the ewes. are very prolific and good nurses. Formerly they were bred only on the hills, and fatted in the valleys, of the Severn and the Thames; but with the inclosure of the Cotswold Hills and the improvement of their cultivation they have been reared and fatted in the same district. They have been extensively crossed with the Leicester sheep, by which their size and fleece have been somewhat diminished, but their carcasses considerably im. proved, and their maturity rendered earlier. The wethers are now sometimes fattened at 14 months old, when they weigh from 15 lbs. to 24 lbs. per quarter, and at two years old increase to 29 lbs. or 30 lbs. The wool is strong, mellow, and of good color, though rather coarse, 6 to 8 inches in length, and from 7 lbs. to 8 lbs. per fleece. The superior hardihood of the improved Cotswold over the Leicester, and their adaptation to common treatment, together with the prolific nature of the ewes and their abundance of milk, have rendered them in many places rivals of the New Leicester, and have obtained for them, of late years, more attention to their selection and general treatment, under which man- agement still farther improvement appears very probable. They have also been used in crossing other breeds, and, as before noticed, have been mixed with the Hampshire Downs. It is, indeed, the improved Cotswold that, under the term New or Improved Oxfordshire Sheep, are so frequently the successful candidates for prizes offered for the best long-wooled sheep at some of the principal agricultural meetings or shows in the Kingdom. The quality of the mutton is considered superior to that of the Leicester, the tallow being less abundant, with a larger development of muscle or flesh. We may, therefore, regard this breed as one of established reputation, and extending itself throughout every district of the Kingdom.” Of the method of crossing between the Cotswolds and Leicester, Mr. Youatt remarks :f ‘The degree to which the cross may be carried must depend upon the nature of the old: stock, and on the situation and character of the farm. In exposed situations, and somewhat canty pasture, the old blood should decidedly prevail. Ona more sheltered soil, and on_ and that will bear closer stocking, a greater use may be made of the Leicester. Another ircumstance that will guide the farmer is the object that he principally has in view. If he- xpects to derive his chief profits from the wool, he will look to the primitive Cotswolds ;. f he expects to gain more asa grazier, he will use the Leicester ram more freely.” Cotswold sheep of good quality have been imported into the United: States by Messrs. Corning & Sotham, of Albany, and are now bred by- the latter gentleman. I believe there were several earlier importations— but of their dates or particulars I am not advised. Tue Cusviot Surer.—sheep of this breed have been imported into my- mmediate neighborhood, and were subject to my frequent inspection for two rthree years. They had the appearance of small Leicesters, but were con-- siderably inferior in correctness of proportions to high-bred animals of that: variety. They perhaps more resemble a cross between the Leicester and’ the old “ native” or common breed of the United States. Their fleeces were 00 coarse to furnish a good carding wool—too short for a good combing. one- Mixed with a smaller lot of better wool, their this year’s clip sold fur 29+ sents per pound, while my heavier Merino fleeces sold for 42 cents per sound. ‘They attracted no notice, and might at any time have been sought of their owner for the price of common sheep of the same weight: [ believe the flock was broken up and sold to butchers and others this. spring, after shearing. They were certainly inferior to the description of he breed by Sir John Sinclair, even in 1792, quoted by Mr. Youatt,|| and _* With every breed previously described, I haye had ample personal experience. I have merely see ‘otswold flocks. + Q.z, p. 99. tT Q.2., p. 340. ll @. v., pp. 285, 286: .50 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. had all the defects attributed to the original stock by Cully. not, however, have been favorable specimens of the breed. ! On the steep, storm-lashed Cheviot Hills, in the extreme North of Eng and, this breed first attracted notice for their great hardiness in resisting Wes Qs / tar a, —- “=> CHEVIOT EWE. cold and feeding on coarse heathery herbage. A ctoss with the Leices ter, pretty generally resorted to, constitutes the improved variety. The characteristics of the Leicester are quite evident in the portrait of the Cheviot Ewe, above, copied from Mr. Youatt. Professor Low thus speaks of the result of this cross : ‘“‘The Cheviot breed amalgamates with the Leicester, and a system of breeding has been extensively introduced for producing the first cross of this descent. The rams employed are: ofthe pure Leicester breed, and the progeny is superior in size, weight of wool, and tenden cy to fatten, to the native Cheviot. . . . The benefit, however, may be said to end with the = first cross, and the progeny of this mixed descent is greatly inferior to the pure Leicester in form and fattening properties, and to the pure Cheviot in hardiness of constitution. Of the improved Cheviot Mr. Spooner says : “This breed has greatly extended itself throughout the mountains of Scotland, and if many instances supplanted the Black-faced breed ; but the change, though in many cases ad- vantageous, has in some instances been otherwise, the latter being somewhat hardier, an more capable of subsisting on heathy pasturage. They are, however, a hardy race, well suited for their native pastures, bearing with comparative impunity the storms of winter, and thriving well on poor keep. ‘Though less hardy than the black-faced sheep of Scotlane they are more profitabie as respects their feeding, making more flesh on an equal quantity of food, and making it quicker. They have white faces and legs, open countenances, lively eyes, without horns. The ears are large, and somewhat singular, and there is much space > between the ears and eyes. The carcass is long; the back straight; the shoulders rathel ght; the ribs circular; and the quarters good. The legs are small in the bone and co’ ered with wool, as well as the body, with the exception of the face. The Cheviot wethe is fit for the butcher at three years old, and averages from 12 lbs. to 18 Ibs. per quarter— h mutton being of a good nonlite: though inferior to the South-Down, and of less flavor tha the Black-faced. . . . . The Cheviot, though a mountain breed, is quiet and docile, and pe sily managed. The wool is fine, (1) closely covers the body, assisting much in preserving " € See Cully an Live Stock, p. 150. SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 151 from the effects of wet and cold; the fleece averaging about 34 lbs. Formerly the wool was extensively employed for making cloths, but having given place to the finer Saxony wools, it has sunk in price, and been confined to combing purposes. It has thus become altogether @ secondary consideration.” ... _ sion of qualifying words, or some other misprint, his ideas of fineness must be singular indeed! The South-Down wool, rejected for carding pur poses, is several shades finer than the Cheviot! The latter is of about the quality of Leicester, the number of serrations about the same, and, says _ Mr, Youatt, speaking of the microscopic appearance of the wool, “the derivation of the breed (from the Leicester) is well illustrated by the formation of the fibre.” Mr. John Varley, manufacturer, of Stanningley, near Leeds, thus testi- fied before the Lords’ Committee :* “T attribute the low price of Cheviot wool to deterioration ; it is deteriorated very much in point of hair; it was formerly the fashion of the day for Cheviot wool to be worn as cloth; UG it is not the fashion now. It is not fit to make fine cloths, as it was then. .... Che wool is grown coarser and longer, and only fit to make low coatings and flushings.” _ If Mr. Spooner is not made to say that the wool is “ fine” by an omis- _ This is confirmed by the testimony of other witnesses before the Com- _ mittee; and Mr. Youatt on the same subject remarks,t{ “that the wool is _ inferior to the South-Down.” _ Broap-ramep Asiatic anp Arrican Sueep.—lI allude to the Broad- tailed race of sheep, not from any high estimate which I place upon their _ value, but because they constitute one of the breeds now existing in a | state of purity in the United States. . | Some “Tunisian Mountain Sheep” were received by Col. Pickering when abroad, and were distributed by him in Pennsylvania.{ They are | highly spoken of by Col. Powell as a cross with the Dishley and South- Down. They have, I believe, long since become extinct. It was Commodore Porter, I think, who, you informed me, sent home some of the Broad-tailed sheep of Asia, obtained from Smyrna, pure- blooded descendants of which yet exist in South Carolina.|| I have care- fully examined the specimens of wool of the full blood and the grades of this variety forwarded by you. No. 3, taken from the skin of a full-blood, | is 8 inches long, pure white, consisting of coarse hairs, uneven in their | length and diameter—the same hair of uneven diameter in different parts of it, and the whole intermixed for about 4 inches from the roots, with a fine, downy or cottony wool. No. 2, about 33 inches long from the side | of a three-fourths blood ram, is much evener in quality, with no hairs as coarse or wool as fine as in No. 3. It contains some jarr, or short, sharp- pointed hairs, and is a dry, and, I should judge, rather unworkable wool, not well adapted to either carding or combing. No.1, from thigh of same animal, is 8 inches long, resembles No. 3, but not so great a distinction between the hair and the wool. No. 4, from a three-fourths blood 4-year- old ewe, is about 2 inches long, contains a few colored hairs, resembles No. 2, but is‘somewhat coarser. All these samples are destitute of yolk, and apparently come from loose, light, dry, open fleeces. They do not | strike me as wools which could be as profitably cultivated as many others, | for any objects or under any circumstances. If the object is mutton instead of wool, it seems to me that a better se- | lection can be made, from some of the English breeds—which intermingle * Bischoff, vol. ii, p. 144. Mr. Youatt quotes the substance of as above, and fully sustains Mr. Varley’a views. Q. v., p. 285. | _ {See Essay on Various Breeds of Sheep, by Col. John Hare Powell, published in the Memoirs of the | Board of Agriculture of the State of New-York, vol. iii., p. 377, (1826.) | || Im Letter Vth I inadvertently spoke of these as a large breed of sheep. They are not above medium | gize, or rather, may be said to be a smallish race. | | All the different varieties of the Broad-tailed and Fat-rumped will be found described in Youatt, and I will not now consume your : with them. ‘ale : ~— ali SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 153 LETTER XI. THE MOST PROFITABLE BREED OF SHEEP FOR THE SOUTH—PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. Breeds should be adapted to the circamstances of a Country...Circumstances requiring a Mutton Sheep ..-Comparison between Mutton Sheep—The South-Downs, Leicesters and Cotswolds. .-H«w far the Feed Markets, &c., of the South demand such breeds...What breed of Sheep will give the greatest value of Wovl from the feed of an acre ?... Comparative Consumption and Wool Product of the Mutton breeds and the Mevino—Other Expenses—C omparative Hardiness, &c...A pound of fine wool can be grown as cheaply as a pound of coarse—worth more for market or for consumption...The Mutton of the Merino and its Grosses... What sub-variety of the Merino best adapted to the wants of the South ?... Review of the His. ‘tory of Wool-Growing and the Wool Markets since 1824...''arifts and Prices... -Injudicious course of the Manufacturers— Have discouraged the growth of fine wool and encouraged that of medium and coarse... A surplus of medium wools, and a bare or short supply of fine... Manufacturers now in the power of fine wool growers.--Interest of the Manufacturers to encourage the growth of fine wools by paying better prices—are beginning to do so—will be compelled to continue this course...Will the North furnish the increasing demand ?—No—Reasons...Fine wool in every point of view more profitable than coarse for cultivation in the South...Comparison between Merinos and’ Saxons...Crosses between them... Points which constitute excellence in a Merino—proper size—per centage of wool to live-weight—shape and gen- eral appearance—skin—wrinkles...The wool—what parts it should cover—its gum—length and weight of fleece—evenness—style—softness—serration—manner of opening, &c-.-Principles of breeding... .In and-in ' breeding..-Crossing-..English Crosses with the Merino... Views of Mr. Livingston concerning the use of ' cross-bred rams—of the French breeders—of the author...Great importance of starting a flock with choice Tams—with ditferent strains of blood. Dear Sir: No one breed of sheep combines the highest perfection in all those points which give value to this race of animals. One is remarkable for the weight, or early maturity, or excellent quality of its carcass, while it is deficient in quality or quantity of wool; and another which is valu- able for wool, is compuratively deficient in carcass. Some varieties will _ flourish only under certwin conditions of feed and climate, while others | are much less affected by those conditions, and will subsist under the greatest variations of temperature, and on the most opposite qualities of verdure. In selecting a breed for any given locality, we are to take into consid- _ eration jirst, the feed and climate, or the surrounding natural circum- stances; and, second, the market facilities and demand. We should then _ make choice of that breed which, with the advantages possessed, and un- _ der all the circumstances, will yield the greatest net value of marketable _ product. . Rich lowland herbage, in a climate which allows it to remain green during a large portion of the year, is favorable to the production of large carcasses. If convenient to markets where mutton finds a prompt sale and good prices, then all the conditions are realized which call for a mut- ton, as contradistinguished from a wool-producing sheep. Under such cir- cumstances, the choice should undoubtedly, in my judgment, rest between the improved English varieties—the South-Down, the New Leicester, and the improved Cotswold or New Oxfordshire sheep. In deciding between _ these, minor and more specific circumstances are to be taken into account. If we wish to keep large numbers, the Down will herd* much better than the two larger breeds ; if our feed, though generally plentiful, is liable to be shortish during the drouths of summer, and we have not a certain sup- ply of the most nutritious winter feed, the Down will better endure ucca- sional short keep: if the market calls for a choice and high-flavored mut ton, the Down possesses a decided superiority. If, on the other hand, we * That is, remain thriving and healthy when kept tcgether in large numbers. 4 & ta eT MN tae dd i Kir. ‘ MS ret ‘ 24 ac 154 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. wish to keep but few in the same inclosure, the large breeds will be healthy as the Downs; if the pastures be wettish or marshy, the former; will better subsist on the rank herbage which usually grows in such situa-- tions; if they do not afford so fine a quality of mutton, they, particularly; the Leicester, possess an earlier maturity, and both give more meat for: ‘he amount of food consumed, and yield more tallow, The next point of comparison betweefi the Long and Middle wooled) families, is the value of their wool. Though not the first or principal ob- ject aimed at in the culture of any of these breeds, it is, in this country, , an important item or incident in determining their relative profitableness, . The American Leicester* yields about 6 lbs. of long, coarse, combing wool; _ the Cotswold something more, but this perhaps counterbalanced by other considerations ; the Down from 3 lbs. to 4 lbs. of a low quality of carding wool. None of these wools are very salable, at remunerating prices, in the American market. Both will become more so, as manufactures of worsted, and of flannels and baizes, increase. The difference in the weight of fleeces between the breeds is, yer se, a less important consideration than would first appear, and for reasons which will be given when I speak of the connection between the amount of wool produced and the food con- sumed, by sheep. Of the Cheviots I have taken no notice in this connection, as they are obviously inferior to the preceding breeds, except in a capacity to endure rigorous weather, and to subsist on heathy herbage. No part of the South has a climate too severe for the more valuable races, and its grasses and other esculents, wherever found, and as far as they go, are, making the proper allowances for wet and dry lands, highly palatable and nutri- tious to all the varieties which respectively feed in such situations. Under the natural and artificial circumstances already alluded to, which surround Sheep Husbandry in many parts of England—where the fattest and grossest quality of mutton is consumed as almost the only animal food - of the laboring classes—the heavy, early maturing New Leicester, and the still heavier New Oxfordshire sheep, seem exactly adapted to the wants — of producer and consumer, and are of unrivaled value. To depasture” poorer soils—sustain a folding system—and furnish the mutton which sup-— plies the tables of the wealthy—the South-Down is an equal desideratum. Have we any region in our Southern States, where analogous circum- stances demand the introduction of similar breeds? The climate, so far as” its effect on the health is concerned, is adapted to any, even the least hardy varieties ; but not so its effects on the verdure on which they are to subsist. The long, scorching summers, so utterly unlike those of Eng leave the grass on lands stocked heavily enough for profit, entirely too — dry and short for the heavy, sluggish Long Wools. This is particularly true in the tide-water zone. Mutton, too, sheeted over externally with three or four inches of solid fat,t even if it could be made acceptable to the slave, in lieu of his ration of bacon—a thing more than doubtful— would never find any considerable market off from the plantation. So far as the supply of feed is concerned, the above remarks apply, though n equally, tothe South-Down. It will live and thrive where the Long Wools would dwindle away, but it is a mistake to suppose that the heavy im- ~Tuse the word “ American” Leicester, because it is notorious that this, as well as the Cotswold— all the other heavy English varieties, soon lose in the weight of their tleeces when subjected to the clim and the (best ordinary) system of feeding in the United States. I should except, perhaps, a few high pampered animals. + Five and even six inches of solid fat, on the rib, is not uncommon in England. In the Cotswolds fat and Jean are more intermixed, and the mutton is of a better quality; but it would be considered rely too luscious and tallowy by Americans. , SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 358 _ proved South-Down will subsist, and attain its proper weight and fatness, on very poor or very scant herbage. The old unimproved variety would, like some other smallish and hardy races, obtain a living on keep as poor as that which grew on the lightest and thinnest soils of Sussex. Moulded by the hand or Ellman, and: other breeders, to better fulfill the conditions of a mutton sheep, in size and other particulars, they demand that in- creased supply of food which the formation of additional fat and muscle ‘require. Retaining some of the properties of the parent stock, they are less sluggish, and bear travel better than the Long Woois; but with them as with the latter, and all other animals, much or prolonged exercise in pursuit of food or otherwise, is unfavorable to obesity. Men, and par- ticularly owners, in advocating the claims of this breed and that, seem not ‘unfrequently to forget that the general physical laws which control in the ‘deyelopment of all the animal tissues as well as functions, are uniform. Better organs will doubtless make a better appropriation of animal food ; and they may be taught, so to speak, to appropriate it in particular direc- tions—in one breed,-more especially to the production of fat—in another, of muscle or lean meat—in another, wool. But, ceteris paribus, large animals will always require more food than small ones. Animals which are to be carried to a high state of fatness must have plentiful and nutri- _ tious food, and they must exercise but little in order to prevent the unne- _ cessary “combustion” in the lungs, of that carbon which forms more than seven-tenths of their fat. Noart of breeding can countervail these estab- lished laws of Nature. Again, there are no facilities in the South for marketing large quantities of mutton—of a tithe of that which would be annually fitted for the sham- _ bles, were Sheep Husbandry introduced to anything like the extent I have recommended, and with the mutton breeds of sheep. With few cities and _ large villages—with a sparse population—with an agricultural population the greatest drawback: on whose pecuniary prosperity is their inability to _ market their own surplus edibles—not a particle of rational doubt can ex- _ ist on this point.. True, I have expressed the opinion that, both as a mat- ter of healthfulness and economy, mutton should be substituted for a moi- _ ety of the bacon used on the plantation; but with such a change, in a | country so exclusive'y agricultural, each landholder would raise his own | supply, and thus no market be created. It may then be regarded as a set- | tled point that the production of wool-is the primary, the great object of Southern Sheep Husbandry. In instituting a comparison between breeds of sheep for wool-growing purposes, | will, in the outset, lay down the obviously incontrovertible proposition that the question is not what variety will shear the heaviest or even the most valuable fleeces, irrespective of the cost of production.— | Cost of feed and care, and every other expense, must be deducted, to fairly _ test the profits of an animal. Ifa large sheep consume twice as much food as a smail one, and give but once and a half as much wool, it is obviously more profitable, other things being equal, to keep two of the smaller sheep. _ The true question then is, with the same expense in other particulars, From _ what breed will the verdure of an acre of land produce the greatest value of wool ? Let us first proceed to ascertain the comparative amount of food con- sumed by the several breeds. There are no satisfactory experiments _ which show that drced, in itself considered, has any particular influence on _ the quantity of food consumed. It is found, with all varieties, that the con- | sumption is in proportion to the live weight of the (grown) animal. Of course, this rule is not invariable in its individual application, but its gen- 156 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. eral soundness has been satisfactorily established. Spooner states thal grown sheep take uP 3} per cent. of their weight in what is equivalent te dry hay per day, to keep in store condition. Veit places the consumption at 24 percent. My experience would incline me to place it about midway between the two. But whatever the precise amount of the consumption, if it is proportioned to the weight, it follows that if an acre is capable of sustaining three Merinos weighing 100 lbs. each, it will sustain but twe Leicesters weighing 150 lbs. each, and two and two-fifths South-Down weighing 125 lbs. each. Merinos of this weight often shear 5 lbs. per fleece, taking flocks through. The herbage of an acre, then, would give 15 lbs. of Merino wool, and but 12 lbs. of Leicester, and but 93 Ibs. of South-Down (estimating the latter as high as 4 lbs. to the fleece)! Even the finest and lightest fleeced sheep ordinarily known as Merinos, average about 4 lbs. to the fleece, so that the feed of an acre would produce ag much of the highest quality of wool sold under the name of Merino, as it would of New Leicester, and more than it would of South-Down! The former would be worth from fifty to one hundred per cent. more per pound than either of the latter! Nor does this indicate all the actual difference, as I have, in the preceding estimate, placed the live-weight of the English breeds low, and that of the Merino high. The live-weight of the four pound fine-fleeced Merino does not exceed 90 ]bs. It ranges from 80 te 90 lbs., so that 300 lbs. of live-weight would give a still greater product of wool to the acre.* I consider it perfectly safe to say that the herbage of an acre will uniformly give nearly double the value of Merino, that it wil of any of the English Long or Middle wools. The important question now remains, What are the other relative ex penses of these breeds? I speak from experience when I say that the Leicester? is in no respect a hardier sheep than the Merino—indeed, it ig my firm conviction that it is less hardy, under the most favorable circur stances. It is more subject to colds, and I think its constitution breaks ug more readily under disease. The lambs are more liable to perish from ex- meee to cold, when newly dropped. Under unfavorable circumstances— erded in large flocks, pinched for feed, or subjected to long journeys its capacity to endure, and its ability to rally from the effects of such dra backs, do not compare with those of the Merino. The high-bred South. Down, though considerably less hardy than the unimproved parent stock, is still fairly entitled to the appellation of a hardy animal. In this respec I consider it just about on a par with the Merino. I do not think, how ever, it will bear as hard stocking as the latter, without a rapid diminution in size and quality. If the peculiar merits of the animal are to be taken into account in determining the expenses—and I think they should be the superior fecundity of the South-Down is a point in its favor, as well for a wool-producing as a mutton sheep. The South-Down ewe not onl frequently yeans twin lambs, as do both the Merino and Leicester, but she possesses, unlike the latter, nursing properties to do justice by them. But this advantage is fully counterbalanced by the superior longevity of the Merino. All the English mutton breeds begin to rapidly deteriorate in am unt of wool, capacity to fatten, and in general vigor, at about 5 year old and their early maturity is no offset to this, in a sheep kept for wool growing purposes. This early decay would require earlier and more rapi slaughter or sale than would always be economically convenient, or evet possible, in a region situated in all respects like the South. It is well, o1 cy is understood that all of these live-weights refer to ewes in fair ordinary, or what is called condition. 1 I speak of full-blood Lei:esters. Some of its crosses are much hardier than the pure bred sheep. / a SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 157 _— properly stocked farms, to slaughter or turn off the Merino wether at four or five years old, to make room for the breeding stock; but he will not particularly deteriorate, and he will richly pay the way with his fleece, for several years longer. Breeding ewes are rarely turned off before erght, and are frequently kept until ten years old, at which period they exhibit no greater marks of age than do the Down and Leicester at five or sex.— _ I have known instances of Merino ewes breeding uniformly until 15 years old! The Improved Cotswold is said to be hardier than the Leicester; but I have said less of this variety, throughout this entire Letter, as from their great size* and the consequert amount of food consumed by them, and the other necessary incidents connected with the breeding of so large animals, the idea of their being introduced as a wool-growing sheep any- _ where, and particulariy on lands grassed like those of the South, is, in my | judgment, utterly preposterous. There is one advantage which all the _ coarse races of sheep have over the Merino. Lither because their hoofs _ do not grow long and turn under from the sides, as do those of the Meri- no, and thus hold dirt and filth in constant contact with the foot, the coarse races are less subject to the visitations of the hoof-ail, and, when contract- _ ed, it spreads with less violence and malignity among them. Taking all _ the circumstances connected with the peculiar management of each race, and all the incidents, exigencies, and risks of the husbandry of each fairly into account, I am fully convinced that the expenses, other than those of feed, are not smaller per capita, or even in the number required to stock an acre, in either of the English breeds above referred to, than in the Me- tino. Norscould I be disposed to concede even equality, in these respects, to either of those English breeds, excepting the South-Down. You write me, Sir, that many of the South Carolina planters are under the impression that coarse wools will be most profitably grown by them, jirst, because there is a greater deficit in the supply, and they are better protected from foreign competition; and, secondly, because they furnish the raw material for so great a portion cf the woolens consumed in the South. Each of these premises is true, but are the conclusions legitimate ? Notwithstanding the greater deficit and better protection, do the coarse ‘wools bear as high a price as the fine ones? If not, they are not as profit- able, for [ have already shown that 7¢ costs no more to raise a pound of coarse than a pound of fine wool. Nay, a pound of medium Merino wool can be raised more cheaply than a pound of tle South-Down, Leicester, or Cotswold! This I consider clearly established. Grant that the South requires a much greater proportion of coarse than _ of fine wool, for her own consumption. Ifa man needing iron for his own consumption, wrought a mine to obtain it, in which he should happen to find gold equally accessible and plentiful, would it be economical in him to neglect the more precious metal because he wanted ¢o use the iron ? or should he dig the gold, obtain the iron by exchange, and pocket the differ- ence in value? Would it be economical to grow surplus wool, wool for “market, worth from 25 to 30 cents per pound, when it costs no more per pound to grow that worth from 40 to 45 cents? And even for the home want, for the uses of the plantation—for slave-cloths, &c.—/jine wool is worth more per pound than coarse for actual wear or use! Is this propo- | sition new and incredible to you? I challenge the fullest investigation of | its truth, through the testimony of those familiar with the subject, or through the direct ordeal of experiment. It is true that a piece of fine broadcloth | is not so strong, nor will it wear like a Chelmsford plain of treble thick. | © Ieaw two at the late N. Y. State Fair, at Saratoga, which weighed over 300 lbs. each) . ‘ 158 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ness. The threads of the former are spun to extreme fineness to econo mize the costly raw material. To give it that finish which is demanded by fashion—to give it its beautiful nap—these threads are still farther duced by “gigging” and “shearing.” But spin fine wool into yarn 4 coarse as that used in Chelmsfords, and mage pa it in the same way, and it would make a far stronger and more durable cloth. The reasons are obvious. Merino wool is decidedly stronger than the English cos Long aud Middle wools—or any other coarse wools—in proportion to its diameter or bulk. It felts far better, and there is therefore a greater ca hesion between the different fibres of the same thread, and between the different threads. It is also more pliable and elastic, and consequently less subject to “ breaking” and abrasion. Unless the views I have advanced are singularly erroneous, it will be seen that, for wool-growing purposes, the Merino possesses a marked and decided superiority over the best breeds and families of coarse-wooled sheep. As a mutton sheep, it is inferior to some of those breeds, but not so much so as it is generally reputed to be. If required to consume the fat and lean together, many who have never tasted Merino mutton, and who have an unfavorable impression of it, would, I suspect, find it more palatable than the luscious and over-fat New Leicester. The mutton of the cross between the Merino and “ Native” sheep would certainly be preferred to the Leicester, by anybody but an English laborer used to the latter. It is short-grained, tender, and of good flavor. The same is true of the crosses with the English varieties. These will be, hereafter, more particularly alluded to. Grade Merino wethers (say half-bloods) are favor ites with the Northern drover and butcher. They are of good size—ex traordinarily heavy for their apparent bulk*—make good mutton—tallow well—and their pelts, from the greater weight of wool on them, command an extra price. They would, in my opinion, furnish a mutton every way suitable for plantation consumption, and one which would be well accept- ed in the Southern markets. In speaking of the Merino in this connection, I have in all cases, unless it is distinctly specified to the contrary, had no reference to the Saxons though they are, as it is well known, pure-blooded descendants of the former. Assuming it now as a settled point, that it is to the Merino race that the wool-grower must look for the most profitable sheep, let us now proceed to inquire which of the widely varying sub-varieties of this race are bes adapted to the wants and circumstances of the South. A brief glance at the history of wool-growing, and of the wool markets, for the last few years, will form an useful preliminary inquiry, and will assist us materially in arriving at a correct conclusion. 7 On the introduction of the Saxons, about twenty-four years since, they were sought with avidity by the holders of the fine-wooled flocks of the country, consisting at that time of pure or grade Merinos. The Tariff of 1824 imposed a duty of 20 per cent. on wools costing above 10 cents per pound, gradually rising to 30 per cent., and 15 per cent. on those costing less than 10 cents. Foreign woolen clothst were subject to an ad valore duty of 30 per cent. until June 30th, 1825, and after that it was raised to 33$ percent. The Tariff of 1828 immediately raised the duty on all wools to 46 per cent. ad valorem and 4 cents per pound specific duty, and 5 per ce nts was to be annually added to the ad valorem duty, until it should reach df * On account of the shortnees of their wool, compared with the coarse breeds. _ : t Where I use the word “cloths” here and in the statements of the different Tariffs which follow, will understand that I do not include carpetings, b'aukets, worsted stuff goods. &c. 1 _ SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 159 per cent. (in 1831.) The duty on woolen cloths was also raised (after June, 1829) to 45 per cent., and that exceeding $4 the square yard to 50 per cent. Under the decisive encouragement offered to both the wool- grower and manufacturer by this Act, a great impetus was given to the production of the finest wools, and the Saxons everywhere rapidly su- perseded, or bred out by cressing, the Spanish Merinos. The latter dis- appeared almost entirely from New-York and New-England. In the fine-wool mania which ensued, weight of fleece, constitution, and every- _ thing else, were sacrificed to the quality of the wool. The Tariff of 183 imposed a 40 per cent. ad valorem and 4 cents per pound specific duty on | wools costing over 8 cents; and it raised the duty on all broadcloths to 50 per cent. It made wools costing less than 8 cents per pound free of duty. The “Compromise” Tariff of 1833 commenced a system of progressive reductions until the maximum rate of duties ‘should not exceed 20 per cent. The following Table will give the duties of each year, on wool and cloths, under this Act, estimating the ad valorem and specific duties _ on wools exceeding 8 cents, together in an average per centage :* TABLE 14. | 1833. 1835, | 1837. | 1839, | 1841. | 1842. ’ 3 Wool costing less than 8 cents per pound go ginbe Go asene ENT Segue eee free. | free. | free. | free. | free. | free. | 20 W ool costing over 8 cents per pound...... 54 50-60} 47-20] 43-80| 40-40] 30-20] 20 RVsoolentcloths: $<. 3/32 sce Sk eke ose ed 50 47 44 41 |} 38 29 20 The Tariff of 1841 struck out the 20 per cent. duty on the 8 cent wools. The Tariff of 1842 again imposed an ad valorem duty of 5 per cent. or wools costing seven cents or under, and raised it on the higher wools to 36 per cent. ad valorem and 3 cents per pound specific duty, and on cloths to 49 per cent. ad valorem. The Tariff of 1846 established an ad valorem duty of 30 per cent. on all wools, and on cloths. By referring to Tabie 7, Letter V., it will be seen that the prices of wool have not been controlled by ke amount of the protection, They reached their maximum in 1836, and then fell off, not again to rally, (except during the single year 1839)— not again to reach 40 cents—until 1844. Why was this? What pro- duced the sudden depreciation of 1837% The Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 gave too much protection to both wool-grower and manufacturer. Their | pursuits became the El Dorado of agricultural and mercantile speculators. _ Skill without capital, and capital without skill, and in some cases probably thirst of gain without either, rushed into these favored avocations. The bank inflations of the period fanned the fires of speculation, and taught some of the wisest commercial heads of the country to forget the provi- dence that had hitherto distinguished them. The natural result followed. In the financial crisis of 1837, manufacturing, and all other monetary en- _terprises which had not been conducted with skill and providence, and _ which were not based on adequate and real capital, were involved ina _ common destruction, and even the solidest and best conducted institutions | of the country were shaken by the fury of the explosion. Wool suddenly fell almost 50 per cent. (from 54 to 30 cents per pound.)t In 1838 it ral- lied a little, and in 1839 it again reached 50 cents, but it went down nearly to the minimum point in 1840. The grower began to be discouraged. He who bred the delicate Saxons, (and, as I have already said, they now _ comprised the flocks of nearly all the large wool-growers in the country,) * The reduction of one-tenth of the excess over 2) per cent. took place Dec. 31st, each year, to 1841; then pee palt of the residue of the excess; and on the 30th of June, 1842, the other half of said residue was de: | ducted. i ae quality of the woo's here slluded to will be found specified in a note om the second page of tter V. 160 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. was not obtaining the actual first cost per pound of his wool. He clam ored toudly for an increase of duties on the foreign article, as the reduc- tions of the “ Compromise” Act were now approaching their ultimate standard—20 per cent.—and he attributed the low prices to this cause; Saxon wool continued low, and did not pay its first cost in 1841 and 1842, Was this due solely to the reduction of the Tariff? A reference to Table 11 (Letter 1X.) will show that the import of foreign woolens was less from 1836 up to and including 1842, than for the six preceding years! Where then was the foreign competition which was driving the manufacturer to keep down the price of woolst The Tariff of 1842 raised the duty on wool 10 per cent. and added a specific duty of 3 cents per pound; and it raised the duty on cloths from 20 to 40 per cent. The import of foreign woolens sunk, the succeeding year, to a lower point than it had touched since 1821, and in 1844 and 1846 it did not reach the average of the si years preceding the enactment of the Tariff of 1842. A reference to Table 9 (Letter IX.) will show that the import of foreign jize wools alse largely fell off. This coincided with the expectations of the advocates of a higher Tariff, but another and equally legitimate expectation entertained by the great body of Northern wool-growers—that they were to share in the benefits arising from the exclusion of foreign competition—was si nally disappointed. The Tariff of 1842 was enacted on the 30th day of August, and part of the clip of that year was sold under its operation. Wool sold that year lower than it had for the five preceding years, viz., for 30 cents. The next year it advanced one penny! General discourage- ment now seized upon the growers of fine wool. The market was not overstocked—foreign competition was light, but stl they could not sell their wool for its first cost! To add to their mortification, the manufac- turer, by a most short-sighted policy, would scarcely make a discrimina- tion of 6d. per pound between Saxon wool and medium Merino and grade wools weighing nearly twice as much to the fleece. If the grower of me- dium wool got 25 cents per pound for fleeces weighing 4 lbs.—thus real- izing $1 per fleece—the ordinary Saxon grower would get but 30 cents er pound for fleeces weighing 23 lbs., and thus realize but 75 cents! * Vhen the Saxon growers found that the Tariff of ’42 brought them no relief, they began to give up their costly and carefully nursed flocks. The example, once set, became contagious, and there was a period when it woemed as if all the Saxon sheep of the country would be sacrificed te this reaction. Many abandoned wool-growing altogether, at a heavy sacri fice of their fixtures for rearing sheep. Others crossed with coarse-wooled breeds, and rushing from one extreme to the other, some even crossed with the English mutton breeds! Some more judiciously went back te the parent Merino stock, but usually they selected the heaviest and coarsest wooled Merinos, and thus materially deteriorated the character of their woo]. As the preceding period had been distinguished by its mania for jine wool, this was, by its mania for heavy fleeces/+ The English crosses, however, were speedily abandoned.{ The Merino regained his * And though the larger, stronger sheep, bearing the medium wool, would eat more, it was far hardier, required less protection and care of every kind, and would increase more rapidly—circumstances which would far more than counterbalance its excess of consumption. } 1 make no claim of having possessed greater sagacity or foresight in these particulars than the mass of breeders. I began with the Merino. These | crossed with the Saxon, and I also bred the pure-blood Sax- ons for several years. Unsatisfied with these, 1 made some experiments with the English mutton breeds, poth as pure bloods and crosses. Finding none of them equal to the Merino as a wool-producing sheep, I returned to the latter, and I bred for heavy fleeces until the manufacturers saw fit to make a juster discrim- ination in the prices paid by them for the different qualities of wool. 5 {I mean by those who sought to improve their fine-wooled flocks by an English cross. English and "1 other «oarse-wooled sheep are immensely and rapidly improved, for wool-growing purposes, by a prope fine-w. led cross, as 1 have already and shall again have occasion to mention. | = _* - SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 163 | supremacy, lost for nearly twenty years, and again became the popular | favorite. It was generally adopted by those who were commencing flocks | in the new Western States, and gives its type to the sheep of those re- | gions. | It will be seen from the preceding facts that the supply of fine wool* | has proportionably decreased, and that of medium and coarse increased. _This has driven the manufacturers to make a juster discrimination in rices. They now realize that their.own short-sighted economy has been all but fatal to fine wool-growing in the United States. And they cannot | but feel that in destroying this interest, they destroy themselves. Our | manufacturers are not so miserably blind as to dream of drawing their raw material from foreign countries—of paying an import duty of 30 per cent. | and then competing with the English manufacturer who pays an import duty | not exceeding two pence per pound! It is doubtful, in my mind, whether the home supply will not fall considerably short of the home demand for fine wool for this year /} The point has been already reached where but | a little more discouragement, or a little longer continued discouragement, would have banished these wools from the country! So far, the manufac- | tories have not felt this evil, for they have not been compelled to import. Neither pampered nor persecuted by the Tariff of 1846—called for by the ‘consumption of the country—with solid capital and greater experience and skill at their command—they are rapidly increasing, and rising on a solider basis than ever before. So, to sustain our manufacturing interest, (that engaged in the manufacture of fine cloths,) it is absolutely necessary | that the diminution of fine wools be not only immediately arrested, but that the growth of them be immiediately and largely increased. These facts now first beginning to be clearly appreciated by the manufacturer— will deter him from resorting to his former suicidal policy. Instances have recently come to my knowledge of manufacturers offering to contract with fine-wool growers for their entire clips, for a term of years, at an ad- vance on present prices—prices, be it remembered, higher than they have been except for two years (1839 and 1844) since the overthrow of 1837. Should the manufacturer, however, again forget his own interest, the fine- wool grower has it in his power to teach it to him most effectually. In- stead of being discouraged and driven from the business, he has but to withhold his wools for a season—say for a few months, to compel the for- mer to import wools at a ruinous cost—stop his machinery, or pay fair prices at home! I believe in no combinations to control prices. Some- thing far better than vague report, however, says that several of the large ‘manufactuwing establishments of New-England employed the same agents, last season, to buy much, if: not all of their wools—and that these wools were subsequently divided by bidding or otherwise, among the parties to the transaction! Js this denied? 1 think it will not be denied. If this was so, what was it but a combination to control prices?¢ But whether * To make myself clearly understood, I will, in the remarks which follow, classify wools as follows: su- perfine, the choicest quality of wool grown in the United States, and never grown here excepting in com. paratively small quantities; fine, good ordinary Saxon; good medium, the highest quality of wool usualiy known in the market as Merino; medium, ordinary Merino; ordinary, grade Merino and perhaps selected South-Down fleeces ; coarse, the English long wools, &c. This swbdivision is not minute enough, by any “Mieans, to express fully the number of well-defined classes which exist in wool. A farther multiplication of them here, however, I have thought would only tend to confusion. {The position has been all along taken that the general supply was under the demand, but the deficit hitherto has been principally in medium and coarse wools. See Table 9, Letter 1X. _ } And before leaving this point, I will ask another question: Why were most of the wools of New-York and New-England untouched and unlooked at by the agents of the manufacturers this year, contrary ta all preceding customs for two or three months subsequently to shearing? ‘These same agents fucked in droves to the Western States and bought up their entire clip immediately after searing, while reports Were constantly coming back that this manufactory and that had purchased its entire supply for a year, or ‘perhaps two years? Was this because the Eastern growers demanded exorbitant prices? Wes it because anything like an approach to a supply of fine wools could be found in the West { Or was it the result of a x ao 4 ey 34 he 162 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTA. so or not, when we compare the profits which have inured to the grow and manufacturers of fine wool for the last few years, it behooves the for mer both to speak and act decidedly. Their interests have been sacrifice long enough! But it isto be hoped that the grower of these wools wi not be hereafter driven to the alternative of either suffering himself, or defending himself by retaliatory measures. Some few of the manufae-- turers have always, I believe, taken a high and liberal course. Enougt others, as already remarked, now see the necessity of such liberality prevent any combined or general effort to depress prices. Will the North again turn its attention to the growth of superfine a fine wocis—again supply the demand, and keep up with it as it increases Not unless stimulated by the inducement of extraordinary profits—n certainly, against the competition of the South. The climate north of 419 or, beyond all dispute, north of 42°, is too severe for any variety of she commonly known, which bear either of these classes of wools. In fact, only such variety, in anything like general use, is the Saxon; and this a delicate sheep, entirely incapable of safely withstanding our Northe winters, without good shelter, good and regularly administered food, a careful and skillful management in all other particulars. When the season is a little more than usually backward, so that grass does not start prior to the lambing season, it is difficult to raise the lambs of the mature ewes— the young ewes will in many instances disown their lambs, or, if they ow them, not have a drop of milk for them; and if in such a erisis, as it offen happens, a north-east or north-west storm comes driving down, bearing) snow or sleet on its wings, or there is a sudden depression of the temper- ature from any cause, no care will save multitudes of lambs from perish- ing.* And it will not do to defer the time of having them dropped tu es- cape these evils, or they will not attain size and strength enough to pass safely through their first winter.t A few large sheepholders, whose farms, buildings, etc., have been arranged with exclusive reference to the rearin of these sheep, may continue to grow fine wool watil driven from it by the competition of the South; but many of these have recently adopted ¢ Merino cross. The ordinary farmers, the small sheepholders, who, in the ageregate, grow by far the largest portion of our Northern wools, have im- bibed a deep-seated aversion—nay, a positive disgust—against thé Saxon sheep. They have not the necessary fixtures for their winter protection, and they are entirely unwilling to bestow the necessary amount of care on them. Besides, mutton and wool being about an equal consideration with this class of farmers, they want larger and earlier maturing breeds. But, above all, they want a strong, hardy sheep, which demands no more care than their cattle. The strong, compact, medium-wooled Merino—or, per haps still more generally, its crosses with coarse varieties, producing the wool which I have classified as ordinary—will be the general favorites. The same reasons will weigh still more strongly in the North-west, where, as I have shown, the climate is a still worse one for delicate sheep. All these causes will tend to swell the amount of medium, ordinary and coarse concerted movement to bring the Eastern grower into taking last year’s prices? It actually did so, in & multitude of instances—or, he was contented to receive the slightest advance on them! This will be foun¢ true of nearly all who sold soon after the market opened in the East. If not the result of a concerted an¢ combined movement, the general desertion of the Eastern and resort to the Western market by the manu facturers was a most singular coincidence! ‘These manufacturers are now fain to purchase Eastern woola at a considerable advance from the prices of 1846—and. as already hinted, it is highly problematical, in m mind, whether they will not be compelled to émport ata still higher advance, to eke out a deficiency! Iti to be hoped that this will be the last Act in the drama of folly and suicide played by our manufacturers. — * Not even in close barns, and with constant attendance. ; 3 t North of latitude 429, it is necessary, as a general rule, that lambs be dropped in the first half of May, give them this requisite size and strength Occasional cold storms come nearly every season up to t riod, and not unfrequently up to the first of June. Mr. Grove was a decided advocate of early le used to say that “ it was better to lose two of them in the spring tban one in the fall.” SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 163° wools. Though the reaction has been but recent, the market demand for medium and ordinary wools is now better supplied—nearer being glutted, so far as I am enabled to judge—than that for fine and superfine. And should the market become glutted wath either or both, it is important to remember that the dztter will be far 1aure profitable for export than the former. Every consideration, then, in my judgment, points to wools ranging from good medium upward, instead of the lower classes, as the most profitable ‘staples for cultivation in the South. The only question which now arises: on this point is, from which variety, the Saxon or Merino, shall the South: attempt to cultivate these wools ? _ It is generally supposed, and as a general thing it is true, that the Me- ‘rino bears no better wool than that which I have classified as good medi-- ‘um. But the measurements of Dr. Emmons (given in Letter X.) show,, iy the infallible testimony of the microscope, that heavy-fleeced Merinos sometimes equal—nay, surpass Saxons, in fineness. The fact is more de- ‘cisive, as the Saxon fibres there measured came not only from the most celebrated flocks—from the prize sheep at State Fairs—but it also came from samples, in most instances, given by the owners for public exhibition. { do not claim that Merinos like these are common. They are rather to: be regarded in the light of those prodigies of excellence which occasion- ally appear, but which it is difficult to reproduce with anything like uni- formity. Nor are lesser fleeced Merinos, bearing wool equal to ordinary Saxon, very common. During the jine wool mania, all, who sought fine wool, bred the Saxon sheep, or crossed with it; and the few who stood! out, and clung to the Merino, generally aimed to distinguish it as widely, as possible from the former, by increasing the weight of its fleece, to the- disregard of its fineness. This, too, was the general disposition during the heavy-fleeced mania. Of consequence, but very few of our breeders have: ever, or until recently, sought a high degree of fineness in fleece in breed ing the Merino. Recent experience has satisfied me that this is rapidly; attainable. Mr. Lawrence, in a quotation already made by me (in Letter 1), says: ‘‘I believe a breed may be reared which will give four pounds: jof exquisitely fine wool to the fleece.” I know by multiplied experiments. that once interbreeding between an ewe bearing good medium wool (the: fleece weighing, say, from 43 lbs. to 5 lbs.), with a Merino ram of suffi- jciently high quality, will produce wool in the offspring equaling ordinary~ \Saxon, and a fleece averaging 4 lbs., with none of its weight made up of” \gum. The result of two such interbreedings will bring the progeny of a. heavy-fleeced medium ewe (provided her fleece is properly even) to the: same point. The four-pound fine-fleeced Merino would be a far more: profitable animal than the Saxon, other things being equal. But other- (hings are not equal. The former is every way a hardier animal, and a: etter nurse. It is about 20 lbs. heavier, and therefore consumes more- eed; but I consider this additional expense more than counterbalanced} joy the additional care and risk attending the husbandry of the Saxon. If: a tequired to keep the number good, and give the proper attention to the- | jrearing of lambs, I would sooner engage to keep, at the same price,. me thousand such Merinos for a year, than to keep the same number of _ It would be practicable, doubtless, to increase the Saxon’s fleece to 4. \bs.; but any one, familiar with such experiments, knows that it is far easier: /0 increase fineness of wool, by diminishing weight of fleece and carcass a. ittle, than it is to increase weight of fleece and carcass without lowering jhe quality of the wool. And there is this additional cbjection to the latter ~ r >” - iv, oP’: s) Cire Page Peer neaen Voce vn oe af AF e ut y “Fy ‘e 168 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. fineness. Some very fine wool is stiff and the fibres almost straight, liker hair. It has a dry, cottony look. This is a poor, unsalable article, how ever fine the fibre. Softness of wool—a delicate, silky, highly elastic fee) between the fingers or on the lips, is the first thing to look after. This is usually an index, or inseparable attendant, of the other good qualities, s¢ that an experienced judge can decide, with little difficulty, between the: quality of two fleeces, in the dark / Wool should be finely serrated crimped from one extremity to the other—. ¢., it should present a regula series of minute curves, and, generally, the greater the number of these¢ curves in a given length, the higher the quality of wool in all other particulars. ‘The wool should open on the back of the sheep in connected: masses, instead of breaking up into little round spiral ringlets of the sized of a pipe-stem, which indicate thinness of fleece; and when the wool is: pressed open each way with the hands, it should be dense enough to con ceal all but a delicate rose-colored line of skin. The interior of the wool should be a pure, glittering white, with a lustre and “liveliness ” of look not Seaonssetl in the best silk. . The points in the form of the Merino which the breeder is called upet particularly to eschew, are—a long, thin head, narrow between the eyes— a thin, long neck, arching downward before the shoulders—bad crops— back falling behind the shoulders—narrow loin—flat ribs—steep, narrow hind quarters—lorg legs—thighs scarcely meeting at all—legs drawn far under the body at the least approach of cold. All these points were sep arately or conjointly illustrated in many of the Saxon flocks which have been recently swept from the country. The points to be avoided in the fieece have been sufficiently adverted to. 4 Having thus attempted to establish a standard for the Merino-breeder, it remains that we examine some of the most important principles, 1 bzeeding, by which that standard is to be reached or maintained. The first great starting-point, among pure-blood animals, is that “like will beget like.” If the sire and dam are perfect in any given point, the cffspring will generally be; if either is defective, the offspring will (sub- ject to a law presently to be adverted to) be half way between the two if both are defective in the same point, the progeny will be more so than either of its parents—it will inherit the amount of the defect in both pz rents added together. There are exceedingly few perfect animals. Breed- ing, then, is a system of counterbalancing—breeding out—in the offspring the defects of one parent, by the marked excellence of the othér parent in the same points. The highest blood confers on the parent possessing 16! the greatest power of stamping its own characteristics on its progeny ; bul blood being the same, the male sheep possesses this power in a greater! degree than the female. We may, therefore, in the beginning, bree from ewes possessing any defects short of cardinal ones, without impre ptiety, provided we possess the proper ram for that purpose; but th flockmaster, aiming at a high standard of quality, should gradually thro out from breeding all ewes possessing even considerable defects. Everyy year should make him more rigorous in his selection. But from the be ginning—and in the beginning more than at any other time—the greate care should be evinced in the selection of the ram. If he has a defee that defect is to be inherited by the whole future flock. If it is a materig ene, as, for example, a hollow back, bad crops, a thin fleece, or a high uneven fleece, the flock will be one of low quality and little value. If, ¢ the other hand, he is perfect, the defects in the females will be lessenet and gradually bred out. But it being difficult to find perfect sams, we i to take those which have the fewest and lightest defects, ana none ¢ oe a eee eS ee ee ee ee 7 - SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 16% these material ones, like those just enumerated. And these defects are tc _be met and counterbalanced by the decided excellence (sometimes running to a fault) of the ewe, in the same points. If the ram is a little too long legged, the shortest-legged ewes should be selected for him; if gummy the dryest-wooled ewes ; if his fleece is a trifle below the proper standara of fineness, (but he has been retained, as it often happens, for weight of fieece and general excellence,) he is to be put to the finest and lightess fleeced ewes, and so on. Having a selection of rams, this system of coun ‘terbalancing would require little skill, if each parent possessed but ome fault. If the ewe was a trifle too thin fleeced, and good in all other par ticulars, it would require no nice judgment to decide that she needed to be bred te an uncommonly thick-fleeced ram. But most animals possess, te a greater or less degree, several defects. To select so that every one o these in the dam shall meet its opposite in the male, and vice versa, re “quires not only plentiful materials to select from, but the keenest dis crimination. ‘The time and the convenient method of selecting the ewes for the several rams, and the subsequent management, will be hereafter ‘pointed out. _ We will now suppose that the breeder has established his flock—that he has done so successfully, and given them an excellent character. He ‘is soon met with a serious evil. He must “breed in-and-in,” as it is called '—that is, interbreed between animals more or less nearly related in blood '—or he must seek rams from other flocks, to the risk of losing or changing ‘the distinctive character of his flock, hitherto sought so sedulously, and built up with so much care. It is contended by the opponents of in-and-in breeding that it renders diseases and all other defects hereditary, and that tends to decrease of size, to debility, and a general breaking up of the constitution. Its apologists, on the other hand, insist that, if the parents ‘are perfectly healthy, incestuous connexion does not, per se, tend to any ‘diminution of healthiness in the offspring; and they also claim, what must be conceded, that it enables the skillful breeder much more rapidly to bring his flock to a particular standard or model—and much more easily ‘to keep it there—unless it be true that, in course of time, they will dwin- tle and grow feeble. So faras the effect on the constitution is concerned, Loth positions may be, to a certain extent, true. But it is, perhaps, diffi- ‘cult to always decide with certainty when an animal is not only free from disease, but from all tendency or predisposition toward it. A brother and ‘sister may be apparently healthy—may be actually so—but may possess jan idiosyncrasy which, under certain circumstances, will manifest itself— ‘If these circumstances do not chance to occur, they may live, apparently ipOssessing a robust constitution, until old age. If bred together, their off- \spring, by a rule already laid down, will possess the idiosyncrasy in a double degree. Suppose the ram be interbred with sisters, half-sisters, daughters, grand-dauchters, &c., for several generations, the predisposition toward a particular disease—in the first place slight, now strong, and con- jstantly growing sty onger—will pervade, and become radically incorporated |nto, the constitution of the whole flock. The first time the requisite ex- leiting causes are brought to bear, the disease breaks out, and, under such jcircumstances, with peculiar severity and malignancy. If it be of a fataa \character, the flock is rapidly swept away; if not, it becomes chronic, ot periodical at frequently recurring intervals. The same remarks apply, in jpart, to those defects of the outward form which do not at first, frc m their lightness, attract the notice of the ordinary breeder. They are rapidly creased until, alm-st before thought of by the owner, they destroy the alae of the sh2ep. That such are the common effects of in-and-in breed- 170 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ing, with such skill as it is ordinarily conducted, all know who have giver attention to the subject; and for these reasons the system is looked upon) with devided disapprobation and repugnance, as among all kinds of domes. tic animals, by nine out of ten of the best practical farmers of the Northerr States. How, then, shall the sheep-breeder avoid the effects of in-and-in breed- ing, and at the same time preserve the character of his flock? He shou do so by seeking rams of the same breed, and possessing, as nearly as pose sible, the characteristics which he wishes to preserve in his own flock. If the» latter rule is neglected—if he draws indiscriminately from all the different families or varieties of a breed—some large and some small—some long and some short-wooled—some medium and some superfine in quality— some tall and some squabby—some crusted over with black gum, some? entirely free from it, &c. &c.—breeding will become a mere hotch-potch, and no certain or uniform results can be looked for. So many varieties cannot be fused into one, for a number of generations ;* and it not unfre: quently happens, as between the different classes of Saxons alluded to by Mr. Spooner,t that certain families can never be successfully amalgamated, But suppose the breeder has reached no satisfactory standard—that his> sheep are deficient in the requisites he desires? If the desired requisites are characteristic of the breed he possesses, he is to adhere to the breed, and select better animals to improve his own inferior ones. If he has an infe. rior flock of South-Downs, and wishes to obtain the qualities of the best South Dams, he should seek for the best rams of that breed. But if he wishes to obtain qualities not characteristic of the breed he possesses, he must cross with a breed which does possess them. If the possessor of South Downs wishes to convert them into a fine-wooled sheep similar to the Me rino, he should cross his flock steadily with Merino rams—constantly in- creasing the amount of Merino and diminishing the amount of South-Dow blood. To effect the same result, he would take the same course with the common sheep of the country, or any other coarse race. There those who, forgetful that some of the finest varieties now in existence, of several kinds of domestic animals, are the result of crosses, bitterly inveigh against the practice of crossing, under any and all circumstances. As quently conducted, where objects incompatible with each other are sough to be attained—as, for example, an attempt to unite the fleece of a Merin and the carcass of a Leicester, by crosses between those breeds—it is ¢ unqualified absurdity. But under the limitations already laid down, an with the objects specified as legitimate ones, objection t» crossing savo in my judgment, of prejudice the most profound, or quackery the mos unvarnished. The cry, “ buy full-bloods,” with such men, generally means “ buy our full-bloods!” It is neither convenient, nor within the means 0 every man wishing to start a flock of sheep, to start exclusively with ful bloods. With a few full-bloods to breed rams from, and:to begin a full blood flock, the Southern breeder will find it his best policy to purchas the best common sheep of his country, and gradually grade them up wit Merino rams. In selecting the ewes, fair size, good shape, and a robu constitution, are the main points—the little difference that exists betwee! the quality of the common sheep’s wool is of no consequence. Tor the wool they are to look to the Merino; but good form and constitution the} can and ought to possess, so as not to entail deep-rooted and entirely necessary evils on their progeny. * This occasions the want of uniformity in the Rambouillet flock in France, which was begun by 8 pr malecuous admixture of all the Spanish families. ‘¥ # Quoted in Letter X. , ae ¥ , SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 171 = __ Ihave already spoken, in this Letter, incidentally, of the effect on the | fleece of the common sheep, by crossing with the Merino and breeding steadily toward the latter; and also of the mutton of this cross, as well as that of the Merino and the English breeds. The result of the cross with the common sheep has been sufficiently described. I would add a few remarks in relation to that with the South-Down and Leicester ——both cf which I have tried until sufficiently satisfied with the result, Resolved on making an experiment with a Down and Merino cross, a few q years since, and finding it difficult to obtain Down ewes* of the proper (>) quality, I obtained a small, compact, exceedingly beautiful, fine and even- fleeced Down ram,} and crossed him with a few large-sized Merino ewes. The half-blood ewes were bred to a Merino ram, and also their female | progeny, and so on. The South-Down form and disposition to take on fat manifested itself, to a perceptible extent, in every generation which I bred,f and the wool of many of the sheep in the third generation (2-blood Merino and {-blood Down) was very even, and equal to medium, and some of them to good medium Merino. Their fleeces were lighter than the full-blood Merino, but increased in weight with each succeeding cross back toward the latter. Their mutton of the first, and even the second cross, was of a beautiful flavor—and it retained some of the superiority of South-Down mutton to the last. lat the same time purchased a few Leicester ewes,|| and, as in the preceding case, taking one cross of the blood, I bred toward the Merino. The mongrels, to the second generation (beyond which I did not breed them) were about midway between the size of the two parent stocks— with wool shorter, but far finer and more compact than the Leicester— their fleeces about the same in weight as in the present stocks§—and alte gether they were a showy and profitable sheep, and well calculated to please the mass of farmers. Their fleeces lacked evenness—their thighs remaining disproportionately coarse and hairy; and making up my mind that this would always be a tendency of the sheep of this cross, I aban- doned them without farther experiment. In relation to the number of crosses necessary before it is proper to breed from a mongrel vam, there is a difference of opinion. Mr. Livings- ton says :{] “Tt is now so well established as not even to admit of the smallest doubt that a Merino in the fourth generation, from even the worst-wooled ewes, is in every respect equal to the stock of the sire. No difference is now made in Europe in the choice of a ram, whether he is a full-blood or a fifteen-sixteenths.” .... ‘The French agriculturists say that however coarse the fleece of the parent ewe may have been, the progeny in the fourth generation will not show it.” I am constrained to differ with even this high authority. I admit that the only value of blood or pedigree, in breeding, is to insure the hereditary transmission of the properties of the parent to the offspring. As soon as a mongrel reaches the point where he stamps his characteristics on his progeny, with the same certainty that a full-blood does, he is equally valuable, provided he is, individually, as perfect an animal. But I do not * To carry out the commonly received principle in breeding, that in crossing between different races, the tam ofthe smaller should be nut to ewe of the larger one. + This ram, obtained from Francis Rotch, Esq., was got by a prize ram of Mr. Ellman’s, and from one of nis choicest breeding-ewes, and showed infinitely more style, as well as fineness and evenness of wool, than the common Downs of our country. He was not larger than a iarge-sized Merino ram. | These I finally put off to save myself the trouble of breeding several kinds of sheep on the same farm. || Descended from the flock of the late Robert Adcock. of Otsego County, N. Y.—considered at the time equal to any flock in the State. : § That is, about 51bs. [I have put down the Leicester fleece, in my description of the breed, at 6 lbs., ag _ this is the amount generally claimed fur them; but in the few cases brought within my direct knowledge, they have never averaged it. My ewes above alluded to did not, I think, average quite 5 lbs. Essay on Sheep, pp. 181, 183. CAS TREE tay PotD AS Re ee OE CAPERS GPa ee MS ite 6 a Ae Ni oat er : x * | Rey ha RD ty Ath | Sita! ee : re «! “Bi - re beta FP ' 7 NA AY ; Pm ae : a, : Pete Meee oF, fA as een S21 a i *> : 7 vree ; V5 oh. ‘ ow a ies eA £x%. - en j (72 SHEEP HUSBANbRY INTHE SOUTH believe that this can be depended upon, with any certainty, in rams of he fourth Merino cross. My only experience in this particular is in the ob servation of other men’s flocks who have bred with high-grade rams.* These have invariably lacked the style and perfection of thorough-bred flocks. The sixth, seventh, or eighth cross might be generally, and the last perhaps almost invariably, as good as pure-blood rams, but I confess I should still prefer to adhere to the latter. Pure blood is a fixed stand- ard, and were every breeder to think himself at liberty to depart from it, in his rams, each one more or less, according to his own judgment or caprice, the whole blood of the country would become adulterated. No man would be authorized to sell a ram of any cross, be it the tenth, or even the twentieth, as a full-blood. a It is all-important for those commencing flocks either of full-bloods, or by crossing, to select the choicest rams. A grown ram may be made to serve || from 100 to 150 ewes in a season. A good Merino ram will, speaking within bounds, add more than a pound of wool to the fleece of the dam, on every lamb got by it, from a common-wooled ewe.§ Here is one hundred or one hundred and fifty pounds of wool for the use of a ram for a single season! And every lamb subsequently got by him adds z pound to this amount. Many a ram gets, during his life, 800 or 1,000 lambs! Nor is the extra amount of wool all. He gets from 800 to 1,000 half-blooded sheep, worth double their dams, and ready to be made the basis of another and higher stride in improvement. A good ram, then, is as important, and, it seems to me, quite as valuable an animal as u good farm-horse stallion! When the number of a ram’s progeny are taken into consideration, and when it is seen over what an immense extent, even in his own direct offspring, his good or bad qualities are to be perpetuated, ‘ the folly of that economy which would select an inferior one is sufficiently obvious. : ’ Every one desirous of starting a flock will find it his best economy, where the proper flocks to draw rams from are not near him, to purchase’ several of the same breed, of course, but of different strains of blood. Thus, ram No. 2 can be put on the offspring of No. 1, and vice versa; No. 3 can be put upon the offspring of both, and both upon the offspring of No. 3 The changes which can be rung on three distinct strains of blood, without in-and-in breeding close enough to be attended with any considerable dan- ger, are innumerable.{ But if these rams of different strains are bought promiscuously, without reference to similarity of characteristics, there . may, and probably will be differences between them, and it might require time and skill to give a flock descended from them, a proper uniformity of character. Those who breed rams for sale should be prepared to furnish - different strains of blood with the necessary individual and family uni formity. ES I RN TR NE TOT I AR I a LE LT OT * I have never knowingly bred with any other ram than a pure-blood, of any stock, or for any purpose. ’ ! ay. methods hereafter to be described. ; That is, if the ewe at 3 years old sheared 2 ibs. of wool, the lamb at the same age will shear 4 Ibs. of wool. {| The brother and sister are of the same blcod; the father and daughter, half; the father and grand: daughter, one-fourth ; the father and great grand-daughter, one-eighth, and so on. Breeding between an- imals possessing one-eighth of the same blood, would not be considered very close breeding; and itis no ~ as perpen in rugged, well-formed families, to breed between those possessing one-fourth of the semg \ SHEEP HUSBANDRY, IN THE SOUTH. | L73 LETTER XII. SUMMER MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. Vageing—necessity of—method of doing it... Burs—how avoided... Lambing—time of—Inclusures for—= Mechanical Assistance—when rendered—assisting the Lamb—Feeding—necessary care in—Warming—~ | Foster Ewes..-Pens...“ Pinning”...Numbering and Registering—advantages of—Von Thaér's System of | Numbering—manner of doing it conveniently—Mr. Grove’s form of a Register...Castration and Docking —proper time and method...Washing—time—necessary apparatus—“ wetting”—manner of washing— | ordinary waste in subsequent cleansing...Cutting the Hoofs—best time—implements—method...Time | between Washing and Shearing...Shearing—proper conveniences for—catcher’s business—directions to shearer—general directions...-Shearing Lambs—shearing Sheep semi-annually—objectionable practices. - . Doing up Wool—Wool Table and Trough—handling fleece—arrangement on table—folding—rolling—ty- ing—p1oper twine. ..Storing Wool—Wool-Room...Sacking Wool—methods. . .Sorting the Flock at shear. ing—how done...Marking Sheep—the proper way..-.Cold Storms after Shearing...Sun-scald.-.Ticks— how destroyed. --Maggots—preventives...Cutting the Horns..-Division of Flocks for Summer...Hop- pling—Clogging, &c...Dangerous Rams..-.Fences..-Salt...Tar...Water...Shade...Weaning Lambs... Fall Feeding. .-Shepherd’s Crook. | Dear Sir: Agreeably to your request, and that of various other South- | ern friends, I proceed to give directions for the practical management of sheep ‘“ plain and minute enough for the guidance of those entirely unac- quainted with the subject.” I will begin with their Summer Management.* Taceine.—If sheep are kept on dry feed through the winter, they will usually purge more or less, when let out to green feed in the spring. The waol around and below the anus becomes saturated with dung, which forms into hard pellets, if the purging ceases. But whether this takes place or not, the adhering dung cannot be removed from the wool in the ordinary process of washing. It forms a great impediment in shearing, dulling and straining the shears to cut through it when in a dry state, and it is often impracticable so to do. It is difficult to force the shears be- _tween it and the skin, without frequently and severely wounding the latter. Occasionally, too, flies deposit their eggs under this mass of filth prior to shearing, and the ensuing swarm of maggots, unless speedily discovered and removed, will lead the sheep to a miserable death. ' Before sheep are let out to grass, each one should have the wool sheared from the roots of the tail down the inside of the thighs, over the surface included between the dotted lines in Fig. 16. the cut. The wobl should be sheared from off the en- tire bag of the ewe, that the newly dropped lamb may more readily find the teat, and from the scrotum, and _so much space round the point of the sheath of the ram, as is usually kept wet. If the latter place is neglected, | 8oreness and ulceration sometimes ensue from the con- stant maceration of the urine. Sometimes each tagger catches and holds his own sheep, but it is, on the whole, better, I think, to have an assistant catch the | sheep and hold them while they are tagged. The latter process requires 8 good shearer, as the wool must be cut off closely and smoothly, or the ubject is but half accomplished, and the sheep will have an unsightly and ridiculous appearance, when the remainder of their fleeces is taken off; | * I have not thought it necessary to mark with quotation points, various extracts in this Letter, from a ) series of Letters written by me a number of years since, and published in the “ Valley Farmer ” . Ma ‘ 174 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. and, on the other hand, it is not only improper to cut the skin of a sheep at any time, but it is peculiarly so to cut that on the bag of an ewe near lambing. The wool saved by tagging will far more than pay the ex- penses of the operation, It answers well for stockings and other ordinary domestic purposes, or it will sell for something like half the price of fleee wool. Humanity and economy both dictate that care should be taken in han dling sheep at all times, and it is especially important with ewes heavy with lamb. It is highly injurious and unsafe to chase them about and han- dle them roughly, for even if abortion, the worst consequence of such treatment, is avoided, they become timid and shy of being touched, render ing it difficult to catch or render them assistance at the lambing period— and even a matter of difficulty to enter the cotes where it is sometimes necessary to confine tk #m at that time, without having them driving about pell-mell, running ove: their lambs, &c. It may not be known to every one, that if a sheep is suddenly caught by the wool when running, or is lifted by its wool, the skin is to a certain extent loosened from the body at the points where it is thus seized, and if killed a day or two afterward, blood will be found settled about those parts. A man knowing this, and subsequently guilty of such gratuitous brutality, richly deserves to be kicked out of the sheep-yard.. When sheep are to be handled, they should be inclosed in a yard just large enough to hold them without their being crowded—so they shall have no chance to run and dash about. The catcher should stop them by seizing them by the hind leg close above the hock, or by clapping one hand before the neck and the other behind the buttocks. Then, not waiting for the sheep to make a violent struggle, he should throw his right arm over and about it immediately back of the shoulders, place his hand under the brisket, and lift the animal on his hip. If the sheep is very heavy, he can throw both arms around it, clasp his fingers under the brisket, and lift it up against the front part of his body. He then should set it carefully on its rump on the tagging-table, (which should be 18 or 20 inches high,) support its back with his legs, and hold it gently and conveniently until the tagger has performed his duty. Two men should not be permitted to lift the same sheep together, as it will be pretty sure to receive some strain between them. A good shearer and assistant will tag 200 sheep per day. Where sheep receive green feed all the year round, as they will do in many parts of the South, and no purging ensues from eating the newly- starting grasses in the spring, tagging will not be necessary. Burs, &c.—If sheep are let out in the spring into pastures where the dry stalks of the Burdock (Arctium lappa), or the Hound’s Tongue, or Tory-weed ( Cynoglossum officinale), have remained standing over the win- ter, the burs are caught in their now long wool, and, if numerous, the wool is rendered entirely unmarketable, and almost valueless. Even the dry prickles of the common and Canada thistles, where they are very numer- ous, get into the neck-wool of sheep, as they thrust their heads under and among them to crop the first scarce feed of the Northern spring ; and, in dependently of injuring the wool, they make it difficult to wash and other- wise handle the sheep. The Burdock being a large and not very. frequen! plant, there is no excuse for its being found on the farm. The Hound’s ongue is very prevalent in forests and partly wooded pastures in the North, and it is not conspicuous enough to be easily eradicated, though careful sheep-farmers often do so. If sheep are let into pastures contain ing it, it must he only in the summer and fall, after shearing. The burg, 175 not sunk so deeply in the short wool, will wear cut during our winters— but no man thinks of letting his sheep into pastures containing it, before shearing in the spring. Indeed, sheep should be kept on the cleanest pas- tures—th se free from these and all similar plants—during this period; and, in a region where they are pastured the year round, if such pests are ‘nct eradicated—which J should consider indispensable—the sheep should pe kept from contact with them for some months prior to shearing. Lamepinc.—Lambs are usually dropped, in the North, from the first to the fifteenth of May. In the South, they might safely come earlier. It is not expedient to have them dropped when the weather is cold and boister- ous, as they require too much care; but the sooner the better, after the weather has become mild, and the herbage has started sufficiently to give the ewes that green food which is required to produce a plentiful secretion of milk. It is customary in the North to have fields of clover, or the earli est grasses, reserved for the early spring feed of the breeding ewes; and, if these can be contiguous to their shelters, it is a great convenience—for the ewes should be confined in the latter, on cold and stormy nights, during _ the lambing season. If warm and pleasant, and the nights are warmish, I prefer to have the lambing take place in the pastures. I[ think sheep are more disposed to own and take kindly to their lambs thus, than in the confusion of a small inclosure. Unless particularly docile, sheep in a small inclosure crowd from one side to another when any one enters, running over young lambs, pressing them severely, &c. Ewes get separated from their lambs, and then run violently round from one to another, jostling and knocking them about. Young and timid ewes get separated from their lambs, and fre quently will neglect them for an hour or more before they will again ap- “proach them. If the weather is severely cold, the lamb, if it has never sucked, stands a chance to perish. Lambs, too, when just dropped, ina dirty inclosure, in their first efforts to rise, tumble about, and the mem- brane which adheres to them becomes smeared with dirt and dung—and the ewe refuses to lick them dry, which much increases the hazard of freezing. Nevertheless, all this must be incurred in cold storms, and in sudden and severe weather ; and, therefore, it should be the effort of every shep- _herd to teach his sheep docility. I have seen the late Mr. Grove walk _ about a barn filled with his Saxons, not only without their crowding from side to side, but many of them absolutely lying still while he stepped over them! JI say it “must be incurred.” I mean by this that it is the safest course with all breeds, and a matter of necesszty with others. It takes but a very moderately cold night to destroy the new-born Saxon lamb, which | (the pure blood) is yeaned nearly as xaked as achild! During a severely cold period, of several days’ continuance, it is almost impossible to reat them, even in the best shelter. The Merino, South-Down, and some other | breeds, will endure a greater degree of cold with impunity. Inclosures, when used for yeaning, should be kept clean by frequent lit- _ terings of straw—not enough, however, thrown on at one time, to embar- _rass the lamb about rising. _ The ewe does not often require mechanical assistance in parturition — | Her labors will sometimes be prolonged for three or four hours, and her loud moanings will evince the extent of her pain. Sometimes she will gu about several hours, and even resume her grazing, with the fore-feet anl _ nose of the lan:b showing at the mouth of the vagina. But, if let alone, _ Nature will generally finally relieve her. This might not do with the 176 SHteP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. heavy English breeds. I should infer not, from the elaborate directions in the premises, by Youatt, Blacklock, and other English wiiters on Sheep though with the mets area small number of these varieties which ] have bred, I hive had no difficulty in this particular. Among the thon- sands and thousands of fine-wooled sheep which I have bred, I never have known a single instance of a false presentation of the fetus, and never have had mechanical assistance rendered in to exceed half a dozen in- stances. The objection to intecfering, except as a last resort, is that the ewe is frightened when caught, and her efforts to expel the lamb cease When aided, the gentlest force should be applied, and only in conjunction with the efforts of the ewe. , While the lamb is tumbling about and attempting to rise, and the ewe is licking it dry, it is better to be in no haste to interfere. A lamb that gets at the teat without help, and gets even a small quantity of milk, knows how to help itself afterward, and rarely perishes. If helped, it sometimes continues to expect it, and will do little for itself for two or three days.— The same is true when lambs are fed from a spoon or bottle. But if the lamb ceases to make efforts to rise, particularly if the ewe has left off licking it while it is wet and chilly, it is time for the shepherd to render his assistance. It is better not to throw the ewe down, as is fre quently practiced, to suckle the lamb, because instinct teaches the latter to point its nose upward in search of the teat. It is doubly difficult, there- fore, to induce it to suck from the bag of the prostrate ewe; and when taught to do this, by being suckled so several times, I have invariably no- ticed that it renders it awkward about finding the teat im the natural posi- tion, when it begins to stand and help itself. Nothing is stupider than a weakly lamb! Carefully disengaging the ewe from her companions, with his crook, the assistant should place one hand before the neck and the other behind tke buttocks of the ewe, and, then pressing her against his knees, he should hold her firmly and stilly, so that she shall not be constantly crowding away from the shepherd. The shepherd should set the lamb o its feet, inducing it to stand, if possible ; if not, supporting it on ats feet by placing one hand under its body—place its mouth to the teat, and encour age it to suck by tickling it about the roots of the tail, flanks, &c., with a finger. ‘The lamb, mistaking this last for the caresses of its dam, will re- double its efforts to suck. Sometimes it will evince great dullness, and even apparent obstinacy, in refusing for a long time to attempt to assist xself, crowding backward, &c.; but the kind and gentle shepherd, who will not sink himself to the level of a brute by resenting the stupidity of @ brute, will generally carry the point by perseverance. Sometimes milking a little into the lamb’s mouth, holding the latter close to the teat, will in. duce it to take hold. : If the ewe has no milk, the lamb should be fed until the natural supply commences, with small quantities of the milk of a mew-milch cow. This should be mixed, say half and half, with water—with enough molasses to give it the purgative effect of biestings, or the first milk—gently warmed to the natural heat (not scalded and suffered to cool), and then'fed through a bottle with a sponge in the opening of it, which the lamb should suck if it can be induced so to do. If the milk is poured in its mouth from a spoon or bottle, as already remarked, it is frequently difficult afterward to induce it to suck. And, moreover, unless milk is poured in the mouth slowly and with care—no faster than the lamb can swallow—a speedy wheezing, the infallible precursor of death, will show that a portion of the fluid has been forced irto the lungs. I have known lambs frequently killed in this wav, | _ SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 177 If a lamb becomes chilled, it should be wrapped up in a woolen blanket, | and placed in a warm room—giving a little milk as soon as it will swal- | law, A trifle of pepper is sometimes placed in the milk, and I think with | good effect, to rouse the cold and torpid stomach into action. Some of the | Yankee old ladies, under such circumstances, “ bake” the lamb, as. it is _ called—+. e., put it in a blanket in a moderately heated oven, until _ warmth and animation are restored. Others immerse it in tepid water, and subsequently rub it dry. This is said to be an excellent method _ where the lamb is nearly frozen. I never have tried it. A good blanket, | a warm room, and sometimes, perhaps, a little gentle friction, have always sufficed. If a strong ewe, with a good bag of milk, chances to lose her lamb, she should be required to bring up one of some other ewe’s pair of twins—or the lamb of some feeble or young ewe, having an inadequate supply of milk, Her own lamb should be skinned, as soon as possible after death, and the skin sowed over the lamb which she is required to foster. She will sometimes be a little suspicious for a day or two, and if so, she should be kept in a small pen with the lamb, being occasionally looked to. After taking well to it, the false skin may be removed in three or four days. If no lamb is placed on a ewe which has lost her lamb, and which has a | full bag of milk, the milk should be drawn from the bag once or twice, or garget may ensue. If it does not, permanent indurations, or other re- sults of inflammatory action will often take place, injuring the subsequent nursing properties of the animal. When milked, it is well to wash the bag for some time in cold water. It checks the subsequent secretions of | milk, as well as abates inflammation. Garget will be treated under the ). nead of Diseases of Sheep. | Sometimes a young ewe, though exhibiting sufficient fondness for her ‘amb, will not stand for it to suck; and in this case, if the lamb is not very atrong and persevering, and especially if the weather is cold, it soon grows weak and perishes. The conduct of the dam in such cases is occasioned oy inflammatory action abont the bag or teats—and, perhaps somewhat by the novelty of her position! In this case the sheep should be caught and | held until the lamb has exhausted the bag, and there will not often be any | trouble afterward, though it may be well enough to keep them in a pen together until the fact is determined. I have several times spoken of pens. They are necessary in the cases 1 have mentioned, and in a variety of others. It is therefore well for the fliock-master to be always provided with a few of them for emergencies. | They need not be to exceed eight or ten feet square, and should be built | of light materials, and fastened together at the corners, so they can be _ readily moved by one, or, at the most, two men, from place to place, where they are wanted. Their position should be daily shifted when sheep are in them, for cleanliness and fresh feed. Light pine poles, laid up fence fashion, and each nailed or pegged to the lower ones, at the cor- ners, as laid on, would make excellent ones. Two or three sides of a few | of them should be wattled with twigs, and the tops partly covered to shel- _ ter feeble lambs from cold rains, piercing winds, &c. _ Young lambs are subject to what is technically called “ pinning,’’—that is, their first excrements are so adhesive and tenacious that the orifice of the anus is closed, and subsequent. evacuations prevented. The adhering ‘matter should be entirely removed, and the part rubbed with a little dry clay to prevent subsequent adhesion. Lambs will frequently perish from this cause if not looked to for Eby fits: few days. 178 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. Noumaerine Anp RecisTerinc.—* nis is not absolutely necessary for the wool-grower, though it is, in many points of view, a vast convenience t nim, and leads to a degree of system in his efforts after improvement, and gives a definiteness and precision to the execution of his plans, otherwi unattainable. But the dreeder—he who makes it his business more pa ticularly to raise choice animals to sell for breeding purposes—is unwote thy of the name, if he does not regularly number and register his sheep, so that he can trace the descent of any ram or ewe, through any number of generations, ‘This is not merely to gratify an idle curiosity, or to fur nish a purchaser with a sounding pedigree. Every breeder is under the ne cessity of directly breeding in-and-in, or of occasionally employing ney strains of blood. If the Jatter step is often resorted to, the hazard is in creased of changing the character of the flock.* If he numbers and regis- ters his sheep, he can breed “ closer,” t and consequently longer, without a change, without the hazard of confusion or mistake. Where half a dozen, or even three or four rams are used in the flock the same year, it would b beyond the power of any breeder, relying on his memory alone, to decide six or eight or ten years subsequently, which were the daughters, grand. daughters, and great-grand-daughters of each. If the rams A and B be un. related, A may be put to the daughters of B, and then B be put to the produce, (7. e., his own grand-daughter, got by A,) without “close” breed ing—because they possess but one-quarter of the same blood. Then the great-grand-daughter may be again put to A, because she possesses but one- quarter of hzs blood. As I remarked in my last Letter, with ¢iree strains of blood to start with, the breeder may ring innumerable changes, without ever trenching on that line which marks the boundaries of close breeding He who pretends that he can preserve such multiplied classifications in his memory alone, is unworthy of the least confidence. There is another very important consideration. Numbering and regis tering enables the breeder to trace breeding effects definitely to their causes, Suppose that he finds that an unusuai number of his young ewes a “ poor nurses—or exhibit some imperfection of form or wool. He can res move the present effect by throwing out the defective ones. But the undis- covered cause may still remain in operation. It may be a particular ram or the result of interbreeding between such ram, and ewes of a certair strain of blood. If this ram, or perhaps others got by him, be permitted té breed, or breed with a particular class of ewes, the evil creeps along in the flock, its cause remaining undiscovered. But if the breeder could fix the precise pedigree of every sheep, from an accurately kept register, h would soon ascertain what strains of blood, or the conjunction of what strains, produced the evil. By the same means, he could as readily trace the sources of particular excellence. ; 7 The system of numbering inyented by the celebrated Von Thaér is far preferable to any other which I have seen.{ It is as follows: || — ~ A ram of anew strain of blood, though of prime quality, and apparently possessing the same charace teristics with the flock, does not always interbreed well with the flock in all those minute particulars which the breeder is bound to notice, though they might escape the eye of the ordinary flock-master. Every breeder, therefore, who has a flock that suits him, is exceedingly averse to an infusion of new blood, and resorts to it only as a matter of necessity. + That is, he can breed in-and-in somewhat. “ Close” breeding is ete between near affiniti u as between brother and sister, whichare of the same blood, or between a father and a grand-daughter be: gotten on a daughter, which would be three-fourths of the same blood, &c. 4 t It will not cause half the mutilation of the system given in the American Shepherd—is simple, and gives the age, which the former does not. Neither can this system of giving the age be ingr o that system of numbering. || As furnished me by Mr. Grove, a number of years since, with this exception. that the point of th right ear cut square off, he made to stand for 700 instead of 500, as I have placed it. I made this change sa the notch and clip standing for 100 and 400, coming on the point of the same ear, there was no c bination ts express 200. i SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 179 | One notch over the left ear, (that which is on your left when the | face of tho sheep is from you,) stands for 1: two notches over tne | same, for 2. One notch under the left ear stands ‘for 3. Three such notches carry up the number | to 9. Gne notch over the right ear stands for 10 ; | 1wo such for 20. One notch under the same stands | for 30; and three such for 90. Combinations of the | above (three notches under each ear) would carry |up the numberto 99. These four classes of notches | which express all parts of a hundred, are shown in |the first of the annexed cuts. A sheep marked | like fig. 17 would be No. 44. | A notch in the end of left ear, as in fig. 18, ba |stands for 100; in right do. 200. In addition to ~ |these there are on the same cut two 1 notches, one /3 notch, one 10 do., and two 30 do. Adding the ‘whole together, the shéep would therefore be No. B37. Ve As the 100 and 200 notches, together, make 300, ‘| n0 separate notch is required for the latter number. : The point of the left ear cut square off, as in fig. 19, " \cut, stands for 400; the point of the right cut square™ off, for 500. The latter and the 190 notch would jmake 600, and so on. | The lambs of each year and each sex are num- |bered from 1. : _ The age is expressed by round holes through ee the ears, standing for the year in which the sheep No. 909~1848. "is born. As there is no possibility of making a \mistake of ten years in the age of a sheep, these marks are the same be- -ween each tenth year of the century. Between 1840 and 1850, xe hole: "would express 1840; one hole in the left ear, 1841; two holes in the left ‘) par, 1842; one hole in the right ear, 1843; one hole in the right and one in. he left, 1844; one hole in the right and two in the left, 1845; two in the- fight, 1846 ; two in the right and one in the left, 1847; two in each, 1848;: jhree in the right, 1849; none in either, 1850—and the same for the next- "en years. Examples are given in the preceding cuts. In other words,, pne hole in the left ear signifies 1, and one in the right 3, as applied to: he years between each tenth of a century—and the combinations of these. joles are made to express all the intermediate years, with the exception: pf the tenth. | Every ewe, when turned in with the ram, should be given a mark (en- iirely distinct from the mark of ownership) which will continue visible un- il the next shearing. Nothing is better for this purpose than Venetian: ted and hog’s lard, well incorporated, and marked on with a cob. The: wes for each ram require a differently shaped mark, and the mark should \lso be made on the ram, or a minute of it in the sheep-book. Thus it: jan be determined at a glance by what ram the ewe was tupped, any time: jefore the next shearing. | The holes in the ears, indicating the year, being the same on the whole: jnnual crop of lambs, may be made at any convenient time. The holes te most conveniently made by a saddler’s spring-punch, the cutting cyl- der of which is about 3; of an inch in diameter. If too small, the holes nil grow up in healing. . . | In numbering, it is dificult to prevent mistakes, if it is deferred until i| e ‘a ee a) an.) . at : i* on : Pe Gy EE ee AON eae ae ran er 4 : 180 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. * the lamb attains much size. If penned with the dams wher a month of | two old, hours will sometimes elapse before each lamb will suck—the only certain indication to which ewe it belongs. It being perfectly safe to form this process when the lamb is only about a day old (or as soon as the lamb can walk, if it is a strong one), the shepherd carries the notcher in his pocket, and a little book, each page being ruled into six columns, ¢ headed as in the register presently given. This constitutes the day-book which is subsequently drawn off on the Register. ) The notcher which I use is of my own invention, and I have found it preferable to any I have seen elsewhere. It consists of a saddler’s spring. punch—the cutting cylinder being taken out, and a little sharp chisel o the same length being screwed in its place. The edge of the chisel de scribes a semi-ellipsis, cutting a notch out of the ear 4 of an inch deep, an¢ a little over 43; wide at the base. A triangular cut in the ear, with so nar row a base, will grow together for some distance from the apex. Thi instrument is far more convenient than a chisel and block. The shepherd, on finding a lamb of the right age to mark, goes quieth up to it, stopping it by the xeck with his crook if it attempts to run away The ewe will come near enough, in a moment or two, to be secured by the crook, and then the shepherd notes her number and age, and enters i in his pocket-book, and also by what ram tupped. The lamb then is num bered with the zotcher, and this and its general appearance is noted dow in the appropriate columns. If the ewe is too wild to be caught, the lam may be notched—the number of the sire, &c., entered—and the numbe of the ewe subsequently ascertained in the pen. I have two forms of Breeding Registers, originally furnished me by my lamented friend, the late Mr. Grove. One contains ten columns, the othe eight. I have adopted the simplest one, omitting two of the columns which leaves the Register in the following form: BREEDING REGISTER—1845. No. of |Tuppdby| Date of | No. of Lamb. ees Dam. | Ram No. | Lambing.| Rams. | Ewes. Classification and Remarks. |] | | 22—40} 16—39 | May 4. 1 Coarsish—wrinkly—thick, short-legged, and stout— bad crops—ewe plenty of milk, and kind. Fine—-thin—-long-legged—-wool short—-will lac! constitution—ewe kind—little milk. Small, but of good shape and fine wool—No. 6—42} 7—43 | May5. | 2&3 wrinkly and like sire—No. 2 more like dam Ewe plenty of milk, but careless. . { The lamb was born dead, very small. Same } 50—41| 25—42 | May 4. 1 year. This ewe had better be thrown out of '11—41 breeding. - 7—-43 | May 5. The first entry above records the following facts: ‘The ewe No. 2% born in 1840, tupped by the ram No. 16 of 1839, dropped on the 4th « May a ram lamb, which was marked No. 1, its character being as describe under the head of ‘ Classification and Remarks.’ ” The column of “ Remarks” is a very important one, if the minutes @ made with accuracy and judgment. It should include an enumeration ¢ all the prominent characteristics of the lamb, and of the appearances ¢ the ewe as a breeder and nurse. These records will, in a single season decide the character of a ram as a stock-getter, and that of the ewe, in year or two, as a breeder and nurse. EmascuLation AND Docxinc.—These should usually precede washin as at that period the oldest lambs will be about a month old, and it is saf to perform the operations when they are a couple of weeks younger Dry, pleasant weather should be selected. Castration is a simple and sa (644) ‘ i SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN CHE SOUTH. 18t ' process. Let aman hold the lamb with its back pressed firmly against his breast and stomach, and all four legs gathered in front in his hands.— Cut off the bottom of the pouch, free the testicle from the inclosing mem- ‘brane, end then draw it. steadily out, or clip the cord with a knife, if it does not snap off at a proper distance from the testicle. Some shepherds draw both testicles at once with their ¢eeth. It is common to drop a little salt into the pouch. Where the weather is very warm, some touch the end of the pouch (and that of the tail, after that. is cut off) with an oint- ment, consisting of tar, lard, and turpentine. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, however, they will do just as well, here, without any application. The tail should be cut off, say one and a half inches from the body, with a chisel on the head of a block, the skin being slid up toward the body with a finger and thumb, so that it will afterward cover the end of the stump. Severed with a knife, the end of the tail being grasped with one of the hands in the ordinary way, a naked stump is left which it takes > some time to heal. : ‘It may occur to some unused to keeping sheep, that it is unnecessary to cut off the tail. If left on, it is apt to collect filth, and, if the sheep purges, it becomes an intolerable nuisance. Wasuine.—This is usually done here about the first of June. The cli- mate of the Southern States would admit of its being done earlier. The rule should be to wait until the water has acquired sufficient warmth for bathing, and until cold rains and storms, and cold nights, are no longer to, be expected. Sheep are usually washed by our best flock-masters in vats. A small stream is dammed up, and the water taken from it in an aqueduct (formed by nailing boards together), and carried until sufficient fall is obtained to have it pour down a couple of feet or more into the vat. The body of water, to do the work fast and well, should be considerable—say 24 inches wide, and five or six deep—and) the swifter the current the better. The vat should be say 34 feet deep, and large enough for four sheep to swim init. A yard is built near the vat, and a platform from the gate of the yard extends to and encircles the vat on three sides. This keeps the washer Fig. 20. 2 ae tall (ION png NVA olen — == — {| = x Enan TN N LES ioe Ay =a tS 3 PE EN BE BRAINS SO RRS SS -87 LAN oc oo SS QMA SS f S SS PSS Fy RQSONG z — Li i oy AA fatal ene H M pon D = 4 \ f A H a Yo AY : = ih \ vie (Aan = Z = \ A = ' Se \ a \ Ny) v€ STO GA re ed QW De “ ESN = = eat cow SSR v a oe t sas RG sWNesteryl ye Ge MOWLAND ~ WASHING APPARATUS. from standing in the water, and makes it much easier to lift the sheep ip. “and out. The cut here given exhibits all the necessary appendages. ‘he * sheep through a stream deep enough to compel them to swim. But swimming the compact-fleeced, fine: [S82 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. yard is built opposite the corners of two fields (land 2), to take advantage of the angle of one of them (1), to drive the sheep more readily into the yard (3). This yard should be large enough to hold the whole flock, if it does net exceed 200; and the bottom of it, as well as of the smaller yard (4), un- less well sodded over, should be covered with coarse gravel, to avoid be+ coming muddy. If the same establishment is used by a number of flock- masters, graveling will be always necessary. As soon as the flock are confined in yard 3, the lambs are all immediately caught out from among them, and set over the fence into yard 4. This is to prevent their being trampled down, as it often happens, by the old sheep, or straying off if let loose. As many sheep are then driven out of yard 3 into the smaller yard 5 as it will conveniently hold. A boy stands by the gate next to the vat, to open and shut it (or the gate is drawn shut with a chain and weight), and — two men, catching the sheep as directed under the head of tagging, com- — mence placing them in the water for the preparatory process of “‘ wetting.” As soon as the water strikes through the wool, which occupies but an in- stant, the sheep is lifted out and let loose.* The vat should, of course, be’ in an inclosed field, to prevent their escape. The whole flock should thus be passed over, and again driven round through field 1 into yard 3, where they should stand, say, an hour, before washing commences. There is a large per centage of potasht in the wool oil, which acts upon the dirt, independently of the favorable effect which would result from thus soaking it for some time with water alone. If washed soon after a good shower, previous wetting might be dispensed with ; and it ds not absolutely necessary, perhaps, in any case. If the water is warm enough to keep the sheep in it for the requisite period, they may be got clean by washing without any previous wetting—though the snowy whiteness of fleece which tells so. on the purchaser, is not so often nor so perfectly attained in the latter way. Little time is saved by omitting “ wetting,” as it takes propor- tionably longer to wash, and it is not so wel! for the sheep to be kept such a length of time in the water at once. When the washing commences, two and sometimes four sheep are_ plunged into the vat. When four are put in, two soak while two are washed. But this should not be done, unless the water is very warm, and the washers are uncommonly quick and expert. On the whole, it is rather an objectionable practice, for few animals suffer as much from the effects” of a chill as sheep. If they have been previously wetted, it is wholly un- necessary. When the sheep are in the water, the two washers commence kneading the wool with their hands about the breech, belly, &c., (the dirtier parts,) and they then continue to turn the sheep so that the descend — ing current of water can strike into all parts of the fleece. As soon as the sheep are clean, which may be known by the water running entirely clear, each washer seizes his own by the fore parts, plunges it deep in the - vat, and taking advantage of the rebound, lifts it out, setting it gently down on its breech on the platform. He then, if the sheep is old or weak, (and it is well in all cases,) presses out some of the water from the wool, and after submitting the sheep to a process presently to be adverted o, lets it go. There should be no mud about the vat, the earth not cov- ered with sod, being graveled. Sheep should be kept on clean pastures from washing to shearing—not where they can come in contact with * Where there are conveniences for so doing, this process may be more easily performed by driving the wcoled sheep for any length of time, as is practiced with the Long-Wools in England, will not properly cleanse the wool for shearing , dee + Vauquelin, quoted by Youatt, says that it consists mostly of soapy matter with a basis of potash; 2 Carb. of potash ; 3. Acetate of potash; 4. Lime; 5. Muriate of potash . 7 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 1&3 ‘the ground, burnt logs, &c.—and they should not be driven over dusty roads. The washers should be strong and careful men, and protected as they are from anything but the water running over the sides of the vat, they can labor several hours without inconvenience, and witnout drinking a whisky until they cease to know whether a sheep is well washed or well treated, as was the bad old fashion. ‘Two hundred sheep will employ twe expert men not over half a day, and I have known this rate much ex- ceeded. It is a great object, not only as a matter of propriety and honesty, but even as a matter of profit, to get the wool clean and of a snowy whiteness. It will always sell for more than enough extra, in this condition, to offset against the increased labor and the diminution in weight. Mr. Lawrence wrote me, a few years since, that the average loss in American Saxon wool, in scouring, (after being washed on the back,) was 36 per cent., and in American Merino 423 per cent.! Currine THE Hoors.—The hoofs of fine-wooled sheep grow rapidly, turn up in front and under at the sides, and must be clipped as often as once a year, or they become unsightly, give an awkward, hobbling gait to the sheep, and the part of the horn which turns under at the sides holds dirt or dung in constant contact with the soles, and even prevents it from being readily shaken or washed out of the cleft.of the foot in the natural movements of the sheep about the pastures, as would take place were the hoof in its proper shape. This greatly aggravates the hoof-ail, and the difficulty of curing it—and in England it is thought to orzginate tho | disease. It is customary to clip the hoofs at tagging, or at or soon after the time of shearing. Some employ a chisel and mallet to shorten the hoofs, but then the sheep must be subsequently turned on its back to pare off the projecting and curling-under side crust. If the weather be dry, or the sheep have stood for some time on dry straw, (as at shearing,) the hoofs “are as tough as horn, and are cut with great difficulty—and this is in- creased by the grit and dirt which adheres to the sole, and immediately takes the edge off from the knife. The above pericds are ill chosen, and the methods slow and bungling. It is particularly improper to submit heavily pregnant ewes to all this un necessary handling at the time of tagging. When the sheep is washed and lifted out of the vat, and placed on its rump on the platform, the gate-keeper advances with a pair of toe-nippers, and - the washer presents each foot sepa- rately, pressing the toes together se they can be severed at a single clip. The nippers shown in the cut, can be TOE-NIPPERS. made by any blacksmith who can tem- per an ax or chisel. They must be made strong, with handles a little more than a foot long, the rivet being of half-inch iron and confined with a nut, so that they may be taken apart for sharpening. The cutting edge Fig. 21. _ should descend upon a strip of copper inserted in the iron, to prevent it | from being dulled. With this powerful instru ment, the largest hoofs are _ severed with a moderate compression of the hand. Two well-sharpened | knives, which should be kept in a stand or b yx within reach, are then grasped by the washer and assistant, and with ;wo dexterous strokes to | each foot, the side crust (being free from dirt, and soaked almost as soft as [S4 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. _ — a cucumber,) is reduced to the level of the soles. Two expert men will ge through these processes in less time than it will take to read this de scription of them! The closer the paring and clipping, the better, if blood is not drawn An occasional sheep may require clipping again in the fall. Time BETWEEN WASHING AND Sueartnc.—This depends altogether 04 circumstances. From four to six days of bright warm weather is suffi cient. If cold and rainy, or cloudy, more time must elapse. I have known the wool to remain in an unfit condition to shear a fortnight after washing The rule is, the water should be thoroughly dried out, and the natural oi] 7 of the wool should so far exude as to give the wool an unctuous feel and } a lively, glittering look. If you shear it when dry, like cotton, before the © oil has exuded, you cheat yourself, and the wool will not keep so well for — long periods.* If you leave it until it gets too oily, you cheat the manu- © facturer, or what more often happens, you lose on the price. — £ SaeARING—Is always done, in this country, on the threshing-floors of our barns, sometimes on low platforms, but more commonly on the floor : itself. The following cut represents a common Northern barn properly © arranged for this purpose. ; Ut WAM TT Va | mn Wy nOWLARD SHEARING ARRANGEMENTS. On the threshing-floor, three men are seen shearing—twe of them using a low table or platform, say 18 or 20 inches high. The “ bay” ft (1, 2) nearest the eye is divided by a temporary fence, one part (1) being used for the yarding of the sheep, and the other (2) for doing up the wool, &c. ~ The inclosure’1 should communicate by a door with another and larger | yard outside of the barn. Both of these should be well littered down with * It is also very difficult to thrust the shears through this dry wool in shearing. | | The room for storing hay, grain, &c., which is always found on one. and sometimes on each side of the threshing-flocr in a Northern barn, is provincially termed a “ bay "—and the low division between this and the threshing floor a “ breastwork.” | 4 _ BHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 185 straw, and fresh straw thrown on occasionally, to keep the sheep clean while shearing. No chaff, or other substances which will stick in the wool, should be used for this purpose. When the dew has dried off from the sheep, on the morning chosen for shearing, a portion of the flock sufficient to last the shearers half a day, is driven into the outside yard, and a con- venient number into the bay (1). An assistant catches the sheep, lifts them off from the floor as already directed, and delivers them at the door ‘through the “ breastwork ”’ (3) to each shearer. The shearer before taking the sheep, picks off any loose straws sticking to its wool, and if dung ad- heres to any of the feet, brushes it off with a little besom formed of twigs, hung up near the door for that purpose. The shearer then takes the sheep to his stand, and commences shearing. te The floor or tables used for shearing should be planed or worn perfectly smooth, so that they will not hold dirt or catch the wool. They all should -*e thoroughly cleaned, and, if necessary, washed, preparatory to shearing. ‘It is the catcher’s business to keep the floor constantly swept, dung re- _moved, &c. Having a ew stand or place swept for the shearer who has just finished his sheep, he catches him another, and then clears up the stand previously occupied. He first lifts the fleece, gathers it up so that it shall not be torn or drawn asunder, and turning his arms so as to invert it, (2. é., bring the roots of the wool downward,) deposits it on the folding- table (4). Ife then picks up the “fribs” (small loose locks) left on the ‘floor, which are deposited in a basket or on a corner of the table. Lastly, he sweeps the spot clean, to be again occupied by the shearer. An active fellow will tend four shearers, and do up the fleeces. But he should not be hurried too much, or he cannot give sufficient time to doing up. A. ‘small boy or two are handy to pick up fribs, sweep, &c. _ If there are any sheep in the pen dirty from purging or other causes, they should first be caught out, to prevent them from dirtying the others. It is difficult, if not impossible, to give intelligible practical imstructions -which would guide an entire novice in skillfully shearing a sheep. Prac- tice is requisite. The following directions from the American Shepherd,* are correct, and are as plain, perhaps, as they can be made: “The shearer may place the sheep on that part of the floor assigned to him, resting on its rump, and himselt in a posture with one (his right) knee on a cushion, and the back of the ani- mal resting against his left thigh. He grasps the shears about half-way from the point to the bow, resting his thumb along the blade, which affords him better command of the points. He may then commence cutting the wool at the brisket, and proceeding downward, all upon ‘the sides of the belly to the extremity of the ribs, the external sides of both thighs to the _ edges of the flanks; then back to the brisket, and thence upward, shearing the wool from the preast, front, and both sides of the neck—but not yet the back of it—and also the poll or ore part, and top of the head. Now the ‘jacket is opened’ of the sheep, and its position _and that of the shearer is changed, by being turned flat upon its side, one knee of the shearer resting on the cushion, and the other gently pressing the fore quarter of the animal, to pre yent any struggling. He then resumes cutting upon the flank and rump, and thence on- | ward to the head. Thus one side is complete. The sheep is then turned on to the other | side, in dcing which great care is requisite to prevent the fleece from being torn, and the | searer acts as upon the other, which finishes. He must then take his sheep near to the | door through which it is to pass out, and neatly trim the legs, and leave not a solitary lock anywhere as a harbor for ticks. It is absolutely necessary for him to remove from his stand | to trim, otherwise the useless stuff from the legs becomes intermingled with the fleece-wool. In the use of the shears, let the blades be laid as flat to the skin as possible, not lower thie points too much, nor cut more than from one to two inches at a clip, frequently not so much, ‘depending on the part and compactness of the wool.” In addition to the above, I would remark that the wool should be cut |off as close as conveniently practicable, and even. It may be cut too elose, so that the sheep can scarcely avoid “ sun-scald,” but this is very unusual. } = Pages 179, 180: . 2 A I ti ay hh 4 i iP Loge i -%* =e. + ‘als i, xe of. | a ee oe ¢ MEP, Paid Cah” . 4 + ; STR) Wl eae Ch Rie Pen ee A ee Fr ree ae Rice Laat YS OEE eae oe ra ne OR ey eure Ge é ‘ ne er | PS pe ee es iP aes Ws oh ’ 5 ee. Cae vy, Nii Med Sees ‘ . J pr? ‘ J ‘ ie taal = 186 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUSA. 4 = a [f the wool is left ridgy and uneven, it betrays that want of workmanshiy which is so distasteful to every good farmer.* Great care should be taker not to cut the wool twice in two, as inexperienced shearers are apt to di {t is a great damage to the wool. It is me by cutting too far hom th point of the shears, and suffering the points to get too elevated. Ever time the shears are pushed forward, the wool before cut off by the points say a quarter or three-eighths of an inch from the hide, is again severe To keep the fleece entire, so important to its good appearance when done up, (and therefore to its salableness,) it is very essential that the sheep b held easily for itse/f, so that it will not struggle violently. To hold it st by main strength, no man can do, and shear it well. The posture of thi shearer should be such that the sheep is actually confined to its position so that it is unable to start up suddenly and tear its fleece, but it sho not be confined there by severe pressure or force, or it will be constantly kicking and struggling.. Heavy-handed, careless men, therefore, alway complain of getting the most troublesome sheep. The neck, for example may be confined to the floor by placing it between the toe and knee of th leg on which the shearer kneels, but the lazy or brutal shearer who let his leg rest directly on the neck, soon provokes that struggle which th animal is obliged to make to free itself from severe pain, and even perhaps to draw its breath ! Good shearers will shear, on the average, twenty-five Merinos per day and a new beginner should not attempt to exceed from one-third to oné half that number. It is the last process in the world which should be hur ried, as the shearer will soon leave more than enough wool on his sheep t pay for his day’s wages. It has been mentioned that but enough sheep should be yarded at one for half a day’s shearing. The reason for this is that they shear muel more easily, and there is less liability of cutting the skin, when they ar distended with food, than when their bellies become flabby and collapse for the want of it. This precaution, however, is often necessarily omitte in showery weather. It is very convenient to have the outside pen whic communicates with the “bay,” covered. On my farm, it is one of th regular sheep-houses. If it is showery over night, or showers come up 0 the day of shearing, a couple of hundred sheep may be run in and kal dry. And they can be let out to feed occasionally during the day o1 short grass. If let out in long wet grass, their bellies will become wette Wool ought not to be sheared, and must not be done up, with any wate in it. vite ‘a Suearinc Lamps, anp Snearinc Sneep Semit-AnNvuALLY.—Shearin; lambs is, in my judgment, every way an abominable and unprofitable prac tice—in this climate, at least. The lamb will give you the same woot al year old, and you strip it of its natural protection from cold when it 1 young and tender, for the paltry gain of the interest on a pound ora pour and a half of wool for six months—not more than two or three cents—am this all covered by the expense of shearing. 4 I am aware that it is customary, in many parts of the South, to shes grown sheep twice a year; and there may be a reason for it where th receive so little care that a portion are expected to disappear every hal year, and the wool to be torn from the backs of the remainder by bushe thorns, &c., if left for a longer period. But when sheep are inclosed, an * 1 hold that man is not half a farmer who has not a dash of the esthetic mixed up with his utilitarianism Profit should not often be sacrificed to appearances, but where they are strictly compatible, he who dis gards the latter betrays a sordid and uncultivated mrind. , SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 187 treated as domestic animals, there may be less barbarity in fall-shearing | them than in the case of tender lambs, but I cannot conceive of any Letter | reason for it than in the former case, on the score of utility. Any gain resulting from it cannot pay the additional expense it occasions. | Dorne-up Woo..—The fleece has been deposited on the “ folding table,” | and he whose business it is to do it up, first proceeds to spread it out, the | outer ends upward, bringing every part to its natural relative position— The table, with a | fleece spread out on it, is represented in ae 23. The table should be large— “say five feet wide _ and eight long—that, | if necessary, several _ unspread fleeces may _ be put upon it at the same time, and still | give room for spread- : ‘ing, one. It should — a NS be about three feet Die gee high. After the fleece is spread, dung, burs, and all other extraneous substances are carefully re- moved from it with a pair of shears, It is then pressed together with the hands, so that it will cover but little if any more space than it would oc- | cupy on the skin of the animal, if that was placed unstretched on the table | About a quarter of the fleece, lengthwise, or from head to tail, (represented | by 1 in the above cut,) is then turned or folded in (enverting it,) toward 'the middle. The opposite side (2) is next folded inward in the same way, leaving the fleece in a long strip, say 18 inches wide. The forward end (3) is then folded toward the breech, to a point (represented by dotted | line) corresponding with the point of the shoulder. The breech (4) is next | folded toward the head. The fleece now presents an oblong square rep- ' resented by 5 and 6. On the breech, in a small, compact bunch-—so they | can be, subsequently, readily sepa- / rated from the fleece—the clean fribs are placed. They do not include “trimmings,” (the wool from the } shanks,) which should not be done up in the fleeces. The fribs may be laid in at some earlier stage of the folding —but if thrown on top of the fleece, | as is very customary, before it is fold- (ed at all, they show through, if the | latter gets strained apart, as it fre- | quently happens in the process of roll- /ing—and being coarser and perhaps | less white than the fine shoulder wool, ‘they injare the appearance of the / fleece. The fleece is now folded to- Ee are | gether by turning 5 over on to 6, and the tyer carefully sliding it around on the table with his arms, so that the shoulder shall be toward him, it appears as in fig. 24, ready te go into the wool-trough. The wool-treugh, which is above represented Fig. 24. } 1 ! | J ie LOLs OMEN Se 3S, Fo ae. * Pa 3 OE il oe mM we eta Cue * > 2 ’ Md 4 4 ‘~~ & +0 4M $ x ~ é i Pa peep ore b 188 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. with one of its sides off, to exhibit the interior arrangement, should forr a part of the table, and should be about 94 inches wide and 9 deep, ar its length corresponding with the width of the table, would be five feet Near its back end, and about one-third of its width from each side, gimle holes are bored just large enough for the passage of ordinary wool-twine Two balls of twine are placed in a vessel beneath, the ends passed throug the holes, and the whole length of the trough, and are fastened in front b being drawn into two slits formed by sawing a couple of inches into bottom of the trough. The holes and slits should be small enough, so thé the twine will be kept drawn straight between them. The tyer placing his hands and arms (to the elbow) on each side of th fleece folded as above, now slides it into the trough. There are twe methods of having it lie in the trough, represented by the following cuts That on the left is the more ordinary, but not a the best method. It will bring to the two ends _ Fig. %. of the done-up fleece (the parts most seen in the wool-room) the ridge of the back and two lines half way down each side of the sheep. The for- mer is sometimes a little weather-beaten, and if any hay-seeds have fastened in the fleece, they show most on the back.* And the two lower lines are a little below the choicest wool. Placing it in the trough as in the right-hand figure, rolling would bring both ends of the fleece from the wool between four and five inches fron the ridge of the back, the choicest part of the fleece. Besides, the edge: of the breech fold, which is not so fine as the shoulder, which sometime show by the first method of rolling, are always concealed by the last. The wool being in the trough, the tyer steps round to the back end o it, and commences rolling the fleece from the breech to the shoulder. rolls it as tightly as possible, pressing it down and exerting all the strength of his hands—minding, however, not to tear the outside fold—or strain ij so apart as to exhibit the outer ends of the next inside layer or fold When the rolling is completed, he keeps it tight by resting the lower par of his left arm across it, reaches over with the right, and withdrawing oné of the ends of the twine from the slit, places it in the left hand. The seizing the twine onthe other side of the fleece with his right hand, he draws the twine once about the fleece with his whole strength, and ties in a hard orsquare knot. The fleece will then keep its position, and the other twine is tied in the same way. The twines should be drawn with a force that would cut through the skin of a tender hand in a few moments. The twines are then cut within an inch of the knots, with a : pair of shears. The fleece is slid out of the end of the trough, when it will be a solid, glittering mass of snowy wool, in the shape shown in the cut on the right. If well and tightly done up, however, the divisions given on the end of the fleece, in the cut, to exhibit the foldings, will not be perceptible—and nothing but an unbroken mass of the choicest wool of the fleece. The twine should be of flax or hemp, and of the diameter of ordinar sized hardware twine. Cotton might do, if smooth and hard enough that no particles of it could become incorporated with the wool—in whie event it does not separate from the wool in any of the subsequent processe and receiving a different color from the dyes, spots the surface of the cloth * Hay-seed, or rather its chaff, will not wash entirely out of wool. : {It is customary with some tyers to wear a glove on the right hand—or cots on the two fore-fingers. aa FLEECE. » SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 189 _ It is scarcely necessary to remark that it is considered perfectly fair by the purchaser, to take all the pains above recommended, to “ put the best side out ” in doing up wool, provided every fleece is done up by itself. He expects it, and graduates his prices accordingly. He who neglects it, therefore, cheats himself. But to do up coarser fleeces, or any parts of jthem, in finer ones—put in “ trimmings’’—leave in dung—or use unne- jeessary twine—are all base frauds. Sometimes the careless sheep-owner jwill have his wool filled with burs, which he cannot or will not remove. In that case he is bound to unequivocally apprise the buyer of the fact, and allow him to open fleeces until satisfied of the precise extent of the evil. fee | Sroriwve Woo.t.—Wool should be stored in a clean, tight, dry room. It jis better that it should be an wpper room, for reasons presently to be given, end it should be plastered, to exclude dust, vermin, insects, &c. Rats and |mice love to build their nests in it, to which they will carry grain chaff and jother substances, injuring much wool—and it is singular that if accessible to the common bumble-bee, numbers of their nests will be found in it. A jnorth and pretty strong light is preferable for a wool-room. | When the wool-tyer removes each fleece from the trough, he places it in a long, high basket, capable of holding a dozen fleeces, and it is imme- iately carried to the wool-room—or he piles it on the clean floor in the fmelosure in which his table stands, to be subsequently carried away. In either case, the fleeces are not thrown down promiscuously, which injures | heir shape, but are laid regularly one above another, on their sides. In the wool-room it is laid in the same way in smooth, straight north and jsouth rows (supposing the light to be let in from the north) with alleys between, in which a man can pass to inspect the wool. The rows ought i perhaps, to b= more than two deep, so that the end of every fleece can be examined, bu. as it cannot be piled up more than about four fleeces high in this way, without liability of falling, it is customary to make the rows three or four fleeces deep—laying the lower ones a little wide, so hat the pile may slightly recede asit goesup. In this way they may be piled six fleeces high. Where the character of the flock is known, or that lof the seller relied on, it makes little difference. It is considered fairest to pile the fleeces without any discrimination as to quality, in the wool- room. a _ Sacxine Woot.—When the wool is sold, or when it must be sent away to find a market, it is put up in bales nine feet long, formed of 40-inch *burlaps.” The mouth of the sack is sowed, with twine, round a strong hoop (riveted together with iron, and kept for the purpose,) and the body of it is let down through a circular aperture in the floor of the wool-room.* The hoop rests on the edge of the aperture, and the sack swings clear of the floor beneath. A man enters the sack, and another passes the fleeces down to him. After covering the bottom with a layer, he places a fleece lin the center and forces down others around it, and so on to the top, which is then sowed up. Lach fleece should be placed regularly with the hands, fand then stamped down as compactly as possible, so that the bale when \completed shall be hard and well filled in every part. The bulk of a given lweight of wool will be greatly affected by the care with which this pre- icess is performed. | Those who do not expect’ buyers to come and look at their wool, sack immediately after shearing. A temporary scaffolding is erected near ° * Jt is to secure this convenience that the wool-room is best placed on the second floor. f s > Ss Fy" « i ; . “ D Pe Ba! “ae A be "hy Cee eR tee ¢ ’ a . ay i aes ; . » ¥ " He OP a x ay © a . ‘ ’ . Aa, Pe 4 RE ee DS Perk ECO span) Na TRI Aa: 290) SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. the wool as deposited by the tyer, and one man tosses up fleeces to a st ond, who catches them and passes them down to the man in the sack. light frame, to suspend the sack, and part way up it a standing-place fw the catcher, would be a convenient appendage to the establishment of wool-grower who does not store his wool in a wool-room. With a set ¢ stairs up to his midway standing-place, an active fellow would keep treader supplied, without any assistance, In the absence of any agreement, the price of wool, delivered at a residence of the purchaser, does not include the,cost of sacks and sacki It is customary, however, for growers of small parcels, and those keep no conveniences for sacking, to carry their wool tied up in shee &c., and deliver it to the purchaser at the nearest village or other point where he has made arrangements for sacking. : Se.ecrion.—The necessity of annually weeding the flock, by excludin all its members falling below a certain standard of quality, and what th points are to which reference should be had in establishing that standa have already been sufficiently adverted to in discussing the principles breeding. The time of shearing is by far the most favorable one for th flockmaster to make his selection. He should be present on the shearing floor, and inspect the fleece of every sheep as it is gradually taken off. Hj there is a fault about it, he will then discover it better than at any othe time. A glance, too, reveals to him every fault of form, previously co cealed wholly or in part, by the wool, as soon as the newly shorn shee is permitted to stand on its feet. He takes down the number and age @ the sheep on his tablet, and if not sufficiently defective in form or quality of fleece to call for its condemnation, in a pair of scales suspended near th wool-tyer’s table, he determines the weight of the fleece. If this, too, satisfactory, he marks “ retained” opposite the sheep’s number on his tab let. If more or less defective in any point, he weighs this against th other points—taking also into consideration the age of the sheep, its cha} acter as a breeder, its nursing properties, quietness of disposition, &c= and then, in view of ad/ these points, the question of retention or exclusi is settled. A remarkably choice ewe is frequently kept until she dies old age. A poorish nurse or breeder would be excluded for the lighte: fault, and soon. I have been in the habit, for a number of years, of usi a book kept for this purpose, each page being ruled and headed thus: ~ Number. | Qual. of Fleece. | Form. Wt. of Fleece. Conclusion. 27, '42 p- £ 4} ts 30, 744 0. he 4 e. The figures in the first column signify No. 27 of the year 1842, and } 30 of the year 1844. ‘The letters in the succeeding columns stand for f words “ prime,” “ fair,” “ ordinary;” and “ bad ”’—marking the gradation of quality. The letters in the last column signify “retained,” or “e@} cluded.” Such a record will lead to far greater accuracy than by a1 other method, and it is extremely valuable for purposes hereafter to | stated, . If the sheep are not numbered, the flock-master should note each appe ance, as above directed, have the sheep held by the neck by an assistat er discharged by the shearer into a small pen at the door for that purpe until the fleece is weighed, and then if he decides to exclude it, he giv it a small mark on the shoulder, consisting of Venetian Red and hog’s lai (conveniently applied with a brush or cob.) SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTR. 1S ‘Marxine Suuer.—The sheep should be marked soon after shearing, or nistakes may occur. Every owner ot sheep should be provided with a narking instrument, which will stamp his initials, or some other distinctive mark, such as a small circle, oval, triangle, square, &c., at a single stroke, Ind with uniformity, on the sheep. It has been customary here, to have he mark cut out of a plate of thin iron, with an iron handle terminated by vood. But one made by cutting a type or raised letter (or character) on he end of a stick of light wood, such as pine or basswood, is found to be petter. If the pigment used be thin, and the marker be thrust into it a _ ittle too deeply, as often happens, the surplus will not run off from the vood, as from a thin sheet of iron, to daub the sides of the sheep, and ipoil the appearance of the mark; and if the pigment be applied ot, the ormer will not, like the latter, get heated, and increase the danger of murning the hide. Various pigments are used. Many boil tar until it ill assume a glazed, hard consistency, when cold, and give it a brilliant lack color by stirring in a little lamp-black when boiling. It is applied hen just cold enough not to burn the sheep’s hide, and it forms a bright, jonspicuous mark the year round. I have always used this, though the lnanufacturer would prefer the substitution of oil and turpentine for tar, the latter is cleansed out of the wool with some difficulty. I boil it in | high-sided iron vessel (to prevent it from taking fire) on a small furnace x chafing-dish near where it is to be used. When cool enough, forty or fty sheep can be marked before it gets too stiff. It is then warmed from ime to time, as necessary, on the chafing-dish. The rump is a better place ) mark than the side. The mark is about as conspicuous on the former, nder any circumstances, and it is more so when the sheep are huddled in | pen, or when they are running away from you. And should any wool - injured by the mark, that on the rump is less valuable than that on the de, It is customary to distinguish ewes from wethers by marking them In different sides of the rump. Many mark each sheep as it is discharged from, the barn by the. shearer. consumes much less time to do it at one job, after the shearing is com- Nleted ; and it is necessary to take the latter course, if a hot pigment is his latitude, soon after shearing—particularly the delicate Saxons. I have /nown forty or fifty perish out of a single fiock, from one night’s expo- jure. The remedy, or rather the preventive, is to house them, or in de- ult of the necessary fixtures to effect this, to drive them into dense for- ists. _I presume, however, this would be a calamity of rare occurrence in he “ sunny South.” ae : 'Sun-Scarp—Might be more common. When sheep are sheared close jn very hot weather—have no shade in their pastures—and particularly lvhere they are driven immediately considerable distances, or rapidly, over jurning and dusty roads, their backs are so scorched by the sun that the f rool comes off. It is not common, however, here. You may see one uch in a flock of a hundred. Let alone, the matter is not a serious one mut the application of refuse lard to the back will accelerate the cure, and the starting of the wool. heii Ticxs.—These. when very numerous, greatly. annoy,and enfeeble sheer i the winter, ant: should be kept entirely out of the flock. After shear- ig, the heat and :old, the rubbing and biting of the sheep soon drive off 192 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. the tick, and it takes refuge in the long wool of the lamb. Wait a fe night after shearing, to allow all to make this transfer of residence. h boil refuse tobacco leaves until the decoction is strong enough to kill tie beyond a peradventure. This may be readily tested by experimen Five or six pounds of cheap plug tobacco, or an equivalent in stems, &¢ may be made to answer for 100 lambs. The decoction is poured irte deep, narrow box, kept for this purpose, and which has an inclined shelf one one side, covered with a wooden grate, as shown in tke cut. One man holds the lamb by the hind legs, another clasps the fore-legs in one hand, and shuts the other about the nostrils to prevent the liquid entering them, and then the lamb is entirely immersed. It is immediately lifted out, laid on one side on the grate, and the water squeezed out of its wool. Itis then turned over and squeezed on the other side. ‘The grate con- ducts the fluid back into the box. If the lambs are regu- larly dipped every year, ticks will never trouble a flock. The effect of tobacco water in scab, will be hereafter adverted to. DIPPING-BOX. Maceots.—Rams with horns growing closely to their heads, are ver liable to have maggots generated under them, particularly if the skin ¢ the surrounding parts gets broken in fighting, and these, if not remove soon destroy the sheep. Both remedy and preventive is boiled tar—or tl marking substance heretofore described. Put it under the horns, at t time of marking, and no trouble will ever arise from this cause. Som times when a sheep scours in warm weather, and clotted dung adhen about the anus, maggots are generated under it, and the sheep perish miserably. Preventive: remove the dung. Remedy: remove the d and maggots, the latter by touching them with a little turpentine, am then apply sulphur and grease to the excoriated surface. Maggot flies, says Blacklock, sometimes deposit their eggs on the ba of the long, open-wooled English sheep, and the maggots during the fe days before they assume the pupa state, so tease and irritate the anim that fever and death are the consequence. Tar and turpentine, or butt and sulphur, smeared over the parts are given as the preventives. Merino and Saxon are exempt from these attacks. SHorTeNING THE Horns.—A convolution of the horn of a ram sometim 80 presses in upon the side of the head or neck, that it is necessary to shat or rasp it away on the under side, to prevent ultimately fatal effects. TI point of the horn of the ram and ewe both not unfrequently turn in | that they will grow into the flesh and sometimes into the eye, unle shortened. The toe-nippers will often suffice on the thin extremity of horn, but if not, a fine saw must be used. The marking time is the be one to attend to this. ; SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 19? __ Dwiston or Fiocxs.—-It is customary at, or soon after shearing, to make those divisions in large flocks, which utility demands. It is better to have “not tu exceed two hundred sheep run together in the pastures, though the “number might perhaps be safely increased to three hundred, if the 1ange is extensive. Wethers and dry ewes to be turned off, should be kept sep- arate from the nursing-ewes, and if the flock is sufficiently numerous to -reguire a third division, it is customary to put the yearling and two-year- old ewes and wethers and the old, feeble sheep together. It is better in all cases to separate the rams from all the other sheep, at the time of shearing, and to inclose them in a particularly well-fenced field. If put even with wethers, they are more quarrelsome, and when cool nights ar- ‘rive, will worry themselves and waste their flesh in constant efforts to ride the wethers. The Merino ram is a quiet animal compared with ihe com- mon-wooled one, but poor fences, or fences half the time down, will tempt him to jump, and if once taught this trick, he becomes very troublesome -as the rutting period approaches, unless hoppling, yoking, clogging, or '“poking”’ is resorted to—either of which causes the animal to waste his | flesh and strength, and are the causes of frequent accidents. | Hoppuine, Cirogeine, &c.—Hoppling is done by sowing the ends of a eather strap (broad at the extremities so that it will not cut into the flesh) to a fore and hind leg, just above the pastern joints—leaving the legs at about the natural distance apart. Clogging is fastening a billet of wood 'to the fore leg by a leather strap. Yoking is fastening two rams two or three feet apart, by bows around their necks, inserted in a light piece of timber, say two by three inches in size. Poking is done by inserting a bow in a short bit of light timber, into which bit (worn on the under side of the neck) a rod is inserted which projects a couple of feet in front of the sheep. ‘hese, and similar devices, to prevent rams scaling fences, may be employed as a last resort, by those improvident farmers who prefer by such troublesome, injurious, and at best, insecure means, to guard against | that viciousness which they might, so much more easily, have prevented | from. being acquired. Dancerous Rams.—F rom being teased and annoyed by boys, or petted -and played with when young—and sometimes without any other stimulant ‘than a naturally vicious temper—rams occasionally become very trouble- some by their propensity to attack men or cattle. I know of one for which his owner has refused $250, which will permit no man to enter the field with him without making an immediate onset on him. Ihave known jseveral that would knock down the ox or horse which presumed to dis- | pute the possession of a lock of hay with them. A ram which is known (to have acquired this propensity should at once be hooded, and, if not 'valuable, at the proper season converted into a wether by “cording.” But the courage thus manifested, is usually the concomitant of great strength /and vigor of constitution—and of a powerfully developed frame. If good im other particulars, it is a pity to lose the services of such an animal. I | maye in several such instances hooded them, by covering their faces with leather in such a manner that they could only see a little backwaid and |downward. They mus: then, however, be kept apart from the flock of jrams, or they will soon be killed or injured by blows, which they cannot } Bee to escape, _ It sometimes happens that a usually quiet tempered ram will suddenly exhibit some pugnacity when you are salting or feeding the flock. If you jturn to run, you are immediately ats down, and the razn learns, at 1 2 | EA ee ge oie Oa Pl ea i ee ae ae et | Sia ns ail Mind Migs nei ’ . p , 194. SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. that single lesson, the secret of his mastery, and the propensity to exe it. The ram giving his blow from the summit of the parietal and the pos- terior portion of the frontal bones on the ¢op of the head, (and not from the forehead,) couches his head so low when he makes his onset, that he does not see forward well enough to swerve suddenly from his right line, and a few quick motions to the right and left enable you to escape him. Run in upon him, as he dashes by you, with pitchfork, club, or boot-heel—punish- ing him severely by blows, (about the head if the club is used,) and giving him no time to rally until he is thoroughly cowed.* Fences.—Poor fences will teach ewes and wethers to jump, as well ag rams, and fur a jumping flock there is no remedy but immoderately hig fences, or extirpation. One jumper will soon teach the trick to a whole flock, and if one by chance is bought in, it should be immediately hoppled. or killed. The last is by far the surest and safest remedy. Sair.—Salt, in my judgment, is indispensable to the health of sheep particularly in the summer—and I know not a fiock-master among the hun- dreds, nay, thousands with whom I am acquainted, whe differs with me ir this opinion. It is common to give it once a week while the sheep are at grass. It is still better to give them free access to salt at all times, by keeping it in a covered box, open on one side, like the following: } A large hollow log, with holes cut along the side, for the insertion of the beads of the sheep will make a respectable substitute. A sheep hav- ing free access to salt at all times, will never eat too much, and it will take its supply when and in what quantities Nature demands, instead of eat- ing voraciously at stated periods, as intermediate abstinence will stimulate it do. When fed but once a week, it is better to have a stated day, so that it will not be forgot- ten, and it is well to lay the salt on flat stones, though if laid in little handsfull on the grass, very little will be lost. Tar.—This is supposed by many to form a very healthful condiment for sheep. The nose of the sheep is smeared with it, and it is licked and swallowed as the natural heat of the flesh, or that of the weather, causes it to trickle down over the nostrils and lips. Others, suffering the flock to get unusually salt hungry, place tar upon flat stones, or in troughs, and then scatter salt on it, so that both shall be consumed together. Applied to the nose, in the nature of a cataplasm, I have no doubt that it is advar tageons in catarrhs—and put on the same place, at the proper periods, it may perhaps, by its odor, repel the visitations of the fly ( Zéstris ovis), the eggs of which produce the “ grub in the head.” As a snedicine it may be valuable, and even as a detergent in the case specified, but as a condiment SALTING-BOX. * This may be pronounced harsh “ measure for measure,” and some may think it would tend to in the viciousness of the animal. Repeated instances have proved the contrary tome, And if their m is once acknowledged, it is never forgotten by them. aR SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 198 imply, for a perfectly healthy animal, I confess I have no confidence in its tility. ue _ Warer.— Water is not indispensable in the summer pastures, the dews ind the succulence of the feed answering as a substitute. But my inpres- ior is decided that free access to water is advantageous to sheep, particu- arly to those having lambs ; and I should consider it a matter of import- ice on a sheep farm, to arrange the pastures, if practicable, so as to ring water into each of them. _SHape.—No one who has observed with what eagerness sheep seek hade in hot weather, and how they pant and apparently suffer when a hot un is pouring down on their nearly naked bodies, will doubt that, both as /matter of humanity and utility, they should be provided, during the hoz ummer months, with a better shelter than that afforded by a common rail ence. J orest-trees are the most natural and best shades, and it is as con- vary to utility as it is to good taste to strip them entirely from the sheep- valks. A strip of stone-wall or close board fence on the south and west ides of the pasture, will form a passable substitute for trees. But in the bsence of all these, and of buildings of any kind, a shade can be cheaply onstructed of poles and brush, in the same manner as the sheds of the ame materials for winter shelter, which will be described in my next Letter. Weanine Lamps.—Lambs should be weaned at four months old. It is letter for them, and much better for their dams. The lambs when taken way should be put for several days in a field distant from the ewes, that xey may not hear each other’s bleatings. The lambs when in hearing of ~ leiz dams, continue restless much longer, and they make constant and jequently successful efforts to crawl through the fences which separate em. One or two tame old ewes are turned into the field with them to jach them to come at the call, find salt when thrown to them, and eat fain, &c., out of troughs when winter approaches. The lambs when weaned should be put on the freshest and tenderest. ed. I have usually reserved for mine the grass and clover sown, the pre-. ding spring, on the grain fields which were seeded down. The dams, on the contrary, should be put for a fortnight on short, dry: jed, to stop the flow of milk. They should be looked to, once or twice,. id should the bags of any be found much distended, the milk should be: yawn and the bag washed for a little time in cold water. But on short. jed, they rarely give much trouble in this particular. When properly- ried off, they should be put on good feed to recruit, and get in condition: jr winter. | | . |Faut Feepinc.—In the North, the grass often gets very short by the. ith or 15th of November, and it has lost much of its nutritiousness from: peated freezing and thawing. At this time, though no snow has yet llen, it is best to give the sheep a light daily foddering of bright hay—- (a few oats ir the bundle. Given thus for the ten or twelve days which- jecede the covering ot the ground by snow, fodder pays for itself as well: | at any other time*during the year. I have usually fed oats in the bun-- e, or threshed oats, (about a gill to the head,) in the feeding-troughs,. mried to the fields for that purpose. | | ] } ITar Croox.—This implement has been several times alluded to as a tnvenient one for catzhing sheep. It is made in the form exhibited i» 196 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. the cut, of 32-inch round iron, drawn smaller toward the point—and the point made safe by a knob. The other end is furnished { with a socket, which receives a handle six or eight feet Fig. 29. long. ‘The manner of using it is thus described in Mr. Ste- phens’s admirable “ Book of the Farm”: “The hind-leg is hooked in at a, from behind the sheep, and it fills up she narrow part beyond a, while passing along it until it reaches the loop, when the animal is caught by the hock, and when secured, its foot ea- ily slips through the loop. Some caution is required in using the crook, ‘or should the sheep give a sudden start forward to get away, the mo- ment it feels the crook the leg will be drawn forcibly through the narrow part, and strike the bone with such violence against the bend of the loop ts to cause the animal considerable pain, and even occasion lameness for some days. On first embracing the leg, the crook should be drawn yuickly toward you, so as to bring the bend of the loop against the leg as high up as the hock, before the sheep has time even to break off, and be- ing secure, its struggles will cease the moment your hand seizes the leg.” No flock-master should be without this implement, as it saves a vast deal of yarding, running, &c., and leads to a prompt examination of every improper or suspicious ap- pearance, and a timely application of remedy or preven- tive—which would often be deferred if the whole flock had to be driven to a distant yard, to enable the shepherd to catch a particular sheep. Dexterity in the use of the crook is speedily acquired by any one; and if a flock are properly tame, any one of its number can be readily caught by it, at salting-time—or, generally, at other times, by a person with whom the flock are familiar. But itis at the'lambing-time, when sheep and lambs require to be so repeatedly caught, that the crook is more particularly ser viceable. For this purpose, at this time alone, it will pay for itself ter times over in a single season, in saving time, to say nothing of the advs tage of the sheep. SHEPHERD'S © CROOK. © SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 197 LETTER XMHI. | WINTER MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. Use of Rams—proper age, number, &c.—selecting ewes for—different methods of coupling—way to tread rams...Division of Flocks for Winter...The Hospital... Yards—when necessary . . .Feeding-Racks—vari- ous plans or—the Box Rack—the Hole Rack—the Sparred Rack—the Hopper Rack—their respective ad- _yantages—improvements suggested. ..Troughs...Grain-Boxes...Barns and Sheds—necessity of shelter at the North—the common Northern Sheep-Barn...Stellse—the Outside Stell—Ancient Stells—Inside Circular ~ Stell—Circular Stell fitted up with racks. ..Tree-Coverts..-Cheap Sheds—fitted between stacks, barracks, &c... Value of Barracks for the Preservation of Fodder...The Main Sheep-Barn of the Farm or Plantation, with Shearing-Floor, &c.—arrangements for breeding-ewes...Feeding sheep in yards with other stock— improper—reasons..- Hay-Holders...Winter Dry Feed for Sheep—Variations in Feed—German views on this subject—proper kinds of fodder—Boussingault’s Table of the Nutritive Equivalents of different kinds of Fodders..-Effect of Food in the Production of Wool—De Reaumur’s Table showing the Effects of Food in this particular. .-Etfect of Food in producing Fat and Muscle...Fattening Wethers in the North..-Feed- ing Grain to Stere-Sheep in Winter—when practiced at the North—economy of so doing—kinds of grain preferred—necessity of regularity in quantity—difficulty of raising the condition of poor sheep in the win- ter..-Feeding Roots, Browse, &c.—Roots a Substitute for Grain—to what sheep they may be fed—Hem. lock Browse—when and in what manner useful—substitutes for-..Winter Feed of Breeding-Ewes...Ne. cessity of regularity in the times of feeding sheep..-.Salt... Water. Dear Sir: As the turning out of the rams usually takes place, here, on ‘the first day of winter, I will describe the proper accompanying arrange- ments, as the first step in winter management. — Use or Rams.—The period of gestation in the ewe averages five months, Merino rams are frequently used from the first to the tenth year, and even longer. The lambs of very old rams are not supposed to be as vigorous as those of youngish or middle-aged ones, but where rams have not been overtasked, and have been properly fed, I confess I have been able to dis- cover very little difference in their progeny on account of age. A ram lamb should not be used, as it retards his growth, injures his form, and, I think, permanently impairs his vigor and courage. A yearling may run with 30 ewes, a two-year-old with from 40 to 50, and a three-year-old with from 50 to 60. Some very powerful, mature rams will serve 70 or | 80 ewes; but 50 is enough, where they rum with the ewes. I am satisfied _that an impoverished and overtasked animal does not transmit his indi- _ vidual properties so decidedly to his offspring as one in full vigor. Several rams running in the same flock excite each other to an unnat- _ural and unnecessary activity, besides injuring each other by constant _ blows. It is, in every point of view, bad husbandry, where it can be evoided, and, as usually managed, is destructive to everything like careful and judicious breeding. The nice adaptation which the male should pos- sess to the female, already discussed under the head of Principles of Breeding—counterbalancing her defects with his own marked excellence in the same points, and, in turn, having his defects counterbalanced by her excellencies—how shall this be accomplished, where half a dozen or ‘More rams are running promiscuously with two or three hundred ewes 2 Before the rams are let out, the flock-master should have all the breed- ‘ing-ewes brought together in one yard. He has carefully inspected his stock rams and noted every defect and peculiarity of their fleeces and forms. The breeding register is before him to settle every pedigree, pro- vided his stock rams are nearly enough connected with some portions of the fock to render it necessary to guard against in-and-in breeding. The shepherd catches a ewe and places her before him. The pedigree being - : Lens a ¥ ae } 198 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. determined, he first notes her form, and then opening the wool on the shoulder, thigh and belly, notes the length, thickness, quality, and style of tie staple. If he kept the minutes at shearing recommended by me (un- der the head of “ Selection”) it will save much time and lead to far more accurate classification. When every point in the ewe is determined, he decides which ram, on the whole, is best calculated to perpetuate her ex- cellencies both of fleece and carcass, and best counterbalance her defects in their mutual offspring. With a pigment composed of Venitian red and aog’s lard, he then, as has been already mentioned under the head of Registering, gives the ewe a mark which will last until the next shearing, which will show by what ram she was tupped. Those selected for each ram are placed in different inclosures, and the chosen ram placed with — them. In four weeks’ time, the rams are withdrawn, and the flocks doubled or otherwise rearranged for winter, as may be necessary. This looks like taking considerable trouble, but having practiced it for years on my farm, and having always made these selections myself, I know that in reality the trouble is very slight—zothing, when the beneficial 1¢- sults are taken into consideration. With a couple assistants, to catch, a day would suffice for effecting the proper classification and division of sey- — eral hundred ewes. Where choice rams are scarce, so that it is an object to make the ser- vices of one go a great way—or where it is impossible to have senarate inclosures, (as on farms where there there are a great number of breeding-ewes, or where the shep- Fig. 30. herd system is adopted to the exclusion of fences,) the following method may be resorted to. Build a hut containing as many apartments as you wish to use rams, with an alley between them. That part of fig. 30 which is surrounded by black lines repre- sents the hut divided into four apartments, each fur- nished with a feeding-box and trough in one corner. Gates or bars open from each apartment into the alley, and at each end of the alley. The dotted lines inclose a yard just sufficient to hold the flock of breeding-ewes. A couple of strong rams (of any quality) for about every hundred ewes, are then aproned, their brisk- ets rubbed with Venitian red and hog’s lard, and they are let loose among © the ewes. Aproning is performed by sewing a belt of coarse sacking broad enough to extend from the fore to the hind legs, loosely but strongly round the body. To prevent its slipping forward or back, straps are car- — ried round the breast and back of the breech. It is indispensable that it be made perfectly secure, or all the labor of this method of coupling will be far worse than thrown away. The pigment on the brisket should be renewed eyery two or three ca ‘it will be necessary, usually, to change the ‘teasers,’ as these aproned rams are called, about once a week, as they do not long retain their courage under such unnatural cir- cumstances. Twice a day the ewes are brought into the yard in front of the hut. Those marked on their rumps by the teasers are taken into the alley. Each is admitted to the ram for which she is marked once, and then goes out at the opposite end of the alley from which she entered, into a separate field from that containing the flock from which she was taken. A powerful and vigorous ram from three to seven years old, and properly fed, can thus be made to serve from 150 to even 200 ewes, with no greater jury than from running loose with 50 or 60. Peete er SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 199 This, too, looks like a great amount of labor to attain the result sought, | but having had it formerly practiced for two years on my farm, I know | that when conducted with system, and by a prompt and handy shepherd, ‘it consumes no great amount of time. Rams will do better, accomplish more, and last two or three years long- er, if daily fed with grain, when on service, and it is well to continue it, gradually decreasing the quantity, for a few days after they are withdrawn from the flock of ewes. A ram should receive the equivalent of from half a pint to a pint of oats, daily, when worked hard. They are much more conveniently fed when kept in huts. If suffered to run at large, they should be so thoroughly tamed that they will eat from a measure held by the shepherd. Careful breeders thus train their stock-rams from the time they are lambs. It is very convenient, also, to have them halter-broke. so _ that they can be led about without dragging or lifting them. An iron ring _ attached to one of the horns, near the point, to which a cord can be at- tached for leading, confining, &c., is very useful and handy. If rams are wild, it is a matter of considerable difficulty to feed them separately, and it can only be effected by yarding the flock and catching them out. Some breeders, in addition to extra feeding, take the rams out of the flocks nights, shutting them up in a barn or stable by themselves. There is no ° objection to this practice, and it is a great saving of their strength. Rams should not be suffered to run with the ewes over a month, at feast in the North. It is much better that a ewe go dry than that she have a lamb later than the first of June. And after the rutting season is over, the rams grow cross, frequently striking the pregnant ewes danger- ous blows with their heavy horns, at the racks and troughs. Division or Frocxs.—If flocks are shut up in small inclosures during winter, according to the Northern custom, it is necessary to divide them into flocks of about 100 each, to consist of sheep of about the same size and strength. Otherwise the stronger rob the weaker, and the latter rap- idly decline. ‘This would not be so important where the sheep roam at large, but even in that case some division and classification are necessary, —or, at all events dest. | It is best, indeed, as already stated, even in sum- mer. The poorer and feebler can by this means receive better pasture, or a little more grain and better shelter in winter. By those who grow wool to any extent, breeding ewes, lambs, and weth- _ ers are invariably kept in separate flocks in winter; and it is best to keep yearling sheep by themselves with a few of the smallest two-year-olds, and uny old crones which are kept for their excellerce as breeders, but which cannot maintain themselves in the flock of breecling-ewes. ___ Tue Hosprrrau.—Old and feeble, or wounded skiep, late-born lambs, etc., _ should be placed by themselves, if the number doe¢ not even exceed a score. They require better feed, warmer shelter, and more attention. But after _ kil, unless the sheep are of a peculiarly valuable variety, it is better to sell _ them off in the fall at any price,—or to give them to some poor neighbor _whe has time to nurse them, and who may thus commence a flock. Yarps.— Experience has amply demonstrated, that in the climate of the _ Northern and Eastern States—where no grass grows from four to four and _a half months in the winter—and where, therefore, all that can be obtain | ed from the ground is the repeatedly frozen, innatritious herbage left in | the fall—it is better to keep sheep confined in yards, excepting where the | ground is covered with snow. If suffered to roam over the fields at other 200 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. times, they get enough grass to take away their appetite for dry hay, but not enough to sustain them; they fall away, and towards spring they be- come weak, and a large proportion of them frequently perish. I speak, of course, of flocks of some size, and on properly stocked farms. A few sheep, with a boundless range, would do better. Some of our flock-masters let out their sheep occasionally for a single day, during a thaw; others keep them entirely from the ground until let out to grass in the spring. 1 prefer the former course, where the shee ordinarily get nothing but dry fodder. It affords a healthy laxative, an a single day’s grazing will not take off their appetite from more than one succeeding dry feed. It is necessary, here, to keep the sheep in the yards until the feed has got a good start in the spring, or they, particularly breeding-ewes, will get off from their feed, and get weak at the most crit- ical time for them in the year. . Yards should be firm-bottomed, dry,—and they should, (in ¢/is climate,’ be kept well littered with straw. My impression is that the yarding system will never be practiced to any extent in the South. It certainly should not be, where sheep can get their living from the fields. How far, and under what circumstances, they will do this, has already been sufficiently discussed in my preceding Letters. Ferepinc-Racks—When the ground is frozen, and especially when covered with snow, the sheep eats hay better on the ground than anywhere else. When the land is soft, muddy, or foul with manure, they will scarce- ly touch hay placed on it. It should then be fed in racks. These are of various forms. Figure 31 gives the common box rack, in the most general use in the North. It is ten feet long, two and a half wide, the lower boards a foot wide, the upper ones about ten inches, the two about nine inches apart, and the RE corner posts three by three, or three and a half by two and a half inches. The boards are spiked on these posts by large flat headed nails wrought for the purpose, and the lower edges of the upper boards and the upper edges of the Jower ones are rounded so they shall not wear the wool off from the sheep’s necks. The lower boards and the opening for the heads, should be two or three inches narrower for lambs. lf made of light wood, as they should be, a man standing in the inside and middle of one of these racks, can easily carry it about—an important desideratum. Unless overfed, sheep waste very lit- tle hay in them. A capital shed or barn rack is represented in the following cut. The holea are eight inches wide, nine inches high, and eighteen inches center to center. Sheep do not crowd and, take advantage of each othe , i SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 20T ac much with these as with box racks. But they would be too heavy and ‘unnecessarily expensive for a common out-door rack. Fig. 32 represents a box, the front formed of a board nailed on horizontally, but they are usually formed by nailing the boards perpendicularly, the bottoms on the mill of a barn, and the tops to horizontal pieces of timber. | In the South, as in England, racks will not be so necessary for that |constant use to which they are put in colder countries, as for depositories | of dry food, for the occastonal visitation of the sheep. In soft’ warm | weather, when the ground is unfrozen, and any kind of green herbage is to be obtained, sheep will scarcely touch dry fodder—though the little they mill then eat will be highly serviceable to them. But in a sudden freeze, or on the occurrence of cold storms, they will resort to the racks, and fill themselves with dry food. By an instinct beautifully illustrative of the providence of the Creator, sheep anticipate the coming storm, and eat an extra quantity of food to sustain the animal heat, during the succeeding depression of temperature. They should always have racks of dry fod- der to resort to in such emergencies. _ These occasionally used racks should have covers or roofs to protect their contents from rain, as otherwise the feed would be often spoiled be- fore but a small portion of it was consumed. Hay or straw saturated with ‘water, or soaked and dried, is only eaten by the sheep as a matter of ab- solute necessity. The common box rack (fig. 31) would answer the pur- pose very well by placing on the top a triangular cover or roof formed of ‘a couple of boards, (one hung at the upper edge with iron or leather hin- ges so that it could be lifted up like a lid;) making the ends tight; draw- ing in the lower edges of the sides so that it shall not be more than a foot wide on the bottom ; inserting a floor; and then mounting it on and mak- ‘ing it fast to two cross sills four or five inches square to keep the floor off from the ground, and long enough to prevent it from being easily overturn- ed. The lower side board should be narrower than in fig. 31, on account of the increased hight given its upper edge by the sills. ; Still better, but somewhat more expensive, would be a rack of the same construction, with the sides like those of fig. 32. Or, the sides might consist of rundles as in fig. 33. In either of the preceding, the top might be nailed down, and the fodder inserted by little doors in the ends. _ The following form and description of an English rack ww from the “ Book of the Farm.”* t SPARRED RACK. “T have found,” says Mr. Stephens, “this form convenient, containing as much straw at tine as should be given, admitting the straw easily into it, being easily moved abors, ad _ * It will be found in the reprint of this splendid work, in The Farmners’ Library, vol. ii., p. 449. 2C a. = ' 7 * mo Oe bed pasts | q 202 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. iy, easy access to the sheep, and being so near the ground as to form an excellent shelter, J} is made of wood, is 9 feet in length, 44 feet in hight, and 3 feet in width, having u rack with a double face below, which is covered with an angled roof of boards to throw of the rain. The rack is supported on two triangular-shaped tressels 4, shod with iron at thi pints, which are pushed into the ground, and act as stays against the effects of the wink from either side. The billet ¢, fixed on the under or acute edge of the rack, rests upon the Dee and in common with the feet, supports it from bending down in the middle. Thi id a is opened on hinges when the fodder is put into the rack... . . Such a rack is easily) moved i by two persons, and their position should be changed according to a change of wind indicative of a storm.’ I used racks formed of rounds (or “ sparred”) for several years, and found them decidedly objectionable. The sheep grasping a lock of hay ir its mouth, brings the head to its natural position, and then draws in the adhering fibres in the process of mastication. But when eating from ¢ rack, it will not pick up the hay which tt drops under foot. In the box opi hole racks (figs. 31 and 32) most sheep will not withdraw their heads: from the openings, as they can there hold them in the ordinary position for mastication, and as, if they step back to do so, they are very liable tor be crowded out of their places. The hay, therefore, is not drawn out off the rack, and if any is dropped, it falls within it and is saved. Ata sparr rack, the sheep will not th its nose between the rundles (in a horizons. tal or upward position) until it detaches a mere mouthfull of hay. It will particularly when partly sated, twitch out its fodder prior to masticationy. and all which scatters off and drops to the ground, is trampled under foot) and wasted, except for the mere purpose uf manure. A considerable loss: will always result from this cause. } And there is another objection to this form of rack, particularly where: it runs down to an acute edge on the bottom, as in fig. 33. The sheepy frequently drawing the hay from the lower part, will shake down fron above hay-seeds and chaff into the wool on their head and necks; and the wind will sometimes carry these as far as their shoulders and even their backs. As heretofore remarked, these cannot be washed out, and they materially lower the market value of the wool. 4 The following rack has been used and is highly approved by my friend George Geddes, Esq., of Fairmount, N. Y., to whom I am indebted fo; the drawing and description of the cut. It serves both for a rack ane feeding-trough. THE HOPPER-RACK. “ The above is intended to represent a section of what I think the best sheep-rack } b aa piece of durable wood aboui 44 feet long, 6 or 8 inches deep, and 4 inches thick tas two notches, a, a, cut into it, and twe troughs made of inch boards, b, 6. b, 5, placed it | right rods SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 203 these notches, and nailed fast, constitutes the foundation. If the rack is to be 14 feet long, three sills will be required. The ends of the rack are made by naiding against the side of the sill-boards that reach up as high as it is desired to have the rack, and nails driven through these end-boards into the ends of the side-boards f, f, secure them. ‘The sides may he farther strengthened by pieces of board on the outside of them, and fitted into the ‘trough. A roof may be put over all if desired. With a roof, the fodder is kept entirely from the weather, and no seeds or chaff can get into the wool.” _ Trovers.—Threshed grain, chopped roots, &c., when fed to sheep should be laid in troughs. With any of the preceding forms of racks, ex septing fig. 34, a separate trough would be required. For a number of years I have used those of the following form, and have found them every way satisfactory. SHEEP-TROUGH. One of the side-boards is u: aally about ten and the other eleven inches ‘wide. The feet are commonly of two-inch plank, rising high enough on _ the sides to keep the sides of the trough firm in their places. In our snowy climate they are turned over after feeding, and when falls uf snow are anticipated, one end is laid on the yard fence.* The following elaborately ingenious contrivance for keeping grain where ; Fea x sheep can feed on it at will, is from the “Book of the Farm,” and I ap- pend the author’s description of it. Fig. 36. 5 Fig. 37 y VERTICAL SECTION OF INTERIOR OF GRAIN BOX. GRAIN BOX FOR SHEEP. “There is a mode of preserving corn (grain) for sheep on turnips which has been tried with success in Fife. It consists of a box like a hay-rack, in which the grain is at all times kept closely shut up, except when sheep wish to eat it, and then they get it by /asimple contrivance. The box a 6 contains the grain, into which it is poured through the small hinged lid y. The cover cd concealing the grain, is also hinged, and when elevated the _ sheep have access to the grain. Its elevation is effected by the pressure of the sheep’s fore- feet upon the platform e f, which, moving as a lever, acts upon the lower ends of the up- g and hk, raises them up, and elevates the cover ed, under which their heads then find admittance into the box. A similar apparatus gives them access to the other side | of the box. The whole machine can be moved about to convenient places by means ol * To you, Sir, living on the ocean shore of South Carolina, and who, I think, have not visited the North, ' in the depth of winter, the idea of a farmex’s finding the racks used by him the day before, buried under from eighteen inches to three feet of snow, and having to dig them out, may be rather anodd one! But nevertheless, itis a matter of no very rare occurrence, at least at the lowest depth mentioned i See Farmers’ Library, vol. ii., No. 10, p. 476. ¢ P04 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. four wheels. The construction of the interior of the box being somewhat peculiar, another fig. 37, is given as a ertical section of it, where 5 is the hinged lid by which the grainy ts put into the box, whence it is at once received into the hopper d, the bottom of which! being open, and brought near that of the box, a small space only is left for the grain te: pass into the box, the hopper forming the grain-store, @ is the cover of the box raised on its hinges by the rod f, acted-upon by the platform e f, fig. 35; and, when in this po sition, the sheep put their heads below a at c, and eat the gram at d. Machines of sim lar construction to this have also been devised to serve poultry with grain at will.” [ never have thought it best in feeding or fattening any animals, or, at: all events, any quadrupeds, to allow them grain a¢ will—preferring stated | feeds ; and the same remark is applicable tofodder. If this system is de- parted {from in using depository racks, as heretofore recommended, it igy because it is rendered necessary by the circumstances of the case. A Me-- rino store-sheep, allowed grain ad libitum, would stand a chance to infli an injury on itself, and I cannot but believe that grain so fed would gen- erally be productive of more injury than benefit. | Barns AND Sneps, &c.—Sheep barns and sheds, at the North, are fre quently made very elaborate contrivances—particularly on paper. But? expensive barns, with feeding-cellars and other arrangements for keeping sheep within doors during a greater portion of the winter, would, it strikes ; me, be entirely out of place in the South. Even in our rigorous climate none but the breeders of Saxons pretend to make a regular practice or feeding under cover. 4 Humanity and economy both dictate, here, that sheep be provided with shelters to lie under nights, and to which they can resort a¢ will. In our severe winter storms, it is sometimes necessary, or at least by far the best, to feed under shelter fora day or two. It is not an uncommon circum- stance in New-York and New-England, for snow to fall to the depth of 20 or 30 inches within 24 or 48 hours, and then to be succeeded by a strong and intensely cold west or north-west wind of two or three days’ continuance,* which lifts the snow, blocking up the roads, and piling huge drifts to the leeward of fences, barns, &c. A flock without shelter will huddle closely together, turning their backs to the storm, constantly step- ping and thus treading down the snow as it rises about them. Strong, close coated sheep do not seem to suffer as much from the cold, for a period, as | would be expected. But it is next to impossible to feed them enough or half enough, under such circumstances, without an immense waste of hay —entirely impossible, without racks. ‘The hay is whirled away in an in- stant by the wind, and even if racks are used, the sheep leaving their hud dle where they were kept warm and even moist by the melting of the snow in their wool, soon get chilled and are disposed to return to their huddle. Imperfectly filled with food, the supply of animal heat is lowered, and at the end of the second or third day, the feeble ones have sunk down hope lessly, the yearlings and oldish ones have received a shock which nothing but careful nursing will recover them from, and even the strongest have suffered an injurious loss in condition. Few holders of more than 40 or 50 sheep now attempt to get along here without some kind of shelters. The following (fig. 38) is a very common form of a Northern sheep-barn with sheds. The sheds front the south, or, what is a better arrangement, one fronts the east, and the other, being turned to a right angle to the direction of this, fronts the south. 1] have represented hole racks, as in fig. 32, running round the sheds, as ulthough not yet in general use, they are undoubtedly the best in such sit: 4 eT eri» wind-starms are of much longer continuance in many parts of New-England. SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN 1HE SOUTH. 204 mations. The sheds are not usually framed or silled—but are supported iby posts of some durable timber set in the ground. Thé roofs are formed lof boards “‘battened”’ with slabs. The barn has no partitions within, and iz entirely filled with hay. Fig. 38 : | | | | SS i SHEEP-BARN. There are many situations where these open sheds are very liable to have snow drifted under them by certain winds, and they are subject in all cases im severe gales, to have the snow carried over them to fall down in large drifts in front, which gradually encroach on the sheltered space, and are very inconvenient—particularly when they thaw. I therefore much prefer sheep-houses covered on all sides, with the exception of a wide door-way or ingress and egress, and one or two windows for ventilation when it is necessary. They are convenient for yarding sheep, for the various process- 28 where this is required, as for shearing, marking, sorting, ‘“doctoring,” Fig. 39, ‘ THE OUTSIDE STELL. &e., and especially so, for lambing places or the confinement of newiy shorn sheep in cold storms. They should be spacious enough, so that in ? 205 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTF. addition to the outside racks, others can be placed temporarily throw the middle when required. {n many parts of Scotland, “Stells,” as they are called, are made of to shelter sheep. Fig. 39 on the preceding page is the form of one giv in “ The Book of the Farm,” and the author’s description of it : “In a storm, their provender cannot be given to the sheep upon snow, safely and conv: iently, as ground-dvift may blow and cover both; and no place is so suitable for the purpy asa stell..... It may be formed of planting or high stone-wall. Either will afford sh ter; but the former most, though most costly, as it should be fenced by a stone-wall. this class I conceive the form represented (fig. 38) a good one, and which may be ct! acterized as an outside stell. . . . . The circumscribing strong black line is a stone-wall | feet high; the dark ground within is covered with trees. Its four rounded projections shi ter a corresponding number of recesses embraced between them, so that let the wind bb! from what quarter it may, two of the recesses will be always sheltered from the storm, ‘!! size of this stell is regulated by the number of sheep kept; but this rule may be reme bered in regard to its accommodation for stock, that each recess occupies about § part of space comprehended between the extremities of the 4 projections; so thatin astell coverr 4 acres—which is perhaps the least size they should be, every recess will contain 4 an acre The two following are forms of stells, composed of stone-wall, witha planting. Fig. 40. ITT ly eet SOT are ANCIENT STELLS. Figures 42 and 43, on the following page, are forms of circular stell . the first made by stone-walls and planting, as in fig. 39. The open spac a is occupied by the sheep, and @ is a funnel-shaped opening to it. On the whole I should consider fig. 42 preferable to any of the precedin forms. Figure 43 represents one of the same form, but without th planting, with a stack in the middle, &c. Either of tke stells which ar formed in part of trees, would be convenient in severe winds, would fort excellent shades in summer, and would constitute highly ornamental ol jects on the farm, and in the landscape. On the most northerly of th Southern mountains, where considerable snow falls, they might even b good contrivances for winter shelter. They might also be convenient o the lowlands farther south, provided the shelter of evergreens could b made dense enough to protect the sheep from the winter rains. In thi case, the stell or covert might be of any shape, and ought to have no cer * SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 207 al opening. It would be merely a dense clump of evergreen trees, for esheep to take refuge under in storms of rain, and it might be surround- on the outside with a tight board fence or stone-wall,if much expesed Fig. 42. THE INSIDE CIRCULAR STELL. the sweep of cold winds. As the sheep would le among the trees, a jmp 50 or 60 feet in diameter—though 100 feet would be better—would fice for 100 sheep. We = rl eZ : aN eens a eT Ty CO era ow Vs Telnie © = Tar @ia — Bala y= IGUAL vi Bi air ike i Mil [eT Mit. i ws — ye amatin apa Aaa ws 7 ; = muterir ret TICs UW z am THE CIRCULAR STELL FITTED UP WITH HAY-RACKS. |But in determining upon the best winter shelters, for the variovs re ins in the South, the fact must not be lost sight of that cold rains, or ins of any temperature, when immediately succeeded by cold or freezing ‘ather, or cold, piercing winds, are more hurtful to sheep than even snow- ‘1ms—-and that consequently sheep must be adequately guarded against em. There must also be suitable shelter from any storms to which the untry is subject, 7x the lambing season. Any person with the least ex- frience can determine whether an inclosed clump of trees will answer lese purposes, in his own immediate region. 1 think it very probable that in the Gulf States, and some of the lower (lantic ones—particularly in regions near the ocean—these tree coverts, Se of nae 208 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH surrounded by fences to break the winds, would be found sufficient. sections infested with wolves, they might also be made to answer for folé by carrying the fence to the requisite hight, to bar the ingress of the wo But farther north, and on the high lands and mountains, better shelte: would, I am inclined to think, in the end, be found more economizal. The simplest and cheapest kind of shed is represented in the followin cut (fig. 44). It is formed by poles or rails, the upper ends resting on) strong horizontal pole supported by crotched posts set in the ground. may be rendered rain-procf by pea-haulm, straw, or pine boughs. W.HOWLAND SC ————_—__ a SHED OF RAILS. In a region where lumber is very cheap, planks or boards (of sufficien thickness not to spring downward and thus open the roof) battened wit) slabs, may take the place of the poles and boughs; and they would makh a tighter and more durable roof. Ifthe lower ends of the boards or pole: are raised a couple of feet from the ground, by placing a log under them the shed will shelter more sheep. These movable sheds may be connected with hay-barns, “ hay-barracks,' stacks, or they may surround an inclosed space with a stack in the middli like fig. 43. In the latter case, however, the yard should be square, in stead of round, on account of the divergence in the lower ends of tht boards or poles, which the round form would render necessary. 4 Sheds of this description are frequently made, in the North, betweer two stacks. The end .of the horizontal supporting pole is placed on a stack-pens, when the stacks are built, and the middle is propped crotched posts. The supporting-pole may rest, in the same way, on th upper girts of two hay-barracks; or two such sheds (at angles with eack other) might form wings to this structure. The “ barrack,” as it is pre vincially termed in the North, would, it strikes me, afford a most econom ical and a most convenient way of storing fodder in the South. It is ea sily movable, so that it possesses the same advantage that stacks do, it manuring different parts of the field or farm. On the other hand, the fod der cannot be drenched by a winter rain, as in a partly fed out stack Hay can be more rapidly stored in it than on a stack at any time, and yor can pitch into it to the last moment, when threatened with rain, withom! stopping to round up the top as is necessary in a stack. The outside not weather-beaten and damaged, as is the case with the sides, and fre quently with a considerable of the top of a stack. Fig. 45 (on the nex page) represents the form of a barrack. It is 12 feet square on the bot tom, and the frame is formed by girting together four strong poles, 16 fee long, at the bottom, and 6 feet fromthe bottom. Boards 6 feet long a nailed perpendicularly on the girts. Two-inch holes are bored at con venient distances through the corner poles, so that the roof, which re SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 208 on pins thrust through these holes, can be raised or lowered, at pleasure. it is occasionally lowered as the fodder gets lower in the barrack, so that rain or snow shall not drive under it. Itseems to me that this structure | would be remarkably well adapted | to the storing and feeding out of un- Fig. 45. threshed peas, which, as has been _ remarked in a former Letter, are so _ advantageously raised at the South, and constitute so admirable a feed for sheep. On all large sheep-farms con- venience requires that there be one barn of considerable size, to con- tain the shearing-floor, and the ne- | cessary conveniences about it for | yarding the sheep, &c. This should also, fur economy, be a hay-barn, (where hay is used,) and from its erence necessary size (for the shearing- floor), it should hold hay for 400 sheep. It may be constructed in the corner of four fields, so that four hundred sheep can be fed from it, with- _out making improperly sized flocks. At this barn it would be expedient | to make the best shelters, and to bring together all the breeding-ewes on ; the farm, if their number did not exceed 400. Thus the shepherd would | be saved much travel at all times, and particularly at the lambing-time, | and each flock would be under his almost constant supervision. I offer the following ground-plan of a barn with fixtures, &c., as one which I think will be found well adapted to the purpose above specified. Che upper is the north part of the plan. Fig. 46. The dotted lines a, a, a, a, are the fences dividing four fields, which would | corner at the south-east corner ofthe barn. The barn is surrounded by double | lines, and the sheds by double lines on the backs and ends—the dots in front of them, representing the crotched posts supporting their front. The _ Single black lines round the yards, represent tight board fences, which | screen the four yards 4, c, d, e, from every wind. There are two pumps and troughs at 4, h, which accommodate the whole four fields, if a want of | 8prings or streams in them render these necessary. The sheds are so ar : 2D ‘ 210 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. om : — a a tat ae ranged that even without the screens they entirely shut out the north an west winds—the prevailing and severe winter ones of this region—and if other ones are more prevalent in other regions, the sheds can be changed accordingly. Each of the sheds is 50 feet long and 12 feet wide—six, square feet being the smallest proper allowance of sheltered area for eacr sheep. The barn is 48 feet square, a floor 13 feet wide running east anc west through the center, for shearing and for the drawing in of hay. Am, alley 4 feet wide and 8 feet high (boarded up on the side towara the) mow, and covered at the top) cuts off the lower part of each bay from the) east wall of the barn. This is for carrying hay into the yards 4, c. It is; carried into the yards d, e, from the large doors at each end of the shearing» floor (or from smaller ones cut through them.) The south bay is repre- sented as divided by a temporary fence, cutting it into two pens f, g. “he? outside inclosure ¢, for yarding the sheep, communicating by a door with f, and g being used as a room to tie up wool in, presents precisely the same arrangement which is exhibited in the cut of the shearing-barn” (fig. 22) in Letter eat ie The barn here given (fig. 46) is probably larger than would be neces- sary for 400 sheep, in most parts of the South. Its necessary size is a question to be entirely determined by the climate. For large flocks of” sheep, I should regard the storage of some hay or other fodder for winter as an indispensable precautionary measure, at least, in any part of the United States ; and, other things being equal, the farther north, or the more — elevated the land, the greater would be the necessary amount to be stored. The shearing-floor shortened to 30 or 35 feet, would still, perhaps, be f sufficiently commodious, and this would reduce the dimensions of the barn east and west 13 or 18 feet; and one of the bays might be dispensed with. But having constructed so large, so smooth, and so tight a barn-floor as_ the shearing one ought to be, it would be good economy to use it for the threshing of grain. One of the bays, therefore, might be used for the storage of grain in the sheaf. I have always considered this an excellent arrangement in a Northern barn of this description, as in our cold climate the sheep require much straw litter in their sheds, vards, &e. Thrown out to them daily, as threshed, much bright straw and chaff will be con-— sumed by them—particularly of greenish cut oats. j The yards c, e, in fig. 46 are represented but the width of the barn, 48 feet. If these were reduced too much, by diminishing the size of the barn, — the shed of ¢ could be carried farther west at 7, and that of e farther north — at 7, being connected with the barn by wind-breakers, composed of a tight — board fence, as high as the summit of the sheds. Or, what would perhaps — be better, the fences thrown forward in a straight line from the ends of — these two sheds might be continued until they intersected each other, and — a fence from their point of intersection to the south-east corner of the barn would divide the two yards. Freepine Suerp with oTuEeR Stock.—Sheep should not run or be fed, in yards, with any other stock. Cattle hook them, often mortally. Colts — tease and frequently injure them. It is often said that “ colts will pick u i what sheep leave.” Well-managed sheep rarely leave anything—and if they chance to, it is better to rake it up and throw it into the colts’yard, ; chan to feed tnem together. If sheep are not required to eat their feeds — pretty clean, they will soon learn to waste large quantities. But if sheep ' are overfed with either hay or grain, it is not proper to compel them by starvation to come back and eat it. They will not unless sorely pinched Clean out the troughs,—or rake up the hay, and the next time teed less, 5 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH, 211 __ Hay-Houpers.— Where hay or other fodder is thrown out of the upper _ doors of a barn into the sheep-yard, as it always must necessarily be in a _barn constructed like fig. 38, or any mere hay-barn, or where it is thrown _ from a barrack or stack, the sheep immediately rush on it, trampling it and soiling it, and the succeeding forkfulls fall on their backs, filling their wool with dust, seed and chaff. This is avoided by hay-holders—yards 10 feet square—either portable by being made of posts and boards, or simply a pen of rails, placed under the doors of the barns, and by the sides of each stack or barrack. The hay is pitched into the holder, in fair weather enough for a day’s foddering at a time, and is taken from this by forkfulls and placed in the racks. I would here offer a necessary caution in rela- on to the use of rails or poles, for stack-pens or hay-holders, The poles should be so small as to entirely prevent the sheep from inserting their heads ‘between them after hay. A sheep will often insert its head where the opening is wide snough for that purpose, shove it along or get crowded along, to where the opening is not wide enough to withdraw the head, ana it will hang there until observed and extricated by the shepherd. If, as it often happens, it is thus caught when its fore parts are elevated by climb- ing up the side of the pen, it will continue to lose its fore footing in its struggles, and will soon choke to death. Winter Dry Freep ror Sueep.—The proper dry winter fodder for sheep has already been repeatedly alluded to, in general terms. Volumes have heen expended on this subject, particularly in Germany—and curious and elaborate systems of feeding given. In Germany great stress is laid on _ variety in the winter fodder. Inthe German Farmer’s Encyclopedia, the | following table of the proper variations and amounts of feed is given by, | Perri. TABLE 15. an Loth, Loth, Loth, ia} Day. | Lbs. Se os Morning. Lbs, | equal Noon. Lbs. | equal Evening. bi as ee A a Ne ry QF) (a 1 | 21 |hay 21 thay 21 |hay ‘ - £1 11 1 Irye straw 1 | 22 thay 1 1 |rye straw lee 23 |bean straw 26 |vetch-hay 23 |bean straw 4 4), 1 wheat straw 1 sainfoin 1 pvt straw See 6 joat straw 21 |hay 1 6 |oat straw 6} 1-| 6 |artichoke stalk 1 | 19 |red clover 1 6 |artichoke stalk { am] 1 8 |turkey wheat 1 | 12 |lucern 1 8 ferey-wheat stew} ; 8 1 8 |buckwheat straw 1 | 16 |hay 1 8 |buckwheat stram. |! De) 1 6 joat straw 7 |horse-beans 1 6 |oat straw j 10 19 !red clover 19 jred clover 19 |red clover in 18 |sainfoin 18 |sainfoin 18 |sainfoin 12 es 6 |millet straw 1 6 |millet straw iL 6 ate straw 13 30 jlentil straw 21 |hay 30 {lentil straw 14 30 |pea straw 21 jhay 30 |pea straw | 15 30 jbarley straw 1 artichoke stalk 30 |barley straw 16 |: 1+} 10 |horse-bean straw 1 | 10 jhorse-bean straw 1 | 10 |horse-bean straw |; 17 1 1 jrye straw 1 | 11 Joat straw 1 1 |rye straw | ‘ 18 1 3 | wheat straw Falk 9 joat straw 1 3 |wheat straw 19 | 1) 6 {rye straw 1 turkey-wheat 1 | 3 |wheat straw hi 20,51 6 |oat straw 1 turkey-wheat 1 6 joat straw 21 1 3 | wheat straw 22 |artichoke stalk 1 6 |oat straw 22 | | 30 jlentil straw 1 | 30 |vetch straw | 30 jlentil straw 23. #1 6 loat straw 1 6 | wheat straw 1 6 loat straw | The same writer gives the following: as the proper winter féed of a: | ewe, the month preceding lambing : 212 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. TABLE 16. In the morning, } lb. of good oat straw. Istday..¢ .. noon ....} -. of good hay of clover. -- evening..} .. of good barley straw. i -- morning .} .. of millet straw. ad dey .. i -- noon ....2 .. of potatoes with 4 oz, of chopped straw, and 4 oz. of oats, -- evening..} .. of Relies straw. : -- morning .} .. of hay. 3d any .§ en, DOOD csentane OL boy, -- evening..1 .. of wheat, oat, barley or buckwheat straw. -- morning .} -. of summer straw. ahaa -- noon ....4 .. of chopped straw, with 3 oz. oats and 3 oz. bran, moistened ha with water. +. evening,.} -. of winter straw. -- morning -} -. of hay. i5th day... -- noon ....2 .. of potatoes with } lb. of chopped straw. -- evening..} -. of winter straw. -- morning .} -. of hay. 6th day.. -- noon ....asin 4th day, | -- evening..1 lb. of straw. Allthis would be infinitely ‘more nice than wise,” in any part of the United States. Variations of dry fodder are well enough, but hundreds and thousands of Northern flocks receive nothing but ordinary hay, con- sisting mainly of Timothy, (.P//eum pratense,) some Red and White Clo- — ver, ( Trifolium pratense et repens,) and frequently a sprinkling of June on Spear grass, (Poa pratensis,) during the entire winter. Others receive an aecasional fodder of corn-stalks and straw—and some farmers give a daily feed of grain through the winter. Where hay is the principal feed, it may } ve well, where it is convenient, to give corn-stalks (or “ blades”) every fifth or sixth feed, or even once a day. Or the daily feed, not of hay, might alternate between blades, pea-straw, straw of the cereal grains, &c. Should any other fodder besides hay be the principal one, as, for example, corn vlades or pea-haulm, each of the other fodders might be alternated in the same way. It is mainly, in my judgment, a question of convenience with — the flock-master, provided a proper supply of palatable nutriment within a— groper compass, is given. Hay, clover, properly cured pea-haulm, and corn- blades are palatable to the sheep, and each contain the necessary supply of nutriment in the quantity which the sheep can readily take into its stom ach. Consequently, from either of these, the sheep can derive its entire subsistence. The same remarks may, possibly, apply to greenish cut oat — and barley straw; but it would not, I apprehend, be economical or alto- cether safe to confine any kind of sheep to the straw of the cereal grains unless some of those little hardy varieties of sheep which would be of no_ value in this country. Experiment will readily show the flock-master what kinds of food are palatable and agree with the health of his flock. The following exceedingly valuable Table, prepared by Boussingault, will give the value of various kinds of feed in comparison with ordinary natu- r«l meadow hay, as ascertained by himself, Von Thaér, Block, and other distinguished Agricultural Chemists. The results are obtained by chemi- ca) analysis, and by actual experiments in feeding. The amount of nitro- gen .n 100 parts is made the chemical test of value, as it shows the quan tity of fibrin, albumen, and casein, (by multiplying by 6.3.) _ The experi- mental result is obtained by weighing the animal and the feed, and giving him enough of each to maintain him in good condition, SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOJTH. 915 TABLE 17. FODDERS. TABLE OF THE NUTRITIVE EQUIVALENTS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF FUDDERS. ie 1 3 te rede) , a o oy Be] &@ [ass : 5 Of esfeg2] Pp] x 3 o 5 2 Kinds of Food. Ee Sop Bese || 2 8 2 2 “3 | 2 Periackes ERIS (Ees|/ ae] R la lesley ea s 2 |ze"] 4 3 Ordinary natural meadow hay--...| 11.0} 1.34] 1.15] 100] 200] 100] 109] 100] 100 Do. of fine quality.-............. 14.0} 1.50] 1.30] 98 Wospselect.acsc == 20 ssccceeckeces 18.8] 2.40} 2.00] 58 Do. freed from woody stems..... 14.0) 2.44) 2.10) 55 listeermphaye Gone ee nes cneee 16.6] 1.66) 1.38) 83 90 90 100 90, 90 Dombasle, Red clover hay, 2d year’s growth.} 10.1] 1.70) 1.54) 75} 100} 90 90 [Crud. Red clover cut in flower, green, do.} 76.0 0.64] 311} 430 450 ioe New wheat straw, crop 1841.....- 26.0) 0.36] 0.27) 426] 200} 360] 150] 450] 300/500 Rieder. Old wheat straw.......----.----- 8.5] 0.53] 0.49} 935 Do. do. lower parts of the stalk...| 5.3] 0.43] 0.41] 280 Do. do. upper part of do.andear..| 9.4] 1.42) 1.33] 86 New rye-straw.-..-..-------.--- 18.7] 0.30) 0.24] 479} 200] 500} 150] 666 Oldgdowseeerietisisscs sues enines 12.6} 0.50) 0.42} ©50 IAL StVAW,«/sinicfoe sie /eieie cine eis noise > 21.0) 0.36] 0.30) 383} 200] 200] 150] 190] 200/400 Schwertz. BanleyidOvccsiesseen cee l scence. 11.0} 0.30) 0.25) 460] 193) 180] 150] 150] 200/400 do. BeadGrereaeeerasecas sticcecces 8.5] 1.95) 1.79) 64] 165) 200] 150] 130] 150/90 Pohl. MMMM Cf Ores atsins oie win Jae ce anes 19.0} 0.96} 9.78) 147 250 Buckwheat do.-...-......---..... 11.6} 0.54] 0.48) 240 200 Wentill dO. c2e.\ 2-00-02 - -----| 9-2] 1.18) 1.01) 114] 160) 200 130] 150 pects ay in flower and dried } 11.0] 1.16] 1.14] 101 195 1001 ROLALGMtOpseen= se sS oak wicisenis nici 76.0) 2.30] 055) 209 300 Field-beet leaves.........--...... 88.9) 4.50] 0.50} 230] 600 600 CWarrotidGseeee tect: Sos seciedaue 70.9} 2.94] - 0.85) 135 Jerusalem artichoke stems....... 86.4) 2.70} 0.37) 311 325 Lime-trees, young shoots......... 55.0} 3.25] 1.45] 79] 73 Canada Poplar do....-.......... 0.86] 134| 67 MOBKUdOs. cnc ceed = 0.92] 125] 83 | |Acacia do. (autumn) 0.72! 169 | |Drum cabbage.....-.-..------.-.- 0.28} 411) 556} 500! 250] 429] 600 || |Swedish turnip.....-.--......... 0.17) 676 300 300) 250 MEI MUTNI pss Vee ice ewe eels e cee’ 0.13) 885] 533] 600} 290] 526] 450 | |Field-beet (1838)................. 0.21) 548) 366} 400} 250} 460] 250 | |\Do. white Silesian..-.-.......... 5.6] 1. 0.18) 669! 366; : ip Garrotse eae aeeen tees seas . c 0.30) 382! 205) 250) 225] 300] 250/380 Boussingault. |) {Jerusalem artichokes (1839)-.-... 79.2] 1.60] 0.33) 348 280 do. fe Dor (S36). tees nse ete. c ences 79.5] 2.20) 0.42] 274 Potatoes (1838).-........-.-.-..- 69.9) 1.50] 0.36] 319] 216! 200] 150} 200) 200/280 Eouete. | Bemondseh) ec en 79.4| 1.80] 0.37] 311 | |Do. after keeping in the pit..-.--. 76.8] 1.18} 0.30} 383] 400 || |Cider apple pulp dried in the air..| 6.4} 0.63] 0.59) 195 ) |Beet-root from the sugar mill..... 70.0 0.38] 303 | |Vetches in seed..............--. 14.6] 5.13] 4.37) 26] 30) 54 66! 40 Mield-beansis.= --.222seceseece oe 7.9] 5.50] 5.11! 23] 30] 54} 50] 73] 40 White peas (dry)....-...---..... 8.6] 4.20} 3.84] 97] 30] 54] 48] 66] 40 |White haricots................-- 5.0] 4.30} 4.58} 25 39 Wertil sec cacmie ower esos ca caebec 9.0} 4.40] 4.00] 29 New Indian Com.......-........ 18.0} 2.00) 1.64} 70 52 59 Boussingault. buckwheat -. 2.222.525 22--cccee 12.5) 2.40} 2.10) 55 64 Barleyn (836) ssc soc cmseccecc cue 13.2} 2.02} 1.76] 65] 33] 61] 53] 76] 50 Barley-meal...........2...20-006 13.0] 2.46) 2.14) 54 (DES CICBT Seer tes eee eee 20.8] 2.20} 1.74] 68 val 86} 60 Ee OUEST) Ea 12.4] 2.99] 1.92] 60 RVEVGBSS) i wcsise cs cdeo cenwteeeens 11.5) 2.27) 2.00] 58 Wheat (1836, ‘Alsace)_. seeceen ded & 10.5) 2.33} 2.09] 55) 27) 52! 46] 64) 40 No. from highly manured soil.....| 16.6] 3.18} 2.65] 43 : 10 Some epecimens {Recent Bran..-.....-.----...... 37.1) 2.18] 1.36] 85 es ; nretwitaeenek || | Wheat husks or chaff.-.......... 7.6] 0.94) 0.85} 135 Rice (Piedmont).-.....----...... 13.4] 1.39] 1.20) 96 Gold of Pleasure seed (Madia)....} 8&0] 4.00! 3.67) 31 WONC AKC es da coe cs ofc e sean 1, b 5.06] 23 Linseed cake 5.20) 22) 42) 180 Raa gk)55 6 BGO ROBO OOS EBEOrobe ser 4.92; 23 Madia do.......2----..--2 BbeeS4 5.51] 21 Hemp do......-.....-..-..-.--0- 4.21) 27 | Poppy do........----- imisi=ininisis 5.36) 21 TY Hoh 12 a 5.24] 99 | Beech-mast do i .03| 3.3L] 35 | | | |Arachis (Pindars) do..-....-..... 6.6] 8.89! 8.33] 14 ! ll MARV EACORNEsee os a siacic\s/=i<),'< njece ne | 0.80} 143 | { | Refuse of the wine-press, air- dried j 43.9| 3.31] 1.71] 68 62 | 75\ : 214 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. : —_—_—— — ——— n—wnwnw aaa The great value of pea-haulm, as shown in the above Table, is worthy ot the particular notice of the Southern flock-master. Also that of millet straw, another crop peculiarly congenial to the Southern States, provided it can be cured so that sheep will eat it. Corn-stalks are not, unfortunate. — ly, included inthe Table. According to Petri, 100 pounds of corn “straw,” {including stalks and Jeaves, 1 suppose,) contains but 2 as much nutriment as the same weight of * aromatic meadow hay,” and not so much by } aa an equal weight of oat or pea straw, which he makes equivalent to each other! My opinion is that this by no means indicates the comparative — value of well cured corn-stalks. No analysis of them now occurs to me, — in any authority which I have on hand. Mr. Ellsworth, of the Patent Of fice, stated in the Cultivator in 1842, that the juice of corn-stalks, on Beaume’s Saccharometer, is equal in saccharine matter with that of the cane in this country, five times greater than that of the Northern sugar- maple, (Acer saccharinum, ) and three times that of beet! The daily ex- periments of our farmers demonstrate the absurdity of placing corn-stalks — below the value of the cereal straws. Cured green and bright they are a highly valuable fodder, and are relished by all herbivorous animals. My friend, James M. Ellis, Esq. of Onondaga, N. Y., one of the best managing flock-masters of this State, has fed corn-stalks largely to his sheep for sey- eral years and with decided succes. Errect or Foop 1n THE Propuction or Woort.—The fact has been be- | fore alluded to that well fed sheep produce more wool than poorly fed — ones. The question now arises—if the effect on the condition (flesh) of the sheep is the same, will one kind of food produce more wool than another ? No doctrine is more clearly recognized in Agricultural Chemistry, than that animal tissues derive their chemical components from the same com- pens existing in their food.* The analyses of Liebig, Johnston, Scherer, — layfair, Boeckmann, Mulder, &c., show that the chemical composition of — wool, hair, hoofs, nails, horns, feathers, lean meat, blood, cellular tissue, nerves, &c. are nearly identical. The organic part of wool, according to Johnston,t consists of carbon 50.65, hydrogen 7.03, nitrogen 17.71, oxy gen and sulphur 24.61. The inorganic constituents are small. When burned, it leaves but 2°0 per cent of ash. The large quantity of nitro gen (17.71) contained in wool, shows that its production is increased by highly azotized food. This is fully verified by the experiments made on Saxon sheep, in Silesia, by Reaumur, whose Table I append. A striking correspondence will be found to exist between the amount of wool and the amount of nitrogen in the food. TABLE 18. Increase of Kinds of food. weight in live animal. 1000 pounds of raw potatoes, with salt....... 1000—t.. to “without salt. ..... 1000 =... raw mangel-wurzel ..........- 1000 lk MCGRO eweregapacedaccwwedamabn 1000... SOHEHE whois sbiaminas oa cae R as 1000... RYE wil Balle a. 24.0 cdusne ane 1000 =k. rye, without salt.............- 1000—t. DOK oe cc cacb nce sscndeas cdee< 1000S... Davey pace rena naens oa EE ae 1000 =... buckwheat....... saieesseonen= 1000~—tt. GOCE DSyiew spy e ado cede ee ae. a600. i; hay, with straw, without other TOddEY doce nite w en we rniemitale - 1600 .. whisky, still-grains or wash... . * For full information on this whole subject, see Liebig's Animal Chemistry, Part I and Ii. t See Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry—Lecture XVIII. Analyses of the horny tissues, by Scherer, wil] be found in the Appendix to Liebig’s Animal Chemistry. SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTR, 215 ee 5 The singular difference stated in the Table, between the amount of wocl produced by “ good hay,” and “hay with straw without other fodder,” | confess is scarcely credible to me. It may be a misprint in the Table from which I copy. The peculiar value of pease not.only in increasing the wool, where they rank jirst,* but in the average comparative increase which they produce in gil the tissues, is again worthy of notice. Errect or Foop tn propuctne Fat anp Muscie—tThe increase of fat and muscle, as of wool, depends upon the nature of the food. It would be foreign from my purpose to enter into an elaborate theoretical exam- ination of this subject. Liebig, in Parts I. and II. of his Animal Chemis- try, has covered the whole ground, and to him | take the liberty to refex you. Mr. Spooner, writing for England, where the production of flesh and fat is the primary object of Sheep Husbandry, has given a synopsis of Liebig’s positions, analyses, &c., in his chapter (X XI.) on Feeding and Fattening—and the substance of this is again repeated by Mr. Morrell in his chapters on the same subjects, in The American Shepherd. To either of the latter 1 would refer you for swfficzent details for practical purposes, or for full information, to Liebig. The Tables of Boussingault and Reaumur, already given, (Tables 17 and 18,) sufficiently indicate the value of the various grains, straw, roots, &c., in fattening. It is not very common, in the North, for wool-growers to fatten their wethers, for market, by extra winter feeding. Some give them a little more generous keep the winter before they are to be turned off, and then sell them when they have attained their maximum fatness the succeeding fall. When winter fattening is attempted, sheep require warm, dry shel- ters, and should receive, in addition to all the hay they will eat, meal twice a day in troughs—or meal once and chopped roots once. The equivalent of from half a pint to a pint of (yellow) corn meal per head per diem is about as much as ordinary flocks of Merino wethers will profitably con- sume, though in selected flocks consisting of large animals, this amount is frequently exceeded. ae FEEDING GRAIN To STORE-SHEEP IN WiInTER.—The expediency of feed- ing grain to store-sheep in winter depends much upon circumstances. If in a climate where they can obtain a proper supply of grass or other green esculents, it would, of course, be unnecessary. Neither is it a matter of necessity where the ground is frozen or covered with snow for weeks or months, provided the sheep be supplied plentifully with good dry fodder. Near markets where the coarse grains find a good and ready sale, it is not usual in the North, to feed grain. Remote from markets, it is generally fed by the holders of large flocks. Oats are commonly preferred, and they are fed at the rate of a gill a head per day. Some feed half the same amount of (yellow) corn. Fewer sheep—particularly lambs, year- lings, and crones—get thin and perish, where they receive a daily feed of grain; they consume less hay; and their fleeces are increased im weight. On the whole, therefore, it is considered good eccaomy. Where no grain is fed, three daily feeds of hay are given. It is a common and very good _practice to feed greenish cut oats in the bundle, at noon, and give but two feeds of hay—one at morning and one at night. A few feed greenish cut peas in the same way. In warm, thawing weather when sheep get * With the exception of “hay and straw ”’—the given product of which, in wool, I have already stated wiust undoubtedly De misprinted. 216 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. te the ground, and refuse dry hay, a little grain assists materially in keeping up their strength and condition. This may furnish a useful hint for many parts of the South. When the feed is shortest in winter, in the South, there are many localities where sheep would get enough wrass to take off their appetite for dry hay, but not quite enough to kee them in prime condition. A moderate daily feed of oats or pease heed in the depository racks, would keép them strong, in good plight for the lambing season, and increase their weight of wool. F Few Northern farmers feed Indian corn to store- -sheep. It is consid- ered “too hot and stimulating,” and sheep are thought to be more liable | to become “ cloyed” on it than on oats, pease, &c. I never have fed it to sheep sufficiently to speak advisedly on this point. A neighboring flock- master whose admirable arrangements for keeping sheep are only equaled by his usual success, lost most of a large flock of lambs a few winters since. They received all they would eat of the best hay, and, as the owner supposed, a half gill of corn a head per day. They were in fine order in the beginning, and for some time into the winter. During a thaw, when they got a little off from their feed, and looked “ hollow,” the shep- herd, without the knowledge of the owner, increased the feed of corn. This caused them to eat still less hay, and the shepherd not only continued but increased the allowance of the corn as their appetite for hay dimin- ished. In a short time they ate scarcely any hay, and soon after began to eat their corn very irregularly. Their stomachs were now so completely deranged, that they w ould not eat anything, i quantities sufficient for their subsistence, and they perished rapidly and miserably. The same consequences might doubtless have ensued from feeding other grains, in the same improper manner. But I am inclined to think that the evil would have been less rapid and remediless with some other grains. I do not consider yellow corn a very safe feed, at least for lambs and yearlings. From the obviously different character on the larger Southern varieties, I presume they would be less, and very probably not at all, objectionable for sheep feed. Half a gill of yellow corn, or a gill of oats per head, is a sufficient daily allowance of grain. While there can be nothing more ab- surd than the German starving system to increase the fineness of the wool, excessive fatness is not to be aimed at, especially in breeding-ewes. Store sheep should be kept in good, fair , plump condition. Lambs and yearlings may be as fat as they will become on proper feeding. It will not do to suffer sheep to get thin in the winter, with the idea that their condition can at any time be readily raised by better feed, as with the horse or ox. It is always difficult, and unless properly managed, expensive and hazardous, to attempt to raise the condition of a poor flock in the winter—especially if they have reached that point where they mani- fest weakness. If the feeding of a liberal allowance of grain be suddenly commenced, fatal diarrhea will frequently supervene. All extra feeding, therefore, must be begun very gradually, and it does not seem, in any ane to produce proportionable results. I have seen it stated that sheep will eat cotton-seed and See on it. If this be true, this must, of course, be a far more remunerating applica- tion of that product, than as a mere manure to soils. Frepine Roots, Browse, &c., 1s Winter.—Ruta-bagas, Irish potatoes, &c., make a good substitute for grain, as an extra feed for grown sheep, [ prefer the ruta-baga to the potato in equivalents of nutriment. I do not consider either of them, or any other root, as good for lambs and yearlings as an equivalent in grain. Sheep may be taught to eat nearly all the cul © as ’ y ee SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. QI7 | tivated roots. This is done by withholding salt from them, and then feed. ing the chopped root a few times rubbed with just sufficient salt to induce them to eat the root to obtain it; but not enough to satisfy their appetite | for salt before they have acquired a taste for the roots. | It is customary with some of our flock-masters to cut down from time tc time, in the winter, and draw inte the sheep-yards, young trees of the hemlock (Abves canadensis). The foliage is greedily eaten by sheep, af ter being confined for some time to dry feed. I have known sheep, un- doubtedly, I think, killed by overeating it. This browse is commonly used for some supposed medicinal virtues. It is pronounced “ healthy for | sheep.” The popular supposition is that it is a tonic and sumulant. If this be true, which I will not pause to inquire, of what good use are tonics and stimulants to healthy animals? With sheep, as with horses, and even with men, preventive medicines are productive of injury in a thousand eases, where they are of benefitin one. There could be no objection, cer- tainly, to sheep’s eating the foliage of the hemlock, if it was constantly accessible to them. ‘heir instincts, in that case, would teach them _ whether, and in what quantities, to devour it. But when entirely confined , to dry feed for a protracted period, sheep will consume hurtful and even | poisonous succulents—and of the most wholesome ones, hurtful quantities. As a mere /azative, an occasional feed of hemlock may be beneficial; but in this point of view, a day’s run at grass in a thaw, or a feed of roots, would produce the same result. In a climate where grass is obtained most of the time, I should consider browse for medicinal purposes entirely | unnecessary. Winter Frep or Breepinc-Ewes.—Until two or three weeks pre | ceding lambing, it is only necessary that breeding-ewes, like other store- ) sheep, be kept in good plump ordinary condition. Nor are any separate arrangements necessary for them, after that period, in a climate where they obtain sufficient succulent food to provide for a proper secretion of milk. In backward seasons in the North, where the grass does not start prior to the lambing time, careful flock-masters feed their ewes chopped rvots, or roots mixed with oat or pea meal. This is, in my judgment, excellent economy.* | Reevnariry 1 Frepine.—lIf there is one rule which may be consider | ed more imperative than any other in Sheep Husbandry, it is that the ut- | most regularity be preserved in feeding. First, there should be regularity -as to the times of feeding. However abundantly provided for, when a | flock are foddered sometimes at one hour and sometimes at another— sometimes three times a day and sometimes twice—some days grain and some days none—they cannot be made to thrive. ‘They will do far better | on wferior keep, if fed with strict regularity. In a climate where they re- | quire hay three times a day, the best times for feeding are about sunrise in | the morning, at noon, and an hour before dark at night. Unlike cattle and horses, sheep do not eat well in the dark, and therefore they should have | time to consume their feed before night setsin. Noon is the common time | for feeding grain or roots, and is the best time if but two fodderings of hay | are given. If the sheep receive hay three times, it is not a matter of -much consequence with which feeding the grain is given, only that the | practice be uniform. It is also highly essenticl that there be regularity preserved in the ameuat ted. The consumption of hay will, it is true, depend much upon the « For the effect of the various esculents on the quantity and quality of the milk, see Liebig’s Animal Chem oT 218 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. weather. The keener the cold, the more sheep will eat. In the South} much would also depend upon the amount of grass obtained. In many, places a light daily foddering would suffice—in others, a light fodderingy laced in the depository racks once in two days would answer the purpose, 3 the steady cold weather of the North, the shepherd readily learns to de-- termine about how much hay will be consumed before the next fodderings time. And this is the amount which should, as near as may be, be a larly fed. In feeding grain or roots there is no difficulty in preserving ¢ tire regularity, and it is vastly more important than in feeding hay. [ the latter a sheep will not overeat and surfeit itself. Of the former it will, And if not fed grain to the point of surfeiting, but still over-plenteously, it will expect a like amount at the next feeding, and failing to receive it, will pine for it and manifest uneasiness. The effect of such irregularity on the stomach and system of any animal is bad—and the sheep suffers: more from it than any other animal. J would much rather that my flock receive no grain at all, than that they receive it without regard to regular- ity inthe amount. The shepherd should be required to measure out the grain to sheep in all instances—instead of guessing it out—and to measure it to each separate flock. Saur.—Sheep undoubtedly require salt in winter. Some salt their hay wheu it is stored in the barn or stack. This is objectionable, as you thus” constitute yourself the judge, or controller in a matter, where the appetite’ of the sheep is a much safer guide. It may be left accessible to them in the salt-box (fig. 28) as in summer, or it is an excellent plan to give them an occasional feed of brined hay or straw. This last is done in warm thaw- ing weather, when their appetite is poor, and thus serves a double purpose. With a wisp of straw sprinkle a thin layer of straw with brine—then an- other layer of straw and another sprinkling, and so on. Let this lie untih the next day, for the brine to be absorbed by the straw, and then feed it ta all the grazing animals on the farm which need salting.” q he Warter.—Unless sheep have access to succulent food or clean snow, water is indispensable. Constant access to a brook or spring is best, but in default of this, they should be watered, at least once a day, in some other way. THE BEST THINGS TO IMPORT ARE BIPEDS, Or two-legged animals, for they not only consume largely of the products of the cotton-grower, the wool- grower, and the iron-master, (and always in proportion to their wages,) but by their labour, they produce ~ and add largely to the elements of the best sort of commerce and free-trade—commerce and free-trade among ourselves. We therefore rejoice much more when we see a..vunts of the importation of men and women, than of cattle and sheep. There is no better sign or tL+ prosperity of a country than when you see men flocking into it from all parts of the world; and ‘r the Jubour of the country had been steadily protected, as it was some years since, we should by this tim» ba«+ «nported annually, more by a million, than we now do. Talk of military glory!—the glory of success in the work of * blood and slaughter!” — —thereis noglory to be compared with that administration of the affairs of a country, which wins for it — the regard and admiration of the world, and makes of it a great magnet, attracting the talents, the © capital, and the labour of men of all nations. One year of such bloodless and beneficent glory is worth — an eternity of fame, won by arms and by conquest. ; Immigration, says a New York paper, for the last month has been quite large, yet we see that, as com- pared with the same seven months of last year, instead of going on rapidly augmenting, as it weuld do under a common-sense (not party) system, it had actually fallen off. The Journal of Commerce gives” It as 34,810 souls. Of the whole number 16,169 were from Ireland, 8449 from Germany, 4788 from Eng- Yand, and 1386 from Scotland. The following table will show the immigration at New York for the years {849 and 1850, up to the lstof August :— Year 1818. Year 1850. Year 1S18 = Year 1850, Jariasyy 25) ( eck" se Ue ie ep GR Sd 13,154 May oe ep pl Te WORMALG ni’ s7s s* i, ees UD ee 3,206 June © el eee ge er Wayeb catia: Wal egal 0.880) Sk es BBS July PS er April . . . . . - 19,934 . 14,627 _— : —_—— Total . - « 44,666 . 195,075 = Immigration les th s vear pike . ey Sis te «int, eens “aeas SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 219 Oe i x LETTER XIV. ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF SHEEP. | Gharactez cf American ovine veterinary works—of the Mnglish.-.Anatomical details of the iatter valuable | necessity of cutting clear from their systems of pathology and therapeutics—reasons. .. Exciting causes uf disease even in adjacent localities in England not the same—popular superstitions on the subject. -.Ne- cessarily greater differences as between remote countries possessing ditferent climates, etc...-Ravages of |rot in Europe—scarcely known in most parts of America... xciting causes apparently the same in both. -- | Hoof-ail, chough retained here by contagion, not primarily produced by the same causes as in England... | Various European diseases not known here. ..Ditterence in the pathology of the same diseases in this coun- try and in England.-..he English ones accompanied with more inflammatory action—the American of ar astheaic orsinking character... Pathological ditferences require a corresponding diiference in therapeutics .--English system of therapeutics objectionable for th » above reason—on account of its expensiveness— ‘and, for popular purposes, by the extent of its pharmac »pi#...The proper ovine veterinary system to be adopted—manner of classifying diseases. .. Anatomy of the Sheep—how far to be studied—directions to be- sinners... The Omentum...The Rumen. ..The Reticulum. ..The Maniplus...The Abomasum. ..The func- fions of the ditferent Stomachs...The Duodenum...The Jejunum...'The Ileum...The Coecum...The |Colon...The Rectum. ..The Mesentary..-The process of digestion... The Spleen...The Pancreas...The Liver. ..The Kidneys...The Bladder...The Uterus and Vagina. _— Dear Sir: Most of the veterinary works which have appeared in this jcountry in relation to the Sheep, Horse, and other domestic animals, have Been made up simply of medical recipes; or, if they have given systems of veterinary nosology and pathology, these systems have been mere tran- scripts of those of European, and particularly of English writers. Ihave examined all, 1 believe, of the most celebrated late English au- thors, scientific and empivical,* on the diseases of the Sheep and their cures. For anatomical and general pathological details, the works of some of the former possess great value, and compare favorably with the treatises jon the same topics by the most eminent physicians and surgeons. This is \particularly true of the work on Sheep by the late Mr. Youatt—the fount- ain-head from which most of the later English writers on the same subject have so liberally drawn, and will probably continue so to do for a century to come. [or minute accuracy of description, particularly in the depart- ment of pathology—for elaborate research into both facts and authorities —for clearness and sparkling vivacity of style, this gentleman, it seems to jme, is entirely without a competitor among the Hnglish veterinarians, and his works will bear reading alongside those of a Cooper, a Louis, and a Chapman. | | I have hesitated whether to transcribe entire Mr. Youatt’s treatise on the Anatomy of the Sheep. It would be the sheerest affectation—not to Say plagiarism—to publish a mere abridgment of his remarks, or their sub- stance dressed up in other words, as some late English writers have done, for the purpose of setting up pretensions to that originality which Mr. You- att has left so little room for in this department. But as these Letters, Sir are publisied for the benefit of the many, rather than to instruct those al- \ready versed to any considerable extent in Veterinary Science, I have been led to doubt whether any systematic treatise on Anatomy is necessary. On the whole, I have come to tne conclusion that farther than to exhibit the * I do not use the word “empirical” here in its invidious sense. I mean to describe by it a class of ‘Writers versed in experiments merely, as contradistinguisred from those who possess a scientific knowledge )of physiology, pathology, therapeutics &c \ - 220 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. _ F localities of disease, explain certain operations in the animal economy, at render terms intelligible, it would be time thrown away. In pathology somewhat, and to a much greater extent in the systems ¢ therapeutics adopted, L have found it necessary to cut clear from all Eng lish ovine veterinarians. If this is regarded as presumptuous, I have on! to say that the testimony or opinions of that man are worth little whos far pins his faith on another’s views, as to disregard the plain evidence | hig own senses. ‘The salutary rule of the law is, each witness testifies { what de has seen, and to what, crediting the assertions of his own senses he knows. It is for the investigating tribunal to decide what weight shal be attached to the testimony. That tribunal, in the present case, is public. : But in reality, a discrepancy of views on the above subjects, does not me cessarily imply an error on either side. The pathology of diseases free quently does not coincide, as between different climates and countries, an sometimes, singularly enough, between contiguous localities in the san country. This is especially true as regards the origin or exciting cause of disease. Where the atmospheric, alimentary, and all other observabl conditions are nearly identical, occult causes which baffle the closest ar most scientific scrutiny, not unfrequently either periodically or regularly scourge man or beast with disease in one locality, while another one is a most uniformly exempt from these attacks. What English pathologist, fo example, has ever assigned a physical cause which would answer, quanti tatively, as a criterion to decide on the proportionable prevalence of th same malady in other regions—or the existence of which would even proy that the disease existed at all—for the frequent appearance of goitre (670 chocele) among the inhabitants of Derbyshire, and the comparative exemp tion from it of the inhabitants of contiguous counties /* The theatres o its especial visitation, in other parts of the world, seem to be equally dé termined by chance—though undoubtedly dependent upon physical causé which have as yet eluded observation. It is not astonishing, therefore, that the ignorant down to our own time! and even the enlightened, until a period comparatively recent, should hay sought the incomprehensible causes of many diseases, in the regions of th preternatural. Among brutes especially, which were supposed to be mo given up to such influences, these phenomena were conveniently assigne by our English and Scotch ancestors, to “some dev'lish cantrip slight” of “ warlocks and witches”—the malevolence of an offended fairy or spite ful gnome.t * Lunderstand that the inhabitants of the adjoining counties of Stafford, Nottingham and Leicester ai comparatively exempt from the attack of goitre. + In Burns's inimitable Tam O'Shanter, some of the singular powers once exercised “by withered beldams auld and droll * * * * * * Lowping and flinging on a cruammock”— and sometimes, though far more rarely, by “ae winsome wench and walie,” to turn aside the establisht lawa of Nature and God's providence, are thus enumerated in describing one of the alabolical sisterhood “ Mony a beast to dead she shot, And perished mony a bonny boat, < And shook baith meikle corn and bear, And kept the country-side in fear.” No one will understand that the witch, in full league with the Devil, had any occasion for mortal f r arms, in “shooting” the beasts of her victims. Murrain, and in some cases death, followed a glance of h “evil eye.” And even the witches of Burns are tame every-day bodies, compared with those which swi the infernal dramatis persone of Faust, or mingle in the gloomy horrors of Macbeth. — Two centuries ago, and even less, there was not a parish in England, a hill or dell in Scotland, or even colonized nook in the wild woods of America, where witchcraft was not rife; and multitudes in on aT in life were consigned to the ga.!ows, the faggot, strangling. &c., for this crime, by the highest jud . SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. CePA | _ Equally unphilosophical, and not less mischievous in its effects on the progress of medical science, are those religious views, widely prevalent pven at the present day, which in every epizo%tic as well as epidemic scourge, recognize only a direct Theocratic inflicuion, operating without fe intervention of physical causes. If these doctrines do not, as when arried to their full extent among the Mussulmans—who yield a passive son-resistance to plague and conflagration as the direct expression of God’s vill—lead to an entire abandonment of remedial measures, they at least \fleter scrutiny into the inducing natural causes, and thus occasion a neglect >of all preventive, and a much less perfect understanding of appropriate Vvenedial action. | Between countries widely separated—where their climates and other jircumstances exhibit considerable differences—it would naturally be ex- ‘jected that still greater discrepancies would appear in their local nosology. Mngland and the United States are subject to several corresponding ovine ' iseases, yet it is notorious that some of the most destructive ones of the | prmer are unknown, or next to unknown, in the latter. ‘The rot, accord- ag to Mr. Youatt, destroys a million of sheep annually in the, British Isl- janais of England and Scotland—the former presided over by such men as Sir Matthew Hale! One ap- roved method of detecting witches was to wrap the suspected persons in a sheet, the great toes and thumbs |) ping tied together, and then dragging them through a pond or river. If they sank they were guillless—if pt, their fate is thus alluded to by Hudibras in his description of the monster Hopkins, the “ Witch-tinder jeneral” of England: , “And has he not within a year Hanged threescore of them in one shire? Some only for not being drowned !” hat miserable driveler and pedant, James VI. of Scotland, defended this “tvial by water,” inasmuch as tches having renounced their baptism. so zt ts just that the element through which the holy rite is enforced, @ reject them! This pusillanimous monarch, who shook at the sight of a drawn sword, was the keenest gator in his kingdom of tortures and prosecutions for suspected witchcraft, and he continued so after } accession to the English throne. He was often present at the examination of accused persons, and the fotch juries did not dare to acquit their victims, fearing the severest punishment on themselves for “ will | error upon an assize,” a proceeding which left them at the mercy of the Crown, and which was in some ) itances actually resorted to! \3 ‘he elves or fairies, the dwarfs, etc., have sorely afflicted the shepherd, as well as all other husbandmen, bygone Gays. Their caprices were innumerable. Even in this, as Mr. Carlyle would say, 19th century God's world, the ugly and monster-headed Phaam is sometimes seen on the lonely Kells of Galloway, {d the declivities of the eastern Grampians. He not unfrequently shows himself in the dawn of the morn- i, on the mountains around Cairn Gorm and Lochavin. and if man or beast even goes near the place where Hhas been before the sun shines upon it, straightway their heads swell enormously and they often die.— )) ]is is the origin of that frequent disease, the “swelled head” in sheep! At least, so the inhabitants of ise regions informed the Ettrick Shepherd. (See Hogg’s Shepherd’s Guide.) But alas! for the gay and )Martly Fairies—the very aristocracy of goblin-dom! Who would not have his flocks, yea, and his herds i), annually decimated to restore them to our utilitarianized world! Oberon, Titania, Mab, Puck and Ariel i gone ! They no longer | | “on the sands with printless foot Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him When he comes back” “in the spiced Indian air, by night, * * « * x They dance their ringlets to the whistling wind.” Ihe elves of the colder regions north of the Alps, who erst danced their “ roundel rites” on the banks of | Rhine and the green hillocks of Britain—who with their splendid appointments, coursers whose feet | &rned the limber air, saddles of “ rewel bone” “Bryht with mony a precious stone And compasyd all with crapste,” « shone the splendors of Chivalry—who fought manful under shield, wounding and discomfiting even ht- Ha antagcnists, as related by Gervase of Tilbury, and by Heinrich von Ofterdingen in the Heldenbuch— yo loved, wooed and were won much after the human fashion, and sometimes exchanged such favors io humanity, as is proved by the adventure of Thomas the Rymer under the “ Elden tree”—all are gonet = wands of Scott and of Bulwer could not stay their departure! Naked, rugged-featured, unpoetical ity has it all her own way now-a-days ! ; h the language of Rt. Rev. Dr. Corbett, Bishop of Oxford and Norwich ia the beginning of the !7t% “Lament, lament. old abbeys, ‘The Fairies’ lost command ; They did but change priests’ babies, But some.have changed your land; And all your children sprung from hence Are now grown Puritans, Who live as changelings ever since For love of your domains.” 222 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ands—and in 1830-1, the number swept off much exceeded two millic f Its ravages are equally fatal m Germany, and more so in Egypt. t! also common in France, Spain, Australia, &c. There is nothing sufficiey ly marked in its diagnosis to effectually distinguish it from some other d/ eases, to a person possessing no previous practical acquaintance with or no more veterinary knowledge than is common among farmers; when a slow train of wasting symptoms have occurred, and the struct of the liver is found disorganized, after death, it is not uncommon in ia country to pronounce it a case of the rot. The same mistake, accord to Dr. Coventry (late Professor of Agriculture in the University of Edi burgh), is often made by even the shepherds and flock-masters of Europy There are other diseases besides the rot which specifically attack the’ tegrity of the liver. Even fasciola or flukes in the liver, the most infali ble diagnostic, to the common eye, of the rot, also, according to Dr. Cg entry, accompany hepatitis chronica. 1 will not take upon me to deny thi .he rot ever exists in the Northern States, but I have yet to see, or of, adequately authenticated, the first undoubted instance ; and this wot go to show that if isolated cases of it do sometimes occur, it has dwind from the wholesale destroyer of Europe to an obscure and occasional ¢ ease. The same remarks apply to existence of the disease*in the Southe Atlantic and Gulf States, judging from the statements of my correspo ents, and from the agricultural newspapers. I cannot learn from eitl of these sources that anything analogous to this malady is common in the States. According to Mr. Cockerel, of Tennessee, and Mr. Flower, of nois, the rot does prevail in our Western States; and the latter gentlem who has, I presume, seen the disease in Europe, and who ought theref to be familiar with its pre-mortem and post-mortem appearances, st that it occurs in Southern Ilinois “ from suffering sheep to pasture on | that is overflowed with water ;” and he adds, “even a crop of green early in the fall before a frost comes, has been known to rot young shee It is worthy of remark that Mr. Livingston—equally distinguished research and observation—does not include the rot in his list of Ame ovine diseases. This affords a strong corroboration of the position I hi assumed in relation to the existence of this disease in the North-easte States, and those of the Southern ones lying east of the Apalachians.f The Hoof-ail, though introduced here by contagion, and kept in cons existence by the same means, does not appear, in the common phrase originate spontancously, as in Europe; or, in other words, to be excited any other causes than contagion. I have never known an instance gol even colorably, to prove the contrary of this proposition. Acute dropsy or Red-water, I judge to be an exceedingly rare disease the Northern States, though the author of the American Shepherd thi differently.|| Enteretis, or inflammation of the coats of the intestines; blain, or fammation of the cellular tissue of the tongue ; and a*whole train of ot diseases—including most of the frightful list of infectious or contagi European epizoétics—seem to be unknown in this country. Why there should be so wide a difference between the ovine nosol of Europe and the United States, is a matter of curious and interes speculation. Whether it will always remain so, or whether the advent = 2a ae ae oS * Youatt on Sheep, p. 445. + See remarks of Dr. Coventry, quoted at some length in Mountain Shepherd's Manual, p. 20. + lL limit the remark to the States lying (mostly) east of these mountains, because they would pi pe the only ones, at the time at which Mr. Livingeton wrote, with the Sheep Husbandry of which he te supposed to be familiar. j l|) American Shepherd, p. 359. ’ % SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUT °. 223 — eee juropean diseases is only delayed here for more artificial systems of ing, breeding, or perhaps more artificial systems of Agriculture af: ing the aliment of the sheep, or other and unexplainable causes, time > must determine. : we look for these differences in the observable differences of climate, y: find no satisfactory solution of the problem. The climate of England essentially different from our own—but that it is a favorable one for the | ' althy development of all the animal tissues, her large, strong, long- fed population, as well as her well-developed animal kingdom, abun- intly attest. The atmosphere of England is a moist and humid one, and ure is thought to be one of the necessary predisposing causes of both and hoof-ail. Of the, origin of the former disease, Mr. Youatt The rot in sheep is evidently connected with the soil or state of the pasture. It is con- 0 wet seasons, or to the feeding on ground moist and marshy at all seasons. It has mce to the evaporation of water, and to the presence and decomposition of moist veget- latter. It is rarely, or almost never, on dry and sandy soils and in dry seasons; it is wanting on boggy or poachy ground, except when that ground is dried by the heat of summer sun, or completely covered by the winter rain. In the same farm there are cer- “fii fields on which no sheep can be turned with impunity. There are others that seldom "Dhever give the rot.” Mr. Youatt continues his descriptions of these predisposing conditions reat length, and his final conclusion is, in substance, that the miasmata, ases exhaling from the decomposition of vegetable substances, are the sof the rot. Mr. Spooner adopts the same views; indeed, they are uiversally received among scientific veterinarians. iif these views are correct, the evil lies not in a generally humid atmo- ere, but in a generally or temporarily humid sow; and that they are je quo ad hoc, is proved by the fearful ravages of the disease in the Gest atmosphere of Germany, in the clear, dry atmosphere of the South France, and under the torrid skies of southern Spain, where rain does i, fall for months. Boggy or fenny soils, where decaying vegetable substances are con yntly exhaling their gases, are to be found in all parts of the United tes—more or less, in every township, and almost every school district ik ew-York and New-England. Sheep pasture on such lands, promis- “epusly with other stock, in every county—and, in the latter States, at ‘Ust, w:th entire impunity from the rot. ) Humidity of soil is also supposed to be the most prominent cause in VWeinating hoof-ail, or producing it otherwise than by contagion. Mr. Yiuatt and Professor Dick attribute the disease most often to the effect ‘sand and dirt forced into the pores of the hoof, when macerated by “misture. The following is the language of Professor Dick: | The finest and richest old pastures and lawns are particularly liable to give this disease, ti so are soft, marshy and luxuriant meadows. It exists to a greater or less extent in every jation that has a tendency to increase the growth of the hoofs without wearing them hy. . . .. The different parts of the hoof, deprived of their natural wear, grow out of ir proper proportions. The crust, especially, grows too long; and the overgrown parts ier break off in irregular rents, or by overshooting the sole allow small particles of sand i dirt to enter into the pores of the hoof. These particles soon reach the quick, and set the inflammation already described and followed by all its destructive effects.” t The same writer assigns another cause for it—inflammation induced by a improper bearing of the foot, caused by the unnatural growth of the horn h wet pastures. Mr. Spooner attributes the disease to decaying vegetables—“ roots and ‘Youatt on Sheep, p. 451. t See Dick, quoted by Youatt, p. 527, 528. | et 294 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. leaves of the grasses in a state of rottenness ’—brought in contact with 1 sheep’s foot when “ blanched and weakened by continual moisture ! ”* There is another point of difference in the pathology of ovine diseg in this and the old world, judging from the details furnished by the E lish veterinarians. Most of the pyrexia! diseases, in England, are acee panied, at least in their initiatory stages, with active inflammatory syn toms. Fever runs high, and decidedly antiphlogistic treatment is call for. On the other hand, so far as my observation and inquiries have ¢ tended, the ovine diseases of the United States are usually of an asthe nature—characterized by debility from the outset. The difference in physical character, feeding, and ordinary state of fatness of the she : the two countries, offers, perhaps, a sufficient explanation of tesa The gross, high-fed English sheep, forced forward by bountiful feeding an unnaturally precocious maturity, is always in a high state of plethe and predisposed, therefore, to inflammatory action. A slight derangeme of any function, produced by a cold, by an error in feeding, or by any oth causes, is sufficient to make the organs exercising those functions the sea suchaction. On the other hand, the sheep of the United States, kept mai for wool-growing purposes, is rarely raised above a moderately fleshy medium condition, And, unexcited by an unnaturally plethoric habit, t weak vascular and muscular system of the animal little predisposes it inflammatory disease. A difference in the pathological character of disease requires a co sponding difference in the system of therapeutics adopted. The Engh system of therapeutics is decidedly objectionable, here, first, on the e count just named; secondly, from its expensiveness ; and, thirdly, ( popular purposes,) by the extent and complexity of its pharmacology. * 1. As has been already remarked, most of the English ovine diseas commence with pyrexize—and the fever is synochal or inflammatory in i type. The subject is strong, plethoric, and full of blood. Antiphlogisi treatment is clearly called for. Accordingly, depletion, by bleeding purgatives, or both, is first and promptly resorted to by the English vete; narian. In the United States, also, most important constitutional diseas commence with pyrexiz, but the fever in its first discovered stage is alme uniformly of a low, sinking, typhoid type, accompanied with great pre tration of muscular energy. The animal is in a leanish or only mode ately fleshy condition, It has been confined to dry, and perhaps rath unnutritious food—for most of the list of constitutional maladies, her make their attacks in the winter, and old, lean, and feeble sheep are us ally the first victims. A sheep is observed drooping, and indifferent food. It is caught and examined. Whatever organ or portion of the s tem is laboring under attack, bleed so as to produce a constitutional — pression, (which the English veterinarians almost invariably recommen where they recommend bleeding at all,) and follow this with an act purgative, and in four cases out of five the sheep will, in the expressi phrase of the English shepherds, “take the ground”; it will never from the ground more without assistance, and will soon become unable stand when set upon its feet. Growing weaker and weaker, it soon r fuses to eat, and death supervenes. These remarks are not designed apply to stall-fed wethers, or other very high-conditioned sheep. 2. The English, and indeed the European method of treating diseas is too expensive for this country. In curing hoof-ail, e. g., Mr. Youatt, aft recommending washing in chloride of lime, and cauterizing, says : "2.2 -=-32e eS. = 2 eee nae * This seems to ma most unpbilosophical cauee to be assigned by a veterinarian of the standing of B Spooner. : } SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ee | “Tf the foot has been in a manner stripped of its horn, and especially if a considerable por. tion of the sole has been removed, it may be expedient to wrap a little clean tow round he foot, and to bind it tightly down with a tape, the sheep being removed to a straw-yard, \ pr some inclosed space, or to a drier pasture. ... . The foot should be dressed every day, | Mr. Spooner recommends daily, and not less troublesome treatment.t I he Mountain Shepherd’s Manual recommends daily treatment,t and this ls the case, I believe, with nearly all, if not all, of the foreign veterinarians. Professor Pictet, of Switzerland, in addition to daily applications, fumiga- jions, etc., innumerable, goes a step beyond “ tow pledgets and tape band- ges.” He says: } “Tn order to prevent any dirt, &c., from getting into the wound, the diseased foot should he placed in a little boot, the sole of which is of leather or felt, and the upper part of cloth, la order to fasten it round the leg of the sheep.” | This disease rages most when haying and harvesting are at their hight, a the Northern States—in July and August—and when the labor of day : } ands costs from seventy-five cents to a dollar per head per diem. Half he flocks in the country can then be bought for $1 25 per head. How Yjoon daily parings, cauterizings, embrocations, fumigations, etc., including lhe expense of drugs and Professor Pictet’s gaiter-boots, would reach an ixpense equivalent to the price of a sound sheep, it requires not the exer-. ise of much arithmetic to determine! It would certainly be more eco- jomical to Kill sheep of any ordinary grade in the first instance ! | The same remark will apply to the English system of treating nearly ll important diseases. ‘The labor bestowed on it would be worth more, ere, than the value of the sheep. | 3. The English ovine veterinary pharmacopezia is too extensive and omplex for popular use. The prescribed formule are so compound in ‘Vheir character—so minute oftentimes in their quantitative proportions—re- faire so much skill for their chemical and mechanical admixture—and, | ‘Jistly, and more important than all the rest, they demand so much med- jal knowledge for their proper and timely administration—that they can fe generally used with safety and advantage only by professional veteri- jarians, a class entirely wanting, unless occasionally in cities, in the United tates. Besides, our ordinary country drug-stores are usually lacking in jany of the articles included in the European prescriptions||—and no one, ‘ithout possessing considerable medical knowledge, could decide what fect it would have on the prescription to subtract this or that ingredient. | might neutralize its effects, or even render it pernicious. ) A veterinary system for anything like popular use, in this country, must b exceedingly simple in its remedies, and in its rules for their administra- pn. As it is impossible to describe the various symptoms which may hibit themselves in a disease, so as to be understood by all, it is unsafe rescribe a constant change of medicines, applicable to the several jates which have caused those symptoms to appear. Indeed, changes in edicine should only be made consequent on those distinct crises of dis- ise which can ve detected and understood by the most ordinary observer. rescriptions, therefore, inapplicable, or at least unsafe, in any stage from le distinct crisis of disease to another, should, as far as practicable, be oided. True, such a system of therapeutics will be very imperfect, par- bularly in the treatment of serious constitutional maladies. But it will go ») Youatt, p. 529. ¢ Spooner, (endorsing the views cf Mr. Read,) p. 438 to 442. | Quem vide, p. 27. Not unfrequently the most important ones, as I - from repeated experience. 226 SITEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH, as far as the knowledge of the uninstructed practitioner will safely ad of—and if, even in cases of constitutional disease, it should simply ca him to do no hurt by his interference, and prevent him from resorting some miserably ignorant empiric*—the most important object, perha would be attained. It is infinitely safer in such diseases to rely on unaideé Nature to effect the cure, than to submit a sheep, or any other animal, to; the drugging and dosing of a person ignorant of the true nature of the disease, and of the remedies which he employs.* It is better to do too lit tle than to do too much; and in all cases where 7t is not known what to doy it is better to do nothing. Lord Western, in a letter to Mr. Bischoff, says :t “T have little to say on the medical treatment of sheep; my study is prevention by suffi cieit wholesome food, with a consiant and abundant sapply of salt in every yard and ever field. . . . . When sheep are taken ill, there is little hope for them, and rarely any use it wiministering medicines.” If the latter portion of this remark is true among the educated, intelli gent and experienced veterinarians of England, how much more must if be so among those destitute of even the first rudiments of veterinary sei« ence! In relation to some of the more serious constitutional maladies, af. ter considerable experience and observation, I feel constrained to express the opinion that the remark 7s, to a considerable extent, true. The shee is almost as unsatisfactory a patient to deal with, in some such cases, as the hog, of which it is frequently said, with no great exaggeratia “that if he is seriously sick he is sure to die, and the more you dk for him the sooner he will die!” “ Then why give a therapeutic system at all in a class of diseases where it will do so little good?” In the first place, the cases are perhaps few where judicious prescriptions will no somewhat diminish the tendency to a fatal result; but the great reason, after all, is, that every man having a sick animal zw7// dose and physic it or will permit some officious neighbor to do so, or wil call in that mos dangerous of all epizodtics, the cattle-doctor. It is therefore better in the most hopeless cases, to give a few simple directions, based on sound med: ical principles, which will not, at all events, aggravate the disease, am which will ¢end to alleviate or suppress it, rather than to surrender the helpless animal over to the additional tortures inflicted by ignorance ant quackery. Fortunate it is that well-managed Sheep, in this country, are so little subject to such diseases ! In classifying diseases, I shall depart from the system adopted by You att, Spooner, etc., who arrange them with reference to the parts of the sys= tem they more especially attack, as, for example, “ diseases of the brain,’ * The self-matriculated “cattle doctor” is a decidedly interesting personage. His qualifications are mi merous, and it is somewhat difficult to find them all brilliantly combined in the same person. He shoul be the most ignorant man in the town, particularly in everything relating to the anatomy and physiol; of man or beast. He should be equally ignorant of the chemical and medicinal properties of nearly all th drugs used by him. His prescriptions, to give them due potency, should consist of a great number of gredients—a large portion of them bearing very “hard names.” He should flank and fortify these, at lea in all difficult cases, with substances possessing rare occult virtues, entirely unknown to “human pb cians,” such as the “ blood of black cats,” the “ eutrails of fowls,” “human feces,” simples culled under f¢ culiar cireumstances— “Root of hemlock, digged i’ the dark, * - * = * . ™ * slips of yew, Slivered in the moon’s eclipse.” Fle should decidedly affect the mysterious, and should always repel the attempted intrusions of ordinal humanity—the profane vulgar--into the arcana of his high art. He should have half a dozen maladies, bu 4s “ baked in the manyfolds,” “overflow of the gall.” “kidney disease.” “rising of the lights,” “ strain across the loin.” etc., to which he can 7 ea assign all the ills which beasts are heir to. He shou never mistake a disease or aremedy. If the patient dies, it should invariably be in consequence of deviation from his directions ! * Bische ff vol. ii. SHEEP HUSBANDRY. IN THE SOUTH. 227 | "diseases of the digestive organs,” &c. This method of classification, '| though not without its advantages, and though it would seem, at first view, i to present an arrangement most convenient for reference, examination and le ‘comparison, in the end, leads, I think, to confusion and misunderstanding iM | ANATOMY OF THE SHEEP. , He who breeds sheep to any considerable extent, should make himself familiar with the anatomical structure of some of the parts of the animal— | particularly with the arrangement, size, natural appearance, consistency ‘{and contents of the several viscera; to some extent with the circulatory / system; with the alimentary and respiratory organs; with the brain, and */|the whole osseous structure of the head. He should be in the constant | habit of making more or less extended examinations of all these structures, | as opportunity occurs by the slaughter of sheep for economic purposes ; and when the animal dies from disease, such examination should be in no | ordinary case omitted by the flock-master who is desirous of making him \self thoroughly acquainted with his business. He will require some instruc fion, in the outset, to enable him to make such dissections understandingly )\and properly ; but he can readily obtain this from any educated physician «(or surgeon. There are no sufficiently wide differences in the anatomical \structure of the sheep and of the human being, to give the surgeon the \least difficulty in pointing out the arrangement, uses, &c., of the several \parts of the former, unless it be in the conformation of the stomachs.— | Here, the structure of the sheep, like that of other ruminating animals, dif- |fers widely from man, but that physician or surgeon must have been singu- ‘jlarly limited in his physiological investigations, who has not made himself ‘acquainted with it. At all events, a glance at a veterinary work, while. "jeconducting a dissection, will enable him to understand, and explain it to: © the learner. The learner while making his examinations in company with, ‘and under the direction of the surgeon, should perform every manipulation :- |his own hand should handle, remove, test the consistency, &c. of the parts: ;—alone wield the saw and guide the scalpel. This is an important rule if’ lhe would wnderstand and remember. | The subjects of a portion of the examinations should be sheep killed in: full health. It is necessary to be familiar with the healthy appearance of , jall the parts, so as to distinctly recognize all departures from it—the effect- jof any diseased or abnormal action. : The sides of a lean sheep are more translucent, after being skinned, than: |those of a fat one, and therefore the former makes a better subject, if the: /jcirculatory system is to be examined. On the sides of the thorax and ab-- | ‘)jdomen, at a little distance from the spine, the veins and arteries of those: ) parts can often be traced with beautiful distinctness, without any dissection: lof the intercostal muscles. i Subjects should be examined which have had their blood drawn (by hav-.. ing their throats cut), and also those whi¢h have died with all their blood! jin them. Some of the viscera—e. g. the lungs, veins and arteries—will present very different appearances under these different circumstances;. and this fact not understood might frequently lead to very erroneous con-- clusions in post mortem examinations. — | I will give a very general description of the parts I have mentioned as: ecessary to be studied—designed merely for those who have no previous: kkrowledge of the subject. | After the animal has been neatly skinned, place it on a low table, an as- jistant grasping its fore-legs, and holding it firnly on its back. Then.slit ae 228 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. open the belly from the middle of the sternum, oz cartilaginous connectiop between the ribs, to the anus. In making this and all similar incisio hold the edge of the knife upward, guarding its point with the fore-finger, so that the viscera shall not be wounded. The abdomen—the whole cay- ity of the trunk back of the diaphragm or “ midriff’—is now laid open, It is usually necessary for a better examination of the parts to make cross: incisions part way between the diaphragm and anus, extending down om eacn side several inches toward the backbone. i I shall describe the viscera in the order in which I have usually exams. ined them. | On opening the abdomen the omentum or caul is found covering the ms: testines. It is a thin, and, in a normal state, colorless and transparentt structure, formed of two membranes, between which extend streaks of fatt in the form of a net. a The external appearance of the stomachs is given in the following cut} of those of a young sheep which died of disease. Their arrangement iss slightly different in the animal. 4 Fig. 47. : | . THE STOMACHS. a. The cesophagus or gullet, entering the rumen or paunch. 4.6. The rumen, or paunch, occupying three-fourths of the abdomen. e The reticulum, or honey-comb—the 2d stomach. d. The maniplus, or many folds—the 3d stomach. e. The abomasum, or 4th stomach. f. The commencement of the duodenum or first intestine. : @. The place of the pytorus, a valve which separates the contents of the abomasum and duodenum. ~ The walls of the rumen or paunch consist of four coats or tunics—Ist the peritoneal or outer coat; 2d, the muscular; 3d, the mucous, covere with papillee, or little protuberances, from which (or glands under whieh is secreted a peculiar fluid to soften and prepare the food for re-mastics tion ; and, 4th, the inner or cuticular coat, a thin, ertirely insensible mem brane, which defends the mucous coat from abrasicn or erosion. SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. i 229 | The reticulum or honey-comb is composed of the same number of coats ) falfilling similar functions. But the mucous coat, in addition to minute | papillee, is covered with elevations arranged in pentagons and sexagons | of different sizes, somewhat resembling a honey-comb, except that the cells are larger and shallower. | ‘The maniplus has the same four coats. Its floor is a continuation of the cesophagean canal. From its roof depend many parallel folds of the _ | cuticular coat—here thicker and stronger than in the other stomachs— reaching nearly to its floor. The cuticle is covered toward the edges of | the folds, with hard, bony processes, shaped like fangs, or cones bent im a | curyelinear form, and pointing toward the entrance of the stomach. The | interior of each fold or leaf contains muscles which impart to it the power ‘} of a peculiar and forcible motion. There are forty-two of these folds in | the maniplus of the sheep—occasionally forty-eight. They do not all ') equally nearly approach the cesophagean canal, but are disposed in groups | of six—one of the central ones of each nearly reaching the canal or floor of the stomach—the others on each side growing shorter and shorter, so |) as to form a series of irregular reéntering angles. ‘The abomasum is the digesting stomach, where the gastric juices are secreted, and where the pultaceous food is converted into chyme. It is funnel-shaped, and its lower extremity connects with the intestines, as ‘shown in the cut. The cuticular lining of the three preceding stomachs |is wanting in this. The mucous coat is disposed in the form of ruge@ or |shallow folds, arranged longitudinally with the direction of the stomach, /and from this membrane the gastric juices are secreted. | The comparative size of the four stomachs will be sufficiently seen in |fie. 47. _ Where the cesophagus enters the rumen, it terminates in what is called ‘the cesophagean canal, a continuation of the former constituting the roof of the latter. The bottom or floor of this canal is formed of divided por- tions or folds of the upper parts of the rumen and reticulum—muscular “pillars” or ‘‘lips,” as they are sometimes denominated—which may re- main closed so that the food will pass over them into the third and fourth stomachs—or they may open, permitting the food to fall between them, as through a trap-door, into the first and second stomachs. It is probable \that the opening of these lips, as food passes over them, depends some- (what upon a mechanical effect, and somewhat upon the will of the animal. Fluid and soft pultaceous food fit for immediate digestion glide over them. ‘But most of the food of the sheep, like that of other ruminating animals, is swallowed with little preparatory mastication; and these untriturated [solids drop down through the first opening above described into the ru- men. It is certain, however, that the animal can, at will, also cause water to pass through the opening into the first stomach. This would be neces- sary in the animal economy, and the water is always found there. ~ When the food has entered the rumen, the muscular action of that vis- cus compels it to make the circuit of its different compartments, and, in time, the food later swallowed forces it on and up to near the opening where it originally entered. In its passage it is macerated by a sulvent alkaline fluid secreted by the mucous coat. The papillee of that coat are supposed to influence the mechanical action of the contents of the stomach, jand pernaps, to a certain extent, to aid in triturating them. The food performs the circuit of the stomach, and is ready for re-mastication, ac- . \cording to Spallanzani, in from sixteen to eighteen hours. By a muscular jeffort of the stomach, a portion of it is then thrown over the membraneous \walve or fold which guards the opening from this into the second stomach | a 230 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. The reticulum contracts upon it, forming it into a suitable pellet to be te. turned to the mouth, and also covers it with a mucus secreted in this stomach. By a spasmodic effort (always perceptible externally when the sheep or cow commences rumination) the pellet is forced through the roof of the reticulum, by the opening before described, and returned to the mouth by the contractions of the spiral muscle of the cesophagus or gullet, for mastication. This explanation of tke functions of the second stomach is not accepted by all the physiologists who have examined this subject. Some conten¢ that all the solider portions of the food are returned directly from the men for re-mastication; that when raised to the floor of the esophagez canal, the hard parts are carried up to the mouth—the more pultaceou ones (but still’ not sufficiently pultaceous for the fourth stomach) passing into the reticulum, where they are again macerated—the fluid squeeze¢ out of them by a contraction of the stomach and allowed to pass on te the fourth stomach—and then the drier parts raised, like those from the paunch, for re-mastication. More solid and indigestible substances, ‘‘ may be submitted two or more times to the process of rumination.” Such ap pear to be the views of Mr. Spooner.* According to this theory, both stomachs are created substantially for one and the same purpose, and one would seem to be unnecessary. And where would be the use of the opening from one stomach into the other’ And if the second stomach, like the first, is simply for the maceration and return of food, why the superior thickness and strength of the coatings of the former ? Being of a volume greatly inferior to that of the latter, it cer- tainly would require less strength, if the functions of both were the same The main support for this, as it seems to me, erroneous theory, is found in the fact that the contents of the reticulum, after death, are usually found considerably more fluid than those of the rumen. I conceive that bu small portions of solid food are introduced at one time from the rumen into the reticulum—not enough to give to the liquid contents of the latter viscus the consistency of those of the former—proceeding on the supposi- tion that the reticulum of the living animal is f/led with fluid, as usually found after death. But why may not a portion of this fluid have escaped by the valve—been decanted, as it were, from the paunch to the reticulum, after death? J see no violence in this supposition. If this is not so, the uniform fluidity of the contents of the reticulum would be, it seems to me, fatal to the theory based on it—for, according to Spooner and others whe adopt it, after the reticulum has ‘‘ become moderately full,” it contracts o1 its contents, expressing the liquid from the solid parts, which said liquie is forced into the cesophagean canal, and escapes into the fourth stomach. The solid parts would be thus left comparatively dry. Sheep penned up fo butchery often do, as every one has observed, ruminate until within a few seconds of the time that all their natural visceral functions are suddenly suspended by death—and when, therefore, this suspension would, at times as a matter of course, take place at all the different stages of rumination an¢ preparation for rumination—how happens it that the reticulum is not oftet tound with its liquid parts expressed—containing nothing but the solids, jus prepared for re-mastication ? Or if it be supposed that the act of forcing ou the lijzuid, and forcing up the solids into the esophagus, are coincident 0 simultaneous, why is not this stomach sometimes found entirely empty ? Cai it be supposed that this fluid (I have uniformly found the fluid mixed with considerable quantities of the solid food) is so instantaneously re-supplied : i rr 3 = Spooner, p. 162-3, fd SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 23) a so, by what process 4 I think there are other reasons which support || the view I have taken, but I will not push the discussion, there not being, | so far as I am aware, any questions to be solved by it which directly and )) practically affect the interests or the practices of the sheep-breeder. Let us now observe the course pursued by the food, and the process to which it is submitted, after rumination. It now glides over the trap-doors | which open into the first and second stomachs. As it passes over the | floor of the third, or the maniplus, the pendant leaves of this viscus, armed ) with their beak-like protuberances, seize the advancing mass, and squeezing ) out the fluid and the more finely comminuted portions of the food which ) escape with it, commence triturating the bulkier fibrous portions between | their folds. Their bony papille give to these folds something of the me- “} chanical action of rasps, in grinding down the vegetable fibre. The food } being now reduced to an entirely pultaceous state, passes into the fourth | stomach, or abomasum, where it is acted upon by the gastric juice, and ¥ converted into chyme. The amount of food found between the folds of the maniplus, after death, depends upon the time that has elapsed since J rumination. Itis dry and hard, compared with the contents of the other )@) stomachs. | The entrance to the fourth stomach—the cardiac opening—is closed | against regurgitation or vomiting, by a sort of valve, composed of a portion lof one of the ruge, before alluded to, which line the interior of this P stomach. The pylorus is also closed by a valve, which prevents a prema- ture passage of the contents of the stomach into the intestines. The intestines are exhibited in fig. 48, copied from Mr. Youatt’s werk. Before the duodenum enters into (or changes its name to) the jejunum, and about 18 inches from the pylorus, it is perforated by the biliary duct— ductus choledochus—which brings the bile eliminated by the liver, from the gall-bladder, and also the fluid which is secreted by the pancreas, or sweet- bread, which last is introduced into the biliary duct two inches from its» entrance into the duodenum, by another duct or small tube. The com- pound fluid thus introduced into the duodenum exercises various important | offices in the digestive and assimilating processes. The bile is supposed » to aid in the separation of the chyme into chyle and fecal matter—or the nutritive parts of the food which are assimilated into blood, from the in- @ nutritibus parts which are discharged as excrement. It also prevents a ® putrid decomposition of the vegetable contents of the intestines, and serves various other useful purposes. . The chyle—a white albuminous fluid, with a composition differing but little from that of blood—is taken from the intestines by a multitude of minute ducts called lJacteals, which traverse the mesentary, constantly } uniting as they advance, so as to form larger ducts. These enter the | mesenteric glands—small glandular bodies attached to the mesentary—after the passage of which the chyle begins to change its color. The lacteals still continue to unite and enlarge, and finally terminate in the thoracic duct. In this the chyle is mingled with the lymph secreted from a portion of the /ymphatics—another exceedingly minute system of absorbent ducts, ' which open on the internal and external surfaces of the whole system. From the thoracic duct, the chyle is conveyed to the heart, and enters into _ the circulation as blood. Tur SpLEEN.— With the appearance of the spleen or milt—in the sneep a dark, firm, spongy viscus, attached to the rumen, and lying on the left side of the belly—all are sufficiently familiar, Its uses and functions iz ~- < 232 SHEEP HUSBANPRY IN THE SOUTH. the animal economy are not well understood, and 1, has in some instances been removed from the living animal without the apparent derangemen THE INTESTINES AND MESENTARY. i. The duodenum. 2. The jejunum. 3. The ileum & The cecum, being the anterior prolongation of the colon, or first large intestine. The ileum openg into this (on the back side as presented in the cut), about twelve inches from its extremity—th opening being defended by a valve. ; 53 The large anterior portion of the colon, retaining its size (about three times that of the smaller iptes tines) for about two feet. 8.6. The colon tending toward the center. 7.2. The returning conyolutions of the colon. ; 8 The rectum or straight gut, communicating with the anus. : 9.9. The mesentary, or that portion of the peritoneum which retains the intestines in their places. y 10. The portion of the mesentary supporting the colon, &c. Tle united length of these intestines is upward of sixty feet ! of any function. Mr. Youatt conjectures that its main office is to supply the coloring matter of the blood. a Tne Pancreas.—The pancreas or sweet-bread, with the appearance of which all who have noticed the entrails of a sheep, are also familiar, is a glandular body found on the left side of the belly. It has a series of ducts which unite into a larger one, and, as before stated, this discharges a transparent, albuminous, and somewhat acid fluid into the biliary duet near the point where it enters the duodenum. This fluid acts some un known, but probably necessary part in preparing the chyme for the offices itis to perform in the animal economy. 4 Tue Liver—The liver is much larger in proportion, in the sheep, thar in the horse and ox. and it is twice the proportionate size of that of Mar ‘ SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 233 | It is situated mostly on the right side, between the maniplus and dia- phragm. It is supplied with arterial blood, and receives the venous blood which is conveyed from the intestines, from which it separates the bile, and conveys it to the gall-bladder. The bile having undergone certain changes in this bladder, is conveyed, as already stated, by the biliary duct, to the duodenum. The venous blood, after the gall is separated from it, is returned to the lungs, to undergo the process which fits it again to en _ ter into the circulation. THE URINARY AND GENERATIVE ORGANS. ' Though it might seem the more natural order to complete the examina- tion of the circulatory and respiratory organs, before taking up those _ named at the head of this paragraph, I shall, adhering to my first arrange- | ment to follow the order which I have uniformly pursued in making dis- _ sections, first complete the description of those of the abdominal cavity. | Tue Kinneys.—The kidneys are two bean-shaped glands firmly attached | to the roof of the abdomen, and usually imbedded in fat. They are sup- | plied with blood by large arteries, and, having filtered out the urine from it, they discharge the latter through two ducts, termed ureters, into the | bladder. The passage of these ducts through the walls of the latter is in an oblique course, so that it is closed by pressure from within, and thus the urine cannot return. Tue Buapprr.—The bladder joins the urethra, in the pelvis, and its pos- | terior part is attached to the floor of that cavity. The anterior part, where | the diameter is larger, floats free in the abdomen. A circular muscle or | sphincter closes the entrance into the urethra, to prevent the continuous escape of the urine, and this relaxes when the muscular coat of the bladder contracts for the periodical expulsion of that fluid. The urethra is but a few inches long in the ewe, and opens into the vagina. It is much longer “‘n the ram, as 1t extends the whole length of the penis. Tue Urerus anp Vacina—The vagina is several inches in length and opens into the uterus or womb by a circular opening which becomes closed after impregnation. They are situated between the rectum above, and the bladder below. They are mostly, within the pelvis in the unpreenant ani- mal, but the womb rises into the abdomen when it encloses a foetus. The womb is a cylindrical body with two “horns” or branches. At the interior extremity of each horn are protuberances, 9f a red color, called onartes which are supposed to contain the germs of the offspring. LETTER XV. ANATOMY OF TH# SHEEP (Continued)—DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT, The Thoracic Viscera...The Diaphragm...The Thorax...The Heart, Arteries, Capillaries, and Veins. The Lungs...The Windpige, Larynx and Pharynx.--The Thyroid and Parotid Glands...The Head its structures...The brain...The Nerves..-The Teeth...The Lower Extremities. ..The Biflex Canal. Febrile diseases—those of Europe which are not common here. ..Ophthalmia—popular remedies—prope: treatment. .. Pneumonia—eymptoms—Mr. Spooner's prescription for. .. Bronchitis—symptoms—treatmen ...Catarrh—ordinarily not dangerous—preventives...Malignant Epizodtic Catarrh—prevalence in the Northern States—character of the disease has not been understood—prevalence in author's flock—ho produced—symptoms—post-mortem appearances—character of the disease ascertained—Nosology treatment, &c-..The Rot—its diagnosis—post-mortem appearances—description of the Fluke—causes of the Rot—treatment. ..Diarrhea—cause—diagnosis—treatment. ..Dysentery—cause—difference between it and diarrhea—treatment...Garget—seat and origin of the disease—treatment...Nervous Diseases... Apoplexy—unrecognized cases of it—several cases detailed—symptoms—treatment...Phrenitis...Tet anus. ..Epilepsy...Rabies...Neither of them common in this country... Paralysis—symptoms—tre ment. .Colic—symptoms—attributed to intussusception—true cause—treatment. ; 1 THE THORACIC VISCERA. Among these, for convenience, I will include the diaphragm. Tue Diaruracm.—The diaphragm or midriff is a muscle extending en tirely across the inner cavity of the body, separating the abdomen from the thorax or chest. Its structure is unique, and beautifully adapted to the functions it has to perform. Its outer margin is muscular, giving it the ne- cessary power of contraction, while toward the middle it changes into ¢ transparent tendonous substance. ‘Through this tendonous substance pass the esophagus, the aorta, and the vena cava. If the parts of the diaphragm which immediately surround these vessels had been muscular, every contraction of the former in the act of respira- tion, would have compressed the latter, and therefore interfered with tne passage of the food to the stomach, and the circulation of the blood. In « state of rest the diaphragm is convex toward the thorax. When contract- ed and flattened, therefore, it enlarges the cavity of the thorax, and air rushes into the lungs. Its alternate contractions and relaxations mainly produce the act of respiration or breathing. Tue TuHorax.— Without injuring the diaphragm, divide the sternum and brisket of the sheep longitudinally through the center, witha fine saw, and on pulling the lower extremity of the ribs slightly apart, the thorax will be disclosed in its natural arrangement. It consists of three cavities, formed by the doublings of the pleura, a thin serous membrane, which lines the whole interior of the chest. Two outer and larger cavities (the right one being the largest), contain the lungs—a third and smaller one, lying between the posterior portions of the former, contains the heart. The esophagus pass- es through the upper portion of the thorax, over the lungs and heart, and between them and the spine, to the lower portion of the neck. Tue Heart, Arteries, CAPILLARIES, AND VEINS.—With the size and general appearance of the heart, all are familiar.’ Enclosed in a mem braneous sac—the pericardium—it hangs suspended by its superior attach- ments to the roof of the thorax, its lower extremity nearly reaching to its floor, and pointing toward the left side. The heart has two cavities on each side, termed awricles and ventricles The chyle and venous blocd are eS ! 7 = , cae we y 1 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 235 | discharged into the right auricle, and thence into the right ventricle. By the contraction of the latter, its contents are forced through the pulmona- ry artery into the lungs. The blood having been purified in the lungs, is returned to the left auricle; thence into the left ventricle; and it is then forced into the aorta, or large artery which supplies, by its different branches, all parts of the system with blood. Each compartment of the _ heart is furnished with appropriate valves to cause the blood to be forced _ ferward in its regular course, by the muscular contractions of this viscus. _ These contractions are the result of an inherent and independent power. )| The contractions of the heart force the blood into and along the arteries. | When this force begins to be spent as the distance from the heart in- ' creases, it receives aid from the action of the muscular coat of the arteries |) themselves, which forces along the blood to their utmost extremities. | _ The arteries continue to branch off into more and more minute divisions | as they recede trom the heart, until the tubes are much less in diameter than the finest hair. These, capillaries as they are called, open by exceed- “ingly minute reouths in every part of the frame, for the deposition of those secretions from the blood which maintain the vitality and healthy action _ of the parts, supply the animal waste, Xc. The capillaries, commencing their return toward the heart, constantly | reiinite, forming larger tubes which are called vees, which bring back | such portions of the bleod carried out by the arteries, as has not been ex- pended in nourishing the system. The blood now deprived of its oxygen, | and loaded with carbon, is unfit for farther circulation until re-purified in | the lungs. It is of a darker color than the arterial blood. It is no longer | urged on by the contractile power of the tubes through which it flows, but by the partial vacuum formed in the right auricle (as at each contraction | it forces its contents into the right ventricle,) and by atmospheric | pressure. | Tus Lunes.—The lungs are bodies composed of separate minute air- | cells, communicating with the bronchial tubes, or subdivisions of the wind- | pipe. They also contain many arteries, and veins. On the delicate mem- | braneous walls of the air-cells the venous blood is carried by innumerable | tubes so thin as to permit their contents to be acted upon by the atmos- ) pheric air which fills the cells at every inspiration. Here the biood gives | off its carbon, and receives oxygen from the air, and thus is prepared for | its return to the heart, and to be again sent through the system. _ The right lung is somewhat larger than the left, and beth fill their re- | spective cavities when inflated. They are entirely free from any attach- | ment to the pleura—the membrane which lines the ribs—when in their | natural state. When the animal has been bled to death, the lungs are of | a light color; but if the animal has died with all its blood in it, their color | resembles that of the liver. This can, however, be readily distinguished | from hepatization—the result of certain diseases—as will be hereafter | shown. Tue Winprire, Larynx, PHarynx, &c.—The bronchial tubes constant- jy uniting as they approach the anterior portion or root of each lung, final- ly form a single large tube, as they make their exit from each lobe, and ) these, uniting into one, form the windpipe. This is a well known cartila. | ginous tube which passes out of the chest between the first two ribs, and _ascends on the front part of the neck. It unites with the larynx, which continues the air passage from the lungs to the mouth. The cesophagus | leaves the chest close beside the windpipe, and ascends the neck on the 236 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUW'H. lefi. side of the latter. It communicates with the pharynx which commu cates with the mouth. The food on being swallowed enters the pha or food bag, which is directly above the larynx—so that the food traverse the entrance to the latter. It is deterred from entering the windpipe by the epig/ottis, a triangular lid or valve which projects upward from vhe floor of the passage, and which closes upon and covers the glottis, or en trance into the windpipe, when any substance more dense than air come in contact with it in its downward passage. Tne Tuyrow snp Parorip Guanps.—The Thyroid glands are locateé on each side of the trachea. The parotid glands are situated immediatel below the eax, behind the angle of the lower jaw. There are certain other glands situated beneath the lower jaw, not necessary here to be re ferred to. THE HEAD AND ITS CONTENTS. Fig. 49. BONES OF THE HEAD. 1. The nasal bone. 9. Vertical section of the cerebellum. 2. The upper jaw bone. a. The cineritious portion of the brain. 3. The intermaxillary bone, which supports the 6. The medullary portion. pad which supplies the place of upper front | 10. The ethmoid bone. j teeth. 11. The cribriform or perforated plate of the ethmoid 4.4. The frontal sinus. bone. “It separates the nasal cavity from th 5. Cavity or sinus of the horn, communicating brain ; it is thin almost as a wafer, and pierced with the frontal sinus. It is here shown by by numerous holes, through which the olfacto. the removal of a section of the base of the ry nerve penetrates, in order to spread itse horn. over the inner part of the nose.” 6. The parietal bone. 12. The lower cell of the ethmoid bone. 7. The frontal bone. 13. The superior turbinated bone. 8. Vertical section of the brain. 14. The inferior turbinated bone. 17. The sphenoid bone. The above cut, copied from Youatt, gives, with the subjoined explana. tions, a sufficient description of most of the structures of the head. Some however, demand a little more particular description. . Tue Brarw.—The brain of the sheep is smaller in proportion than that of Man, but is shaped so nearly like the latter, and so closely resemble it in its general structure and conformation, that it furnishes the medica student with a good substitute for the brain of the human subject! The brain is invested in a membrane called the pia mater. The cranium o skull is lined by the dura mater, and between this and the former there is a delicate membrane called the tunica arachnoides. Tue Nerves.—Ten pair of nerves arise from the brain, and thirty pa from the spinal cord. These supply the sense of seeing, hearing, tasting, amelling, feeling, &c. &c.; and a portion of them, termed netves of me SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. TG || tion, communicate that volition of the brain to the different parts of the | system, which produces motion. A description of these various nerves, ot )) even an enumeration of them, would be of no practical benefit in a mere )) popular veterinary treatise. Tue Trets.—The sheep has 24 molar teeth, and eight incisors. Tha latter are confined to the lower jaw, being opposed to a firm, hard, elastic pad or cushion on the upper jaw. The incisors are gouge-shaped—. e., | concave without and convex within—which enables the sheep to crop the herbage closer to the ground than our other domestic ruminant, the ox. __ The lamb is born without incisor teeth, or it has but two. In three or ))| four weeks, it has eight small, shortish ones, as represented ‘n fig. 50.— Fig. 50. Fig. 51. Fig. 52. SE Fig. 53. Fig. 54. Fig. 55. When not far from a year old—though sometimes not until fourteen, fif- jteen, or even sixteen months old—the two central incisors are shed, and |their place is supplied by two longer and broader teeth, as in fig. 51. The |sheep is then termed, in this country, a yearling, or yearling past. ‘Two of the “(lamb teeth” continue to be annually shed and their places supplied with the permanent ones until the sheep becomes ‘“‘ full-mouthed.” Fig. '))/52 presents the teeth of a two-year-old-past—fig. 53 of a three-year-old- 7) past—fig. 55 of a four-year-old-past. The four-year-old-past is, in reality, ‘}/nearly or quite five years old, before it obtains its whole number of fully- | grown permanent teeth. ‘The two-year-old and three-year-old also about |reach their next year before their additional incisors are fully grown.— | Hence, the English writers all speak of two broad teeth (meaning fully- grown ones) as indicating the age of two years; four broad teeth, three jyears; six broad teeth, four years; and eight broad teeth, or full-mouthed, \five years. I prefer the English arrangement, as more accurate, but the other is the common one in the Northern and Eastern States; and, as it Vis a matter of little practical consequence, it will here be adhered to. Vig. 54 gives an qszde view of the incisors of a three-year-old-past—an loutside view of which is given in fig. 53. The two remaining lamb teeth Ware here shown, which in the outside view are concealed by the last pair J of permanent teeth. From their being thus concealed, the three is often ‘} mistaken for the four-year-old-past, by those who do not count the perma: “Wnent teeth. : At six years old, the incisors begin to diminish in breadth. At seven they have lost their fan-like shape, being equilateral, long, and narrow.— At eight, they are still narrower; and this year or the next, reversing the ‘Pflaring or divergent position in which they are shown in fig. 55, they begip 238 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. to point 7x toward the two central ones. Their narrowness and inwart direction increases for a year or two more, when they begin to drop out, Sheep fed on turnips or other roots, lose their teeth earlier than those which only receive grain, hay, &c. in winter. At twelve years old, the in- cisors are usually gone with the exception of one or two loose ones. Ané here let me remark that when the incisors are reduced to one or two, the ehould always be twitched out with a pair of nippers. They are useless for the purpose for which they were formed, and they prevent that contact of the lower gum with the pad above, which is now the only substitute fo teeth in cropping grass. When all the incisors are gone, the gums of the lower jaw rapidly harden, and I have known ewes to live for years, keer in fair condition and rear lambs, without an incisor tooth in their heads! The above remarks are more particularly applicable to the Meringe breed. The other breeds, so far as my acquaintance extends, lose thei teeth, or become ‘“ broken-mouthed ” somewhat earlier; and they dwin- dle away and die soon after they begin to lose their teeth. THE LOWER EXTREMITIES. Tue Bretex Canau.—The lower extremities of the sheep, including the legs, feet, &c., require no anatomical description. I will simply call atten- tion to the biflex or interdigital canal, the nature and diseases of which have been the subjects of so many errors. It is a small orifice opening externally on the front of each pastern immediately above the cleft be- tween the toes. It bifurcates within, a tube passing down on each side of the inner face of the pastern, winding round and ending in a eul de sae. The use of this canal is a matter of doubt. Mr. Spooner thinks the hair always found in it is “ excreted from the internal surface,” and “ from the nmallness of the opening it cannot escape, or rather is detained for a use. ful purpose.” He continues : . “The use of this canal, thus stuffed with hair,.is self-evident. We have mentioned tix great motion possessed by this pastern joint, which is so great as to threaten to chafe the zkin by the friction of one side against the other. It is to prevent or ward off this friction that these biflex canals, or rather hair-stuffed cushions, are provided.” In my judgment, this is a very far-fetched conclusion, and Mr. Youatt’s is little more satisfactory. Diseases originating in this canal are some times confounded with hoof-ail; and the canal, or a portion of it, is often dissected, or rather mangled out by ignorant charlatans in pursuit of an imaginary worm, which, they induce the credulous farmer to believe, ort ginates the hoof-ail! The hoof-ail proper has nothing to do with, nor de its characteristic lesions extend to this canal. FEBRILE DISEASES. Simple inflammatory, malignant inflammatory, and typhus fevers ofte devastate the flocks of Europe; but they seem scarcely to be known it the United States, and are included in no American work on the disease of sheep which has fallen under my eye. | The same remark applies to phrenitis (inflammation of the brain), pleus ritis (inflammation of the membrane which lines the thorax), gastritis (in- flammation of the stomach), enteretis (inflammation of the intestines), cys titis (inflammation of the bladder), laryngitis (inflammation of the larynx), and several other inflammatory diseases. ' OpnTHALMi14.—Ophthalmia, or inflammation of the eye, is not uncommon SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 239 jim our country, but is little noticed, as in most cases it disappears in a few .) days, or, at worst, is only followed by cataract. The cataract being usu- /ally confined to one eye does not appreciably affect the value of the ani- ) mal, and therefore has no influence on its market price. As a remedy for this »)/ disease, Mr. Grove recommended blowing pulverized red chalk into the inflamed eye! Others squirt into it tobacco juice, from that ever ready |reservoir of this nauseous fluid, their movths! I apprehend that all such | prescriptions are far worse than nothing. Conceiving it a matter of humanity to do something, I have in some in- |stances drawn blood from under the eye, bathed the eye in tepid water, jand occasionally with a weak solution of the sulphate of zinc combined | with tincture of opium. These applications diminish pain and accelerate | the cure. | _ Puevmonra.—Pneumonia, or inflammation of the lungs, is not a com /mon disease, in the Northern States, but undoubted cases of it sometimes ) occur, after sheep have been exposed to sudden cold—particularly when /receutly shorn. The adhesions occasionally witnessed between the lungs jand pleura of slaughtered sheep, betray the former existence of this dis- /ease—though in many instances it was so slight as to be mistaken, in the time of it, for a hard cold. The sheep laboring under pneumonia is dull, | ceases to ruminate, neglects its food, drinks frequently and largely, and its .} breathing is rapid and laborious. The eye is clouded—the nose discharges ‘J a tenacious, fetid matter—the teeth are ground frequently, so that the sound is audible to some distance. The pulse is at first hard and rapid— sometimes intermittent; but before death it becomes weak. During the | bight of the fever, the flanks heave violently. There is a hard, painful | cough during the first stages of the disease. This becomes weaker, and } seems to be accompanied with more pain as death approaches. | After death, the langs are found more or less hepatized, 1. e. permanently }\ condensed, and engorged with blood, so that their structure resembles | that of the hepar, or liver—and they have so far lost their integrity that they are torn asunder by the slightest force. y= it may be wellin this place to remark that when sheep die from any F cause with their blood in them, the lungs have a dark hepatized appear- J ance. But whether actually hepatized or not, can be readily decided by } compressing the windpipe, so that air cannot escape threugh it, and then 9 between such compression and the body of the lungs, in a closely fitting ® orifice, insert a geose-quill or other tube, and continue to blow until the ® Jungs are inflated so far as they can be. As they inflate, they will become lighter colored, and plainly manifest their cellular structure. If any por- % tions of them cannot be inflated, and retain their dark, liver-like consistency | and color, they exhibit hepatization—the result of high inflammatory ac: tion—and a state utterly incompatible, in the living animal, with the dis- » charge of the natural functions of the viscus. } = With the treatment of pneumonia, I have but little personal experience. | In the first or mflammatory stages of the disease, bleeding and aperients are clearly called for. Mr. Spooner recommends “early and copious bleeding, repeated, if necessary, in a few hours . . . this followed by aperi- ent medicines, such as 2 oz. of Epsom salts, which may be repeated in | smaller doses if the bowels are not sufficiently relaxed. ... The following sedative may also be given with gruel twice a day: iNitrateof potashecssc= semiccisnee cisiswiae s Sai ao0gos 1 drachm. Nigitalis, powdered.....- Rater aire harare ata dnavers rere iatatsierat a 1 scruple. “Zartarized antimony ...---...... nocd] GoodesonnS 1. do. 240 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. “ou The few cases I have seen have been of a sub-acute character, and wouk not bear treatment so decidedly and J think dangerously antiphlogistic, — Mr. Youatt remarks : “Depletion may be of inestimable value during the continuance—the short continuance of the febrile state; but excitation like this will soon be followed by corresponding e3 haustion, and then the bleeding and the purging would be murderous expedients, and genti ginger, and the spirit of nitrous ether will afford the only hope of cure.” * Broncuitis.—It would be difficult to suppose that where sheep are subs ject to pneumonia they would not also be subject to bronchitis—which an inflammation of the mucous membrane which lines the bronchial tube —the air-passes of the lungs. I have seen no cases, however, which have been able to identify as bronchitis, and have examined no subjects, after death, which exhibited its characteristic lesions. Its symptoms a those of an ordinary cold, but attended with more fever and a tenderness of the throat and belly when pressed upon. Treatment.—Administer salt in doses from 1} to 2 0z., with 6 or 8 oz, of lime-water, given in some other part of the day. This is Mr. Youatt’s prescription. Cararru.—Catarrh is an inflammation of the mucous membrane which lines the nasal passages—and it sometimes extends to the larynx and pha- rynx. In the first instance—where the lining of the nasal passages is alone and not very violently affected—it is merely accompanied by an in- creased discharge of mucus, and is rarely attended with much danger. In this form it is usually termed snzwfles, and high-bred English mutton sheep, in this country, are apt to manifest more or less of it, after every sudden change of weather, When the inflammation extends to the mucous lining of the larynx and pharynx, some degree of fever usually supervenes, ae- companied by cough, and some loss of appetite. At this point the Eng- lish veterinarians usually recommend bleeding and purging. Catarrh rarely attacks the American fine-wooled sheep with sufficient violence in summer, to require the exhibition of remedies. J early foand that depletion, in catarrh, in our severe winter*months, rapidly produced that fatal prostra- tion, from which it is next to impossible to recover the sheep—entirely im- possible, without bestowing an amount of time and care on it, costing far more than the price of any ordinary sheep. : The Jest course is to prevent the disease, by judicious precautions. With hat amount of attention which every prudent flock-master should bestow on his sheep, the hardy American Merino is little subject to it. Good, comfortable, but well-ventilated shelters, constantly accessible to the sheep in winter, with a sufficiency of food regularly administered, is usually a sufficient safeguard ; and after some years of experience, during which 1 have tried a variety of experiments on this disease, I resort to no other remedies—in other words, I do nothing for those occasional cases of ordina- ry catarra which arise in my flock, and they never prove fatal. Mattenant Epizootic Cararru.—Essentially differing from the pre- ceding in type and virulence is an epidemic, or, more properly speaking, an epizootic, malady, which as often as once in eight or ten years sweeps over extended sections of the Northern States, destroying more sheep than all the ether diseases puttogether. It usually makes its appearance in win- ters characterized by rapid and violent changes of temperature. The Northern farmers speak of these as the ‘“ bad winters ” for sheep—fre quently without assigning any name to the malady. Others term the lat . SNEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 24] |ter “ The Distemper,” and others again call it the “ Grud in the Lead,” at- |tributing the evil exclusively to the presence of these parasites. The |fatter, as I shall hereafter show, is an entirely erroneous hypothesis. The winter of 1846-7 was one of these ‘“ bad winters,’ and the de- |struction of sheep in New-York, and some adjoining States, was very ex jtensive. Some ilock-masters lost half, others three-quarters, and a few /seven-eighths of their flocks. One individual within a few miles of me lost ) five hundred out of eight hundred—another nine hundred out of one J thousand! But these severe losses fell mainly on the holders of the deli- |cate Saxon sheep, and perhaps, generally, on those possessing not the best /accommodations, or the greatest degree of energy and skill. I lost about fifty sheep during this winter, and never having seen any de- scription of the pathology of this disease, its diagnosis, its lesions—or, in short, any attempt to ascertain its specific character or proper classifica- tion in our ovine nosology—lI shall attempt to supply some of these omis- jsions. Not dreaming then of a publication of this kind, my notes were ‘only taken for private reference, and were not as full as they should be for ja veterinary treatise. I mzght supply some of these omissions accurately from recollzction, but do not consider it proper thus to exdanger the accu- racy of records, which as far as they go, I think may zow be wmplrcitly re- lied on. iy post-mortem examinations were made at intervals snatched @ from other pressing engagements. This fact, and certain preconceived ) views—which I subsequently found erroneous—prevented me from making shose examinations, and more particularly the records of them, as minute and extended as could be wished. I then sought only to convince myself of the true nature and character of the disease. In detailing the results of my experience in the premises, I conceive ita duty to frankly state the whole facts. The records of mismanagement and error, are often as useful, nay, more so, than those of successful manage- ment, and it is a pitiful pride which prevents any man, who pretends to communicate information to the public, from giving that public the bene- fic of his examples which are to be avozded, as well as those which are to be followed. Up to February, my sheep remained apparently perfectly sound, and they were in good flesh. Each flock had excellent shelters, were fed re- gularly, etc., and although sheep were beginning to perish about the coun- try, my uniform previous impunity in these “ bad winters ”’ led me to en- tertain no apprehensions of the prevailing epizoétic. About the first of February, my sheep went into the charge of a new man, hired upon the highest recommendations. A few days after, 1 was called away from home for a week. The weather during my absence was, a part of the time, very severe. ‘The sheep-heuse occupied by one flock containing one hundred sheep, was, with the exception of two doors, as close a room as can be made by nailing on the wall-boards vertically and without lapping, as is common on our Northern barns.* One of the doors was always left open, to permit the tree ingress and egress of the sheep, and for necessary ventila- tion. A half dozen ewes which had been untimely impregnated by a ‘neighbor’s ram, were on the point of lambing, and it being safer to confine } the ewes in a warm room over night, the shepherd, instead of removing } them to such a room, confined the whole flock in the sheep-house every night, and rendered it warm by closing doth doors ! After two or three hours, the air must have become excessively impure. On entering the } sheep-house, on my return, I was at once struck with the fetid, highly of- fensive smell. A change, too, slight but ominous, had taken place in the -—. “ Boards in these cases shrink so as to leave slight cracks between them. 242 SHEEP HUSBANDRY N THE SOUTH. wa appearance of a part of the flock. They showed no signs of violent cold heard no covghing, sneezing, or labored respiration—and the only indie tion of catarrh which I noticed, was a nasal discharge, by a few sheep But those having this nasal discharge, and some others, looked dull am drooping ; their eyes ran a little—were partially closed, the caruncle an¢ lids looked pale—their movements were languid—and the shepherd com plained that they did not eat quite so well as the others. The pulse wa nearly natural—though 1 thought a wifle too languid. { Not knowing what the disease was—and fully believing that depletion by bleeding or physic was not called for, let the disease be what it would, I contented myself with thoroughly purifying the sheep house—seeing the the feeding, etc.,* was managed with the greatest regularity—and closel: watching the farther symptoms of disease in the flock. In about a wee the above described symptoms were evidently aggravated, and there hac been a rapid emaciation, accompanied with debility, in the sheep first at tacked. ‘Lhe countenance was ‘exceeding dull and drooping—the eye kept more than half closed—the caruncle, lids, &c. almost bloodless gummy yellow secretion below the eye—thick glutinous mucus adhering in and about the nostrils—appetite feeble—pulse languid—and the museus lar energy greatly prostrated. Nothing unusual was yet noticed abou their stools or urine, ' { now had all the diseased sheep removed from the flock, and placed in rooms the temperature of which could be easily regulated. L commenced giving slight tonics and stimulants, such as gentian, gin ger, etc., but apparently with no material effect. They rapidly grew weak: er, stumbled and fell as they walked, and soon became unable to rise. The appetite grew feebler—the mucus at the nose, in some instances, tinged with dark grumous blood—the respiration oppressed, and they died with in 2 day or two after they became unable to rise. ; . I proceeded to make some post-mortem examinations, which I shall here detail, although, as I have before remarked, they are extremely im perfect. I was at first inclined to suspect that the primary disease was on of some of the abdominal or thoracic viscera, and this impression was com firmed by the abnormal condition of these viscera in the first subjects exam ined. I therefore improperly confined my attention to these, and some of the external tissues, without any examination of the interior organs of the head and neck. I shall give my notes verbatim as they were taken down at the time, whether the appearances detailed have, as I now believe, a connection with the fatal disease or not. Case 1st. Old sheep. Much emaciated—mouth and lips covered with yellow froth—yellow waxy matter under eyes—adhesive mucus in and about nostrils. On opening, external tissues appear healthy—two hyde tids on omentum of the size of a walnut—gall-bladder enlarged and eno mously distended with pale, and apparently not properly eliminated bile —gall-bladder slightly adhering to omentum—mesenteric glands enlarged —other abdominal viscera believed to be normal-—feces in rectum thought to indicate a constipated habit—stomachs rather empty. Thoracic viscera healthy. Case 2d. Two years old. External appearances as in Case Ist, with the exception of the yellow froth about the mouth. External tissue: healthy. Gall-bladder very small and nearly empty—bile pale and un: eliminated—mesenteric glands enlarged—schirrous tumor at the junction Re: * They had been fed with bright hay three times a day, and turnips. As those affected as above did me eat their turnips well, I commencec feeding some oats, in addition to the turnips. I believed thata gen cus feed was called for, and J gave it i ee 4 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 243 the coecum and colon of the size of a butternut. Superior lobe of left lung adherent to pleura costalis—three lobes of right lung ditto, with slight lwaces of recentinflammation. Hydro-pericarditis—the pericardium slight- ly inflamed and containing something more than a gill of serum. Case 3d. Old, and in lamb. External appearances and tissues as in Case 2d. Omentum dark-yellowish, or yellowish-brown by deposition of lymph, the result of inflammatory action—gall-bladder precisely asin Case 2d—tabes mesentrica or enlargement of the mesenteric glands, as in the )\preceding cases. Middle lobe of right lung slightly hepatized, and adher- lent to pleura costalis—hydro-pericarditis, (a gill of serum in pericar- dium.) : } Case 4th. Yearling ram. External appearances and tissues as in pre ceding cases. Two small hydatids on omentum—gall-bladder as in two preceding cases—mesenteric glands as in preceding cases. Traces of diar- thea. Thoracic viscera healthy. é ¥ Case 5th. Lamb. External appearance as in preceding cases—omen- fum asin Case 3d, and small hydatid on it—gall-bladder as in three pre- ceding cases—ditto of mesenteric glands. Thoracic viscera healthy. _ | Case 6th. Four-year-old ram, killed for examination, in the first stage of the disease. Yetstrong, appetite good, in fair condition, and exhibited no particular external indications of disease except running at the eyes, a slight gummy deposition below them—and some mucus about the nostrils, (Zall-bladder but little better filled than in preceding cases—mesenteric lands same as in preceding cases. Thoracic viscera healthy. Remarks on Preceding Cases—1 had started on the supposition that ihe fatal disease would be found one of the lungs, consequent on ca- arth. I thought it mzght prove a species of pneumonia, though some of eS characteristic symptoms of that disease seemed to be wanting ; but | believed it would rather prove to be phthisis pulmonalis, or pulmonary jonsumption. To the last disease, when it assumes the form of what is popularly called “ quick consumption,” it seemed to me to bear several striking analogies. But the post-mortem examinations above detailed, en-. irely overthrow these suppositions. Except in Case 2d, there were no: 1anifestations of recent inflammation of the lungs. The adhesions in Case- 3d, were evidently referable to a past date. In the other four cases, the: jungs were in a healthy condition—exhibiting not a trace of hepatization,. ubereles, ulcers, or other abnormal action! In Case 6th, where the dis-- 2ase was in its first observable and therefore inflammatory stage, none of he thoracic viscera presented a particle of inflammation ! _ Then what was the disease? It was evidently the same in the several tases, yet the lesions disclosed by post-mortem examination weré very va- fious.. Hence, I was led to conclude that these lesions were the results- Df symptomatic disease, and that the przmary one was not yet discovered, _ The malady continued to spread. New-cases occurred daily—it began. 10 exhibit itself in my other flocks. It had manifestly put on the charac-- er of an epizoétic—or, if I may be permitted to coin a word, an en-zo-- ntic. I now gave orders to have every sheep removed from the several flocks, , _ iz soon as it should be attacked with disease. I also resolved on more ex- ended pest-mortem examinations The following are the notes taken in: he immediately succeeding cases. Case 7th. Yearling. External appearance as in the preceding cases—- 2xternal tissues normal—mesenteric glands slightly enlarged—gall-blad-. Jer of natural size, with good bile, and with the natural discolorations. Pabout it. Thoracic viscera healthy, with exception of pericardium, which exhibited traces of recent inflammation ce contained a gill of serums 244 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. The thorax also contained considerable fluid, which escaped without a measurement. I now examined the bronchial tubes, the lower portions of the windpip esophagus, &e., and found them all in an apparently healthy conditio Before tracing these passages to the throat, I removed the upper porti¢ of the skull and carefully examined the brain and its investing mei branes. All seemed in a perfectly normal state. I then made longit dinal section down through the middle part of the whole head, as is shoy in fig. 49, and the seat and character of the fatal malady stood at revealed ! The mucous membrane lining the whole nasal cavity, highly congeste and thickened throughout its whole extent, betrayed the most intense flammation. At the junction of the cellular ethmoid bones with the erik form plate, (in the ethmoidal cells,) slight ulcers were forming on the men braneous lining! The inflammation also extended to the mucous me brane of the pharynx, and say three inches of the upper portion of the we phagus. Here it rather abruptly terminated. Case 8th. Old, in lamb. External appearances as in preceding cases abdominal parietes healthy—all the viscera apparently healthy. The flammation of the mucous membrane lining the nasal cavity, pharynx, at upper portion of cesophagus, as in Case 7th, only not quite so acute ulcers on the membrane. . Cases 5th and 6th reviewed. The heads of these two subjects havi peen accidentally preserved, I examined them, and found the inflammate action of the mucous membrane same as in cases 7th and 8th. Nor have a particle of doubt that the same would have been found the case in @ the preceding subjects, had they been examined. Nosology and Treatment.—I had little difficulty in coming to the cone sion that the primary and main disease was a species of catarrh. It evident however, differed from ordinary catarrh in its diagnosis, and in the exte of the lesions accompanying both the primary and symptomatic d eases. In no case, even in the first attack, did I notice anything—the fever the accelerated pulse—the redness about the eyes and nostrils—the coug ing, etc., accompanying an ordinary severe attack of catarrh. And it for this reason that I was misled as to the seat of the malady. From ¢ very outset, according to my observations, the type of the disease v typhoid—sinking—rapidly tending to fatal prostration. How to reduce the local inflammation of the membrane lining the na cavities, I was at a loss to determine. I was satisfied that there was t much debility to admit of an antiphlogistic course of treatment. Still, make myself sure, I bled in \hree or four cases, and, as I anticipated, evidently accelerated the fatal catastrophe. Blistering could not be broug near to the seat of the inflammation, excepting on the nose, and indeper ent of the extreme difficulty of treating a blister on a spot so constant exposed to dirt, the rubbing of hay, etc., in winter feeding, I believed could have little effect, on an account of the thick nasal bone interveni between it and any portion of the inflamed membrane. And, moreoy the greater portion of the inflamed membrane rested on bones detache except at one extremity, from all connection with the nasal bone. I bi Scotch snuff (through paper tubes) up the nostrils of some of the she for two objects—1, to remove, by sneezing, the mucus, which mechanie ly, and evidently injuriously, obstructed respiration ; and 2, to produce new action, by which an increased mucous secretion would be excit and thus the congested membrane relieved. But, farther than this, I : / SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 245 ‘sorted to no local or other treatment designed specifically to reach the local jinflammation. | The next step was to fix on the constitutional treatment. The liver was jevidently in atorpid state. There was a functional derangement in the \mesenteric and probably other glands, and a want of activity in the general isecretory system. What medicine would stimulate the liver, cause it to isecrete the proper quantity as well as quality of bile, change the morbid jaction of the glands and secretory system, and restore activity and health ito the vital functions generally? In my judgment, nothing promised so pre as mercury ; and by its well known effect on the entire secretory sys- tem, it would powerfully tend to relieve the congested membranes of the Whead. In this opinion I was joined by a learned and experienced physi- ician, who, both as a matter of taste and humanity, has given no little at- jtention to veterinary science and practice. The proto-chloride of mercury (calomel) was supposed to possess too much specific gravity to reach the ourth stomach, with any certainty, administered in a liquid; and if ad- ministered as a ball or pill, it would be almost swe not to reach that stom- lach.* The dissolved bi-chloride of mercury (corrosive sublimate) was therefore hit upon. One grain was dissolved in two ounces of water, and jone-half ounce of the water (or one-eighth of a grain of corrosive sublimate) as exhibited in a day, in two doses. As constipation existed in most of the cases, it was.thought that the owels required to be stimulated into action, and slightly evacuated with mild laxative. Having noticed in similar cases of debility and torpor of the intestinal canal, that purgation is often followed by a serous diarrhea, difficult to correct, and leading to rapid prostration, and there being no in- testinal irritation to suffer exacerbation, I thought that rhubarb—from its well known tendency to give tone to the bowels, and its secondary effect as a mild astringent—was particularly indicated. It was givenin a decoc- ion—the equivalent of ten or fifteen grains at a dose—accompanied with the ordinary carminative and stomachic adjuvants, ginger and gentian, in nfusion. Toa = } nis oats irregularly for several days, and refused turnips, bran, etc., alto- gether—much emaciated—eyes partly closed, with a yellowish deposit pelow them—caruncle and lids blondless—nostrils impeded with adhesive yellowish mucus. March 17th. Weaker than before—would not rise to feed—not seen to eat or ruminate—gait, when helped up, weak and staggering ; eyes near- ly closed—stooled dry, hard feeces——urine dark and reddish. Exhibited) rhubarb with ginger and gentian in gruel—blew snuff into nostrils. March {Sth, morning—Weaker; refused to eat anything. Exhibited rhubarb, ginger and gentian in gruel. Noon—Urine seemingly bloody: breathing labored : exhibited corrosive sublimate in gruel. Night—Dying. March 19th, morning—Dead. Post-mortem appearances. Inner edges of both lobes of liver softened abeut two inches from horizontal fissure: hypropericarditis and hydro- ae reasons which will be hereafter given under the head of “ The Proper Way of Administering Medicines“ 246 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH, thorax—nearly half pint of serum in latter. Other viscera apparent normal, Lining of superior portion of esophagus and nasal cavity as i Case 8th. ‘ Case 10th. Three-year-old ewe. Drooping for several days: sleepy: emaciated and weak: cannot rise without help: appearances about ne trils and eyes as in Case 9th: appetite considerable—rumination not ¢ served. March 17th. Exhibited ginger and gentian in gruel: ble snuff in nostrils. Latter produced sneezing and a discharge of mucu 18th: Morning. Weaker and would not eat. Noon. A little liy lier: ate hay and grain; exhibited ginger and gentian. Night. Eva uations thin: urine of a natural color. 19th. Morning: same, Nog Exhibited same remedies as before. The same course was pursued fe three days: the sheep appearing rather to gain, when one morning it y found dead. No post-mortem examination made. Case 11th. Old ewe. Symptoms precisely as in Case 10th, except ¢ occasional grinding of the teeth. March 17th. Treated exactly as in Caj 9th. Lived three days and appeared to rally a little, then brought forth lamb and died. Post-mortem examination. Abdominal parietes health —gall-bladder filled with pale bile: liver normal in size but softene throughout its entire extent, and pale: portions of it paler and more diso ganized than others: no parasites in its ducts. ‘Thoracic viscera norma Sub-acute inflammation of the mucous lining of the nasal cavity, and of th superior portion of the cesophagus. Slight ulcer in the ethmoidal cells. I made various other post-mortem examinations. Some of the visce: in every case were in a more or less abnormal state; but there was same variety in the locality of the diseased action as in the precedin cases. But so far as the seat and character of the catarrhal affection concerned, it was uniform in every case. The only difference was ini tensity, as exhibited by the extent of the lesions. Not a single sheep recovered after the emaciation and debility had pr > ceeded to any great extent! One such only lingered along until shearin Its wool gradually dropped off: it seemed to rally a little once or twict and then relapse; and it perished one night in a rain-storm. In the ger erality of instances the time from the first observed symptoms until death varied from ten to fifteen days. A few died in a shorter time. ; Inthe three cases last detailed, the disease had evidently proceeded to far to be arrested by anxy treatment. I much regret the loss of the recoré of the other cases, which would throw farther light on the subject. thought that the treatment produced favorable effects in some instances— particularly when resorted to at the commencement of the disease. Ata events, some of the sheep recovered under the treatment—particularly ur der that including the exhibition of the bi-chloride of mercury—and ver few, if any, recovered without any treatment. Candor compels me to sa however, that the results of the treatment were far from being highly sa isfactory—that the cases of recovery were much fewer than the deaths. — have merely stated what I believe to be the facts jn the premises ; I do ne feel prepared to make any recommendations. The epizoétic gradually abated toward spring, and my flock have sine peen in perfect health. Near spring, many farmers found what seemed to them an unusual nun ber of grubs in the head (frontal sinuses) of the sheep which died of th prevailing epizoétic, and therefore they attributed the ptr to this caus and this seems to be the prevailing popular opinion. In some of the date: cases in my flock, I discovered more or less grubs; and, in two or thre ‘nstances an unusual number. Ir other cases where the external sym a Kip Ua y " " SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. VE ae ro —— er = toms and the post-mortem appearances were almost identical, nu grubs were to be seen. [or this reason, and others which I shall assign when treating of grub in the head, I conclude that the popular opinion is erro- jpeous. ; f Tse Rotr.—The existence and prevalence of the Rot in the United (States have been sufficiently alluded to in Letter XIV. Notwithstanding its comparative rareness here, so far as is known, at present, I think it expedient to give a full description of it. It may be more prevalent hereafter, or it may be found peculiar to localities where sheep have not fyet been introduced. And whether so or not, as its existence will often jbe feared and suspected in diseased flocks, it is proper that the flock- master always have it in his power to clearly identify this terrible des- itroyer. | The diagnosis of the disease is thus given by Mr. Spooner.* | “ The first symptoms attending this disease are by no means strongly marked ; there ts mo loss of condition, but rather apparently the contrary; indeed, sheep intended for the (butcher have been purposely cothed or rotted in order to increase their fattening properties (for a few weeks, a practice which was adopted by the celebrated Bakewell. A want of liveliness and paleness of the membranes generally may be considered as the first symptoms jof the disease, to which may be added a yellowness of the caruncle at the corner of the jeye. Dr. Harrison observes, ‘when in warm, sultry or rainy weather, sheep that are grazing jon low and moist lands feed rapidly, and some of them die suddenly, there is fear that they — shave contracted the rot.’ This suspicion will be farther increased if, a few weeks afterward, the sheep begin to shrmk and become flaccid about the loins. By pressure about the hips at this time a crackling is perceptible now or soon afterward, the countenance looks pale, and upon parting the fleece the skin is found to have changed its vermilion tint for a pale red, and the wool is easily separated from the pelt; and as the disorder advances the skin be comes dappled with yellow or black spots. To these symptoms succeed increased dullness jloss of condition, greater paleness of tle mucous membranes, the eyelids becoming almost white and afterward yellow. ‘This yellowness extends to other parts of the body, and a watery fluid appears under the skin, which becomes loose and flabby, the woo! coming off /ceadily. The symptoms of dropsy often extend over the body, and sometimes the sheep | ‘becomes chockered, as it is termed—a large swelling forms under the jaw, which, from the appearances of the fluid it contains, is in some places called the watery poke. The duration of the disease is uncertain; the animal occasionally dies shortly after becoming affected, but more frequently it extends to from three to six months, the sheep gradually losing flesh and pining ave, particularly if, as is frequently the case, an obstinate purging supervenes.” ‘Mr. Youatt thus describes the post-mortem appearances:f - “When a rotted sheep is examined after death, the whole cellular tissue is found to be infiltrated, and a yellow serous fluid everywhere follows the knife. The muscles are sott and flabby: they have the appearance of being macerated. The kidneys are pale, flaccid, | and infiltrated. The mesenteric glands enlarged, and engorged with yellow serous fluid. | The belly is frequently filled with water or purulent matter; the peritoneum is everywhere thickened, and the bowels adhere together by means of an unnatural growth. The heart } 1s enlarged and softened, and the lungs are filled with tubercles. The principal alterations | of structure are in the liver. It is pale, livid, and broken down with the slightest pressure ; | and on being boiled it will almost dissolve away. When the liver is not pale, it is often | curiously spotted. In some cases it is speckled like the back of a toad. Nevertheless, some | parts of it are hard and schirrous; others are ulcerated, and the biliary ducts are filled with } flukes. Here is the decided seat of disease, and it is here that the nature of the malady is | to belearned. It is inflammation of the liver. . . . The liver attracts the priucipal atten- ) tion of the examiner: it displays the evident effects of acute and destructive intlammation ; and still more plainly the ravages of the parasite with which its ducts are crowded. Here ‘is plainly the original seat of the disease—the center whence a destructive influence spreads ‘on every side. ... The Fluke—the Fasciola of Linneus—the Distoma hepaticum ut | Rhodolphi—the Planaria of Goese—is found in the biliary ducts of the sheep, the goat, the deer, the ox, the horse, the ass, the hog, the dog, the rabbit, the guinea-pig, and various | other animals, and even in the human being. It is from three quarters of an inch ty an inch anc a quarter in length, and from cxe-third to half an inch in greatest breadth. * Spooner, p. 391, et supra. _ $ Youatt, p. 447, et supra. 2438 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. Figs. 56 and 58 represent this parasite of its usual size and appearance, and its re: blance to a minute sole, divested of its fins, is very striking. The head is of a pointe form, round above and flat beneath; and the mouth opens laterally instead of vertically Fig. 56. Fig. 57. Fig. 58. Fig. 59. a er en ee ee ee THE FLUKE. There are no barbs or tentaculie, as described by some authors. The eyes are placed on most prominent part of the head, and are very singularly constructed (fig. 57). They hav the bony ring of the bird. . .. The anastomoses of the blood-vessels which ramify ove the head are plainly seen through a tolerable microscope. The circulating and digestive organs are also evident, and are seated almost immediately below the head. The situation of the heart is seen in fig. 56, and the two main vessels evidently springing from it, and extending through almost the whole length of the fluke. Smaller blood-vessels, if so they may be called, ramify from them on either side. The convolutions of the bowels appear it fig. 59, and the vent, both for the feces and the ova, and probably for the connection be tween the sexes, is on the under part, and almost close to the neck. ... + ; In the beliy, if so it may be called, are almost invariably a very great number of ovz particles, hundreds of which, taken together, are not equal in bulk to a grain of sand. They are of a pale red color, and are supposed to be the spawn or eggs of the parasite. . ... There can be no doubt that the eggs are frequently received in the food. Having been discharged with the dung, they remain on the grass or damp spot on which they may fall, retaining their vital principle for an indefinite period of time. . . . They find not always, ¢ they find not at all, a proper nidus in the places in which they are deposited; but taken up with the food, escaping the perils of rumination, and threading every vessel and duct unti they arrive at the biliary canal, they burst from their shells, and grow, and probably multi- Re Leeuwenhoek says that he has taken 870 flukes out of one liver, exclusive of those that were cut to pieces or destroyed in opening the various ducts. In other cases, and where the sheep have died of the rot, there were not found more than ten or twelve. . . . Then, is the fluke worm the cause or the effect of rot?’ To a certain degree both. They gerayate’ the disease; they perpetuate a state of irritability and disorganization, whick must necessarily undermine the strength of any animal... .. Notwithstanding all this, however, if the fluke follow the analogy of other entoza and parasites, it is the effect and not the cause of rot.... . a The rot in sheep is evidently connected with the soil or state of the pasture. It is com fined to wet seasons, or to the feeding on ground moist and marshy at all seasons. It hi reference to the evaporation of water, and to the presence and decomposition of moist vege table matter. It is rarely or almost never seen on dry or sandy soils and in dry seasons it is rarely wanting on boggy or poachy ground, except when that ground is dried by the heat of the summer’s sun, or completely covered by the winter’s rain. On the same fe there are certain fields on which no sheep can be turned with impunity. There are othe: that seldom or never give the rot. The soil of the first is found to be of a pervious natur on which wet cannot long remain—the second takes a long time to dry, or is rarely or Mmever 60. .... Some seasons are far more favorable to the development of the rot than others, and the 18 no manner of doubt as to the character of those seasons. After a rainy summer or4 moist autumn, or during a wet winter, the rot destruys like a pestilence. A return and continuance of dry weather materially arrests its murderous progress. Most of the sheep SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTh. 249 i 3 i > * |that had been already infected die ; but the number of those that are lost soon begins to be materially diminished. It is, therefore sufficiently plain that the rot depends upon, or ia }caused by, the existence of moisture. A rainy season ana a tenacious soil are frnitful or Jinevitable sources of it. .... The mischief is effected with almost incredible rapidity.” Mr. Youatt here gives various instances to prove that rot is engendered jin a few hours and even minutes.* He farther says : “Tt is an old observation that all pasture that is suspected to be unsound, the sheep should ‘be folded early im the evening, before the first dews begin to fall, and should not be released | from the fold until the dew is partly evaporated. ... . ) Then the mode of prevention—that with which the farmer will have most to do, for the |sheep having become once decidedly rotten, neither medicine nor management will hava much power in arresting the evil—consists in altering the character of as much of the dan | gerous ground as he can, and keeping his sheep from those pastures which defy all his attempts to improve them. . . . . If all unnecessary moisture is removed from the soil, or | if the access of air is cut off by the flooding of the pasture, no poisonous gas has existence, and the sheep continue sound. ... . The account of the treatment of rot must, to a considerable extent, be very unsatis- | factory." Mr. Youatt proceeds to recommend the sale of sheep to the butcher when they are found to be rotted! Rot hastens for a short period the ) accumulation of fat. Bakewell—a man whose name is associated with the exhibition of prodigious abilities in the improvement of stock, but, in my mind tarnished also by an equal exhibition of selfishness and absolute meanness—displayed a characteristic sagacity in purposely rotting his sheep to avail himself of the above circumstance!{ It is with pain [ make the following quotation from Youatt—the only thing of such a char- acter | remember to have noticed in his voluminous works : - It is one of the characters of the rot to hasten, and that to a strange degree, the accu- mulation of flesh and fat. Let not the farmer, however, push this experiment too far. Let him carefully overlook every sheep daily, and dispose of those which cease to make pro gress, or which seem beginning to retrograde. It has already been stated that the meat of the rotted sheep, in the early stage of the disease, ¢s not like that of the sound one; it ia pale and not so firm; but it is not unwholesome (!) and it is coveted by certain epicures, whe, perhaps, are not altogether aware of the real state of the animal(!!) All this is matter of calculation, and must be left to the owner of the sheep; except that, if the breed @ is not of very considerable value, and the disease has not proceeded to emaciation or other @ fearful symptoms, the first loss will probably be the least; and if the owner can get any- thing li] 3 a tolerable price for them, the sooner they are sent to the butcher, or constimed at home, the better. Supposing, however, that their appearance is beginning to tell tales about them, and they are too far gone to be disposed of in the market or consumed at home, are they to be abandoned to their fate? No: far from it.” Conceding to Mr. Youatt the whole benefit of that saving clause about “consumption at home,” the above sentence is one which I could well } wish stricken from his valuable work. The sale of the meat of diseased § animals, for human consumption, is abhorrent to decency and propriety, |} and there is not a respectable American family which would not revolt at the idea of either selling or consuming such meat. Of the treatment of rot, Mr. Youatt continues : ‘ “If it is suited to the convenience of the farmer, and such ground were at all within his reach, the sheep should be sent to a salt-marsh in preference to the best pasture on the best farm. There it will feed on the salt incrusted on the herbage, and pervading the pores of every blade of grass. A healthy salt-marsh permits not the sheep to become rotten which | graze upon it; and if the disease is not considerably advanced, it cures those which are sent | upon it with the rot. ... Are there any indications of fever—heated mouth, heaving ‘flanks, or failing appetite? Is the general inflammation beginning to have a determination to that part on which the disease usually expends its chiefest virulence? Is there yellow- * Youatt, p. 453. t So say both Spooner and Youas. 250 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ness of the lips and of the mouth, of the eyes, and of the skin? At the same time, ars there no indications of weakness and decay? Nothing to show that the constitrtion 1 fatally undermined? Bleed—abstract, according to the circumstances of the case, eight, ten, or twelve ounces of blood. There is no disease of an inflammatory character at it commencement which is not benefited by early bleeding. To this let a dose of physi sticceed—two or three ounces of Epsom salts, administered in the cautious manner so fre quently recommended; and to these means let a change of diet be immediately added. good hay in the field, and hay, straw, or chaff, in the straw-yard. ? The physic having operated, or an additional dose, perchance, having been administered in order to quicken the uction of the first, the farmer will look out for farther means and appliances. .... Two or three grains of calomel may be given daily, but mixed with alf the quantity of opium, in order to secure its beneficial, and ward off its injurious effects on the ruminant. ‘To this should be added—a simple and cheap medicine, but that whieh is the sheetanchor of the practitioner here—common sult. .... In the first place, it is) purgative inferior to few, when given in a full dose; and itis a tonic as well as a purgative, .. + A mild tonic, as well as an aperient, is plainly indicated soon after the commencement of rot. ‘The doses should be from two to three drachms, repeated morning and night, When the inflammatory stage is clearly passed, stronger tonics may be added to the salt, and there are none superior to the gentian and ginger roots; from one to two drachms of each, finely powdered, may be added to each dose of the salt... . . The sheep having a little recov ered from the disease, should still continue on the best and driest pasture on the farm, and should always have salt within their reach... .. The rot is not infectious.” Diarruea.—This disease is often more properly a xervous than a febrile one—in the former case, a morbid increase of the peristaltic motion of the bowels—in the latter, an inflammation of the mucous coat of the smalle intestines. But for the purpose of viewing it in connection with dysei tery, to which it is sometimes closely allied, and into which it often runs -—and which is clearly a febrile disease—it will be described here. Common diarrhea, purging, or scours, manifests itself simply by the copiousness and fluidity of the alvine evacuations. It is brought on by a sudden change from dry feed to green, or by the introduction of im proper substances into the stomach. It is important to clearly distinguish this disease from dysentery. In diarrhea there is no apparent general fever; the appetite remains good; the stools are thin and watery, but unaccompanied with slime (mucus) and blood; the odor of the faeces is far less offensive than in dysentery ; the general condition of the animal is but little changed. Treatment.—Confinement to dry food for a day or two, and a gradual re- turn to it, oftentimes suffice. I have rarely administered anything to growr sheep, and never have lost one from this disease. To lambs, especially if attacked in the fall, the disease is more serious. If the purging is severe, and especially if any mucus is observed with the feces, the feculent mat- ter should be removed from the bowels by a gentle cathartic—as half a drachm of rhubarb, or an ounce of linseed-oil, or half an ounce of Epsem salts toa lamb. This should always be followed by an astringent, and in _nine cases out of ten, the latter will serve in the first instance. I gener- ally administer, say, } oz. of prepared chalk in half a pint of tepid milk, once a day for two or three days, at the end of which, and frequently after the first dose, the purging will have ordinarily abated or entirely ceased, The following is the formula of the English ‘“ sheep’s cordial” usually rescribed in cases of diarrhea by the English veterinarians, and there can ‘ha no doubt it is a safe and excellent remedy—better probably than sim- ple chalk and milk, in severe cases: Take of prepared chalk one ounce, powdered catechu half an ounce, powdered ginger two drachms, and pow- dered opium half a drachm ; mix them with half a pint of peppermint wa- ter—give two or three table-spoonsfull morning and night to a growm sheep, and half that quantity to a lamb Ge SAO Ce aol ean, SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 251 | Dysuntery.—Dysentery is caused by an inflammation of the mucous 07 mner coat of the larger intestines, causing a preternatural increase in their | secretions, and a morbid alteration in the character of those secretions. It jis frequently c »nsequent on that form of diarrhea which is caused by an J inflammation of the mucous coat of the smaller intestines. The inflam- jmation extends throughout the whole alimentary canal, increases in viru- ‘lence, and it becomes dysentery—a disease frequently dangerous and ob- \stinate in its character, but fortunately not common among sheep in this part of the United States. Its diagnosis differs from that of diarrhea in ‘several readily observed particulars. There is evident fever; the appe- |tite is capricious, ordinarily very feeble; the stools are as thin or eyen thin- ner than in diarrhea, but much more adhesive in consequence of the pres- jence of large quantities of mucus. As the erosion of the intestines ad- J vances, the feces are tinged with blood ; their odor is intolerably offensive ; Jjand the animal rapidly wastes away. The course of the disease extends |from a few days to several weeks. | Treatment——I have seen but a few well-defined cases cf dysentery, jand in the half-dozen instances which have occurred in my own flock, iI have usuaily administered a couple of purges of linseed-oil, followed by ichalk and milk as in diarrhea (only doubling the dose of chalk), and a few idrops of laudanum, say twenty or thirty—with ginger and gentian. Ac- lcording to my recollection, about one-third of the cases have proved fatal, ‘but they have usually been old and feeble sheep.. Farther inquiry satisfies me that moderate bleeding should be resorted to in the first or inflammatory stage of the disease, or whenever decided ebrile symptoms are found to be present. | Mr. Youatt prescribes bleeding, cathartics, mashes, gruel, &c. He BAYS : ) “ Two doses of physic having been administered, the practitioner will probably have re- sourse to astringents. The sheep’s cordial will probably supply him with the best; and to his, tonics may soon begin to be added—an additional quantity of ginger may enter into the omposition of the cordial, and gentian powder will be a useful auxiliary. With this—as an excellent stimulus to cause the sphincter of the anus to contract, and also the mouths of the innumerable secretory and exhalent. vessels which open on the inner surface of the ia- estine— half grain of strychnine may be combined. . . . . Smaller doses should be given for three.or four days.’’ Garecet—Is an inflammation of the udder, with or without gene- inflammation. Where simply an inflammation of the udder, it is usuai- y caused by a too great accumulation of milk in the latter prior to Jamb- ing, or in consequence of the death of the lamb. It is not the serious maia- dy, here, described by the English veterinarians. Treatment.—Drawing the milk partly from the bag so that the hungry lamb will butt and work at it an unusual time in pursuit of its food, and bathing it a few times in cold* water, usually suffices. If the lamb is dead. the milk should be drawn a few times, at increasing intervals, washing the udder for some time in cold water at each milking. In cases of obdurate ‘induration, the udder should be anointed with iodine ointment. If there is general fever in the system, an ounce of Epsom salts may be given. NERVOUS DISEASES. Apopiexy.—Soon after the sheep are turned to grass in the spring, one of the best conditioned sheep in the flock is sometimes suddenly found dead, * The English veterinarians recommended warm fomentations. ye. A 7 * . a +: weed PO ae ae ee oD Pi * aie Ue te Sahn ae " 4 As ra N- a , : ae y Mw . Pe i“ - (oe 252 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. The symptoms which precede the catastrophe are occasicnally note € The sheep leaps frantically into the air two or three times, dashes itsell on the ground and suddenly rises, and dies in a few moments, Sue cases occur but now and then, and none have ever occurred in my flock io my knowledge. I have therefore had no opportunity of observing the diagnosis, or making dissections. There can be little doubt, however that the disease is apoplexy. Desirous to raise the condition of a poorish flock (the poorest shee culled from my other flocks) somewhat too rapidly, perhaps, some winter since, in addition to good hay three times a day, I ordered them fed a gil of oats per head; and as rapidly as it could be done without bringing o scours, | had them fed a liberal allowance of Swedish turnips—about a much as they would eat up clean. They gained perceptibly. One day sheep was reported to me as having become suddenly blind and motion less. I immediately examined it. It was in good fair condition. It stoo with its head a little down—its eyes were glassy and staring—it was stone blind! The evening before nothing unusual had been perceived about ii I bled it at the inner angle of each eye, and the blood had scarcely starte¢ before its sight began to return. In less than a minute it walked off among its companions. It had no relapse. Another case was soon orted; I treated it in the same way, and with the same apparent effeet, he symptoms soon returned, however, and I bled again. This appeared to produce but a partial restoration of the sight. The sheep would not follow its companions into and out of the sheep-house. When approach- ed, it would run about knocking its head against fences, &c. It lost con dition, finally became unable to rise, and died. Another one, after being bled, fed regularly, but its sight was never restored. It lived along thus for three or four weeks, and then fell into a hole containing water, an perished. Another apparently recovered, all but sight, and continued ir my flock for more than a year afterward. The eye was bright and clea as in gutta serena, and the blindness would not be suspected, unless th ’ sheep was cornered up. Then, if the catchers remained momentari stilJ, it would as soon run into their arms or against the fence, as in any other direction. Perhaps fifteen cases occurred. In three or four instan ces the blind sheep, when they moved, constantly traveled round in circle. In about as many cases, they twisted themselves about withou progressing, the head was drawn round toward one side, they fell, groun their teeth, and their mouths were covered with a frothy mucus. neither of the latter description of cases did bleeding at the inner angle of tne eyes afford anything more than temporary relief. They all proves fatal. At the time these things occurred, I regret to say that I had paid bu very little attention to veterinary science, and had never made a dissee tion. I did nothing but bleed at the inner angles of the eyes, and mad no post-mortem examinations. 2 aking into consideration the feed and the symptoms, there can be bui little doubt, I think, that all these cases were referable to a determinatio: of blood to the brain. The sheep were not fat, but the secretions 0} blood were rapidly and powerfully increased by rich and abundant foo¢ Treatment.—If the eyes are prominent and fixed, the membranes of thi mouth and nose highly florid, the nostrils highly dilated, and the respira tion labored and stertorous, the veins of the head turgid, the pulse stron and rather slow, and these symptoms attended by a partial or entire los of sight and hearing, it is one of those decided cases of apoplexy whidl require immediate and decided treatment. As the good effects of veneé (2) me} cI re] ~ ise} ( TR es] tog Z s) eee ok loa Z el xa ic] iv} © S 3 m (we) on to | section, in all cases, and especially in this, depend not only upon the amount |af blood abstracted, but also upon the rapidity with which it is drawr from the veins, the eye-veins are not the proper ones to open. They are xo small that the blood flows slowly, and if cut directly across, as is usually |done, they soon contract, and the flow of blocd is arrested before a suffi- )\cient quantity has been abstracted. It is better to have recourse at once to the jugular vein. The animal should be bled until an obvious constitu tional effect is produced—the pulse lowered and the rigidity of the muscles relaxed. An aperient should at once follow bleeding, and if the anima} is t |strong and plethoric, a sheep of the size of the Merino would require at least. two ounces of Epsom salts, and one of the iarge mutton sheep more. If this should fail to open the bowels, half an ounce of the salts should ba jpe given, say, twice a day. | | In the milder cases which I have mentioned as occurring in my own ifiock, I think had I bied more thoroughly, in the very first attack, and given a mild aperient of Epsom salts, most of the sheep would have re- )\ covered. | , i Purenitis, Teranus, Epitersy, Patsy, Rasies.—I never have seen a jwell-defined case of either of these maladies among our sheep, though, in a few instances, something which struck me at the time as somewhat analogous to paralysis or palsy. Palsy is a diminution or entire loss of \the powers of motion in some part of the body. I have occasionally seen, in the winter, poor lambs, or poor pregnant ewes, or poor feeble ewes immediately after yeaning in the spring, lose the power of walking or standing rather too suddenly to have it satisfactorily referable to in- lcreasing debility. The animal seems to have lost all strength in its loins, and the hind-quarters are powerless. It makes ineffectual attempts to rise, and cannot stand if placed upon its feet. Treatment—W armth, gentle stimulants, and good nursing, might raise Jthe patient, but in nineteen cases out of twenty it would be more econo- mical and equally humane, to at once deprive it of life. Coric.—Sheep are occasionally seen, particularly in the winter, lying down an. rising every moment or two, and constantly stretching their fore land hind legs so far apart that their bellies almost touch the ground. They appear to be in much pain, refuse all food, and not unfrequently die, unless relieved. This disease is popularly known as the “ stretches,” and is erroneously attributed to introsusception of an intestine. Some ‘farmers worry the sheep with a dog, and others hold it up by the hind legs, to effect a cure! I consider it a sort of flatulent colic induced by ‘Pcostiveness. ; | Treatment—Half an ounce of Epsom ralts, a drachm of ginger, and sixty drops of essence of peppermint. The salts alone, however, will effect the cure, as will an equivalent dose of linseed-oil, or even hog’s lard in several layers, one of which appears to possess a muscular power. These facts are 254 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. LETTER XV}. DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT—(Coatinued ) Cachect’c Diseases...Hydatid om the Brain—diagnosis—common methods of treating it—treatment ¢ French and English veterinarians...The Pelt Rot...Local diseases...Grub in the head—the nature the disease, if one—erroneous popular opinions—location of the grub—description of the fly (& ovis)—method of attacking the sheep—counduct of the sheep—appearance of the larva—its habits—th chrysalis—the larva found in the heads of healthy sheep—not believed to be the cause or source of fata disease—Mr. Bracy Clark’s and Mr. Youatt’s opinion—method of preventing and of expelling the grub... Scab—nature of it—habits of the acari—description of them—contagiousness of the disease—post-mor tem appearances—treatment...Erysipelatous scab—treatment...Disease of Bitlex Canal—nature treatment. ..Hoof-ail—first indications—erroneous statements of foreign veterinarians—of Mr. Youatt— author's experience with it—diagnosis—chronic hoof-ail—can it be cured 1—difficulties—preparation of the foot—ordinary treatment—proper treatment—cost of curing a flock—cheap partial remedies f gestions—contagiousness of the disease—how communicated...Fouls—cause and treatment-.-..Broncho cele or goitre—diagnosis—treatment. -. Miscellaneous diseases...Poison from eating Laurel—sympton treatment...Sore Face—cause and treatment...Loss of cud—not a disease... Hoove—cause—symptom cure...Obstruction of Gullet, or choking—treatment...Fractures—treatment, &c...Method of admin tering medicine into the stomach...Method of bleeding...The place of feeling the pulse...List of med cines employed in treating the diseases of sheep...Ale...Aloes...Alum.-..Antimony-...Arsenic...Bius Vitriol...Camphor....Carraway seeds....Catechu....Chalk-..Corzosive Sublimate.. Digitalis. ..Epse Salts...Gentian...Ginger...lodine...Lard...Lime, carbonate of...Lime, chloride of....Linseed Oil. Mercury..-Muriatic Acid...Nitrate of Potash...Nitrate of Silver...Nitric Acid...Opium...Pep Pimento...Rhubarb...Salt..-Sulphate of Iron...Sulphur....Sulphuric Acid....Spirit of ‘Tar. Par Tobacco...Turpentine-..Verdignis..- Zinc. - - , CACHECTIC DISEASES. : Hypatip on THE Bratn.—This disease, known as turnsick, sturdy, staggers, etc., is spoken of by Chancellor Livingston, and other writer of reputation, as having occurred in this country within their own obser- vation. I have never seen a case of it, and shall be obliged, therefore, make use of the descriptions of others. Mr. Spooner says : “The symptoms are a dull, moping appearance, the sheep separating from the flock, ¢ wandering and blue appearance to the eye, and sometimes partial or total blindness ; sheep appears unsteady in its walk, will sometimes stop suddenly and fall down, at others gallop across the field, and after the disease has existed for some time will almost constantly move round in a circle—there seems, indeed, to be an aberration of the intellect of the animal. These symptoms, though rarely all present in the same subject, are yet sufficiently marked to prevent the disease being mistaken for any other. On examining the brain sturdied sheep, we find what appears to be a watery bladder, termed a hydatid, which may be either small or of the size of a hen’s egg. This hydatid, one of the class of entozoér has been termed by naturalists the hydatis polycephalus cerebralis, which signifies the many-headed hydatid of the brain; these heads being irregularly distributed on the sur face of the bladder, and on the front part of each head there is a mouth surrounded by minute sharp hooks within a ring of sucking disks. These disks serve as the means of attachment by forming a vacuum, and bring the mouth in contact with the surface, and thus by the aid of the hooks the parasite is nourished. ‘The coats of the hydatid are disposed developed by the microscope, which also discovers numerous little bodies adhering to th internal membrane. The fluid in the bladder is usually clear, but occasionaily turbid, an¢ then it has been found to contain a number of minute worms. ” . According to Mr. Youatt, this disease attacks many of the weakly lambs in the English flocks. It usually appears, he remarks, “ during the first year of the animal’s life, and when he is about or under si months old.” It succeeds a “a severe winter and a cold, wet spring.”— He says: q “ Tf there is only one parasite inhabiting the brain of a sturdied sheep, its situation is very uncertain. It is mostly found beneath the pia-mater, lying upon the brain, and in or upon the scissure between the two hemispheres. If it is within the brain, it is generally in one 2f the ventricles, but dccasionally in the substance of the brain, and, in a fow ingtances, in ‘het of the cerebellum .... 4 ee a ee a ee me _ The means of cure are exceedingly limited. They are confined to the removal or des ) truction of the vesicle. Medicine is altogether out of the question here.” | Many barbarous niethods have been adopted to rupture the hydatid, | which I will not disgust you by repeating. Mr. James Hoge thrust a wire up the nostrils of the sheep, and through the plate of the ethmoid | bone znto the bramm, and thus, as he assures us, punctured the hydatid and “cured many asheep!’’* This practice, which I cannot characterize *) otherwise than as atrocious, is justly condemned by Mr. Youatt. The dotted lines d, e, and d, d, in fig. 49, show how limited a portion of the | brain could be reached with a wire or trochar by piercing the plate of the -ethmoid bone—the only portion of the walls of the skull thin enough to _be so pierced by a trochar introduced at the nostrils. _ Mr. Parkinson “ pulled the ears very hard for some time,” and then cut them off close to the head ! t | Where the hydatid is not imbedded in the brain, its constant pressure, ‘singularly enough, causes a portion of the cranium to be absorbed, and finally. the part immediately over the hydatid becomes thin and soft enough to yield under the pressure of the finger. When such a spot is | discovered, the English veterinarians usually dissect back the muscular ) integuments, remove a portion of the bone, carefully divide the investing _ membranes of the brain, and then, if possible, remove the hydatid whole -—or, failing to do this, remove its fluid contents. The membranes and integuments are then restored to their position, and an adhesive plaster placed over the whole. The French veterinarians usually simply punc- ‘ture the cranium and the cist with a trochar, and laying the sheep on its ") back, permit the fluid to run out through the orifice thus m@de. A com- | mon awl would answer every purpose for sucha puncture. The puncture ‘} would be the preferable method for the unskilled practitioner. But when | we take into consideration the hazard and cruelty attending the operation ) at best, and the conceded liability of a return of the malady—the growth ) of new hydatids—it becomes apparent that, in this country, it would not @ be worthebile, unless in the case of uncommonly valuable sheep, to resort to any other remedy than depriving the miserable animal of life. Pett Rot—lIs classified as a disease by Mr. Livingston, and various other American writers. Mr. Livingston says : “This is often mistaken for the scab, but it is in fact a different and less dangerous | disease ; in this the wool will fall off, and leave the sheep nearly naked; but it is attended with no soreness, though a white crust will cover the skin from the wool which has ‘dropped. It generally arises from hard keeping and much exposure to cold and wet, and, in fact, the animal often dies in severe weather from the cold it suffers by the loss of ita ceat. The remedy is full feeding, and a warm stall, and anointing the hard part of the skin | with tar, oil, and butter.” { I have seen frequent cases of the pelt rot, but never have done any ® thing for it, scarcely considering it a disease. If the condition of a poor sheep is raised as suddenly as practicable, by generous keep in the winter, the wool is very apt to drop off, and if yet cold, the sheep will requita warm shelter. Be, Hogg on Sheep, p. 59. { Parkinson on Sheep, vol. 1, p. 412. 4 Livingston on Sheep, Appendix, p. 179. 256 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. LOCAL DISEASES. . «“ Grup in THE Heap.”—If the “ grubs” found in the frontal and max illary sinuses of the sheep actually, in any case, produce disease, it must be, , in my judgment, by the irritation and inflammation which they induce i the mucous membrane which lines those cavities. The popular thee that the grub causes death by boring through the bony walls which sur rcund the brain, and attacking the substance of the brain itself, is, it seem to me, utterly absurd. ‘The only part of the skull where it could even t fancied that such a perforation would be practicable, is the cribriform pla of the ethmoid bone (11 of fig. 49,) which is very thin and is pierced wit numerous small holes for the passage of nerves. But an inspection of the same figure will show that the sinus where the parasite is generally found lodged, is not in immediate juxtaposition with the cribriform plate, and that a passage from the former to the brain, would lead directly through the frontal bone—the thickest one of the whole cranium. I never saw bul one grub in the cells of the ethmoid bone near the cribriform plate, anc that, [ judged at the time, was thrown there accidentally by the violence attending the opening of the head.* But if the grub actually penetrates to the brain, the fact would readily be disclosed after death. ‘The full grown grub would necessarily leave an orifice of considerable diameter through the skull. Who has seen any such orifice in the cribriform pla or elsewhere ? Who has seen any orifice but the natural ones of the crib- riform plate, filed with the nerves which pass throughthem? The farmer splits open the head of a sheep with an ax, cutting, mangling and scatter: ing its contents, by the repeated blows necessary to effect his purpose. Under such circumstances grubs are sometimes found scattered throug all the nasal cavities—over and among the brains—and on the ground.— The proof is just as strong, here, that prior to opening the head, some of the grubs were on the ground, as that they were in the brain! The “grub” of popular parlance is the larva of the Gistrus ovis, or gad-fy of the sheep. The latter is represented of the nat- : ural size in figures 60 and 61. It is composed of five rings. It is tiger-colored on the back and belly, sprinkled with spots and patches of brown. The wings are striped. The comparative propor- tions of the head, corslet, wings, ete. are sufficient- ly seen in the cuts. He who desires a full, scien- tific description of these insects, or who would SHEEP GAD-FLY. fully investigate their habits and economy, will do well to consult the excellent monograph of them by Mr. Bracy Clark the celebrated veterinarian. The sheep gad-fly is led by instinct to deposit its eggs within the nos trils of the sheep. Its attempts to do this, most common in July and Aus gust, are always “indicated by the sheep, which collect in close clumps with their heads inward and their noses thrust close to the ground, and i to it, if any loose dirt or sand is within their reach. If the fly succeeds im depositing its egg, it is immediately hatched by the warmth and moistu of the part, and the young grubs, or larve, crawl up the nose, finding theiz devious way to the sinuses, where, by means of their tentacule, they at tach themselves to the mucous membrane lining those cavities. During the ascent of the larve, the sheep stamps, tosses its head violently, and of- ten dashes away from its companions wildly over the field. The larve re | * The head was cloven witk an az! Itis proper to say, however, that various writers speak of havin found the mubs in the ethmoid cells, and indeed in all the nasal cavities. oa SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SGOUTH. 257 ' main in the sinuses feeding on the mucus secreted by the membrane, and | apparently creating no farther annoyance, until ready to assume their pu- | pa form in the succeeding spring. Figures 62 and 63 give the shape and an vw per and under view of the full-grown larva. —ov Oo. o ” THE ‘‘GRUB OR LARVA OF THE SHEEP GAD-FLY. The body consists of eleven rings, colorless in the young grub, but tne elevated portions growing darker with age, and becoming a dark brown when the full size is attained. There are round spots of a still darker color on each of these bands. At the edges of the rings are a few short hairs, and lower down some round darkish spots, as shown in fig. 62.— Small red spines, as‘ shown in fig. 63, cover the space between the rings on the belly. ‘he remainder of the body (with the exception of the poste- tior stigmata) is white. The tentaculz, as well as certain appendages on each side of the anus, the purposes of which have not been discovered, are | geen in fig. 63. The larva having remained in the sinuses through the fall and winter, abandons them as the warm weather advances in the latter part of spring. It crawls down the nose, creating even greater irritation and excitement than when it originally ascended, drops on the ground, and rapidly bur- rows into it. In afew hours its skin has contracted, become of a dark brown color, and it has assumed the form of a chrysalis, as seen in fig. 64. _ Or rather, this figure exhibits the shed/ of the chrysalis, af- ter the escape of the fly ; and fig. 65 shows the upper ex- _tremity or head of the pupa, detached by the fly in its es- cape. The experiments of Valisnieri go to show that the Cs- _trus ovis never eats—and this is the received opinion.— The male. after impregnating two or three females, dies, and the latter having deposited their ova in the nostrils of the sheep, also soon perish. ee pean a The larva in the heads of sheep may, and probably do add to the irritation of those inflammatory diseases, such as catarrh, which attack the membraneous lining of the nasal cavities ; and they are, as we have seen, a powerful source of momentary irritation in the first instance, when ascending to and descending from their lodging-place in the head. | But in the interval between these events—extending over a period of several months—not a movement of the sheep indicates the least annoy- ance at their presence, or reveals to the veterinarian whether they exist in the sinuses or not. It would be very difficult to believe that all the local irritation which these parasites could cause, would be sufficient to termi- _ nate life, and, so far as my observation has extended, post-mortem exam- ination discloses no lesions which would in anywise sanction such belief. The larvze, moreover, are found, at the proper season, in the heads of near- ty all sheep—the healthy as well as the diseased—and I never have been able to ascertain that the number of themis greater, on the average, in the heads of those sheep which were supposed to have fallen victims to their attacks, than in the heads of perfectly healthy sheep slaughtered for the table. And to prove that the popular ideas on the sunject are but vague Fig. 65+ & 258 SHEEP AUSBANDRY IN THE and crude—not the result of that long and close comparison of symptoms results, and post-mortem appearances, which would give weight to the opinions of the most unerudite—we have but to notice a few of the case popularly referred to the “ grub in the head.” A sheep in the highes condition and apparent health leaps into the air two or three times, an¢ suddenly dies, and if a grub can be found in the cavities of the head, the is the undoubted destroyer. Another wastes away for months and die: lingeringly, a mere skeleton, and the same proof establishes the same faet Whether there has been fever or no fever—whether there has been obsti nate constipation, or equally obstinate dysentery—whether one viscus 0 another exhibit traces of abnormal action—whether the disease has beet acute or chronic—in a word, whatever the form or character of the mal ady—however diametrically different the diagnosis and the lesions; it is a clear case of “grub in the head,” if two or three of those parasites 4 found there ! Mr. Bracy Clark and Mr. Youatt, so far from regarding the larva of the (Estrus ovis as the cause of a fatal disease, suggest that they may even promote the health of the sheep by diminishing the tendency to cerebral disease—especially determinations of blood—by establishing counter irri tation! Mr. Spooner does not speak of their producing fatal effects in any instances, nor am I aware that any late scientific veterinarians do, _~ Treatment— Though the presence of the grub constitutes no disease, some think it well to diminish their number by all convenient means. One simple way of effecting this is by turning up with a plow a furrow of earth inthe sheep pasture. Into this the sheep will thrust their noses on the approach of the Géstrus, and thus many of them escape its attacks, Some farmers smear the noses of their sheep with tar occasionally, during the proper season—the odor of which is believed to repel the fly. Others compel the sheep to smear'their own noses every week or two, by feed- ing them their salt sprinkled over tar. Blacklock says that the larvae may be dislodged even from the sinuses, by blowing tobacco smoke for some moments through the tail of a pipe into each nostril. I have never tried the experiment. Tue Scss.—The scab is a cutaneous disease, analogous to the mange in horses and the itch in men. It is caused and propagated by a minute insect, the acarus. M. Walz, a German veterinarian, who has thrown great light on the habits of these parasites, says: “Tf one or more female acari are placed on the wool of a sound sheep, they quickly travel to the root of it, and bury themselves in the skin, the place at which they penetrated being scarcely visible, or only distinguished by a minute red point. On the tenth or twelfth day a little swelling may be detected with the finger, and the skin changes its color, and has a greenish blue tint. The pustule is now rapidly formed, and about the sixteenth day breaks, and the mothers again appear, with their little ones attached to their feet, and covered by — a portion of the shell of the egg from which they. have just escaped. These little ones im- mediately set to work, and penetrate the neighboring skin, and bury themselves beneath it, aud find their proper nourishment, and grow and propagate, until the poor animal has myri- ads of them to prey on him, and it is not wondertul that he should speedily sink. Some of — the male acari were placed on the sound skin of a sheep, and they too burrowed their way and disappeared for a while, and the pustule in due time arose ; but the itching and tho scab soon disappeared without the employment of any remedy. ae The figures on the next page are copied from M. Walz’s work : The female acarus brings forth from eight to fifteen young at a litter. — The scab is often produced spontaneously in England by mismanage- went of various kinds, such as “ bad keep, starvation, hasty driving, dogging, and exposure afterward fo co!d and wet ;” and it spreads rapidh; 7 \ x SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE. SOUTH. 259 y contagion. It is very prevalent there, and annually causes an immense lloss in the wool and flesh of the British flocks. In the United States it is icomparatively little known, and so far as I am able to learn, never origin- lates spontaneously. It is a singular fact that short-wooled sheep, like the Fig. 66. Fig. 67. Fig. 68. THE ACARUS WHICH CAUSES SCAB. Fig. 67.—The acari of their natural size on a dark ground. : Fig. 66.—The female of 366 times the natural size, larger than the male, of an oval form, and provided. — jwith eight feet, four before and four behind. - a.—The sucker. 6. b. b. b.—The four anterior feet, with their trumpet-like appendices. c. c.—The two interior hind feet. : \ d. d.—The two outward feet, the extremities of which are provided with some long hairs, and on the ther parts of the legs are shorter hairs. To these hairs the young ones adhere, when they first escap& irom the pustule. e.—-The tail. containing the anus and vulva, garnished with some short hairs. Fig. 68.—Tne male on its back, and seen by the same magnifying power. || a.—The sucker. ; b. b. b. b.—The fore-legs with their trumpet-like appendices, as seen in the female. c. c.—The two hind-legs, with the same appendices and hairs. d.—The rudiments of the abdominal feet. e.—The tai, Merino, are much less subject to its attacks, and this is probably one eason for its little comparative prevalence in the United States. Mr: Ycuatt observes: «The old and unhealthy sheep are first attacked, and long-wovled sheep in preference to he short; a healthy short-wooled sheep will long bid defiance to the contagion, or probably. scape it altogether.” _ It spreads from individual to individual and from flock to flock, not only by means of direct contact, but by the acari left on posts, stones, and other ubstances against which diseased sheep have rubbed themselves. Healthy. \heep are therefore liable to contract the malady if turned on pastures pre- ously occupied by scabby sheep, though some considerable time may. iave elapsed since the departure of the latter. The sheep laboring under the scab is exceedingly restless. It rubs it: elf with violence against trees, stones, fences, &c. It scratches itself vith its feet, and bites its sores and tears off its wool with its teeth. Ae he pustules are broken, their matter escapes, and forms scabs covering ed, inflamed sores. The sores constantly extend, increasing the misery. f the tortured animal. If unrelieved, he pines away and soon perishes. Ihave never had an opportunity to observe the post-mortem appear- neces. Mr. Youatt says: 9 } “‘ The post-mortem appearances are very uncertain and inconclusive. There is generally: “Phronic inflammation of the intestines, with the presence of a great number of worms. The er is occas‘onally schirrous. and the spleen enlarged; and there are frequently serous effo. 260. SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. se sions in the belly, and sometimes in the chest. There has been evident sympathy betwee the digestive and the cutaneous systems.” » Treatment—About twelve years since, I purchased 150 fine-woole sheep just driven into the county from a soltteniie distance. I place them on a farm then owned by me, in another town, and did not see the for about three weeks. One of my men then reported to me that the shee were amiss—that they were shedding off their wool—sure spots were by ginning to show on them—and that they rubbed themselves against th fence-corners, &c. Though I had never seen the scab, I took it for grante that this was the disease. No time was to be lost, as I had 700 othe sheep on the farm—though fortunately, thus far, the new comers had bee kept entirely separate from them. Barely looking into Mr. Livingston work for a remedy, I provided myself with an ample supply of tobace and set out. The sheep had been shorn, and their backs were covere with scabs and sores. ‘They evidently had thescab. I had a large potas kettle sunk partly in the ground as an extempore vat, and an unweighe quantity of tobacco put to boiling in several other kettles. The only car was to have enough of the decoction, as it was rapidly wasted, and to hay it strong enough. A little spirits of turpentine was occasionally thrown ¢ the decoction, say to every third or fourth sheep dipped. It was neces sary to use it sparingly, as, not mixing with the fluid and floating on t surface, too much of it otherwise came in contact with the sheep. Not z tending to this at first, two or three of the sheep are thrown into great ag ony, and appeared to be on the point of dying. I had each sheep caugh and its scabs scoured off, by two men who rubbed them with stuff shoe brushes, dipped in a suds of tobacco-water, and soft soap. The two me then dipped the sheep all over in the large kettle of tobacco-water, bing and kneading the sore spots with their hands while immersed in th fluid. The decoction was so strong that many of the sheep appeared to b sickened either by immersion or by its fumes ; and one of the men wh dipped, though a tobacco-chewer, vomited, and became so sick that hi place had to be supplied by another. The effect on the sheep was almost magical! The sores rapidly healet the sheep gained in condition, the new wool immediately started, and never had a more perfectly healthy flock on my farm. Though admin} tered with little reference to economy, the remedy was a decisive one-= With a vat like fig. 27, (Letter XII,) this would not necessarily be a ve expensive method, with sheep recently sheared. But the assaults of scab usually come on in the spring before shearing time, and it would rm quire an immense quantity of the tobacco decoction to dip sheep with the! fleeces on, however carefully it might be pressed out. The following is the remedy recommended by Chancellor Liyingston Bb ‘First, [separate the sheep (for it is very infectious) ; I then cut off the wool as far as tl skin feels hard to the finger ; the scab is then washed with soap-suds, and rubbed hard wi a shoe-brush, so as to cleanse and break the scab. I always keep for this use a decoeti ef tobacco, to which Tadd one-third by measure of the lye of wood ashes. as much hog’s-la as will be dissolved by the lye, a small quantity of tar from the tar-bucKet, which contai grease, andi abent one-eighth of the whole by measure of spirits of turpentine. This liqu is rubbed apon the part infected, and spread to a little diswance round it, in three washin with an interval of three days each. I have never failed in this way to effect a cure wh the disorder was only partial. ... 1 cannot say whether it would cure a sheep infect as to lose half its fleece.” The following remedies are much used in Great Britain: No. 1.—Dip the sheep in an infusion of arsenic, in the proportion * Livingston’s Essay. Appendix p. 177. x _ SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SCUTH. 261 1) half a pound of arsenic to twelve gallons of water. The sheep should pre- | viously be washed in soap and water. The infusion must not be per- | mitted to enter the mouth or nostrils. No. 2.—Take common mercurial ointment, for bad cases, rub it own | with three times its weight of lard—for ordinary cases, five times its weight of lard. Rub a little of this ointment into the head of the sheep. Part the ‘}) wool so as to expose the skin in a line from the head to the tail, and then ) apply a little of the ointment with the finger the whole way. Make a sim- ®) ilar furrow and application, on each side, four inches from the first, and so’ }) on over the whole body. The quantity of ointment (after being com- pounded with the lard) should not exceed two ounces, and considerably ; less will generally suffice. A lamb requires but one-third as much as a | grown sheep. ‘This will generally cure, but if the sheep should continue ‘to rub itself, a lighter application of the same should be made in tén days. No.3.—Take of lard or palm oil 2 lbs., oil of tar 3 Ib., sulphur 1 Ib-— Gradually mix the last two, then rub down the compound with the first.-— _ Apply in the same way as No. 2. ) No. 4.—Take of corrosive sublimate 3 lb., white hellebore, powdered, 3 | lb., whale or other oil 6 gallons, rosin 2 Ibs., tallow 2 lbs. “ The first two to be mixed with a little of the oil, and the rest being melted together, the | whole to be gradually mixed.” ‘This is a powerful preparation and must *)) not be applied too freely. “Mr. Spooner gives the preference to No. 1, as least troublesome; Mr. Youatt to No.2; and the author of the Mountain Shepherd’s Manual to No. 4. I should certainly prefer No. 3, if it is, as it is asserted to be, equally effectual, for the reason that it contains no poisonous or dangerous ingredients. % An erysipelatous scab, or erysipelas, attended with considerable itch- Wing, sometimes attacks the English flocks, but I have heard of no cases of Wit here. This would be classified as a febrile disease. It is treated with ‘a cooling purgative, venesection, and oil or lard applied to the sores. Disease or THE BirLex Canau.—F rom the introduction of foreign bod. 'Wies into the biflex canal, or from other causes, it occasionally becomes the ‘Wseat of inflammation. This is sometimes confounded with the hoof-ail, ‘}but the diseases are entirely distinct and different from each other. In- “@fiammation of the biflex canal causes an enlargement and redness of the Ppastern, _ articularly about the externa! orifice of the canal. The toes are 'Wthrown wide apart by the tumor. JI never have known it to attack more than one foot, and never have allowed it to go to the point of ulceration, @which it is said to do if neglected. There is none of that soreness and \disorganization between the back part of the toes—and none of that pecu- lar fetor which distinguishes the hoof-ail. I never have found it anything Blike so serious a disease as it is described tc be by the English veterina- Treatment.—1 have always scarified the coronet, making one or two deeper incisions in the principal swelling around the mouth of the canal '—covered the foot with tar—and paid no more attention to it. Hoor-Ai.—The first symptom of this troublesome malady, which is or- dinarily xotzced, is a lameness of one or both of the fore feet. But on daily examining the feet of aflock which have the disease among them, it will be readily seen that the lesions manifest themselves for several days before hey are followed with lameness. Scarcely any English writer whom J 262 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOLTH. —- have read, describes with respectable accuracy the first appearances uy the hoof-ail as it exhibits itself in this country, and among the jfine-wooles sheep.* . Mr. Youatt says: “ The foot will be found hot and tender, the horn softer than usual, and there will be en largement about the coronet, and a slight separation of the hoof from it, with portions of tht horn worn away, and ulcers formed below, and a discharge of their fetid matter. The u cers, if neglected, continue to increase ; they throw out fungous granulations, they sepa the hoof more and more from the parts beneath, until at length it drops off." ~ The above is zo¢ a description of the consecutive symptoms of the hoof ail as Ihave seenthem. ‘The hoof, instead of being softened, is percepti bly hardened, I think, by the presence of the disease. There is occasion ally an enlargement about the coronet, but this is not common in the out set; andso far from the horn first separating from the foot at that point, f is the last place where it usually adheres when the soles are eaten away by the ulcerous matter, and the mere outside shell remains. I never hay known a hoof to drop off, entire, in the sense in which I understand the closing part of Mr. Youatt’s remark. My first introduction to this disease was by its breaking out in its mos malignant form in a flock of eight hundred sheep, with which I had placed early in the preceding spring, a few valuable sheep received from abrog which were infected with the hoof-ail, without my having the slightest s picion of the fact. The disease, when of long standing, and well kept un der, shows itself but very little during the winter and spring, unless the foot is directly examined. Every sheep in that eight hundred took th disease, sometimes first in one foot, then in another, then in a third, an when the fourth one was attacked, perhaps it was again bursting out i one of the cured feet! I considered the sheep valuable, had much of the esprit du corps of a young flock-master, and was determined to conquer the malady at any cost and at all hazards. I have little doubt that every shee in the flock was “ doctored” on the average ten times each, and it wai very rarely that I permitted any other person than myself to cut away th horn and prepare the foot of a single sheep for the application of the remé dies! When I look back to that period—the sheep on some remote pas tures—not a shed on them to shelter myself or assistants from the burning August sun as we bent ten or twelve hours a day over our task—our onl} “operating room” a yard in the corner of two fields—blood and pus en crusting hands and garments, and occasionally by an unlucky stroke of the knife showered over face and bosom—the crawling maggots—the intolera: ble fetor :—I hardly know whether to take credit to myself for or to laugh at the stanchness of my zeal. But, worst of all, with all my labor, | hae —“ scotch’d the snake, not killed it!” The disease appeared in my flock, though in a much mitigated form the next summer. I think I then cured it—but I was not allowed to cape thus. In the succeeding summer, accident again brought it amon my sheep. In a word, I have first and last served a five years’ appren ticeship to combating the hoof-ail. Having seen it in every possible phasé -—having experimented with almost every recommended remedy not oby ously empirical—I shall be excused if I speak my own opinions with a de * As | have before stated, when discussing “ the most profitable breed for the South,” the hoof of the Me vino and that of the English Long-Wooled m-tes, is essentially different. The Jatter usually retains its nat ra! shape and thickness, and although the side-crust sometimes turns under, it is but a comparatively thi slip of horn, which is subsequently worn or broken off—or it is easily removed by the knife. The hoof the Merino grows rapidly, especially when the animal has the hoof-ail. The horny soles will sometimes bt come nearly an inch thick, and the toes will elongate and turn up in front like horns, to the length of thr and even four inches. The weight of the Merino is much less than that of the Long-Wool. Take th facts into consideration, together with some of the other circumstances detailed in the erp rh to Letter XIV, and perhaps it sufficiently accounts for some differences in the diagnosis of the eween the two countries. ; ; a SHEEP AUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 263 _gree of confidence, even if they chance to conflict witk those of professed jand eminent veterinarians: ‘| — | As all are aware, the horny covering of the sheep’s foot exteids up. )) gradually thinning out, some way between the toes or divisions of the hovi, and above these horny walls the “cleft” is lined with skin. When the | points of the toes are spread apart, this skin is shown in front, covered with short, soft hair. The back part of the toes, or the “ heels,” can be sep- arated only to a little distance, and the skin in the cleft above them is naked. Ina healthy foot, the skin throughout the whole cleft is as firm, sound, dry and uneroded, as on any other part of the animal. | The first symptom of hoof-ail is a slight erosion, accompanied with in- |flammation and heat of the naked skin in the back part of the cleft, imme- jdiately above the heels. The skin assumes a macerated appearance, and /1s kept moist by the presence of asanious discharge from the ulcerated sur- \face. As the inflammation extends, the friction of the parts causes pain jand the sheep limps. At this stage the foot externally, in a great ma- | jority of cases, exhibits not the least trace of disease, with the exception jof a slight redness, and sometimes the appearance of a small sore at the ; upper edge of the cleft, when viewed from behind. | The ulceration of the surface rapidly extends. The thin upper edges /of the inner walls of the hoof are disorganized, and an ulceration is estab- lished between the hoof and the fleshy sole. A purulent fetid matter is exuded from the cavity. The extent of the separation daily increases, and |the ulcers also form sinuses deep into the fleshy sole. The bottom of the hoof disappears, eaten away by the acrid matter, and the outer walls, en-, tirely separated from the flesh, hang only by their attachments at the coro- net. The whole fleshy sole is now entirely disorganized, and the entire foot is a mass of black, putrid ulceration; or, as it more commonly hap- pens, the fly has struck it, and a dense mass of writhing maggots cover the surface, and burrow in every cavity. The fore-feet are generally first at- tacked, and most usually but one of them. The animal at first manifests out little constitutional disturbance. It eats as usual. By the time that any considerable disorganization of the structures has taken place in the W first foot—sometimes sooner—the other fore-foot is attacked. That be- coming as lame as the first, the miserable animal seeks its food on its knees, and if forced to rise, its strange, hobbling gait betrays the intense agony occasioned by bringing its feet in contact with the ground. There is a bare spot under the brisket of the size of the palm of a man’s hand, which looks red and inflamed. There is a degree of general fever—and the appetite is dull. The animal rapidly loses condition. The appearance of the maggot soon closes the scene. Where the rotten foot is brought in contact with the side in lying down, the filthy ulcerous matter adheres to and | saturates the short wool, (it being but a month and a half or two months af- ter shearing,) and maggots are either carried there by the foot, or they are soon generated there. A black crust is soon formed round the spot. It is the decomposition of the surrounding structures, and innumerable maggots are at work below, burrowing into the integuments and mus- sles and eating up the miserable animal alive. The black festering mass rapidly spreads, and the poor sufferer perishes, we cannot suppose other- wise than in tortures the most excruciating. | Sometimes but one fore-foot is attacked, and subsequently one or both hind ones. There is no uniformity in this particular, and it is a singular fact that when two or even three of the feet are dreadfully diseased, the fourth may be entirely sound. So also one foot may be cured, while ev ery other one is laboring under the malady. Ny 264 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 3 The highly offensive odor of the ulcerated feet is so peculiar that it it strictly pathognomonic of the disease—and would reveal its character ty one familiar with it, in the darkest night. ' | When the disease has been well kept under during the first season of ts attack, but not entirely eradicated, it will almost or entirely disappean) us cold weather approaches, and does not manifest itself until the warm weather of the succeeding summer. It then assumes a mitigated form— the sheep are not rapidly and simultaneously attacked—there seems to be less inflammatory action, constitutionally, and in the diseased parts—the course of the disease is less malignant and more tardy, and it more readi- ly yields to treatment. If well kept under the second summer, it is still) milder the third. A sheep will occasionally be seen to limp, but its cons dition will scarcely be affected, and dangerous symptoms will rarely su pervene. One or two applications made during the summer, in such a way, as I shall presently describe, that one thousand sheep can be sub mitted to the treatment in half a day—with but a trifle of labor and ex-- pense—will now suffice to keep the disease under. At this point a littlee vigor in the treatment will entirely extinguish the disease. 4 With all its fearful array of symptoms, can the hoof-ail be cured in its Jirst attack on a flock? The worst case can be promptly cured, as I know by repeated experiments. Take a single sheep, put it by itself, and ad4 minister the remedies daily after the English fashion, or as I shall! presently prescribe, and there is not an ovine disease which more swreliy yields to treatment. But as already remarked, in a preceding Letter, in this country, where sheep are so cheap, and labor in the summer monthss so dear, it would out of the question for an extensive flock-master to at+ tempt to keep each sheep by itself, or to make a dat/y application of rem- edies. There is not a flock-master within my knowledge who has ever pretended to apply his remedies oftener than once a week, or regularly as often as that, and not one in ten makes any separation between the dis eased and healthy sheep of a flock into which the malady has been once in+ introduced. The consequence necessarily is that though you may cure thee sheep now diseased, it has infected or inoculated others—and these in tu scatter the contagion, before they are cured. There is not a particle o doubt—-nay, I know, by repeated observation, that a sheep once entirely cured may again contract the disease, and thus the malady performs a pe petual circle in the flock. Fortunately, however, the susceptibility to con- tract the disease diminishes, according to my observation, with every su ceeding attack; and fortunately also, as already stated, succeeding attacks, , ceteris paribus, become less and less virulent. * What course shall then be pursued? Shall the flock-master sacrifice? his sheep—shall he take the ordinary half-way course—or shall he expend! more on the sheep than they are worth in attempting to cure them? Nei-- ther. The course I would advise him to pursue, will appear as I detail the experiments I have made. 5 Treatment.—The preparation of the foot, where any separate individual! treatment is resolved upon—and this is always necessary, at least in baé cases—-is a subject of no dispute. But the labor can be prodigiouslyy economized by attention to a few not very commonly observed particulars Sheep should be yarded for the operation immediately after a rain, if prae ticable, as then the hoofs can be readily cut. In a dry time, and after a) vight which has left no dew on the grass, their hoofs are almost as toug as horn. They must be driven through no mud, or soft dung, on the way to the yard, which would double the labor of cleaning their feet— The yard mw be small, so they can be easily caught, and it must be kep' . ' — . SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 265 ell littered down, so they shall not fill their feet with their own excre- ent. If the straw is wetted, their hoofs will not of course dry and harden as rapidly as in dry straw. Could the yard be built over a shallow, grav- elly-hottomed brook,* it would be an admirable arrangement. The hoofs would be k2pt so soft that the greatest and most unpleasant part of the la yor, as ordinarily performed, would be in a great measure saved, and they vould be kept free from that dung which by any other arrangement will, ore or less, get into their clefts. The principal operator or foreman seats himself in a chair—a couple of ‘ood knives, a whetstone, the powerful toe-nippers (fig. 21, Letter XII,) a bucket of water with a couple of linen rags in it, and such medicines as e chooses to employ, within hisreach. The assistant catches a sheep and lays it partly on its back and rump, between the legs of the foreman, the 1ead coming up about to his middle. The assistant then kneels on some | straw or seats himself on a low stool at the hinder extremity of the sheep. | If the hoofs are long, and especially if they are dry and tough, the assist- ii) ant presents each foot to the foreman, who shortens the hoof with the toe- | nippers. If there is any filth between the toes, each man takes his rag from the bucket.of water, and draws it between the toes and rinses it, un- til the filth is removed. Each then seize their knives, and the process of laring away the horn commences. And on the effectual performance of his, all else depends. A glance at the foot will show whether it is the seat | of the diseased action. The least experience cannot fail in properly set- i) tlmg this question. An experienced finger, placed on the back of the | pastern close above the heel, would at once detect the local inflammation {by its heat) an the dark. _ If the disease is in the first stage—.e. there is merely an erosion and ul- eration of the cuticle and flesh in the cleft above the walls of the hoof, no paring is zecessary. But if ulceration has established itself between the (} hoof and the fleshy sole, the ulcerated parts, be they more or less exten- )) Slve, MUST BE ENTIRELY DENUDED OF THEIR HORNY COVERING, cost what it {} may of time and care. It is better not to wound the sole so as to case it | to bleed freely, as the running blood will wash offthe subsequent applica- | tion, but no fear of wounding the sole must prevent a full compliance with the rule above laid down. At the worst, the blood will stop flowing after } a little while, during which time no application need be made to the foot. _ If the foot is in the third stage—a mass of rottenness and filled with , maggots—in the first. place pour a little spirits of turpentine (a bottle ofit, «) witb a quili through tne cork, should be always ready,) on the maggots nd most of them will immediately decamp, and the others can be re- moved with a probe or small stick. Then remove every particle of loose orn, though it should take the entire hoof—and it will generally take the whole hoof in such cases. The foot should be now cleansed with a solu- |) tion of chloride of lime, in the proportion of one pound of chloride to one | gallon of water. If this is not at hand, plunging the foot repeatedly in | water, just short of scalding hot, will answer every purpose. The great |) object is to clean the foot thoroughly. If there are any considerable fun- |) gous granulations, (“ proud-flesh,”) they should be excised with a pair of yw) Scissors, or the actual cautery (hot iron.) __ And now comes the important question what constitutes the best remedy ? | The recommended prescriptions are innumerable. The following are |) some of the most popular ones.} 1. 4 oz. blue vitriol, 2 oz. of verdigris, a _ * A portion of any little brook might be prepared by planking the bottom, and widening it if desirable | 1 The first three are given in the American Shepherd, pp. 379-80. SHLEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 266 to a junk-bottle of wine. 2. Spirits turpentine, tar and verdigris in equa} parts. 3. 3 quarts of alcohol, 1 piut spizits of turpentine, | pint of strong vinegar, 1 lb. blue vitriol, 1 lb. copperas, 1} Ibs. verdigris, 1 lb. alum, 1 Ib, of saltpetre, pounded fine: mix in a close bottle, shake every day, and let it stand six or eight days before using: also mix 2 pounds of honey and 2 quarts of tar, which must be appiied after the previous compound. “ Two applications will entirely remove the disease,” says this recipe, which was once, I believe, hawked about the country as a patent cure—being sold at five dollars to each purchaser, he giving a promise of inviolable se- crecy! 4. Apply diluted aquafortis (nitric acid) with a feather to the ul- cerated surface. 5. Apply diluted oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid) in the same way. 6. Same of muriatic acid. 7. Dip the foot in tar nearly at the boiling point, &c. . After a thorough trial of the above and a multitude of other prescrip tions,* I have come to the conclusion that inthe first and second stages of the disease—before the ulcers have formed sinuses into the sole, and wholly or partly destroyed its structure—that no application, simple or compound, is preferable to a saturated solution of blue vitriol, (sulphate of copper.) In my judgment, no beneficial addition can be made to it as a remedy. Ofthe manner of applying it I shall speak presently. In the third stage, when the foot is a festering mass of corruption, after it has been cleansed as already directed, it requires some strong caustic to remove the unhealthy granulations—the dead muscular structures—and | to restore healthy action. Lunar caustic I think preferable to any other application, but it is too expensive. Mr. Youatt gives a decided prefer- ence to chloride of antimony, and I think him correct. This is frequently not attainable in the country drug-stores, and muriatic acid may be re- sorted to, or even nitric or sulphuric acid. The diseased surface is touched with the caustic (applied with a swab formed by fastening a little tow on the end of a stick,) until the objects above pointed out are obtained. I have then usually treated the foot with the solution of blue vitriol, and sub- sequently coated it over with tar which has been boiled, and is properly cooled. The last protects the raw wound from dirt, flies, &c. Sheep in this stage of the disease should certainly be separated from the main flock, and looked to as often as once in three days. With this degree of atten- tion, their cure will be rapid, and it is astonishing with what celerity the obliterated structures of the foot will be restored. The ordinary method of using the solution of blue vitriol is to pour it from a bottle with a quill in the cork, into the foot, when the animal lies on its back between the operators, as already described. In this way a few cents’ worth of vitriol will serve for a large number of sheep. But the method is imperfect, because, without remarkable care, there will al most always be some slight ulcerations not uncovered by the knife—the passages to them will be devious, and perhaps nearly or quite closed— and the solution will not reach them. ‘Thus the disease will only be tem- porarily suppressed, not cured. I had a flock of sheep a few years since which were in the second ses son of the disease. They had been but little looked to during the sum- mer, and as cold weather was setting in, many of them were consid- erably lame—some of them quite so. The snow fell and they were brought into the yards, limping and hobbling about deplorably._ This sight, so dis- graceful to me as a farmer, roused me into activity. I bought a quantity a *Many of them resorted to “against the stomach of my sense,” to give myself and others indisputable ocular proof of their inutility—or that they were no detter than cheaper, simpler, and more easiJy stain able medicines —— of blue vitriol—made the necessary arrangements—and once more took | the chair as principal operator! Never were the feet of a flock more ‘thoroughly pared. Into a large washing tub, in which two sheep could at . > % SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 207 stand conveniently, I poured a saturated solution of blue vitriol and water, | as hot as could be endured by the hand even for a moment. The liquid was about four inches deep on the bottom of the tub, and was kept at about | ‘that depth by frequent additions of hot solution. As soon asa sheep’s feet were pared, it was placed in the tub and held there by the neck, by an as- sistant. A second one was prepared and placed beside it. When the third one was ready, the first was taken out, and so on. Two sheep were thus constantly in the tub, and each remained in it about five minutes.— The cure was perfect! There was nota lame sheep in the flock during | the winter or the next summer! The hot liquid penetrated to every cavity of the foot, and doubtless had a far more decisive effect even on the )) uncovered ulcers, than would have been produced by merely wetting them, Perhaps the lateness of the season was also favorable, as in cold weather the ulcers of ordinary virulence discharge no matter to inoculate the healthy feet, and thus, at the time of applying the remedy, there are no cases where there has been inoculation not yet followed by those lesions which admit of cure. Whether so thorough a soaking would destroy the virus in the in- - oculated foot, I cannot pretend to decide. I think that the vitriol required for the above one hundred sheep was about twelve pounds, and that it cost me fifteen cents per pound. The av- count then would stand thus: WOM bswotvatiOolpatmlonc ents mee e\emnceemcisteleioelseie ieletelereisiecie eaateeee $1,80 Mabovotesjmenione day, Cachae ct tmjseeiciscclects/ie cicieisiea eiecleiciciee ele 2,25 GNAEAIGS Seestcepeerso Ce ON eet a a ts ne Ma AP REED ERY Ty or about four cents per sheep. I have not a doubt that three such appli- cations at intervals of a week, would effectually cure the disease, as every | new case would be arrested and cured before it had time to inoculate others. I have no doubt that it would do this at any time of year, and even during the first and most malignant prevalence of the contagion, Pro- VIDING THE PARING WAS SUFFICIENTLY THOROUGH. The second and third parings would be a mere trifle, and the liquid left at the first and second applications could again be used. ‘Thus sheep could be cured at about twelve cents per head. This is vastly cheaper in the long run than the ordinary temporizing method—where people count the cost of a few _ pounds of blue vitriol, but not their time, and who thus ‘keep the disease lingering in their flocks for years. Indeed, if partial and temporizing ‘treatment is all that is aimed at,—if the flockmaster is content to simply keep the disease under—I can point out methods quite as efficacious as the common one by paring and applying washes from a bottle—as ordina- | rily performed—and not costing a tithe as much. Between the corners of two sheep-pastures (1, 2, of fig. 69,) construct the dividing fence as represented in the cut. A v narrow passage is thus left from one field to an- Rabie T1800! eee other. This passage should be about 2 or 23 feet SS Gana, wide and 12 feet long. The fence on each side 4s of the passage should be an upright board fence, i | @ so that the space can be entirely filled on the bot- tom with a flat trough, (the bottom formed of a plank) with side and end boards about five inches high. .In this trough place say a bushel and a half or two bushels of un. « - 268 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. : SS -__—eo slacked lime,* slack it, and then fill the trough nearly fall of water— Through this drive the flock several times from one field to the other—un- til the Jame ones manifest much’suffering. Repeat this once a week the first summer that the disease appears, putting in fresh lime each time. This does not appear to cure the hoof-ail, but it keeps it under; the sheep keep their condition, and show little lameness. ‘The second or third sum- mer of the disease, three or four such applications usually answer for the entire season. Some use dry slacked lime, as the same trough-full will then answer for several applications. The trough in this case must have. a roof over it. I never have tried the last method. If the dry lime wil get sufficiently between the toes—and it is said to—it will answer the purpose where it touches more effectually than even the liquid, but it would not be so likely to penetrate into cavities. Some who use the lime remedy, pare the feet once pretty thoroughly prior to the first application, but afterward neglect them. Others neglect paring entirely, 7. e. beyond shortening the toes once a year, as is practiced with all fine-wocled flocks, Fig. 70 is an improvement on the muenn . . more common arrangement, exhib- —— ited in fig. 69. The dotted lines enclose good-sized yards in the cor- ners of two adjoining pastures.— Two drivers can yard the sheep in one of these, and drive the sheep from one to the other any number of times, without chasing them about a large field. The labor can therefore be performed much more rapidly, and it requires less force. A couple of active fellows would yard and submit a flock of two or three hundred sheep to the process in Jess than an hour. When the sheep are first yarded, if there are any very lame ones, draw them out and place them in one of the small pens (a, 6.) Their feet can be examined, and if necessary a little extra pains taken with them, by paring, cauterizing, etc. Each sheep as treated is put into the other small pen, where it can be re- tained until the flock is discharged, and then removed to a separate pas- ture from the others, if considered desirable. Where two yards are constructed, as in fig. 70, it is obvious that the ar- rangement can be made elsewhere as well as in the corner of two fields; though if the sheep are wild, it may require a few rods of wing fence (in the place of the dividing one between the fields, as seen in figures 69 and 70,) for the more convenient cornering of the sheep to yard them. Thus | one such apparatus might be made to conveniently answer for a whole — farm, though thousands of diseased sheep were scattered in different flocks over it, and may be placed at a spot where water, etc. are convenient. Where lime and water are used, the sheep must be driven through the trough slowly and quietly—as otherwise the lime will be scattered over their wool, into their eyes, &c. If the lime is fresh burned and highly caustic, it would be likely to destroy their eyes. Indeed, pure fresh-burned lime sometimes will take the hair off from their pasterns and shanks. It is better, therefore, to use it when somewhat re-carbonized by exposure ta the air. Wood ashes are said to produce the same effect with lime. It is claimed that sheep kept on lands where the timber has been recently burned, (“new clearings,”) will :ecover from the hoof-ail. Query: If this be true | | : * To be added to, from time to time, ifthe number of sheep run through is large enough to waste it mate rially, before they are sufficiently veated. p q “Sete SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. | 269 might not the lye of ashes, of the proper strength, make an adequate sub stitute for lime and water ¢ Some Northern farmers drive their sheep over dusty roads as a remedy | for hoof-ail ! Opposed as it would seem to be to sound theory—sadly ae | it is at variance with the practice of foreign veterinarians who employ | “tow-pledgets,” “gaiter boots,” etc., to exclude all dirt from the diseased | surface, it does actually seem in cases of ordinary virulence—especially _ where the disease is chronic—to dry up the ulcers and keep the malady under! There is an important point to be regarded in exhibiting remedies for | the hoof-ail, the mention of which I have reserved until now, as it concerns | all remedies equally. Many farmers select rainy weather to “ doctor” the | sheep. Their feet are then soft, and it is therefore on all accounts good economy, when the feet are to be pared, and each separately treated, pro- | vided they can be kept in sheep-houses, or under shelters of any kind, until the rain is over and the grass again dry. If immediately let out in _wet grass of any length, the vitriol or other application is measurably _ washed away. ‘This is avoided by many, by dipping the feet in warm tar | —an excellent plan under such circumstances. ‘The tar is probably a good | application at any time, but I do not consider it necessary, in ordinary | Gases, unless the sheep must be turned out into wet grass. A flock of sheep which have been cured of the hoof-ail, are considered more valuable than one which has never had it. They are far legs liable | to contract the disease from any casual exposure—and its ravages are fa1 less violent and general among them. ft am strongly disposed to believe that hoof-ail is propagated in this | country only by zxoculation—the contact of the matter of a diseased foot | with the integuments lining the bifurcation of a healthy foot. That it is | propagated in some of those ways classed under the ordinary designation | of contagion is certain. I could indisputably authenticate more than a | hundred cases, where the sheep on a farm, indeed through a neighbor- hood, had been notoriously exempt from hoof-ail from the first settlement of the country—so that the inhabitants did not even know what the disease was—until some diseased flock was introduced from abroad. It was so in the region where I live, and I well recollect when a flock of Saxons, driven from a neighboring county, first mtroduced it among our sheep. There has not been a diseased flock in the county which could not trace it back to that flock. And the contagion was spread by them as readily on our dry hill-farms as on low and moist ones. __- That it may be propagated by inoculation I know by direct experiment. _Thave placed the matter of diseased feet on the skin lining the cleft of a | healthy foot under a variety of circumstances—sometimes when that ‘skin was in its ordinary and natural state—sometimes after a very slight scari- | fication—sometimes when macerated by moisture. The disease has been | communicated under each of these circumstances, and in a majority of all | the instances, arnounting to sixteen or seventeen. _ That there is not even a supposed or pretended case, to my knowledge, | on recerd where the disease has originated spontaneously, in the Northern | States, i have aiready asserted.* JI regard Professor Dick’s statements _of the manner in which the disease originates, which I have quoted,t as | wholly inapplicable to our country with its present breeds of sheep, and 1 cannot sufficiently express my surprise that this eminent veterinarian should nave adopted—what I deem so unqualified an absurdity—the non- _ contagion theory. Thave been disposed to trace the propagatior of the disease exclusive. “In the beginning 5f Letter XIV. tb. 270 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ui ly to enoculation, from having observed on my own farm and elsewhere, that healthy flocks have occupied with impunity fields adjoining those o cumed by diseased ones—an open board or rail fence only separating them. Ihave drawn the same inference also from the manner in which” the disease attacks flocks. The whole, or any considerable number, though sometimes rapidly, are never simultaneously attacked, as we shoald expect among animals so gregarious, if the disease could be communicated by simple contact, inhaling the breath or other effluvium. But not having pos- itive and demonstrative proof of the correctness of the proposition, I would | advise no man to incur any risks, unnecessarily, founded on this assump- tion, without first satisfying himself on the point. The matter of diseased feet is left on grass, straw, and other substances, and thus is brought in contact with the inner sarfaces of healthy feet— Sheep therefore contract the disease from being driven over the pastures, - yarded on the straw, &c., where diseased sheep have been, perhaps even days before. The matter would probably continue to inoculate until dried up by the air and heat, or washed away by the rains. The stiff upright stems of closely mown grass (as on meadows,) are almost as well caleu- lated to receive the matter of diseased feet, and deposit it in the clefts of | healthy ones, as any means which could be devised artificially. I do not consider it entirely safe to drive healthy sheep over roads, and especially into washing-yards ov sheep-houses, where diseased sheep have been, until rain has fallen, or time has elapsed for the matter to dry up. On the moist bottom of a washing-yard, and particularly in houses or sheds, kept from sun and wind, and rain, this matter might be preserved for some time in a condition to inoculate. Fours.—Sheep are much less subject to this disease than cattle, but are eubject to it if kept in wet, filthy yards, or on moist, poachy ground. Jt is ap irritation of the integument in the cleft of the foot, slightly resembles incipient hoof-ail, and produces lameness. But it produces no serious structural disorganization—disappears without treatment—is not con- tagious—and appears in the wet weather of spring and fall, instead of the dry, hot period of summer when the hoof-ail rages most. A little solutior of blue vitriol, or a little spirits of turpentine, either followed by a coat ing of warm tar, promptly cures it. Gorrre or Broncnocete.—I never have seen this classed among the diseases of sheep, but the “swelled neck” in lambs is, like the goitre, an enlargement of the thyroid glands, and it is strikingly analogous to, if not identical with, that disease. It is congenital. The glands at birth are from the size of a pigeon’s to that of a hen’s egg—though more elongated and flattened than an egg in their form. The lamb is exceedingly feeble, and often perishes almost without an effort to suck. Many even make no effort to rise, and die as soon as they are dropped, Itis rare that one lives —though three or four years since, a lamb in my flock having one of the thyroid glands enlarged, grew up a large, healthy sheep. At a year old, when disposed of, the enlarged gland was of the size of a goose-egg. : No inconsiderable number of lambs annually perish from this disease.— It does not appear to be an epizodtic, though [ think it more prevalent some seasons than others. It does not seem to depend upon the water, or any other natural circumstances of a region, (as goitre is usually supposed to,) as it may not prevail in the same flock or on the same farm once in ten years. I never have been able to trace it to any particular kind of food. That when it does appear, it is induzed by some common locai or SHEEP HUSBANDR: IN THE SOUTH. 271 Se alimentary cause, | aminduced to infer from the fact that its attacks are | rareiy isolated. When there are any instances of it in a flock, there are usually a number of them. I have lost lambs by it two seasons— _ from six to ten per cent. of the whole number. Francis Rotch, Esq. of | Louisville, Otsego county, lost a much heavier per centage than this (my _ impression would now be nearly fifty per cent.) of his choice South-Down lambs, a few years since. Iam acquainted with various other instances ) where the loss has ranged from ten to twenty per centum. When congenital goitre has thus appeared among my lambs, the ewes | have been in unusually high condition. The same was true of Mr. Rotch’s ewes, as he wrote me at the time. Whether this coéxistence implies caus- i ality, Ido not pretend to decide. High condition in the ewe may be one _ of the inducing causes. | Treatment.—I know of no treatment which will reach the case. Indeed, | the lamb is dying, almost, when born—and remedies are out of the ques- | tion. Should one having the disease chance to live, it would scarcely be worth while to attempt reducing the enlargements of the glands. Perhaps | keeping the breeding ewes uniformly in fair, plump, but not igh condi | tion, would be as effectual a preventive as any. ‘ MISCELLANEOUS DISEASES. Poison From Hatine Lavret.—lI often hear of this from our drovers, who take sheep in the spring to the Philadelphia and New-Jersey mar- kets, through Northern Pennsylvania, on the Old Red Sandstone formation of which the beautiful Kalmia angustifolia is abundant. The following description of the effects on the sheep of eating this plant, and the proper remedial treatment, though, I confess, not very satisfactory to me, I ex- tract entire from the “ American Shepherd,’* as I have no experience whatever in the premises, and no better account within my reach : “Sheep and calves will often, in the winter or spring of the year, eat greedily of the law Laurel (Kalmia angustifolia). The animal appears to be dull and stupid, swells a little, and is constantly gulping up a greenish fluid which it swallows down; a part of it will trickle out of its mouth, and discolor its lips. The plant probably brings on a fermenta- tion in the stomach, and Nature endeavors to throw off the poison herb by retching or vomiting. Treaiment.—In the early stages, if the greenish fluid be suffered to escape from the stomach, the animal most generally recovers. To effect this, gag the sheep, which may be done in this manner : Take a stick of the size of your wrist and six inches long—place it in the animal’s mouth—tie a string to one end of it, pass it over the head and down to the other end, and there make it fast. The fluid will then run from the mouth as fast as thrown up _ from the stomach. In addition to this, give roasted onions and sweetened milk freely.” I have somewhere, I think, seen drenches of milk and castor-oil pre- | scribed for sheep poisoned with laurel; and I should, without farther | knowledge of the subject, consider it treatment promising vetter results | than the preceding. Sore I'acr.—Sheep feeding on pastures infested with John’s wort | { Hypericum perferatum) not unfrequently exhibit an irritation of the skin _ about the nose and face, which causes the hair to drop off from the parts _ The irritation sometimes extends over the whole body, though no such case has fallen under my observation. Mr. Morrel says: + “ If eaten in | too large quantities, it produces violent inflammation of the bowels, and is frequently fatal to lambs, and sometimes to adults. ”’ | Treatment—Rub a little sulphur and lard on the irritated surface. If _ there are symptoms of inflammation of the bowels, Mr. Morrell prescribes * American Shepherd, p. 361. t Ib. 374, 272 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. tar—“ putting it into the mouth of the sheep with a flattened stick.’ Abundance of salt is considered, and probably truly, a preventive. ] have a sheep pasture considerably infested with this difficultly extermi nated weed, and I do not recollect an instance of a sheep exhibiting the) effects of eating it, in several years. It is certain that my sheep have plenty of salt, whether this is the preventive or not. Sore Movurn.—The lips of sheep sometimes become suddenly sore ij the winter, and swell to the thickness of a man’s hand. The malady occasionally attacks whole flocks, and becomes quite fatal. No cases of it having been breught under my observation, I am unable to state whether, in accordance with the popular description, the lesions are cor fined to the lips. I should presume not. It is usually attributed t noxious weeds cut with the hay. . Treatment.—Mr. Morrell states that he has had the d‘sease in his flock and has cured it immediately by smearing the diseased lips with tar.* Loss or Cup.—The “loss of the cud” ranks as an important disease in the nosology of the ‘‘ Cattle Doctor,” and frequently calls forth all the skill of that functionary to manufacture a xew cud, which is placed in the mouth of the animal as a substitute for the one which was lost! Thai person must be little versed in the physiology of ruminants who needs to be told that the accidental loss of one of the cuds, in the process of re mastication, would be a matter of no sort of consequence. The sheep. as well as the cow, not unfrequently nearly or entirely ceases to ruminat but this is the result, not the cause, of disease. It is. diagnostic of all important diseases, and when observed, its warning should never go un- heeded. Hoove.—This is not common, to any dangerous degree, among sheep, but if turned upon clover when their stomachs are empty, it will some- times ensue. It is a distention of the paunch by gas extricated from the fermentation of its vegetable contents, and evolved more rapidly, or in larger quantities, than can be neutralized by the natural alkaline secretions of the stomach. When the distention is great, the blood is prevented from circulating in the vessels of the rumen, and is determined to the head. The diaphragm is mechanically obstructed from making its ordi- nary gontractions, and respiration, therefore, becomes difficult and imper- fect. Death soon supervenes. In ordinary eases, gentle but prolonged driving will effect a cure. Where the animal appears swelled almost to bursting, and is disinclined to move, it is better to at once open the paunch. At the most protuberant point of the swelling, on the left side, a little below the hip bone, plunge a trochar or knife, sharp at the point and dull on the edge, into the stomach. The gas will rapidly escape, ca rying with it some of the liquid and solid contents of the stomach. If ne measures are taken to prevent it, the peristaltic motion, as well as the collapse of the stomach, will soon cause the orifices through the abdomen and paunch not to coincide, and thus portions of the contents of the former will escape into the cavity of the latter. However perfect the cure of hoove, these substances in the belly will ultimately produce fatal irritation To prevent this, a canula or little tube should be inserted through both orifices as soon as the puncture is made. Where the case is not imminent, alkalies have been sometimes successfully administered, wkich combina A Ee Carre * Americar Shepherd, p. 375. ‘ SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 273 with the carbonic acid gas, and thus at once reduce its volume. A flexi- _ ble probang—or, in default of it, a rattan or grape-vine—with a knob on He the end, may be gently forced down the gullet, and thus the gas permitted \) to escape. OsBsTRUCTION oF THE GULLET 9R “ Cuoxine.”—After pouring a little oil in the throat, the obstructing substance can be frequently moved up or down by external manipulation. If not, it may usually be forced down with a flexible rod, the head of which is guarded by a knob or a little bac of flax-seed. The latter having been dipped in-hot water for a minute or __ two, is partly converted into mucilage, which constantly exudes through | the cloth, and protects the esophagus from laceration. But little force must be used, and the whole operation conducted with the utmost care | and gentleness, or the cesophagus will be so far lacerated as to produce _ death, although the obstruction is removed. Fractures.—Of these Mr. Blacklock concisely says : “If there be no wound of the soft parts, the bone being simply broken, the treatment is extremely easy. Apply a piece of wet leather, taking care to ease the limb when swelling supervenes. When the swelling is considerable, and fever present, you can do no better than open a vein of the head or neck, allowing a quantity of blood to escape, proportioned to the size and condition of the animal, and the urgency of the symptoms. Purgatives in such cases should never be neglected. Epsom salts, in ounce doses, given either as a gruel ce a drench, will be found to answer the purpose well. If the broken bones are kept steady, the cure will be complete in from three to four weeks, the process of reunion always proceeding faster in a young than in an old sheep. Should the soft parts be injured to any extent, or the ends of the bone protruding, recovery is very uncertain, and it will become a question whether it would not be better at once to convert the animal into mutton. ” TREATMENT. Metnop or ADMINISTERING MeEpIcINE INTO THE StTomacu.—The scomach into which we wish to administer medicines, is the fourth, or digesting stomach. The comparatively insensible walls of the ramen are but slightly acted upon, excepting by doses of very improper magnitude. | For the reasons given when the course of the food through the stomachs _ was described, medicine to reach the fourth stomach should be given in a state as near approaching fluidity as may be. And even then it may be given in such a manner as to defeat our object. Mr. Youatt says: } “If the animal forcibly gulps fluids down, or if they are given hastily and bodily by the | medical attendant, they will fall on the canal at the base of the gullet with considerable momentum, and force asunder the pillars and enter the rumen; if they are drank more | slowly, or administered gently, they will trickle down the throat and glide over these | pillars, and pass on through the maniplus to the true stomach. ” _. Mernop or Bieepinc.—Bleeding from the ears or tail, as is commonly practised, rarely extracts a quantity of blood sufficient to do any good where bleeding is indicated. To bleed from the eye-vein, the point of a krife is usually inserted near the lower extremity of the pouch below the eye, pressed down, and then a cut made inward toward the middle of the face. Daubenton recommends bleeding from the angular or cheek ‘vein, ; ue in the lower part of the cheek, at the spot where the root of the fourth tooth is laced, which is the thickest part of the cheek, and is marked on the external surface of the one of the upper jaw by a tubercle, sufficiently prominent to be very sensible to the finger when the skin of the cheek is touched. This tukercie is a certain index to tke angular vein which is placed below. ... . The shepherd takes the sheep between his legs; his left hand more advanced than his right, which he places under the head, and grasps 2M 274 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. — oor — the under jaw near to the hinder extremity, in order to press the angular vein, which passes in that place, to make it swell; he touches the right cheek at the spot nearly equidistant trom the eye and mouth, and there finds the tubercle which is to guide him, and also feela” the angular vein swelled below this tubercle; he then makes the incision from below upward, half a finger’s breadth below the middle of the tubercle.” rv - When the vein is no longer pressed upon, the bleeding will ordinarily cease. If not, a pin may be passed through the lips of the orifice, and a jock of wool tied round them : For thorough bleeding, the jugular vein is generally to be preferred. The sheep should be firmly held by the head by an assistant, and the body confined between his knees, with its rump against a wall. Some of the wool is then cut away from the middle of the neck over the jugular vein. and a ligature, brought in contact with the neck by opening the wool, is tied around it below the shorn spot near the shoulder. The vein will soon rise. The orifice may be secured, after bleeding, as described in the pre- ceding method. As once before remarked, the good effects of bleeding depend almost as much on the rapidity with which the blood is abstracted, as on the amount taken. ‘This is especially true in acute disorders. Blacklock tersely remarks: “ Either bleed rapidly or bleed not at all.” The orifice in the vein, therefore, should be of some length, and I need not inform the least experienced practitioner that it should be made lengthwise with the vein. A lancet is by far the best implement, and even a short-pointed penknife is preferable to the bungling fleam. ; Another important rule in venesection is that, where indicated at all, it should always be resorted to as nearly as possible to the commencement of the malady. ; The amount of blood drawn should never be determined by admeasure- ment, but by constitutional effect—the lowering of the pulse, and indica- tions of weakness. In urgent cases as, for example, apoplexy or cerebral inflammation, it would be proper to bleed until the sheep staggers or falls. The amount of blood in the sheep is less, in comparison, than that in the horse or ox. The blood of the horse constitutes about one-eighteenth © part of his weight, that of the ox at least one-twenticth, while the sheep. in ordinary condition, is one-twenty-second. Tor this reason, we should be more cautious in bleeding the latter, especially in frequently resortin to it. Otherwise, the vital powers will be rapidly and fatally y -oste Many a sheep is destroyed by bleeding freely in disorders not requiring it, and in disorders which did require it at the commencement, but of which the inflammatory stage has passed. : Tue Puace or Feerine tur Putse.—The number of pulsations can be determined by feeling the heart beat on the left side. The femoral artery passes in an oblique direction across the inside of the thigh, and about the middle of the thigh its pulsations and the character of the pulse can be most readily noted. The pulsations per minute in a healthy adult sheep are set down by Gasparin at 65, by Youatt at 70, and by Hurtrel @’Arboval at 75. My own observations accord most nearly with those of © (rasparin. LIST OF MEDICINES EMPLOYED IN TREATING THE DISEASES Of SHEEP Aur.-—In cases of debility, unaccompanied with fever, a small amoum of ale is sometimes found a good stimulant. It may be given to feeb! SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. — 275 “sheep which have become unable to stand from having been too long cast —especially if they have laid on the snow, or on'damp cold ground. It | is sometimes given in addition to other medicine, in the place of the ordi- | nary stimulants. | Ators—Are occasionally used as a purgative in sheep medicine Ly _ farmers, but their use is justly condemned by all veterinarians, U Auum—Used as an astringent, but is inferior to many others. _ Antimony (The chloride or butyr of —the best caustic to remove fun- | gous granulations, dead muscular structures, etc., in the last and worst | stage of hoof-ail—applied with a swab or feather. Arsenic—Employed in the proportion of half a pound to twelve gui- | Jons of water, to cure scab. An infusion of it is also used to kill ticks, &e. | From its liability to adhere to vessels, or to come in contact with snb- | stances which may be subsequently eaten, it is a dangerous remedy, and | one which I would never have employed on my farm. Buve-Virriot (Sulphate of Copper )—Used internally asa strong tonic, but inferior to others. Dissolved in hot water, and applied to morbid | sores, an astringent, alterative, and mild caustic, of the most admirable | character. It is superior to all other applications in ordinary cases of -hoof-ail. Campxuor—Used with oil as an external stimulant on swellings, &c. Carraway-Serps—Given favorably in doses of two or three drachms, as a stomachic with other medicines. Catecuu—A valuable astringent, in doses of half a drachm. It is one of the ingredients of the celebrated “sheep’s cordial,” spoken of under the head of “ diarrhea.” Cuan, Prepared, by its alkaline properties, neutralizes the acidity of | the stomach, and thus checks diarrhea. It is a very valuable remedy is doses from half an ounce to an ounce, exhibited as directed under the head of “ diarrhea.” CorROSIVE SuBLIMATE ( Bi-chloride of Mercury )—-The most convenient form in which mercury can be exhibited internally. The proto-chloride, or calomel, from its great gravity, could not, with any certainty, be made to reach the fourth stomach. It would seem that mercury should be a use- ful remedy in several of the diseases of sheep. I have administered it | only in the cases specified under the head of “ malignant epizoétic | catarrh,” and then apparently with some benefit. It would be well if a | series of careful experiments could be instituted of its value in the appro- "priate ovine diseases. It is very little used by veterinariaus, in this coun- | try or Europe.’ A solution of corrosive sublimate is used for the destruc- | tion of ticks, &c., and sometimes as a wash in the scab, but its use for | these purposes is liable to the same objections with that of arsenic. | Dierrauis (Foxglove)—A sedative employed in most of the fever | medicines of the English veterinarians. Dose, one scruple. _ Epsom Sats (Sulphate of Magnesia )—In doses from half an ounce to one, and in some few cases two ounces, the best purgative which can, ‘in almost every disease, be administered to sheep. GrentT1AN—Decidedly the best vegetable tonic in use. Dose, from one to two drachms. ‘ | Gincrer—A stomachic an tonic, given with almost every aperient, in | doses of from half a drachm t a drachm. It prevents griping. Iepive.— The, hydriodate of potash in the proportion of one part to ° a a ‘ da : 5 276 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. seven or eight parts, by weight, of lard, constitutes an ointment which is’ a powerful stimulant to the absorbent vessels, and therefore is an excellen application to glandular swellings, or to indurated tumors. It is a goo application to the swelled udder (gq. v.) in garget. Larp—A mild and gentle purgative in doses of two ounces. The basis of most ointments, and applied externally in almost every case as an emollient and lubricant in the place of oils. Lime, Carbonate of—Used as a caustic to run flocks of sheep through, in the “ hoof-ail,” quem vide. Liug, Chloride ef—An excellent antiseptic and disinfectant, and a good application to foul ulcers. Linseep-O1.—A good purgative in two ounce doses. Preferable to Epsom salts in cases of great intestinal irritation, but not otherwise, Mercury.—The common mercurial ointment, rubbed down with five parts of lard, for severe cases, and seven parts for ordinary cases, of scab, is an effectual cure, Mouriatic Acip (Spirit of Salt)—Next to chloride of antimony, the best _ caustic in the worst stage of hoof-ail. Nirrate or Porasu (Mitre or Saltpetre)—In doses one drachm, a cooling diuretic. Nirrate or Sitver ( Lunar Caustic )—Superior to all other caustics, but too expensive for general use. For poisonous wounds, and particularly for the bite of a mad dog, it has no substitute. Nireic Acip ( Aquafortis)—Sometimes used as a substitute for chloride of antimony, or muriatic acid, as a caustic in hoof-ail. Used by drovers, also, to harden the soles of feet which have become thin and tender by © driving. It is touched over the sole with a feather. : Or1um—-An invaluable sedative, and anti-spasmodic, and is employed in nearly all prescriptions for diarrhea and dysentary, and also in colic drinks. It is an important part of the ‘‘sheeps cordial.” It is commonly used in the form of a tincture, or laudanum. Dose, one drachm. Perrer, Black—Given in small quantities in milk, to new-born lambs, when chilled. Pimento ( Allspice )—A substitute for ginger, in the same doses, but not so valuable. Ruvusars—Unites the properties of a cathartic and subsequent astrin- gent. In small doses it is a tonic and stomachic, invigorating the diges- tion. When the bowels are relaxed and torpid, and the stomach in a feeble state, it would seem the most appropriate purgative, when a purga- tive is indicated. Satr (Muriate of Soda)—An ounce constitutes a purgative ; in small quantities a tonic and stomachic. The necessity of keeping sheep freely — { ee a “ai. supplied with salt has been referred to under Summer and Winter Man- j agement. Sutruate or Iron ( Copperas, or Green Vitriol)—Used in washes for the hoof-ail, but superseded by sulphate of copper. Internally, a tonic. Sutpruur, Flower of—In doses of from one to two ounces, a goou aperient. It is the basis of various ointments. ee Sutpuurre Acip (Oil of Vitriol)—A powerful caustic used as a sub stitute for the acids already alluded to, in the worst stage 2f hoof-ail SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 277 — Spirit or Tar—Destroys maggots, and repels the attack of flies. Flies will not approach a part over which it has been smeared. Tar—lIs a valuable application to the feet, nose, back of the horns, &c., under the various circumstances detailed in Summer Management, and in the treatment of grub in the head, hoof-ail, &c. Tosacco—An infusion of it destroys vermin, and also is a cure for scab, quem vide. TuRPENTINE, Spirits of—Prevents the attack of flies, and drives away maggots. It is a useful application to old sores, wounds, &c. Verpiaris (Acetate of Copper )—Used in hoof-ail; but adds nothing, 1 think, to the good effects of the sulphate of copper. Zinc, Carbonate of —Mixed with lard, constitutes a valuable emollient and hea’ing ointment. It is mixed in the proportion of one part of the carbona’e, by weight, to eight of the lard. LETTER XVIL SHEEP-DOGS, WOOL DEPOTS, «ec. The estimation in which dogs have been held by different nations, &c...The Sheep-Dog—Buffon a description of him...The Spanish Sheep-Dog—Origin—Introduction into the United States—Value— Arrogante—his history-..The Hungarian Sheep-Dog—Mr. Paget's description of—probable origin —‘Ihe Mexican Sheep-Dog—Mr. Lyman’s description of—Mr. Kendall’s...South American Sheep-Dogs—Dar win's description of. -The English Sheep-Dog—Mr. Gates's description of...Mr. Colman’s...The Scotch Sheep-Dog—Mr. Hogg’s account of..Mr. Peters’s...Necessity of accustoming Sheep to a dog...Wool Depots—Mr. Blanchard’s account of their origin—Letter from Mr. Peters, describing their object, methods of doing business, and advantages—Utility of these depots—their especial utility to the South...A correc. tion—Mr. Ruflin. -.Note in relation to Australia—Statistics of its Wool Trade brought down to 1846. Dear Sir :—In all ages of the world, and among nearly all nations, savage and civilized,* the dog has been the friend and cherished com- Sain of man. The Egyptians placed him among their gods. The . *. . . . . . o . . reeks held him in the highest estimation. His figure mingles with that of warriors and demi-gods on their friezes; and Argus, the dog of Ulysses, lives as immortal in the Odyssey, (vide Book X VIL. p. 344 to 400) as his sagacious master, or the faithful Penelope. Alexander the Great founded a city in honor of a dog! The Romans treated him with similar . . o . respect. His skin covered the statues of the sacred Lares; his figure, as the emblem of care and vigilance, stood at the feet of these household gods—vyenerated and loved as the tutelary manes of departed ancestors, Horace in his Ode to Cassius Severus (Book V., Ode VI.,) compares bim- self to the Molossian, or the tawny Spartan dg, which defezds the flocks, and with ears erect, pursues the wild beast thr.,agh the deep snows. Virgil, in the delightful Georgics, admonishes the Roman shepherds not to neglect the care of their dogs: “Nec tibi cura canum fuerit postrema: sed und Veloces Sparte catulos, acremque Molossnm, Pasce sero pingui: nunquam, custodibus illis, Nocturnum stabulis farem, incursusque lnporum, Aut impacatos a tergo horrebis Iberos.” (Georg. Liber III., commencing at line 404. Thus translated by Sotheby: Nor slight thy dogs ; on whey the mastiffs feed, Molossian race, and hounds of Spartan breed ; ’ Beneath their care, nor, wolves, nor thieves by night, 14 Nor wild Iberian shall thy fear excite. These ‘Spartan hounds,” I may remark, par parenthesis, are the ones 7 spoken of by Shakspeare, in that glorious description of the music of a pack in full cry, and of the points of a hound, in Midsummer-Night’s Dream: Hippolita.—I was with Hercules, and Cadmug, once, * When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear Such gallant chiding ; for, besides the groves, The skies, the fountains, every region near Seemed all one mutual cry: I never heard So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. Theseus. — My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, So flewed, so sanded; and their heads are hung With ears that sweep away the morning dew: Crook-kneed, and dew-lapped, like Thessalian bulls; Siow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like bells, Fach under each. A cry more tunable Was never hallo'd to, nor cheered with horn, In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly. - The only exceptions which n« w occur to me are the Jews, the Hindoos, and the Mahommedan nation — and tribes SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 279 Arrian, Pliny, Oppian, Aclian, and a host of other writers of the Empire descant on the praises oi the dog, or give anecdotes of his courage, strength, and fidelity. In the chivalric ages, he was the companion of knights and princes—tke soul of the manly field-sports of those times. Even prelates followed him to the chase. The abbots of St. Hubert dred a celebrated race of hounds St. Hubert himself, St. Eustace, and many others on the canonized calen dar, were keen hunters. ‘‘ Whereupon,” says the author of the ‘“ Noble Art of Venerie,”’ &c., published in 1611, “we may conceive that (by the grace of God) all good huntsmen shall follow them into Paradise !”’ Truly, a consoling religious seguetur / Scott, in his beautifully descriptive poetry, and still more poetical prose, has given us a whole picture gallery of dogs, from the Middle Ages down The few which start up first in memory, (in my memory,) because, proba- bly, linked with the most interesting associations, are Fangs—a genuine Saxon—gaunt and unkempt, but stanch as his master, Gurth, the son of . Beowulph; the noble hound of Sir Kenneth; the “two dogs of black ~Saint Hubert’s breed,” that with Fitz-James pursued their quarry into the wild pass of the Trosachs ; the faithful little terrier, which, : “on the dark brow of the mighty Hellvellyn, The much-loved remains of her master defended, And chased the hill fox and the raven away;” and last, not least, Hector McIntyre’s bitch Juno, which stole the butter, and broke the “lachramatory from Clochmaben,” of the glorious old Antiquary. They stand out on the canvas like Landseer’s pictures. We pause tu hear them dark / It has often occurred to me that Scott omitted a fine opportunity, indeed, made a hzatus vale deflendus, in not introducing one or more of the Alpine spaniels—or dogs of Mount St. Bernard—into his Anne of Geierstein, providing it could be done, (on which point I am uninstructed,) without a violent anachronism. When Arthur clung dizzy and stupefied to the trunk of the tree which hung over the beetling verge of the precipice—when the cry of the Swiss maiden announced approach- ing succor, should it not have had for its accompaniment the baying of one of those great dogs of the Alps—the deep and far-heard reverbera- tions of which so often calls help to the perishing traveler, for miles, through the howling storm? Should not the dog of Donnerhugel, on the night-watch of Grafts-lust, have been of the same breed—huge, shaggy, and daring as himself? The portrait of Barry, a Bernardine dog which saved the lives of forty persons, and finally perished in an avalanche in guid- ing some travelers to St. Pierre, is to be found in every print-shop. It represents him carrying a child on his shoulders—clinging by his shagey hair,—which he found in the Glacier of Balsore, and rescued from approaching death. Scott is not the only modern poet who has admired and sung the praises of the dog. And I do not recollect the instance of one, who has mentioned him, that is, the well-bred dog, who has not praised him, except Byron *n these mcody lines: “ Perchanceymy dog will whine in vain, Till fed by stranger hands; But long ere I come back again Would tear me where he siands.” in his epitaph on his Newfoundland dog, the noble poet retracted this ungenerous libel, and pays one of the warmest tributes to the fidelity of the aog, on record. A ae Volumes of anecdotes of canine sagacity might te easily compiled. 280 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. Reasoning powers the dog undoubtedly possesses, quite on a par with ordinary humanity, if we may believe scores of these writers. But it is robable that the grandsires of some of them “ drew good long-tows at Rreaencs” and they, like Hubert, may lay claim to a hereditary knowledge of the weapon. It is to be feared that dog-stories will soon be sunk to a par with fish-stories / The truth is, the dog knows enough, and there are authenticated cases enough of his wonderful sagacity, without having an air of discredit thrown over the whole of them, by fanciful exaggera- tions. The comparative intelligence, and the comparative value to man, of the different species of the dog, would be very differently estimated by those who have been placed in situations to be particularly benefited by the peculiar instincts of this race or that. Nearly every species has some traits, some uses, where it is unequaled by the others; and each in its place is valuable. I do not, however, mean these remarks, or any others which I have made in favor of the dog, to apply to the mongrel tribe of curs. That there have been valuable individuals from this disreputable stock, all must admit; but the miserable, cowardly and thievish character of the mass of them has been proverbial in all time. Fartoo many of them are kept by our farmers in the place of noble and serviceable animals and multitudes of them, owned by idlers and vagabonds, infest the country and do ten times more mischief to our flocks than diseases and beasts of prey. Tue Sueer-Doc.—Buffon thus eloquently describes the sheep-dog,* and compares his sagacity and value to man, with other racest : “ This animal, faithful to Man, will always preserve a portion of his empire and a degree of superiority over other beings. He reigns at the head of his flock, and makes himself better understood than the voice of the shepherd. Safety, order, and discipline are the fruits of his vigilance and animal. They are a people submitted to his management, whom he con- ducts and protects, and against whom he never applies force but for the preservation of good order. . . . If we consider that this animal, notwithstanding his ugliness, and his wild and melancholy look, is superior in instinct to all others; that he has a decided character in which education has comparatively little share ; that he is the only animal born perfectly trained for the service of others ; that, guided by natural powers alone, he applies himself to the care of our flocks, a duty which he executes with singular assiduity, vigilance, and fidel- ity; that he conducts them with an admirable intelligence, which is a part and portion at himself; that his sagacity astonishes at the same time that it gives repose to his master, while it requires great time and trouble to instruct other dogs for the purposes to which they are destined; if we reflect on these facts, we shall be confirmed in the opinion that the shepherd’s dog is the true dog of Nature, the stock and model of the whole species.” I shall call attention to but a few of the most distinguished varieties of the sheep-dog. Tue Spanisu Sueep-I)0c.—Of the origin of this celebrated race, I do not recollect to have seen anything. I have observed them several times spoken of, latterly, in newspapers and agricultural publications, as the same variety with the Alpine Spaniel, or Bernardine dog. This, I think, must be an error, though there may be a general resemblance between the two species. Arrogante, on the next page, though a dog of pro- digious power, decidedly lacks the massive proportions, both in body and limbs, of several Bernardine dogs, which I have seen, of unquestiona- * I stated near the close of Letter V. that there are no shepherd dogs large and powerful enough to en- counter and kill wolves and vagrant dogs, except the great Sheep.dog of Spain, and that he is so ferocious that he might frequently bring his owner into difficulty, and even endanger human life.—I was mistaken, Crosses between this and other species seems to have mitigated the ferocity of the Spanish dog, and still weft it within the power of two to overcome a wolf, as will appear from what follows. # Buffon’s Natura! History, vol. v., pp. 306, 318. ’ ' / | SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 28 | ble lineage. The czemper and disposition of the two species, too, seems tc me to be essentially different. Mr. Trimmer, and various other foreign writers, speak in warm-terms _ of the value of the Spanish sheep-dog, for guarding the migratory flocks _ of that country from the attacks of wolves—staying behind to protect fee- ble and lagging sheep, &c. In the Memoirs of the Pennsylvania Agricul- _ taral Society, there is a communication from the well-known John Hare Powell, Esq., of Philadelphia, from which the following are extracts :— “ The first importations of Merino sheep were accompanied by some of the large ard powerful dogs of Spain, possessing all the valuable characteristics of the English shepherd’a dog, with sagacity, fidelity and strength peculiar to themselves. . . . . Their ferocity, wher aroused by any intruder, their attacliment to their own flock, and devotion to their master would, in the uncultivated parts of America, make them an acquisition of infinite value by affording a defence against wolves, which they readily kill, and vagrant cur dogs, by saber our flocks are often destroyed. The force of their instinctive attachment to sheep, and their ‘resolution in attacking every dog which passes near to their charge, have been forcibly evinced upon my farm. ’ Fig. 71. —— HOWLAND SC 4 SS = =A \\3 dS SQ AN uN ~ SS ARROGANTE—A SPANISH SHEEP-DOG Arrogante, whose portrait is above given with admirable fidelity, was imported from Spain with a flock of Merinos, a number of years since, by a gentleman residing near Bristol, England. His subsequent owner, Francis Rotch, Esq., of this State, thus describes him in a letter to me, which, though not intended for publication, I will venture to make a few extracts from : “ T have, as you desired, made you a sketch of the Spanish sheep-dog Arrogante, and a villainous looking rascal he is. A worse countenance I hardly ever saw ona dog. His small blood-shot eyes, set close together, give him that sinister, wolfish look, which is most anattractive ; but his countenance is indicative of his character. There was nothing affec- tionate or joyous about him. He never forgave an injury or an insult: offend him, and it was for life. I have often been struck with his resemblance to his nation. He was proud and reserved in the extreme, but not quarrelsome. Every little cur would fly out at him, as at some strange animal; and I have seen them fasten for a moment on his heavy. bushy tail, and yet he would stride on, never breaking his long, ‘ loping,’ shambling trot. Once I saw him ‘ Pate Ny ~ Sa N ONS sft 2 Pe ind Sa an i ‘ ris - . ; ‘ tae a s > b 252 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ———_— turn, arid the retribution was awful! It was upon a large, powerful mastiff we kept as e night-guard in the Bank. He then put forth his strength, which proved tremendous ! Ha cvat hung about him in thick, loose, matted folds, dirty and uncared-for,—so that I presume — e deg never got hold of anything about him igen than his thick, tough skin, which was twice too large to fit him anywhere, and especially around the neck and shoulders. The only other evidence of his uncommon strength which I had observed, was the perfect ease with which he threw himself over a high wall or paling, which often drew my attention, — because he seemed to me wanting in that particular physical development which we are accustomed to consider a8 necessary to muscular power. He was flat-chested, and flat-— sided, with a somewhat long back and narrow loin. (My drawing foreshortens his Jength.) His neck, forearm and thigh certainly indicated strength. If the Spanish wolf and the dog — ever cohabit, he most assuredly had in him such a cross; the very effluvia of the animal bs- trayed it. In all in which he ditfered from the beautiful Spanish shepherd-dog, he was wolfish both in form and habits.* But, though no parlor beauty, Arrogante was unquestiou- ably a dog of immense value to the mountain-shepherd. Several times, he had met the — large wolf of the Appenines, and without aid slain his antagonist. The shepherds who bred — him said it was an affair of no doubtful issue, when he encountered a wolf single-handed. His history, alter reaching England, you know.” Some portions of that histery I cannot resist the temptation of narrating, as illustrative of the character of this interesting breed, and commemora- tive of the virtues of the stern, but honest and dauntless Arrogante. If- his courage was tinctured With ferocity, and sometimes instigated by a revenge, going a little beyond the canon which permits bad debts to be paid in kind, he did everything epealy ! He made no sneakish, cur-like attacks, on the heels of his foe. By him, as by Robin Hood and his merry men—commemorated by Urayton— ' ‘ “ Who struck below the ikn+e [was] not counted then a man ;” and his spring was always at the throat of his quarry. But he made not that deadly spring until he gave “ warning fair and true,” and never with- out provocation.t Soon after Arrogante’s arrival in England, a ewe under his charge chanced to get cast in a ditch, during the temporary absence of the Span- ish shepherd who had accompanied the flock and dog at their importation. An English shepherd, in a spirit of vaunting, insisted on relieving the fal- len sheep, in preference to having the absent shepherd called, though © warned by his companions to desist. ‘The stern stranger dog met him at the gate and also warned him with sullen growls, growing more menacing as he approached the sheep. The shepherd was a powerful and bold man, and felt that it was too late now to retract with credit. On reaching the sheep, he bent carefully forward, with his eyes on the dog, which instantly made a spring at his throat. A quick forward movement of his arm saved his throat, but the arm was so dreadfully lacerated that immediate am- putation became necessary. ‘To save the dog, which had but done his duty, as he had been taught it, from the popular excitement, he was ship- ped in a vessel which sailed that very afternoon, from Bristol for America. He was sent to Francis Rotch, Esq., then a resident of New-Bedford. For a long time Arrogante would not pay the least attention to his new master; the voice of the latter would scarcely arrest him for a moment. After attempting in vain, for several weeks, to obtain some recognition o1 mastership from him, Mr. Rotch chained him securely to a tree, punished him severely, and then, with not a few misgivings, released him. But he submitted, for he well knew that the punishment came from his master, and afterward gave a cold, haughty obedience to all required of him. » I never have supposed, from the several conversations which I haye bad with Mr. Rotch on the sub fect, that Arrogante was anything less than a thorough-bred Spanish shepherd-dog. Mr. Rotch here meuna that he was ar ill-favored individual of the family—and he thinks that this may be owing to a bar-sinistet on his escutcheon, left there by some wolfish gallant. His temper was even less ferocious than Mr, Powell — describes that of his Spanish dogs. _— 4 Ways there anything wolf-like in all of this? ‘a SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTHI. — 283 -_——$——$~ ———.- ——. Stupid and apparently sleeping much of the day, nothing, however, escaped his observation, or was subsequently erased from his memory. If _ led round a building, or enclosure, or even an open space, at night-fall, im _ amanner to evince particular design, during the entire night like a senti- _ wel he traversed some part of the guarded ring, permitting ‘neither man nor _ beast to pass zm or out from it. _ Arrogante was a “ temperance man,” of the straightest sect—an out-ana 4 out teetotaler—and if tolerant of deviaioas from me creed, he could bear ‘uone, from the sobriety of his practice. Never would he confess acquain- “y tance with a drunken man—though the hand of that man fed him. The _ bailiff, who usually fed Arrogante, used occasionally to come home late in the evening a little “ fow,”and never could he in this condition get his foot | y on the premises ! The old man has plead guilty to more than one night’s lodgings on the ground, in consequence of Arrogante’s temperance scru- - ples. On one occasion a couple of sailors, to take advantage of the : tide, came unexpectedly, and without giving any notice, on the farm, at 3 A. M., to | take away some potatoes they had purchased. Arrogante eae it | was not so “nominated in the bond ;” he forced them to clamber into an ik empty cart, and there he kept them until mor ning. ‘They tried the expe. | riment of putting a leg over the side once or twice, but were admonished In too unequivocal a manner to keep quiet, to need any farther hints. _ They lost the tide, and were in great tribulation, but, like honest fellows, confessed the fault was their own. I might, did limits allow, recount many more anecdotes displaying the Dixon determination and fixed precision with which this noble dog obeyed F his instructions in guarding sheep or other property committed to “his _ charge. He was a decided “ strict constructionist,” swerving not from the letter of his commission, and woe to him who attempted to countervail the tenor of that commission ! Drunkenness was destined to prove as fatal as it was detestable, to Arro- -gante. A gentleman occupied a cottage orné by the sea-side, the lane to which ran along the farm, and near the stable which Arrogante made his _ head-quarters, when not on particular duty. The gentleman was reg- “ularly entroduced to him, and warned against ever provoking him. Re- | turning him home late one Saturday evening on horseback, from a conviv- _ial meeting, as he galloped through the lane, he met the dog, and wan- _tonly struck him or struck at him with a hunting-whip. He was a large man, and rode a tall, powerful horse, and being under speed, he escaped ‘before the astonished dog recovered from his surprise.. But the insulted | blood of Castile rushed in boiling currents through the veins of the mad- dened Atrogante. He felt, like his countryman De Lerma, in Epes Sar- 1 gent’s tragedy of Velasco— F P | “ Struck like a menial ! buffered! degraded ! Spare not my life, if mercy thou would show, Thou givest me back only what thou hast made A burden, a disgrace, a misery !” But Arrogante feit both the power and will to avenge himself, and he resolved an a bloody retribution. The next mcrning the gentleman was on his way to church, mounted as a The dog heard and knew the tread of his horse, rose fr om his lai ‘in the stable, walked to the road- side, and stood grimly awaiting his in- ‘sulter. When the latter had approached within a few yards, Arrogante, like a missile projected from a catapult, met him in the air, in a deadly “spring at his throat. The sudden jump and swerve of the frightened and nM oe 5 Os ma 224 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. Sone! very active horse, saved the rider’s throat and his life—but so narrowly nad he escaped, that he felt the gnashing teeth of the frenzied brute serape down his dress, where they came in contact with and closed upon his watch, tearing it away with the adjacent clothing. The horseman fled for his life, while the baffled dog vented his rage on the gold watek which he had captured, by chewing it into atoms! ‘The cause of this ter rible enset not being disclosed at the time, Mr. R., though convinced from the character of the dog that he had not been the aggressor, felt constrain- ed to give orders to have him shot. Tue Hunearian Sueer-Doc.—The following description of the Hunga- rian Sheep-Dog, occurs in Paget’s ‘‘ Hungary and Transylvania :”* . “Tt would be unjust to quit the subject of the Puszta Shepherd without making due and honorable mention of his constant companion and friend, the juh&sz-hutya—the Hungarian shepherd dog. The shepherd dog is commonly white, sometimes inclined to a reddish brown, and about the size of our Newfoundland dog. His sharp nose, short erect ears, shaggy coat, and bushy tail give him much the appearance of a wolf; indeed, so great is resemblance, that I have known a Hungarian gentleman mistake a wolf for one of his own dogs. Except to their masters, they are so savage that it is unsafe for a stranger to enter the court-yard ofa Hungarian cottage, withoutarms. I speak from experience; foras 1 was walk- ing through the yard of a post-house, where some of these dogs were lying about, apparently asleep, one of them crept after me, and infiicted a severe wound on my Tea. of which I still bear the marks. Before I cowid turn round, the deg was already far off ; for, like the wolf, they bite by snapping, but never hang to the cbject like the bull-dog or mastiff. Their saga- city in driving and guarding the sheep and cattle, and their courage in protecting them from wolves and robbers, ave highly praised; and the shepherd is so well aware of the value of a good one, that it 1s difficult to induce him to part with it.” T have little doubt that the Hungarian dogs above described are the descendants of the Spanish ones, introduced into Hungary with the Meri- no sheep, though possibly they may be somewhat crossed by interbreeding with the dogs of the country. Tue Mexican Sueer-Doc.—The following acccount of these noble dogs appears as a communication from Mr. J. 4. Lyman, in the third volume of the American Agriculturist :t “ Although Mr. Kendall and some other writers have described this wonderful animal as a cross of the Newfoundland dog, such, I think, cannot be the fact; on the contrary, I have no doubt he is a genuine descendant of the Alpine mastiff, or more properly, Spanish shep- herd dog introduced by them at the time of the Conquest. He is only to be found in the sheep-raising districts of New Mexico. The other Mexicun dogs, which number more than a thousand to one of these noble animals, are the results of a cross of everything under the sun having any affinity to the cayine race, and even of a still nobler class of animals if Mexi- can stories are to be credited. It is believed in Mexico, that the countless mongrels of that country owe their origin to the assistance of the various kinds of wolves, riountain cats, lynxes, and to almostif not every class of four-footed carnivorous animals. Be this as it may, those who have not seen them can believe as much as they like ; but eye-witnesses can asse that there never was a country blessed with a greater and more abundant variety of misere rable, snarling, cowardly packs, than the mongrel dogs of Mexico. That country of a surety would be the plague-spot of this beautiful world, were it not for the redeeming character of the truly noble shepherd dog, endowed as it is with almost human intellect. I have often thought, when observing the sagacity of this animal, that if very many of the human raca possessed one half of the power of inductive reasoning which seems to be the gift of thi animal, that it would be far better for themselves and for their fellow-creatures. The peculiar education of these dogs is one of the most important and interesting ste pursued by the shepherd. His method is to select from a multitude of pups a few of the healthiest and finest-looking, and to put them to a sucking ewe, firstdepriving her of her own lamb. By force, as well as from a natural desire she has to be relieved of the con tents of her udder, she soon learns to look upon the little interlopers with all the affeetion she would manifest for her own natural offspring. For the first f w days the pups are kept ‘n the hat, the ewe suckling them morning and evening only; but gradually, as she be A * Hungary ap.) Traneylvania, by John Paget, Esq,, vol. ii., p. 12, ¢ supra + Page 41 ) SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 2QR5 comes accustomed to their sight, she is allowed to run in a small enclosure with them until | she becomes so perfectly familiar with their appearance as to take. the entire churge of | them. After this they are folded with the whole flock for a fortnight or so, they then run ' about during the day with the flock, which after a while becomes so accustomed to them, as _ to be able to distinguish them from other dogs—even from those of the same litter which _ have not been nursed among them. The shepherds usually allow the slut to keep one of -a litter for her own particular benefit ; the balance are generally destroyed. After the pups are weaned, they never leave the particular drove among which they have | been reared. Not even the voice of their master can entice them beyond sight of the fiock; | neither hunger or thirst can do it. I have been credibly informed of an instance where a | single dog having charge of a small flock of sheep, was allowed to wander with them about | the mountains, while the shepherd returned to his village for a few days, havizg perfect _ confidence in the ability ef his dog to look after the flock dufing his absence, but with a _ strange want of foresight as to the provision of the dog for his food. Upon his return to the ) flock, he found it several miles from where left, but on the road leading to the village, and the poor faithful! animal in the agonies of death, dying of starvation, even in the midst of _ plenty; yet the flock had not been harmed by him. A reciprocal affection exists between ) them -which may put to blush many of tne human family. The poor dog recognized. | them only as brothers and dearly loved friends; he was ready at all times to lay down | his life for them; to attack not only wolves and mountain-cats, with the confidence of vic- | tory, but even the bear, when there could be no hope. Of late years, when the shepherds of New Mexico have suffered so much from Indian marauders, instances have frequently _ occurred where the dog has not hesitated to attack his human foes, and although transfix- ) ed with arrows, his indomitable courage and faithfulness have been such as to compel his | assailants to pin him to the earth with spears, and hold him there until dispatched with | stones. | In the above instance the starving dog could have helped himself to one of his litile bro ther lambs, or could have deserted the sheep, and very soon have reached the settlements | where there was food for him. But faithful even unto death, he would neither leave nor molest them, but followed the promptings of his instinct to lead into the settlement; their unconsciousness of his wants and slow motions in traveling were too much for his exhaust- ing strength. These shepherds are very nomadic in character. They are constantly moving about their camp equipage consisting merely of a kettle and a bag of meal ; their lodges are made “in a few minutes, of branches, &c., thrown against cross-sticks. They very seldom go out in the day-time with their flocks, intrusting them entirely with their dogs, which faithfully return them at night, never permitting any stragglers behind or lost. Sometimes different flocks are brought into the same neighborhood owing to scarcity of grass, when the wonder- ful instincts of the shepherds’ dogs are most beautifully displayed; and to my astoyishment, who have been an eye-witness of such scenes, if two flocks approach within a few yards of each other, their respective proprietors will place themselves in the space between them, and as is very naturally the case, if any adventurous sheep should endeavor to cross over to visit her neighbors, her dog protector kindly but firmly leads her back, and it sometimes happens, if many make a rush and succeed in joining the other flock, the dogs under;whose charge they are, go over and bring them all out, but, strange to say, under such circumstances they are never opposed by the other dogs. They approach the strange sheep only to prevent _ their own from leaving the flock, though they offer no assistance in expelling the other sheep But they never permit sheep not under canine protection, nor dogs not in charge of sheep, to approach them. Even the same dogs which are so freely permitted to enter their flocks 1 search of their own, are driven away with ignominy if they presume to approach them without that laudable object in view. . __ Many anecdotes could be related of the wonderful instinct of these dogs. I very much | doubt if there are shepherd dogs in any other part of the world except Spain, equal to those _of New-Mexico in value. The famed Scotch and English dogs sink into insignificance hy | the side of them. Their superiority may be owing to the peculiar mode of rearing them, _ but they are certainly very noble animals, naturally of large size. and highly deserving to be introduced into the United States. A pair of them will easily kill a wolf, and flocks under their care need not fear any common enemy to be found in our country. J. H. Lyman.” Mr. Kendall* speaks of meeting, on the Grand Prairie, —a flock numbering seventeen thousand, which immense herd was guarded by a very few nen, assisted by a large number of noble dogs, which appeared gifted with the faculty of keeping them together. There was no running about, no barking or biting in their system of tactics; or the contrary, they were continually walking up and down. like faithful senti nels, on the outer side of the flock, and should any sheep chance to stray frum its fellows, the dog on duty at that particular post, would walk gently up, take hin carefully by the ear = Vcb I., p. 268. 286 SHEEP HUSBANDRY 1N THE SOUTH. ee cr and lead him back to the flock. Not the wast fear did the sheep manifest at the stink of these dogs, and there was no occasion for it. 3 These noble animals seem, according to these and various ot.ser corres sponding accounts I have seen of them, to leave nothing to desire in the wey of a sheep-dog, either for guarding or managing flocks. They would be in-- valuable in our Southern States, to protect the flocks from the cur-dog | which so often attack them, and from the occasional wolves. I hope efforts will be made to introduce them into our country, and then they: should be bred in the utmost purity. Souta American Sueep-DoG.—Similar to the preceding in character and habits, are the sheep-dogs to be found in various parts of South Amer-- ica. They, too, are undoubtedly an offshoot from the Spanish stem. The following interesting account of them is from Darwin’s Journal : “While staying at this estancia (in Banda Oriental), I was amused with what I saw and], heard of the shepherd dogs of the country. When riding, it is a common thing to meet ay large flock of sheep xuarded by one or two dogs, at the distance of some miles from any’ house or man. I often wondered how so firm a friendship had been established. The» inethod of education consists in separating the puppy, when very young, from the bitch, | and in accustoming it to its future companions. A ewe is held three or four times a day~ for the little thing to suck, and a nest of wool is made for it in the sheep-pen.—At no time» is it allowed to asscciate with other dogs, or with the children of the family. The puppy,, moreover, is generally castrated ; so that when grown up, it can scarcely have any feelinga) in common with the rest of its kind. From this education it has no wish to leave the flock, and just as another dog will defend its master, man, so will these the sheep. It is amusing | to observe, when approaching a flock, how the dog immediately advances barking—and the sheep all close in his rear as if round the oldest ram. These dogs are also easily taught to) bring home the flock at a certain time in the evening. Their most troublesome fault when | young is their desire of playing with the sheep, tor in their play, they sometimes gallop their | poor subjects most unmercifully. The shepherd dog comes to the house every day for some meat, and immediately it is given to him he skulks away as if ashamed of himself. — On these occasions’ the house dogs are very tyrannical, and the least of them will attack _ and pursue the stranger. The minute, however, the latter has reached the flock, he turn round and begins to bark, and then all the house dogs take very quickly to their heels. In a similar manner a whole pack of hungry wild dogs will scarcely ever (and I was — told by some, never), venture to attack a flock guarded even by one of these faithful shepherds. | The whole account appears to me a curious instance of the pliability of the affections of the _ dog race ; and yet, whether wild, or however educated, with a mutual feeling of respect and fear for those that are fulfilling their instinct of association. For we can understand on no principle the wild dogs being driven away by the single one with its flock, except that they consider, from some confused notion, that the one thus associated gains power, as if in com- pany with its own kind. F. Cuvier has observed that all animals which enter into domes- tication consider Man as a member of their society, and thus they fulfil their instinct of asso ciation. In the above case the shepherd dogs rank the sheep as their brethren; and the wild dogs, though knowing that the individual sheep are not dogs, but are good to eat, yet artly consent to this view, when seeing them in a flock, with a shepherd dog at their ead.” 1 | : OTHER LARGE RACES OF Surep-Does.—There are one or two fine species in France, as those of Brie, and Auvergne. In a letter from G. W. Lafayette, to John 8. Skinner, Esq., the latter are pronounced equal to the Spanish dogs.* Large powerful races, everywhere possessing the same general characteristics, are to be found in almost every country | excepting our own, where the fine-wooled breeds of sheep have been ex © tensively introduced. With a commerce extending to all the maritime nations of the world, singular it is that so little pains have been taken to twtroduce them. Tue Encuisu Suere-Doc.—The following are portraits of a Drover’s dog, * See Farmers’ Library, Vol. i., p. 469. SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 287 cage — and a Scotch Colley slut, imported by B. Gates, of Gap Grove Lee Co —— | Minois. They are taken from The Farmers’ Library.* Fig. 72. py uy, ¥ \ Sf] ( f \ i ( \ WN \G/ nay WSS SS BAHAI SX ESSA Ais SA RS aN KG ew DROVER’S DOG, AND COLLEY SLUT. The Drover’s dog, or English sheep-dog, or Butcher’s dog—for by art of these names is he known—is considerably smaller than the species uz families heretofore described, but he is a larger and more powerful dog than the Colley. Mr. Gates, in the communication accompanying the | portraits, remarks: “Much has already been written on the intelligence of the Scotch Colley. My opinion is | that the English “ Butcher’s dog’’ is no way lacking on that point. Any reader who has | visited Smithfield market in London, on Monday or Friday, will, no doubt, have formed the game opinion. There you have an opportunity of seeing a number of these useful animals at their work. It would, in fact, be almost impossible to conduct this market without their aid. There a vast number of different animals are brought for sale from all parts of the ) couutry, to supply this great metropolis, and are collected in the smallest possible space, | The difficulty of keeping them from mingling with others falls principally on the dog. If | one slips away, or a particular one is wished to be caught, it is pointed out to him, and is re- af | tured back, or held till the owner takes it—the dog always holding them by the side of the head, so as not to bruise the body. By a word or motion of the hand, they will run over | the backs of the sheep, to st»p them or turn them in a different direction. I have often | admired, with astonishment, their quick and intelligent actions. They appear to read the | thoughts of their master by his countenance, for their eye is continually on his, or the flock. _ Nothing else can attract his attention when he has work to perform, and at times I have thought he acted with more judgment than the owner. . . . The breed of “ Boxer,” (whose portrait is above given,) is sometimes called the Drover’s or Tailless breed.” Mr. Colmar, in one of his Reports, says: ‘ For a week or more before the tryst, the roads leading to Falkink will he found crowded ith successive droves of cattle and sheep, proceeding to this central point; and it is ex tremely curious on the field to see with what skill and care the different parties and herds § sre kept together by themselves. In this matter the shepherds are generally assisted bv * Vol. l,m, 575. 288 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. . . . their dogs, which appear eudowed with a sagacity almost human, and almost to know ev individual belonging to their charge. They are sure, with an inflexible pertnacity, to brir back a deserter to the flock.” Mr T.C. Peters, (now of Buffalo, N. Y.,) on his return from Europe, few years since, brought over a Drover and a Colley. His testimon their extraordinary value will be found in the American Agriculturist, ¥ iii, page 76. Fig. 73 PE | is os THE COLLEY. Tue Scorcu Suerp-Doe or Coitey.—The light, active, sagacious Colley admits of no superior—scarcely of an equal—where it is his busine merely to manage his flock, and not to defend them from beasts larger than himself. Mr. Hogg says that “a single shepherd and his dog will accomplish more in gathering a flock of sheep from a Highland farm th twenty shepherds could do without dogs. Neither hunger, fatigue, nor the worst treatment will drive him from his master’s side, and he will follow him through every hardship without murmur or repining.” The same well-known writer, in a letter in Blackwood’s Magazine, gives a most glowing description of the qualities of his Colley, “Sirrah.” One night a flock of lambs, under his care, frightened at something, made what we call in America a regular stampede, scattering over the hills i several different bodies, “ Sirrah,” exclaimed Hogg in despair, “ they’re a’ awa!” The dog dashed off through the darkness. After spending, vith his assistants, the whole night in a fruitless search after the fugitives, Mr. Hogg commenced his return to his master’s house. Coming to @ deep ravine, they found Sirrah in charge, as they at first supposed, of on of the scattered divisions, but what was their joyful surprise t> find the not a lamb of the whole flock was missing! Of the stanch devotedness of the Colley, under any and all circum J SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. é: 9°29 stances, Mr. Peters gives, in the American Agriculturist, the following _ sharacteristic illustration, copied from a Scotch paper: “The master of the bitch purchased at a fair some eighty sheep, and having occasion to tay a day longer, sent them forward and directed his faithful Colley to drive them home, a _ distance of about 17 miles. The poor bitch, when a few miles on the road, dropped two ' whelps; but faithful to her charge, she drove the sheep on a mile or two farther—-then allowing them to stop, she returned for her pups, which she carried some two miles in advance of the sheep, and thus she continued to do, alternately carrying her own young ones, | and taking charge of the flock, till she reached home. The manner of her acting on this occasion was gathered by the shepherd from various persons who had observed her on the coud. ”” * The Colleys are not now uncommon in the Northern States, and I have often seen proofs of their singular sagacity in collecting, driving, and gua. ding sheep, and in catching out one from the flock when directed by their masters. I have often seen one drive a flock of fifty or sixty sheep _throuzh a crowed street, encountering teams, pedestrians, and other dogs at every step—without the slightest assistance. ACCU STOMING THE OHEEP TO THE Doc.—It is a mistake to suppose that a trained sheep-dog will manage any strange flock, however wild and unac- customed tosuch company. The sheep must be gradually made acquainted with, and accustomed to the dog. They must know—and they will readily learn it—that he is their friend, their guardian and protector, instead of that hereditary enemy which their instinct teaches them to fly from. A want of knowledge of this fact has frequently led to disappoint- ment and disgust, to a giving up of the valuable dog which it has cost pains and money to procure. Mr. Skinner relates a ludicrous incident of Mr. Jefferson, arising from his not being apprized of this fact. A thoroughly broken sheep-dog had been sent him from abroad, and the great Sage of Monticello, after having held forth ore rotundo to some visitors, on the value of these dogs, and their immense convenience*—nay, their indispens- ability in managing flocks, led forth his guests to give a practical exempli- fication of the qualities of his dog. At the word, the latter made for the sheep. The terrified animals fled in all directions, some of them dashing themselves over precipices and breaking their necks. The dog either. shared the same fate, or, mortified at his failure, felt his pride too deeply wounded to return. Mr. Jefferson never recovered him ! WOOL DEPOTS. Commission merchants who confine their operations exclusively to the sale of Wool, have opened large stores or ‘“‘ Dépéts,” at three or four points in the Northern States. Of the origin of this system, Mr. H. Blanchard, of Kinderhook, N. Y., thus spoke at the Agricultural meeting at the Assembly Chamber, Albany, Feb. 3, 1848 : “From facts that were ascertained by Hon. J. P. Beekman, (then President of the N. Y State Agricultural Society,) at the State Fair held in Poughkeepsie, in 1844, he became con vinced that the growers of Dutchess county, by reason of the superior facilities afforded ther. for the sale of their fine wools, were procuring from six to eight cents per pound more than matiy wool-growers in other sections of the State wno produced the same quality of wool. The large quantity of fine wool grown in that county, offered great inducements for manufacturers ana purchasers of fine wool to make that a place of resort to obtain their sup plies, and thusa fair competition was awakened, which resulted in a just appreciation of the relative value of their wools, and remunerating prices to the fine wool grower. Soon after Dr 8B.’s return, the evils consequent upon the system of selling wools in our county, as wel: as elsewhere, became a matter of discussion between him and other wool-growers in our ‘vicinity and myself, the result of which wasa request from them that I would open what we now term a “ Wool Dépot.” The principles involved in the dépét system are not new _ W peing conducted upon those of a commission business; but it is only the details and appl a] Al ‘ Mie aa RR eg TE Ne - a B ; 4 4 RS “ i" * : 7 -_ ane writ 290 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. | cation of these principles to wool when received direct from the grower, that had never be fore in this country been upplied in the same discriminating manner, and with as little expense as by this system.” + The objects and advantages of the system, and the method of conduet- ing these establishments are clearly set forth in the following letter fiom my friend Mr. Peters, to whom, as a keeper of one of these Dépéts, and a gentleman of conceded ability—as well as skill, energy and sucess in this and in his other business operations—I thought it appropriate to apply for this information. H. S. Ranpatt, Esq. BurraLo, N. Y., Dec. 16, 1847. My Dear Sir: Your kind favor of the 12th inst., making inquiries relative to the Wool Depot system, is before me. It will give me pleasure to answer your queries, not that by so doing I can add anything to the exceeding great value of your Letters to the whole country, and especially to the South and West—yet from my own experience as a wool-grower, and in the management of a Wool Depét which I established at this place last spring, I may give some information that will be useful to your readers, and may they be millions. In so doing, I will give you Ist, An account of the object; 2d, The method of doing business; and 3d, The advantages of the Wool Depét system. . Tue Ossect.—Upon no sheep is the wool exactly alike over the whole body; nor is the wool exactly alike upon any single flock. In most flocks there is a great diversity—greater than there should be for the farmer’s profit. There is, then, a variety of grades of wool in every flock, and in every section of the country where wool is grown. Manufacturers first grade the wool; that is, sort the fleeces, making from five to eight or nine different grades. Each fleece is then opened, and stapled, or sorted into the various grades of the factory. Some manufactories use only the finest, others only the coarsest, and others again use only one kind of the intermediate sorts, so that from a single flock, I sold this year wool to five different manufacturers, no one wanting or working the kind that the other wanted. The object of the Wool Depét is to sort and arrange the wool, that the manufacturer can — readily obtain the particular kind adapted to his machinery, and to obtain for each sort ite — fair market value. P Metuop or pone Bustness.—The system originated with Mr. H. Blanchard, at Kinder- hook, some thtee years ago. Last year, we sent our wool to Mr. Blanchard, and daring the winter I visited his establishment, and was so well satisfied with the operation of it, and of the vital importance of the system to the wool-growers everywhere, that I at once made arrangements to open one at this point. I accordingly commenced operations in the spring, and have been successful beyond my most sanguine expectations. I have a competent and experienced sorter, and when wool is sent in, it is at once sorted in the fleece, each sort weighed, and entered in a book under the name of the person send- — ing it. T have adopted Mr. Blanchard’s method of sorting, as experience has shown that to be the best, under all circumstances. I make, then, five sorts, taking full-blooded Merino for No. 1, and grading down to coarse common wool, which is No. 5. Saxony I grade into Extra, — Prime 1, and Prime 2. Then there isa kind of wool which is admirable for combing, and another kind that is wanted for De Laines;—these form five more sorts, making thus ten sorts. Butas there is sucha difference in the condition of wool when brought into the Depét, [ usually make two sorts of each number. Thus I have No. 2, and No. 24. No. 2 is usually good, but No. 2 is of the same grade, but is in betfer conlition, every way a choice article, but still not fine enough to go into a higher grade. The wool is setae > worth two or three cents per lb. more than the other number to which it belongs, and but for making this distinction, would not bring its full value. When the wool is properly sorted, it is piled up in a manner that will enable the purchaser to see it at a good advantage ;—in- — sured, and held until the market reauires it. I make all my sales here, and for cash When the sales are closed, an account is made out and sent to those who have sent me their — wool; usually, an account is rendered as fast as any part of a man’s wool is sold. {f have often been asked, how I could tell whether any man’s wool was sold, unless the whole of a — sort was sold ata time. Itis very easy. Suppose A, has 100 lbs. of No. 1, and I have sold 20,009 lbs. ont of 40,000 lbs.—that being the whole amount inthe Dépét I have solid one — salt of each man’s No. 1, and I turn to A.’s account and give him credit for 50 lbs. sold, and sv go through and credit each man with his proportion of that number sold. The charges are, for receiving, sorting, and selling, one cent per lb., and the insurance— * which is usually about 36 cts. on $100, for three months. Cartage from the dock is usually — faree cents per bale. The sacks are returned or sold at the option of the owner. They are meee nT VAY, ae SN RN : ; AEN y , 7 / ‘SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 29) “usnally worth about fifty cents, more or less, according to their condition. Each man’s wool is carefully examined; if put up in bad order, it is so noted, and a deduction made by ae sorter, to make it as it should be. So that it is no object for a man to send to the Dépét wool in-a bad condition. Tse ApvanTacrs.—The foregoing facts would seem to be so plain that it cannot be gcessary to refer to the advantages. No man, however, is more at the mercy of the specu- fator, than the wool-grower. The very fact that he has so many kinds of woo! in his cli prevents him from ascertaining the market value of the whole, for being in Eaeipaaenele ' ama!l quantities, he has not enough, if ever so well sorted, to make it an object for the differ- "ent manufacturers to visit him. He is therefore compelled to sell his whole clip at the price of his present quality, and at prices from five to fifteen cents per lb. under the real market value of his wool. Allow me to illustrate by an example. A farmer has his wheat, | cern, oats, and barley, all mixed, and carries it 10 market in this condition. Will anybody fe give him the value of each kind of grain? On the contrary, they would not be willing to | pay even the value of the cheapest kind. And yet each kind by itself has a market value. | Precisely in the same situation is the wool-grower, except that he has no means of knowing :§) the value of the various sorts of wool, except from the speculator. | The advantage of the Dépét system, then, is, that there his wool is properly sorted. The | wheat is separated from the corn, the corn from the oats, and the oats from the barley, and _ each is made to bring its fair market value. By having an extensive correspondence among _ the manufacturers throughout the country, I am kept constantly advised of the market; and | knowing the price of cloth in the cities, lam enabled to know to a certainty what the price _ of the various grades of wool should be. : _ When the manufacturer can get the kind of wool he wants, and in large quantities, he is | willing to pay, and does pay a better price than when he has to buy that which he does not | want, to get the right sort. It also equalizes the market, and brings the producer and the | manufacturer together, without being compelled to pay agents or speculators, and prevents | that fluctuation of the market which is always produced by speculation. | But there is another very great advantage growing out of the system. It enables the wool- | growers in the various sections of the country to compare wool, and to know who has really | the best and most profitable kinds of sheep. It has been strikingly manifest with me thig season. For I have been enabled to point out to people in different States West, where they could find the most profitable sheep, by the wool which had been sent me. And in one instance men had been oyer five hundred miles after sheep, and paid high prices, when ‘there were sheep in their own town worth double the money. There is no difficulty in sending wool here from any part of the country bordering upon |, the Ohio, or its tributaries. The expense of transportation will range from one to one and a half cents per lb.—depending much upon the bargain made with the clipper. I have re- ceived wool this year from ail the Western States, m some instances as far Westas the Mis sissippi River, and the average cost for freight has been about one cent per Ib. _ Itwasurged by many last spring that this city was not a good point, inasmuch as it was not sufficiently central in its location. For nothing is more certain, than tltat a wool Dépét, to be successful, must be so located as to command a large amount of wool. The larger “amount you can concentrate at a point, the more rapid and sure will be your sales. To this city the products of the West naturally tend, and to this point the producer can calculate witn | sreat certainty when, and at what expense it willarrive. But after its trans-shipment here, | expenses accumulate, without any corresponding benefit. And it is peculiarly so, in regard: _ to wool, coming as it often does in bad order, sacks torn, broken, and wet. _ But I bave made my letter already longer than I intended, and in speaking of my own: Depdt have perhaps gone more into detail than is necessary. _ This much I must be permitted to say to every wool-grower, that the Wool Depét system, , _ Properly conducted and patronized, is indispensable to ultimate and profitable success. I remain, my dear sir, Very sincerely yours, T. C. PETERa. me Sar A oe _ Messrs. Perkins and Brown have a Dépét at Springfield, Mass.; and” I believe the establishment of two or three others is in contemplation, by. companies or individuals. Conducted with skill and fidelity, there can be but little doubt that these. establishments are alike beneficial to the wool-grower and manufacturer. That Mr. Blanchard’s and Mr. Peters’s have thus far been so conducted, there: 4s not the least doubt. Of the other I know nothing, though report speaks- well of it. The design was not regarded with much favor, in the out: set, by many of our most extensive wool-growers. They preferred to “-do / * ; * o,% 292 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. their own business,” and not “ pay the wages of an intermediate agent.’ But the advantages derived from selling the wool in sorted lots, have been found to far more than overbalance the one cent per pound paid to the “agent” or Dépét keeper, and the system is rapidly gaining favor. M of our most experienced wool growers in this State—men the most com- tent to favorably dispose of their wool—have sent their wool to Messrs, Blanchard and Peters, and I have yet to see or hear of the first person who has been disappointed in the result. If wool Dépéts are beneficial in the North, where the agents of different manufacturers, and “ speculators,” visit every man’s barn to bid on his wool—and among a class of growers, too, who, from long experience, are familiar with the qualities and comparative values of the staple—how much more beneficial would they be to regions in which the growers are so scattered that they are rarely visited by traveling agents—or if so, not in numbers sufficient to produce that competition which would compel them to offer the fair market value of the article: and where, perhaps, in many cases, the growers themselves have not sufficient experience to determine the exact grade of their own clips, even supposing them correctly notified from time to time from abroad, of the market value of the several grades The Dépot system, in my judgment, removes the great and only serious obsta- ele to successful wool-growing in the South. lt is not necessary that Dépéts be established in the Southern States, te have those States reap the full benefitof the system. For the present, and for some time to come, at least, the North will furnish the dest home mar- ket for fine wools. The wool therefore must, until some changes take place, come to the North before it is sold; and the transportation must be equally subtracted from the avails, whether the sale is effected at home or at a Northern wool Dépét. Indeed, it would be éetter to store it in a Dé- pot at Kinderhook or Buffalo, than at Charleston or Nashville. And this is for the reason that the two former are much nearer to, and can be more speedily visited by the principal woolen manufacturers of the Uni ted States, than the latter. The New-York or New-England manufac- turer would be little likely to send an agent to Charleston or Nashville, if he could supply his wants equally cheaply (with the addition of cost of transportation), from Buffalo, Kinderhook, or Springfield. And if supplied any more cheaply at the former places (price of transportation excepted), be it remembered, it would be so much wazecessariy taken out of the pocket of the grower. ; Should the South at any future day find it more for her interest to ship her wools to Europe, the above considerations will cease to be valid. She would then want Dépéts as much as now, for far more gain, proportiona- bly, is made by sorting wool for the foreign, than the American markets. But in that event, the Dépéts would assume a different character, and they would be most appropriately located at the port whence the wools were shipped. I A EE ya A CORRECTION.—MR. RUFFIN. In the beginning of Letter VI., 1 made the following remark in relation to Hon. Edmund Ruffin—* He seems to think lime, of itself, adequate te the full and permanent amelioration of the tertiary soils.”—This remark was made on a somewhat too hasty inspection of some of Mr. Ruffin’s po sitions in the Agricultural Survey of South Carolina. Since writing it, I uave had the pleasure of reading for the first time Mr. R.’s highly valua- ble work on Calcareous Manures, and find that I was in error in the ste ment above made. ~ SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 293 NOTE IN RELATION TO AUSTRALIA. Since the preceding Letters were completed, the exceedingly interesting _ article from the (English) Farmers’ Magazine, which is published below. _ has met my eye. It will be seen from it that the conclusions arrived at | by me (see page 123,) in relation to the vast increase in the trans-Atlantic ' demand for wool and woolens, are in a rapid course of verification. I _ wrote from statistics extending down to 1840. In that year the English _ import of wool was forty-six millions of pounds. In 1845, according to _ the subjoined authority, it was seventy-six millions of pounds. And this _ rapid increase took place, notwithstanding the vast extension in the woolen _ manufactures in other nations, particularly in Germany, France, Spain and _ Belgium. The extract given from Waterton’s ‘Cyclopedia of Com- merce,” asserting the improbability of a much greater extension of the _ English woolen manufactures, “unless new markets shall be opened,” may '}) betrue. But new markets are yet to spring up in Central and Northern _ Asia, and even in Northern Europe, which will, in the aggregate, require _ am increase of woolen manufactures which the boldest calculator now scarcely dreams of. For the reasons for this opinion, see page 123.— Whether England is to supply a greater or less portion of this increasing demand remains to be seen. If she continues as well prepared as she _ now is to compete with other manufacturing nations, doubtless she will contribute her full share to that supply. It will also be seen, from the annexed paper, that what I predicted (see . page 121) in relation to the prospective competition (from the year 1840) in wool-growing, between the densely populated countries of Western _ Europe and those in newer settled regions, where land is cheap and popu- - lation comparatively sparse, has already come to pass. Spain, and even Germany, which in 1840 supplied England with nearly twenty-two millior pounds of wool—nearly half of the whole import of the latter—have now _ been driven almost entirely out of the English market! But, says the _ Sydney Herald, Germany, Spain, etc., have renewed the contest in another form: they have extended their manufacturing operations, and now manu- facture their own wool. Admit this: but if German wools cannot com- _ pete with others in the English market, which are brought from fifty times the distance, they cannot compete with them even in the German market, unless the latter are kept out by duties. The German manufacturer, then, in working up home wools, pays more for his raw material than the Eng- lish manufacturer, and he cannot, therefore, compete with him in foreign markets, nor even in the home one, without a protective Tariff which would raise the price of the English to that of the German article— | Tariffs materially enhancing the cost of the necessaries of life will not long be tolerated by the consuming millions, in regions where civilization has penetrated. } Chea It seems that Australia and Van Diemen’s Land are the successful com _ petitors which have driven Germany and Spain from the English wae] | market. The views set forth by me in Letter IX. in relation to the ad-. \ vantages of the former for wocl-growing compared with those of Hungary, Southern Russia, North and South America, remain the same; indeed a careful review of my positions has served to farther convince me of their ' correctness. ‘The character of the population, and the better commercial regulations of Australia, have given her a present advantage over new ri- vals in the Old World; and America has not yet entered the field of com- _ petition. When the Anglo-Saxon of North America enters the lists with the Anglo-Saxon of Australia, natural advantages will not, as now, be ON SCO TES Aa yy hy ky DEROE P REMI eR ree ters aes p Tipe ah os . - As t y che Z « Rae 294 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTil. N 4 _-+-—— —— ————— — overbalanced by superior energy and enterprise. The Anglo-Anstralian will, to say the least of it, meet his full equal in these particulars. And, on the other hand, there is not a rational doubt that the xatural and ot present advantages of all kinds are on the side of the Anglo-American, The portion of North America included in the proper wool-growing zone is immensely greater than in Australia; our climate, all things considered— considering the occasional terrible drouths of Australia—is the best; our lands are cheaper, and will certainly average as good, including our whole Atlantic coast, and including only our territory between the Apalachians” and the Rocky Mountains, our land will average by far the best; labor is not dearer among us; we are not a quarter as distant from the English markets ; the wool from all parts of our immense interior, instead of be- ing dragged long and expensive journeys in “bullock drays,” is already whirled along by steam, or boated on canals or rivers to the seaboard, at a comparatively trifling expense. It would be difficult to name a partic=.- lar, excepting in the two-cent duty, in which large portions of the United States have not the advantage over Australia for supplying the English wool market, and in other Kuropean markets we have perhaps every ad- vantage over that Colony. Tue AustratiaN Woot Trapve*—[By Wr. Westgarih, Esq.]|—The importance at ; present assumed by the Australian wool trade in the lists of adh Commerce, demands some degree of attention in the history of an Australian settlement. I shall, therefore, de — vote the present chapter to a short account of this branch of Commerce, in its capacity both — of an export from the Australian Colonies and an import into the British market. In the year 1836, the quantity of wool exported from Sydney amounted to 3,700,000 lbs. — weight. ‘The proportion for the Port Philip district, included in this amount, could not, at so early a period of her existence, have exceeded 60,000 lbs. weight. Five years afterward the annual produce had attained to 1,578,000 lbs.; and the lapse of a similar period, bring. — ing us down to the year 1846, exhibits the astonishing quantity of 7,400,000 Tost During this interval of ten years the quantity of wool exported trom Sydney, exclusive of any from Australia Felix, had increased from three and a half millions to nearly twelve miilions of pounds weight. . The importation of wool into the British market appears, indeed—like the rise of the Aus- tralian Colonies—to be but a business of yesterday, and one, among numerous other in- ) stances, of the wondertul extension of Modern Commerce. In 1820, the quantity imported was under ten millions of pounds weight; in 1845, it had risen to seventy-six millions. The — proportion from the Australian Colonies in the former year was the one-hundredth part; it” now forms nearly one-half of the whole importation}, and at the steady and rapid ratio of — the present increase of Australian wool, the lapse of a few years will exhibita quantity far greater than the united total of the wool at present imported into Britain from every quar — ter of the world. The following Table exhibits the respective averages, in round numbers, — for each period of five years from 1826 to 1845; the numbers representing millions of — pounds weight : Average of years. Foreign Wool. Colonial Wool. Total | 1826—-30.. | This Table illustrates the extraordinary progress of the colonial production, three-fourths of which are derived from Australia and Van Diemen’s Land. The periodical public sales of colonial wool, which now occupy so important a position among the commercial occurrences of the British Capital, date their origin only so lately as _ the year 1817. The prices at that time, and for some subsequent period, were only from Qd. to 3d. per lb.; and it was not until twelve or fourteen years afterward thatany important _ advance took place in the value of this commodity. The fine quality of the Australian wool ~ * From a new work in the press, on Port Philip. - t The wools occasionally sent from Port Philip by way of Sydney, and appearing in the Customs’ retusa c as Sydney exports, are here allowed for. The season or year is taken as ending on the 10th October, as the usual date of 3lst December falls in the midst of the wool shipments, and cannot fairly represent the — quantities and ratio of progress of each year. : i ie { In 1846, the relative quantities imported into Britain were, in round numbers, thirty-four millions or pounds of foreign wool and thirty millions of colonial. For the present year the colonial may be safely assumed at somewhat more than half the importation. ar - SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THe SCUTH. 295 _ hegan soon after to attract notice, and in 1835 and 1836 to excite te attention even of foreign manufacturers. From very small beginnings the extent of the periodical auction salea _. gradually increased. An unprecedented number of 750 bales was announced for one series of sales in 1825; and for some years afterward 400 bales were considered to form a very ex- tensive sale. But in July, 1835, 8,746 bales were brought forward, realizing for the better qualities the considerable rates of from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 8d. per pound ; and at the sales of the same month mn 1844, there were exposed no less than 31,358 bales.” The celebrated wools of Australia are derived from two principal breeds of sheep, the | Merino and the Saxon. The former is the finest in quality, but it may be doubted if ea | adequate price has been hitherto derived to compensate for the lighter weight of the fleecs. In the Sydney district, attention was chiefly bestowed on the Merino; in Van Diemen’s Land, on the Saxon; and the Pert Philip district received a share of both, as the colonists from either locality transported their flocks to her pastures. This mixture of breeds was _ stil! farther increased by dccasional crosses with the Leicester and South-Down. In fact, _ trom the numbers of inexperienced persons who entered on the occupation of sheep farming in this new settlement, and, without any fixed principles, carried on a mere random system of breeding, the greater portion of the wool consists of every shade of quality that natural accidents could produce. The abundant pasturage of Port Philip appears also to affect the pure Merino wool of the Sydney district, which in the former locality acquires a more open appearance, loses somewhat of its fineness, and increases about a quarter or half a pound in the weight of the fleece. The average weight of the good qualities of Port Philip fleeces, after washing, is from 24 to 23 lbs.; of the Sydney fleeces about 24 lbs. There has beer. _. for several years a desire to introduce a greater uniformity of quality in the fleeces of each particular grower, and on the whole an inclination to adhere to the production of the finer i} qualities of wool. [ Here follow details of the Australian method of washing and other preparations for shearing, which are omitted, as they conform in every important particular to the directions laid down in these Letters fur those processes.] = The wool is now ready to be packed and dispatched to the port of shipment. Each fleece is cleared of the locks aud clippings or other unseemly portions, and is usually tied with a piece of string, and tightly squeezed into bags containing about one hundred each, or from two hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds weight. The ponderous bullock dray is now yoked to its team of eight or a dozen oxen, and charged with an ample load of the goiden fleece, is dispatched from the station on its annual and protracted mission to the port of shipment. The wool on its arrival in town is now generally classed and re-packed at an establishment for that purpose, unless this process has already been competently performed at the station.— The classification distinguishes only the entire fleece; it is not attempted to proceed to a niinuter distinction of qualities by breaking the fleeces. When intended for sale, the wool, on its arrival in town, is conveniently exhibited in the various bins of the sorting establish ment, and its quality and condition are fairly ascertained. A‘ the establishment of the Messrs. Bakewell, in Melbourne, the wool is assorted first into the two leading divisions of clothing and combing, and each of these descriptions is run out into five qualities, the fifth or lowest being the coarse Leicester breeds. Extra fine lots are classed by themselves; super-greasy, or kempy, or other defective fleeces, are also classed apart. The charge for sorting is 4d. per pound. The usual charge for hand-washing is 1d. per pound on the weight returned, and for scouring 1d. to 14d. per pound. The system of re-packing is also of use in exposing any wet -or damp that the wool may have acquired on the way from the interior, in which condition it _is in danger of heating and even of originating fire in the hold of a vessel during a lengthened voyage. The shipping season for the Australian staple commences toward the end of October ; but only a few solitary drays have succeeded in reaching town during that month. Considera- ble quantities have arrived by the end of November; and during the two succeeding months there is a continuous succession of vehicles pouring with their voluminous loads into the various ports of the district.t These arrivals begin to fall off in February; but during that and the two succeeding monthsconsiderable quantities continue to be shipped, including the later skorp fleeces of the young lambs. The shipment of other exports, which are comparatively of un. important amount, terminates with that of the wool. A solitary vessel may linger till July or August, when the transactions of the season are finally closed. ' The following from a late number of the Sydney Herald may be well appended to the nbove: er * This included a small quantity of foreign wool. The Broper on from Australia and Van Diemen’s LLurd on this occasion was 26,134 bales. The early sales were held at Garraway’s, and continued there from 15i7 to 1843, when the locality was transferred to the Hall of Commerce, where they still continue The first bale at the first sale, from the novelty of the circumstance, realized 10s. 6d. per pound. [Mark- Lune Exy:ress, 7th, 1 {th, ana 21st Oct. 1344. 7 There are five shipping ports in Austvrlia Felix ; nxmelx, Melbourne, or its port of Williamstown, Gee Yong. Portland, Belfast, ¢ad Port Aubert. vr Alberton, ‘n Gipps’s Land. The quantity for the present year (1847) may be estimated at about 25,000 bules. of whic five-sixths are shipped at Williamstown and Geeleug. 296 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. ae — —— - * Our two time-honored competitors in the production of fine wool, Spain and ome ‘ have been fairly beaten out of the field. The climate and pasturage of these colomes, and of the congenial settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, backed by the energies of their Anglo-Saxon race of flock-masters, have more than compensated for our greater distance from British mar kets. We have been enabled to supply a good article—in yast and ever-increasing quanti ties—and at prices which, notwithstanding the cost of carriage, have, through our facilities or production, left us a remunerating profit, but which our ancient rivals have found to be im sufficient tc replace prime cost. ‘* But although Spain and Germany have ceased to vie with us as sellers of the raw mate — rial in England, they have done so only to renew the contest in another form. They have enlarged their manufacturing operations. Since they can no longer sell their fleece ata profit, — they have resolved on working it up in theirown looms. To that extent, therefore, they will cease to import wrought woolen fabrics; and in so far as their imports were from Great Britain, there will be a corresponding decrease in the British consumption of our wools. The woolen cloths imported into those two countries from Great Britain, in the year 1841, amounted, in declared value, to £ 1,026,481 sterling: and if we add the quantities imported in the same year into Holland and Belgium, the amount would have been about a million and a half. We must therefore be cautious, as prudent men, not to allow our spirits to be too much exhilarated by the apparent victory we have gained over ‘ our hereditary enemies,’ seeing that, though seemingly vanquished, they have but shifted their position and varied their tactics. “A judicious writer says, in 1844: ‘ Of late years cottons have, from their cheapness, in a gteat degree superseded the lower qualities of cloths—a circumstance which, joined to the increasing rivalry of France, Germany and Belgium, renders it improbable, unless new mar kets shall be opened in China or elsewhere, that much extension will in future be given te our manufacture of woolen cloths.’* “While, however, the Spanish and the German wool-growers have thus ceased (or are expected very shortly to cease) to compete with us as exporters to England, another com ~ ‘petitor has sprung up in a new and quite unexpected quarter. In addition to corn, bread — stuffs, rice, tobacco, cotton, sugar, and an endless catalogue of ‘notions,’ in which Brother Jonathan has hitherto prided himself as a mighty producer, he has now taken it into his head that he can breed sheep and export wool on a large scale. And it would seem that in England his whim has by no means been thought whimsical. For, say certain Liverpool brokers to him, under date of 3d September, 1846: ‘ The arrivals of wool from the United ~ States last year, for the first time to any extent, made quile a sensation in this country, as it was generally considered that you required to import these qualities, and there was no knowledge that your growth of wool was of such importance. We have seen it estimated at sixty-five million pounds ;t and from your vast (and to us almost incredible) means of | production, we believe it will cause a kind of revolution in the wool trade.” = “ Jonathan’s own opinion of the matter is thus expressed through the medium of the New Orleans Commercial Times: ‘Wool can be grown as cheaply, and to as great advantage, in the cotton-growing States as in any part of the world. There is nothing in the climate to — prevent it. If it may be found desirable to grow that of the finest grades, it can be done without fear of the animals becoming covered with hair in a few years.’ He has evidently some misgivings, however, as to the policy of his attempting the finest grades, for he imme- diately subjoins, ‘ However, we are inclined to think that wool of @ coarser quality will be found most profitable, mutton being also an object with us.’ a “If the United States already produce four times the quantity of wool that we do, and if there is a reasunable chance of their producing it of a quality equal to ours, and at no greater” cost, then have we indeed much to fear from their formidable rivalry. The vast extent of © their territory, the almost illimitable resources of their soil and climate, the indomitable spirit of their citizens, combined with their proximity to the British market, will render their com — petition, if successful at all, successful in no ordinary degree. “a “« Wool,’ says another Liverpool correspondent, addressing an American, ‘requires in its production great attention in crossing the breed, otherwise the quality degenerates verv quickly. The maintenance of its fineness depends also very much on the nature of the pak — turage on which the sheep graze. And we may remark that your own samples are of a par — ticularly good kind.’” ' Here is a word of encouragement for the Americans, with a word of caution for the Aus (ralians. Of the two requisites for the production and preservation of a superior staple, one. suitable pasturage, s bountifully supphed to the Australian grower by Nature, while the other depends upon his own industry and skill. In this, it is to be feared, he has scarcely been just to himself. He has possibly presumed too much upon the natural advantages of the fine sheep-sustaining country in which his capital is staked. It will be well if this note of warning from the land of Stars and Stripes shail rouse him to a more vigilant attention. | Simmonds’s Colonial Magazine | * Waterton’s Cyclopedia of Commerce, p. 672. B t The quantity of wool exported from New South Wales, including the district of Port Philip,in the yeas 1843, was 17,564,734 lbs. , j | | APPENDIX. ON SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN SOUTH C/sROLINA. Report on the Value cf Sheep Husband:y. Read to the Jgricultwral Society, Pendleton, South Carolina. In obedience to your resolution, requiring your committee to “ report on Sheep Husbandry in the South,” they beg leave to say that the resolution would seem to require a more extended examination than could be embraced in a report of an ordinary length. They will therefore confine themselves to that part of the subject which, ja their estimation, will best show the applicability and value of sheep hus- bandry to our neighborhood and section. Although but little attention is given by any of us, to raising sheep, and _ by none to preparing wool for a foreign market, yet it will be admitted, that eur native stock are healthy, growing to a fair size and produce a fair fleece, from two to five pounds, even under the great neglect with which they are treated. There is, however, one question necessary to examine, and that is, whether the quality and quantity of the fleece deteriorate in our climate. The guestion has been very fully examined by Mr. H. 8. Randall, a very intel- ligent and experienced wool grower in Cortland, New York. From his excellent letters, published in the Farmers’ Library, (the perusal of which I take pleasure in recommending to the members of this society,) I draw the following statement : “Tt is known that from Spain (north latitude 36 to 44 degrees) all the fine wooled flocks have sprung. And that in Saxony (north latitude 50 tc 51 degrees 30 minutes) the Spanish Merino wool has been improved in fineness of fibre but lessened in quantity. In New York (north latitude 42% to 44 degrees) the fineness of the Spanish Merino is preserved and quantity increased. In Vermont (north latitude 43 to 45 degrees) the fineness and quantity of the Saxony wool are preserved.” South of us, in Madison county, Mississippi, (north latitude 32 degrees, 41 minutes,) the wool of the Saxony sheep has been found to maintain its original fineness, and increased in quantity.- Recent experiments in Aus- tralia (scuth latitude 33 degrees 55 minutes) show that fine wooled sheep (the Merino) preserve the quantity and improve in quality of fleece. The exports of wool from there in 1810 was only - - - - - 167 Ibs, “ “ He cin eS aise a) uta), oy ge aS Oe ,SaQies “ ® TSA Sie ENN ei ond 5. ee) TG OSA OOS an 1834, London price for best Spanish Merino, was - - = - 67 cts : Australian Merino, - - = = 4 a © is 100 « 0 English wool, - - - - - - = heh 4g “ 2P 207 PY PE, eae eo eo te 2h ao SS Se A SU ae ne CTY ee : , ay # 4 We Ry ak pin ep ake * ‘ ‘ e, cy . Z ‘ f my 298 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN SOUTH CAROLINA, : In England, (north latitude 50 to 56 degrees,) from some cause not yet settled, fine wool cannot be grown. . Near the Cape of Good Hope, (south latitude 34 minutes,) Merino Sheer do well, maintaining both quality and quantity of fleece with Spain. The latitude of Pendleton is 34 degrees 40 minutes, but counting a de: — gree for every 200 feet altitude, would throw us some twelve degrees farther north, and between the latitudes of Spain and Saxony. | So far then as latitude 1s concerned, experiments have been made both — north and south of us, which show, that here, Spanish Merino woo. neither — degenerates in quality nor quantity of fleece. It is also known that rich succulent green fooc generally adds length to fibre, but does not always make fine wool coarser, at least between latitude 28 and 50 degrees north, nor does it make coarse wool finer. Humidity and dryness of atmosphere seem to have, as well as climate, some influence on the fibre. But as yet, the laws which govern the fleece have not been satisfactorily ascertained. It is sufficient for the present inquiry that experi- ments verify the operation, that in this latitude Merino wool wili not become coarser, nor the coarse long wool become finer, if each stock be kept pure. And as the climate is well adapted to both, the choice of stocks may yery well be left to the fancy of those who try either. We come now to test the value of sheep husbandry to this section of country. There are many methods by which this can be done. I shall, however, take the simple one of comparing the profits of this with the other pursuits of the country. It is acknowledged in the Northern States that growing wool is a good business there, and I will first give a table from Mr. Randall’s letter, show ing the profits of growing wool in New York : * —_—S— A. buys 100\ewes at $2, = -. = = 92 ' « 5s 6s See i 33% acres of land at $20, . . - - - - - 666 66 — Cutting and curing 11 acres of the above for hay, - - - - 13 65 Pay fer shearing, - - - - - - - - - - 4 00 For salt, tar, and summer care, - - - - - - - - 4 00 For labor of winter feeding, - - - - - - - - 5 00 Loss by death 2 per cent. above pulled wool from those that die, - 4 00 ; $837 31 RECEIPTS. 300 Ibs. wool at 394, - - - - - - - : $118 71 80 lambs at $1, - - - - - - - - 80 00 Summer manure equal to winter care, i) - e4 5 00 $203 71 This is equal to 24 per cent. on the amount invested, and makes the cost — of the wool to the farmer 27 cents per pound. A calculation founded on — the same data for Pendleton makes the result more favorable : A. buys 100 ewes at $1, -~ - - at es - $100 00 Pays for shearing, eRe ee 400 For salt, tar, te, Ro ee dL a ie i ene : 2003 Loss 2 per cent. above skins and wool of those that die, - - - 2 00° t make no charge for summer pasture, because it costs nothing, nor should rye or barley pastures for winter be charged; the crop is reaped after- ul wards, But charge it at 20 cents per head, - - - - - 20: 20-- 5 One hand’s attention an hour in the morning to turn tc pasture, and an hour . in the evening to pen; this is one-sixth part of his time. Say his whole time is worth $72; one-sixth is - - - . - : - . iz 00 Total outlay and expense for feeding one year, - $145 00 ‘ ¥ ott SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN SOUTH CAROLINA, 299 i a, Rr RECEIPTS. _ 2 ibs. wool per head is 200 Ibs., at 20 cents, - - - $40 00 80 lambs at $1 when one year old, - - - - - - 80 00 $120 00 This is 85 per cent. In this instance the wool costs the farmer nothing. Deduct $90, the value of the original stock of ewes at the commencement of the next year, from $140, the total outlay, and you have $50, which the value of the lambs more than equal. : _ Compare it with farming or planting: A. buys anegro for - - - - > - $700 00 Furnishes him with fifteen acres of land at $5, - - ° - - 75 00 Half the expenses of a horse and plough, - - - - - - 50 00 For his board and clothing, - - - - : - - - - 20 00 $845 00 : NECKIPFTS. His labor, 160 barrels corn at 40 cents, = - = - $64 00 5 bags cotton at $30 a bag, - - - - - - - 150 00 $214 00 This is equal to 25 per cent., certainly as much as any man in this neighborhood makes. I have purposely made this large estimate that no one can say it is under the truth. B. buys 500 ewes and 20 bucks, common stock, at $1, - - : $520 00 Employs a shepherd, - - - - - - - . - - 175 00 Pays 20 cents for winter feed per head, - - - - - - 104 60 Pays for tar and salt, - - - - - - > - : : 20 Ou B has £73 less ‘han A. in the outlay, - 5 - - - - $819 00 RECEIPTS. 3 Ibs, wool per head is 1560 Ibs. at 20 cents, - $312 00 80 lambs to the 100 ewes is 400 lambs at $1, - - 400 00 712 OG Deduct for loss over skins and wool of those that die, 2 per cent., 18 40 és ; ————. $623 60 The outlay of A. ($890) brings him $210, equal to 25 per cent. The outlay of B. ($819) brings him $693 60, equal to 85 per cent. This calculation will do for the neighborhood of Pendleton or lower down, where sheep have to be fed during the winter. But for all that part of Pickens and Greenville district, extending south for twenty-six or thirty miles from the foot of the mountains, the profits would be larger. For tn that belt of country, lam informed by many residents—General Garvin among them—that the range affords sufficient food for sheep the entire year. Even when snow is on the ground, they paw the snow away and get sus- tenance from the winter grass. For that section I would alter the calculation thus : B. buys 500 ewes and 20 bucks, - 2 - - - - $520 OC Pays fora shepherd, - - - - - - - - - 175 00 Pays for salt and tar,’ - : = = 3 £ = 5 : 20 00 $715 90 RECEIPTS, 1560 Ibs. wool at 20 cents, - - - - - $312 OV 90 lambs to the 100 ewes is 450 at $1, - - - 460 00 762 00 _ Deduct for loss 2 per cent. over skins and wool of those that dix, J¥% 00 Making $28 more than 100 per cent. $743 00 300 SHEEP HUSBAND2Y IN SOUTH CAROLINA, But try it ona scale that every one caa compare with his own expe rience, a B. buys 3 ewes and 1 bu2k for - . . . : = : $4 OC f He shears 12 Ibs. of wool at 20 cents, - - - - - 2 40 2 lambs at $1, : : is < ° - = . - 2 00 Over 100 per cent. 4 40 These are suppositions. ‘Take what has actually occurred in Pickens © district. Mr. Stribling, as I am informed by himself, bought one ewe for $1: . In 1846 she had 3 lambs, - - - - - - $3 00 Sheared 2 tbs, wool at 20 cents, - - - - - : 40 $3 40 In 1847, same ewe had 2 lambs, - - - - - - 2 00 Sheared again 2 lbs. wool at 20 cents, - - - - . 40 Each one of the last year’s lambs had a lamb apiece, - - 3 00 And sheared from the 3, 6 lbs. wool at 20 cents, - - = 26 6 6U This is an increase of eight in two years from one ewe, and Mr, Stribling — says at this time the whole are alive.’ I admit this is an extraordinary case, — and it is only mentioned to show there are cases of actual increase far above any of those calculations made above. If, then, the climate be not only adapted to fine wool, but also to the coarse—if the range, which is abundant and sufficient to feed a flock the entire year; and if the above calculations are founded on data anywhere near correct, what more can be desired to show the applicability and valus — of sheep husbandry to this section. From three very respectable wool growers, one from each of the states of — Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio, I was told the way to make a calcu- lation on the profits of sheep husbandry in a reasonably safe way, was to put down every year one-ninth less of lambs than you have ewes, and then deduct one-tenth from the whole for deaths in that year. Thus, say you have - - - : Hel - - 100 ewes. From 100 deduct one-ninth, and you have - — - - - 89 lambs. ; 189 Then deduct one-tenth for deaths, - - - . - - 18 And youhave- - - . - - : . - - 171 To start with the next year. On this basis I have taken one hundred ewes | and run the calculation on for eight years. The result was: Wool sheared in eight years, - - - - - : - - 1; 190 Ibs. The gentlemen above alluded to, say that half the woo: wal pay all ex: penses, even when the winters require five months’ fes.d: a Deduct, then, one-half, 8,595, at 20 cents, - - - - - #1719 00 The increase amounted to 2067 sheep, at $1, - . - - 2067 00 Total, - > + = © go7ee ites This result, if attained, would exceed fifty per cent. compounded. They. say, too, it is a safe estimate to say that the lambs of each year will pay the expenses of the whole flock for that year in Pennsylvania. They more thay a es / SHEEP HUSBANDRY -IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 301 do it here. Allow eighty lambs to one hundred ewes, and you have from five hundred ewes, four hundred lambs; deduct ene-tenth for deaths, and You have 360 at $1, - - - - - - - - - - $360 00 Charge 20 cents per head for 900 sheep, makes - - - 180 00 ’ Charge for shepherd, - - : - - - - : 150 00 — 330 00 ' es Lambs over-pay expenses by - - - : - - c - $30 00 All these calculations are made on the supposition that sheep get a part of that regular attention which all farmers give to their other domestic ani mals. And to make sheep husbandry successful, it is not only necessary that this attention should be given, but every one who attempts it shoul know something of their diseases and the cures, and also the summer and winter management. his can be acquired only by their own, or the ex- perience of others. Easy access can be had to the experience of northern wool growers, who are proverbial for being close observers. They say the disease called the “ scours” is the principal one to which sheep are liable, produced by excess of rich green food, and cured easily by a change to dry, but if allowed to continue, is fatal. From the introduction into the United States, in 1808. of Merino sheep from Spain, owners of this stock have considered it of the first importance to preserve the quality and quantity of their fleece, and if possible, to im prove both. They ascertained that lambs from young and healthy sires improved, while those from old ewes fell back both in quality and quantity of fleece. Among them it is now a settled practice not to breed from ewes over seven or eight, nor from bucks over six years old. It is very important ts resort to the evidence of age the teeth afford. ‘Their books have been par ticular in describing these evidences, which I will copy: “During the first year, lambs have eight small teeth in front, in the upper jaw, cailed nippers $ at a year old, the centre two shed, and two larger teeth take their place. At two years old, the next two are lost, and supplied by two larger ones. Thus losing and being supplied by two larger ones annually, till five—then they have a full set. At eight or nine they begin to lose their nippers—two every year—and by thirteen or fourteen years old, they have lost their entire set.”’ It is evident that during the time ewes are losing their teeth, they become less and less able to supply themselves with food, consequently afford less and less milk for their young. ‘Thus the degeneracy is accounted for. In Vermont, where wool is as much their staple as cotton in South Carolina, so important do they consider it not to breed from ewes after they begin to lose teeth, that although mutton is not used by the inhabitants for the table, they sell their old steck to be fed to hogs. In most of the other northern states, their ewes at that age are kept from the bucxs, and fattened for market. From their known skill in managing well what they undertake, we may safely tale their usage as a guide, waen it is applicable to our situation. With them grass is the entire food of their flocks—green meadows for summer pasture and hay for winter. Their win- ters require five months’ constant feeding, during which they estimate each sheep to consume fifty cents worth of hay. All stock is then kept enclosed, ud the attention to turning sheep to pasture in summer, and feeding sheep in winter, requires but little labor in addition to their other stock. Flocks require close attention but at three times in the year—the tupping, the lambing, and shearing seasons. Ewes go with lamb one hundred anid twenty-five days, or five months, and they so manage as to have the lambs ean Saote on De tig fe Oye eee ROR Le ane Ms of es a ans - y art ns Son 4 802 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN SOUTH CAROLINA. # brought in April and May; (here February is esteemed by many a betie~ month.) ‘To do this, the bucks must be kept impounded, except at the time desired. rom the great superiority of early lambs, this part of sheep husbandry is esteemed very important. uring lambing season, close attention is required to guard both ewe and lamb from storms and cold winds—to see that the ewe acknowledges her lamb, and to keep up the marking and altering as the lambs get between five and ten days old. Ten days previous to shearing time they prepare for it by washing the wool on the sheep’s back, that the natural oil of the wool, which is destroyed Ly the washing, may have time to be renewed, without which the wool feels and works harsh. ‘The washing is done at spouts or pools, prepared for the purpose, and the other flocks are kept on clean pastures till sheared. As the proper preparation of an article for market is justly considered of the next importance to a good article, I will describe this process minutely, as practised for the northern market. The shearing is done on a clean floor, and each fleece is kept unbroken. When sheared, it is rolled outside in, until it is reduced to a lump about ten inches each way, and then tied with strings in two places. For packing the wool, a bag is used nearly as large as our cotton bags, which, after sewing to a hoop at top, they hang through a hole in an upper floor, a little less in diameter than the hoop; here the fleeces are packed down by the foot, the weight of an ordinary sized man being a sufficient pressure. Thus finished, the wool is ready for a northern or European market. Manufacturers will not give full price for wool unless the fleeces are unbroken; because, before manufacturing, they consider it necessary to have each fleece divided into five qualities, which they cannot do if the wool of different fleeces is emptied together. Different modes of summer management are followed in different coun- tries. The one followed in Australia, as described by Mr. Randall, is not only less troublesome, but would be better suited to our mountain region There they roam over the plains, under charge of a shepherd, in flocks of three hundred to one thousand. Every night, some two or more of these flucks are penned together, during the entire year. Breeding promiscuously from the bucks that run with the flocks, allowing three or four to the hun- dred ewes. At the Cape of Good Hope, he says the same practice pre- vails ; and from both of these places the wool exported is equal, and in some instances superior in quality to the Merino. The statements here given, Mr. President, we have carefully considered, and believe to be truae—and we submit them under the belief that if the im- portance of sheep husbandry was duly considered, especially by the districts lying north and contiguous to the mountains, much additional comfort and wealth might be added to that already delightful region. All which is respectfully submitted. R. F. SIMPSON, Note.—Since this report was read, I have been informed by Mr. Thomas M. Sloan, that his wool does not cost him more than five cents a pound— and by Mr. Morris, at Pickens C. H., that for care, shearing, &c., of a amall flock of eight ewes, worth eight dollars, kept on Ocone mountain, he paid one-half of the spring clipping, equal to three-quarters of a pound per head, and that from them he had, after paying all expenses, $3 60, and eight — ambs worth eight dollars—$11 60. And by Mr. Shepherd a tenant on ~ A ANCRUM ON WOOL MATTRESSES. 303 See eae ville a few sheep, Among which were 4 ewes, worth - sete f= - SEN eaen ars $4 90 They had 4 lambs, worth - - - - - - - 4 00 Thinks he sheared 3 lbs, per head, but say 2, which is 8 lbs. at 2U ets. 1 60 — 5 €0 In 1848, from 8 sheared 14 lbs. woai at 20 cents, - - - 2 80 And had 8 lambs, worth - - - - - 700 — 9 80 $15 40 Salt and shearing was the only expense. He had only offered to feed them once in the two years, and then they refused to taste corn shelled ta thei. H. ANCRUM ON WOOL MATTRESSES. Asu ey, Pike county, Mo. A sound man in one night of seven hours’ sleep, generally perspires fifty ounces avoirdupois or four pounds troy weight; we cannot wonder at that, since there are above three hundred thousand millicns of pores in the body of a middle-sized man, and that in the last hours of sleep one perspires most; hence the impropriety and the weakness of lying too long in a soft bed, and the necessity of lying on a comparatively hard elastic bed, such asa wool mattress. In France, wool mattresses are generally adopted, conse- quently you never meet with a bad bed there. I have travelled all over France, and never met with a bad bed, and a very recent intelligent Ameri- can traveller of great observation, mentions, on his removal from England to France, that he found the French beds delicious, because the beds are wool mattresses. Mode of Making a Wool Mattress.—The first thing to constitute a good healthy bed is, that it must be absolutely flat, therefore all bedsteads shoulc have wooden laths instead of sacking, which always gives and forms a hol- low; the wool is carded by hand, and all knots and extranecus matter taken out; the great pointas to make it thick enough. The best bed I slept in, in my life, had sixty pounds of wool in it, but the bed was a very large extra size; half that quantity will make a small bed, but if you wish to lie luxuriously, yet hard, do not stint the wool, that makes all this difference ; it lasts for ever—the covering is washed once a year; the wool is carded, and a few pounds of wool added, and the bed is sweet and new. However luxuriously he may be, let any gentleman have a good wool mattress made and let him ride forty or fifty miles and thoroughly fatigue himself, he wa then know the value of such a bed. My object is also to increase the home consumption of our wool. There are twenty odd millions in the United States; say five to each family, four millions; say three beds to each family, taking the whole population, twelve millions; say thirty pounds of wool to each bed, three hundred and sixty millions of pounds of wool; sav thirty-four millions of sheep in the United States, say eighty million pounds of wool; this will consume more than four years’ clip of our wool. ‘This ought to be promulgated to increase the consumption of our wool, and such wool as cannot be sold abroad. Independent of the benefit to all in then health, who adopt wool mattresses on account of their cleanliness and dura. -bility, in the end, they are cheaper than any other bedding. Every thing that increases the home consumption of our wool is of na- tonal importance, as is every thing that will promote the general health of Rn4 ANCRUM ON WOOL MATTRESSES, —_—_—- our people. In this changeable and rigorous climate in winter, if all wer to wear flannel, particularly narrow-chested and delicate females, it would be of the greatest benefit to their health, and save them many a fit of sick- uess. When we consider how cheap the English sell their Welsh flan- uel, it ought to stimulate our manufacturers; I must, however, observe, that I never purchased any flannel in the United States equal to the real Welsh flannel, or that did not shrink, or that wore near so long as the English flannel. The English flannel has a nap on both sides, which renders it warm and soft, and it washes soft to the last. The United States flannel that I have used washes harsh, and the wear is not near so agreeable as real Welsh flannel, but surely all these difficulties can be overcome by our people, and they can make as good flannel] as the best Welsh flannel. It is well known that woollen clothes, such as flannels, worn next the skin, promote insensible perspiration. May not this arise principally from the strong attraction which subsists between wool and the watery vapor which is continually issuing from the human body? ‘That it does not depend entirely on the warmth of that covering is clear, because one degree of warmth produced by wearing more clothing of a different kind does not produce the same effect. The perspiration of the human body being absorbed by a covering of flannel, it is immediately distributed through the whole thickness of that substance, and by this means exposed by a very large surface to be carried off by the atmosphere, and the loss of the watery vapor which the flannel sustains on the one side by evaporation, being immediately restored from the other in consequence of the strong attraction between the flannel and this vapor, the pores of the skin are disencumbered, and they are continually surrounded with a dry and salubrious atmosphere. It is astonishing that the custom of wearing flannel next the skin should not have prevailed more universally ; it is certain it would prevent a number of diseases, and there certainly is ne greater luxury than the comfortable sensation which arises from wearing it, after one is accustomed to it. It isa mistaken notion that it is too warm clothing for summer ; it may be worn in the hottest climates, at all seasons of the year, without the least inconvenience arising from wearing it.* It is the warm-bath of a perspiration confined by a linen shirt, wet with sweat, which renders the summer heats of southern climates so insupportable ; but flannel promotes perspiration and favors its evaporation, and evaporation, as it is well known, produces positive cold. I can vouch for the truth of every word of this. I wear the same kind of flannel all summer as I do in winter with sleeves; when I take extra exercise and perspire freely, my body and flesh is always cool and comfortable, and in part 1 owe it to wear- ing flannel that I have never had either fever or ague in this western coun- try, which is full of it. All this may appear trivial, and sanitary rules are disregarded, but it is all of the utmost importance and to all. Say fifteen inillions of our people wear flannel next their skin, and three flannel waist- toats to each, that is forty-five millions of waistcoats, at two yards each, (not enough with sleeves as they ought to be made,) ninety millions of yards of flannels in waistcoats only. Old people, delicate women and children, and above all, consumptive people, ought all to wear flannel drawers as well as a flannel waistcoat ; if this was adopted, the great sickness that prevails in the United States would be much diminished. Men drink spirituous liquors to increase the animal heat, and fee] that glow that is called com- fortable. Let them wear flannel next their skin instead, and keep the body warm and the head cool, * The firemen in steamboats could not exist if they woro linen instead of flannel shirts. The pleasant es’ of all mattresses is one made of a mixture of wool and hair. [Eps Puovau, Loom, AND ANVIL] ‘ i 5 , ‘SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. | 305 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. ¢ BY H. S. RANDALL, LL.D., Author of ‘‘ Life of Thomas Jefferson ;” Editor of Randall’s ‘‘ Youatt on the Horse,” etc., ete. y Epirors or Texas Atmanac: In pursuance of your request, I proceed to give you some of the results of my experience and investigations in re- _ gard to wool-growing, and my views of the adaptation of this husbandry to the climate, soil, and other existing conditions of Texas. Crirmatr.—The best climate for the cheap production of wool, other things being equal, obviously is that which furnishes the most abundant and suitable pasturage during the greatest portion of the year. This, speaking generally, is to be found in the Northern hemisphere, between latitudes 30° and 40° on the eastern margin of each continent, and be- f tween about 38° and 48° on the western. The south half of this wool- _ growing zone, where the other conditions besides climate are favorable, excels the northern. North of the wool-growing zone, the growth of vegetation is suspend- ed, and the nutritiveness of grasses destroyed by cold, during considera- ble portions of the year; and then sheep require more expensive dry feed, suitable winter shelter, etc. South of the wool-growing zone, veg- etation, where it flourishes, is too rank and tropical for the smaller rumin- ating animals, and the heat too intense ‘for those carrying so dense a pelage as the fine-woolled sheep. Local exceptions exist to the above classification, owing to a variety ot causes; most prominent of which are altitude; the shelter of mountains - from northern and southern winds, the contiguity of large bodies of water, etc. I have said, “ other things being equal,” the question will be immedi- ately asked whether wool of the same variety of sheep grown in latitude 30° is as fine as that grown in latitude 40° or 45° I doubt whether it is. Sheep transported from a climate of long winters to one of perennial, or - nearly perennial, pasturage, increase visibly in size, and their descendants permanently become a larger variety. The constant supply of succulent food produces more copious and uniform animal secretions than an inter- rupted supply, or than an alternating supply of green and dry food. In theory, we should expect the same causes to affect the fleece as well as the carcass. They do visibly increase the length of the staple. The in- crease of its diameter (admitting that it does increase) during over twenty years of breeding—about as far as my personal observations have extend- on that point—is not, I think, perceptible to the naked eye. But be it greater or smaller, it is more than compensated for by-the increased soft- ness and evenness of wools grown in warm and more uniform climates, and on more uniformly succulent nutriment. I must be content to state _ this as a well-established practical fact. Ihave not room to array author- ities on every point. mi _ Sort.—It would present a very tangible, and by no means a bad test of the proper soils for wool-growing, to say that they are those which _ produce, or which can be made to produce, the most contmuous supply of fine sweet grasses. A marshy soil, a soil containing so great an excess of clay as to poach into mud, and remain long wet after rains, a low, rankly, rich river bottom alluvion, and especially such an alluvion, if annn- ally replenished by slimy deposits of decaying vegetable matter, all inju 7 Bark re Pagt 9a ees PL ee oe © . 7 ¢ . 2 na . ae a Baxter. ; > she nats oD gh 306 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS, Beer or By re riously affect the health of sheep. None of these soils produce the grasses I have mentioned. The best lands for sheep are those which are ~ dry and “ sound ;” which admit of the rapid percolation or drainage of | water; and an ‘admixture of sand or gravel in them, is a fayorabl though by no means an indispensable condition. Enormous flocks of — sheep flourish, in perfect health, on the plains of Illinois, which are — “sticky ” after every shower. But water does not stand on them as on a stiff clay, nor does it constantly saturate them as it does boggy lands, It is sometimes claimed—particularly by that class of tyros who are ready to jump at conclusions on a very limited experience—that sheep op their farms, or in their localities, dety all the preceding conditions, bey flourish, if we may believe these gentlemen, in stagnant fens, in “ ho wallows, » and on river bottoms, where the malaria is almost visible, as it steams up from the decomposing mass. It is true that fifty sheep, like a small family of human beings, will occasionally, and for a limited period, appear unaffected by such unpropitious circumstances. But, by and by comes the destroyer—the pestilence that walketh by noon- day——and the increase of years is suddenly swept away. Cholera, yellow fever, or bil- ious fever depopulates the human settlement—rot, or some other epidemic, passes, like a tornado, over the sheep-ranch. The causes of disease do not bear fruit every year, but the laws of nature are never abrogated. Sheep tolerate almost all chemical varieties of soil. With the proper vonditions in other respects, they are seemingly equally healthy on the aterile, pulverized granite of New England, and the rich, calcareous wheat lands of Ohio, or “the Valley of Virginia on the tertiary sands of our Atlantic border, and among the rocky cliffs of the Alleghanies. No ani- mal is so necessary to man, and therefore none has been adapted to the circumstances of so large a portion of the earth’s surface. Ereyatrion.—Elevation is, I rather think, a pleasing condition to ar animal, which, like the goat, the ibex, etc., zodlogists consider the natura! denizen of mountain regions; and mountains and hills often present the other condition which are specially adapted to sheep—firm dry soils, short — sweet grasses, pure air, and clear water. But elevation is of no conse. quence per se; and if the same favorable conditions are found on plains, they are as healthy localities for sheep as mountains. Grasses.—Sheep will thrive on almost all varieties of gwass, when they are first springing up tender and succulent from the earth. No grass is _ suitable for them, when its stems have become dry and woody. Tough, aquatic grasses are always unfavorable. We are to give the preference, < then, to those varieties which do not send up coarse seed stems—those which are constantly supplying a fine verdure from the root. No variety is preferable to the small, spontaneous, white clover of the north, or the q finest spontaneous. musquite grasses of Texas. Red clover, Timothy, June, or Blue grass ;* indeed, “all the grasses cultivated in the north, will do very well if. kept fed down, and this might be the case with many of © the coarser varieties in Texas, Some small flock-masters have fancied — - that sheep would thrive on the dry stems of tall, coarse grasses—because they thrive among them. But afew sheep will find tender, nutritious | plants, which are screened from casual observation among these taller ones. When the former are gone, sheep will promptly and ‘visibly fall off in conditicn. hy The fact that the natural grass is too coarse for sheep, by no means * I am not sure that the pure grass of New York and the Blue grass of Kentucky are the same, eat) baving specially investigated the subject; but the late Mr. Clay wrote me that they were the same. Pe | i SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. 307 § proves that proper “ artificial” varieties would not flourish on the sama } soil, particularly if the first flush of its virgin fertility was a little reduced f by cropping. § Warer.—Water is not indispensable for sheep, when at pasture. The _ juices of the grass and the dew and rains supply their wants. Thousands and thousands of good sheep-pastures in the north are wholly without other sources of supply. But, of choice, I would prefer water in sheep- _ pastures—clear springs, or rapidly running brooks. Sheep will visit _ these as regularly as cows or horses. _ ApapratTion or Trxas.—As I remarked in my answers to your inter- rogatories on this same subject, last fall, (published by you in the Galves- | ton News,) I have never set my foot in your State, But, after the expe- _ rience of many years in sheep-breeding, and after a close and diligent ‘investigation, extending to all available sources of information—many of _ these the minute and careful statements of your own most intelligent and .eandid citizens—I do not entertain a particle of doubt, first, that you | have vast regions in Texas admirably adapted to sheep husbandry; and | secondly, that wool can now be raised more cheaply in those regions than m any other portion of the globe, where sufficiently good government prevails to make lite tolerable and secure, and such property as sheep safe from frequent and extensive depredations. In no such portion of the earth, are lands, furnishing perennial pasturage, (or the use of such lands,) -so-cheap. In none are the general circumstances more favorable, the ac- cidental and occasional disadvantages fewer. In nearly every particular, _ Texas possesses decided advantages over our other Southern States, and enormous ones over the Northern and Eastern States. _ As between it and the latter, a brief statement disposes of all contro~ _ versy. The sheep-lands of the Northern and Eastern States cost, on am -average, thirty dollars an acre; and sheep are frequently kept on thcse- worth from forty to sixty dollars an acre. On these high-priced lands,. sheep must be fed on dry feed—hay and grain—about five months of each: - year. Expensive shelters must be erected, or the sheep-farmer will lese- the cost of them in the loss of life and condition in his flocks. In Texas, prime and desirable pasture-lands can be bought at two dol. lars an acre—frequently for considerably less. He who owns a home:-- | stead of a few acres, can pasture thousands of acres of unoccupied land.. The pasturage of much of Texas is perennial. Large and small flock-- masters have proved this to be a practical fact. Mr. Kendall has wintered: a large and constantly increasing number of sheep, for three years, with-. out, he writes me, giving “an ounce” of dry feed, or providing any arti-- ficial shelter, though he agrees with me that a little of both would be: desirable for emergencies. He has encountered wet. winters and dry: winters with equal success. His sheep are perfectly healthy. His testi-- mony is fully confirmed by that of some twenty other candid and intelli-- gent gentlemen, scattered over various parts of the State, who: have: favored me with minute accounts of their experience in sheep-raising. Theory would anticipate these facts when the natural conditions of Texas. are known; but it is always satisfactory to have the suggestions of theory- established and made certain by actual experiment. Your country cannot always enjoy this entire priority in the conditions- for cheap wool production. The success of this husbandry of itself will. aid in reducing its profits. Your sheep-lands skirt noble and navigable: rivers. Unlike our rough sheep-ranges of the North, they are topograph- ically adapted to the construction of those railroads which the-business Ve ee Ne 7 +1 FE RN DOE Fie ea alte © Se ae toe ay en a 7 ? p ’ ‘ he a Be ee BEES ins “ ’ ave: Ty A ie 308 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS, ax a of your State will soon demand, An enterprising population is pouring in upon you from the other States of the Union, and from Europe. The boy is now born who will see, not only the good soils in all the counties — at present organized in Texas, but in its regions where now roves the - wild Camanche, worth twenty or thirty dollars an acre. Then the sunny but unarable slopes of the Alleghanies, in Virginia, the Carolinas, ete., may successfully compete with you in wool-growing, owing to their ~ greater cheapness, PROFITS OF WOOL-GROWING.—Northern flock-masters usually estimate the consumption of eight American Merino sheep equivalent to that of a cow. All prime American Merino flocks should average as high as about tive pounds of washed wool per head, or seven and a-half pounds of un- washed wool, Choice breeding flocks should do better still. To show you that I speak from actual knowledge instead of conjecture, let me say — that I have two flocks of pure Spanish (American Merino) yearling ewes, which averaged, this year, five pounds and six ounces of well-washed — wool per head—equivalent to eight pounds and one ounce unwashed ;— and the yearling never produces as much wool as the adult sheep. A choice small flock of my grown ewes averaged six pounds and a fraction of washed wool per head, equivalent to nine pounds unwashed. In none of these flocks were there any rams or wethers to increase the yield of wool. None of them received any pampering, or were sheared at an unusual time. I have cross-breeds between the French and Spanish which averaged still higher; but they are larger, and will consume more. For many years my entire number of full-blood sheep of all ages, exceed- ed five pounds of washed wool per head. : The price of American Merino wool (washed) has been as follows, on the first day of Azzus:, in the yews indicated :— q ) 1851 42 to 44 cents, 18A2 40to 43 * 185° 49 to 53 1854 38 to 40 1855 37 to 38° = 1856 44 to 4A -* 1857 45 to 46 *% 1858 37 to. 4b 9% 2849 441046 “* Assuming five .ourds to pe tne weight of fleece, and eight ewe shee to be the equivalent of a cow in consumption, it follows that the feed o a.cow would have returned this year eighteen dollars in wool, and as — many lambs as eight ewes would raise, which would be at least seven. What these seven lambs would additionally be worth to the Texas grower, I }eave you to estimate. Even among common sheep, the lamb is always — considered to be worth as much as its dam’s fleece. If rams and wethers raise no lambs, they produce greatly more wool than ewes. Now say — what are the profits of a cow in Texas, and deduct the difference in the © rouble of looking after her ard the eight sheep, and you have a compar- — ative view of the profits between the animals, which will prove instruc- tive! Do you obtain five dollars per head of net annual profits on cows, — en the average? And yet you raise cattle on a scale which conveys the - idea that you find it as profitable as any other of your branches of hus 7) bandry on the pasture-lands of Texas, In my former letters to.youh 7 a SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. 309 ¥ placed the entire cost of keeping sheep, including interest on land, at _ fifty cents a head per annum. In this estimate, I included the cost ot shelters, of a month’s winter feed, and some other contingencies, ail of whicl Lam assured by intelligent Texians are unnecessary. I also proceed- ed on the supposition that no lands were to be pastured but those which had _ been bought and paid for by the flock-master. If these items be struck _ out, the cost of keeping large flocks ought not to exceed one half of my former estimate. I confess, however, that this sounds almost too favora- ble to be true. Mr. Jefferson deeply lamented the dismemberment of that Texas from the United States which he had bought with Louisiana | —considering it the very garden of our Southern country. But the ““Sage of Monticello ” hardly expected to find El Dorado in your sheep- pastures, or Aladdin’s lamp on the bank of the Colorado! I repeat it, the story must be too good to be all true. The first cost of embarking in breeding full-blood sheep is considerable. But the sale of surplus ones at extra prices to newer breeders will soon offset this; and, at all events, it is so soon repaid by the enormous profits of the husbandry, that it is not to be kept in view as an annual part of the account. Interest ceases to run after the principal is paid! Another important fact in favor of sheep is always to be taken into view. If the steer or colt dies before it is sold or used—if the cow dies before she has produced young—the loss is nearly a total one. At best, the colt keeps you waiting on him, say three years, and the steer and heifer at least two, before they commence making returns. The sheep is a prompter paymaster. He pays you annually. And he never dies in your debt. If he dies before he is six months old, he has cost you noth- ing that is appreciable. Ifhe dies afterwards, before his first shearing, his wool will more than pay for what he has consumed; and this is true of him at whatever age his death occurs, taking the aggregate of his life together. Brest Bregp or SarePp—When wool is the main object, and mutton is only an incidental one—as always must be the case in a large and thinly inhabited country like Texas, not yet containing populous cities— there is but one breed of sheep worth consideration, so fur as comparative intrinsic value is concerned. I can declare on a pretty extensive experi- ence—but it really needs no experience to arrive at that conclusion—that no other breed makes a remote approach to the value of the Merino for the production of wool; and its mutton is good and palatable. Half and three-quarter breed Merino mutton is especially so, and five Americans out of six would prefer it, on the table, to the tallowy meat of the large long-woolled English mutton varieties. Well-bred Merinos yield about as much wool per head as the largest English long-woolled breeds—yield farmore than English middle-woolled breeds—yield about twice as much value of wool for the amount of feed consumed as any English breed—and are hardier, and herd (that is, thrive when kept together in large numbers) better than any of the more valuable English varieties. Their length of life is much greater. A Merino is not, to use a common expression, “ older at eight’ than a Bake- well or Southdown skp is at five. And, what may not be quite as well understood by those who have not experimented with both races, (as I _have,) the Merino is decidedly hardier than the high-bred English sheep. It is less addicted to colds or snuffles, bears extremes of weather better, is capable of travelling farther for its food, and will endure a scarcity of, - food with far greater impunity. The English sheep has the advantage of 310 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. ree ee arriving earlier at maturity—a matter of much importance in a mutton breed, but of comparatively little in a wool-growing one. “4 Of the unimproved English and Scotch varieties, it is unnecessary to speak, Several of them are much superior to the improved varieties of those countries in hardiness and herding properties; but they all produce coarse, and, compared with the Merino, light fleeces. None of them are, in my opinion, really essentially superior for wool-growing to what is termed the “ native stock” in New-York and New-England. SpanisH Merinos.—I shall not here consume space with the past his- tory of any breed. The ancient Spanish sheep, as imported into this country by Humphreys, Jarvis, and other breeders, whose character gave full warrant of supposed purity of blood, produced of washed wool less — than four pounds in the ewes, and seven in the rams. The flocks of Spain, taken as a whole, are declared by that most intelligent observer and investigator, Chancellor Livingston, to have averaged of washed wool, only two pounds and a half in the ewe, and four and a quarter in the ram, (See Livingston’s Essay on Sheep, p. 39.) They resembled the present American Merino in form, but were smaller. Saxon Merryos.—The Saxon was the first great offshoot from the parent Merino stem. Partly from the principle of selection first adopted, and partly from the system of management, and the special objects pur- sued in breeding, this variety materially dwindled from the size, consti- tution, and weight of fleece of the Spanish sheep, but improved in the uality of the wool. The first considerable importation into the United States took place in 1824, and the mania for these feeble little things raged to such an extent, for the three succeeding years, that the most miserable mongrels and grade sheep were introduced and sold under their name. (See the authoritative and undenied statements of the dis. tinguished German importer and shepherd, Henry D. Grove, on this sub- ject, made to me as the chairman of a Committee appointed by the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, in 1837, to report on “The condition and Comparative Value of the several Breeds of Sheep in the United States.” Society’s Transactions, 1841, p. 313.) . The American Saxon of the present day is a much larger and stronger sheep than its imported ancestor, with, I think, about the same quality and a greater quantity of wool. Some pure flocks now produce an average of nearly three and a half pounds of washed wool, and others dashed with a strain of fine American Merino blood, not materially ~ changing the quality of the fleece, average very near four pounds. It continues, however, to require considerably more care than the American Merino, and does not rear so large a per centage of lambs. Strxs1an Merrtnos.—These appear to be something between the Saxon and American Merino—heavier fleece than the former, finer fleece than the latter—and between the two in size. Some specimens I have seen had fine plump forms, and their wool the oil and external black gum of the gummiest family of Merinos. They might, I should say, prove a — desirable variety under certain cirewmstances, and I think a cross with — them would improve the Saxon type of sheep. They are the only Merino family which I have not bred. Frenca Mertnos.—The selection and management of the Spanish — Merinos in France, first carried into that country a little more than — seventy years ago, produced precisely the contrary effects in several im- — portant particulars from those produced by the German system. The carcass was made larger, the fleece heavier and coarser. Buta portion — SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. 311 of those introduced from France into the United States, within a few years, have not been characteristic specimens of the variety in either of these particulars. They have been exaggerated specimens or caricatures : 4 of the breed. They were those exceptional animals to be found in all flocks, larger and heavier-fleeced than the great body of those flocks. _ apprehend also that some of them were exceptional in certain other particulars, as for example, in that enormous “ throatiness” which renders them such a marvel to the multitude. There is no doubt, however, that as a variety, the French Merinos are larger and heavier-fleeced than any other Merino family. But in respect to fleece, the best of them do not excel the best American Merino as much as in weight of carcass; in other words, they do not produce as much wool in proportion to size, and, accordingly, to consumption. There are two causes for this. The first is, their wool has, for reasons which I can not explain, been bred proportionably short. As some very remarkable misconceptions appear to prevail on this particular point, let me state a positive and tangible fact for which I am willing to be held responsible. J recently (to test the accuracy of previous impressions and - experiences) carefully measured, lying unstretched on a table, fifteen specimens of French Merino wool, taken indiscriminately (with the aid _ of the owner) from the sheared fleeces of one year’s growth of a pure blood flock, descended from prime sheep of Mr. Taintor’s importation, and considered by French breeders prime sheep of the variety. The fifteen specimens averaged a little less than two inches in length. Ihave owned French sheep from the best imported flocks, have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of others, and they have been almost uniformly rather short-woolled sheep—shorter woolled than the longest stapled American Merino flocks. The second reason for the comparative lightness of French fleeces, is their dryness—their freedom from oil and gum. Though there are ex- ceptions, there is a constant tendency in this direction among them, and unless care be taken in breeding to prevent it, the wool becomes almost as dry as cotton, aud then the fleece has no proportionate weight for its bulk. The difference in appearance and handling between such and good American wool is very analogous to that between American and choice Italian sewing-silk. The first, in both cases, even when the actual fine- ness (diameter) is the same, is comparatively light, unelastic, unglossy, and “cheap looking.” I have sometimes fancied that the pile or fibre of the American Merino wool is actually denser and heavier of its size than the French, independently of all extraneous substances. This, however, may be but a fancy. French wool washes much cleaner than the oily and gummy American Merino wools; and I think more slowly recovers its maximum of oiliness, after being washed on the back. The overgrown animals of a variety, are rarely of good form. Hence not a few of the imported French sheep, and their immediate descen- dants, when denuded of their fleeces, were most unsightly, scraggy, “lathy’ animals, excessively bony, crooked in the back, bad in the cross, (that is, hollow behind the shoulders,) and so thin in the chest, that both forelegs seemed, in horseman’s phrase, to “‘ come out at the same hole.” The last detect is perhaps rather characteristic of the variety; but I have seen not only individuals, but flocks of French sheep, of maderate size, ag well formed in every other particular, and perhaps even in that, as any other family cf Merinos. 4 TF _ ww oC. OP es ce , F ei Vw - ee Pree “ee ana: . : t . 312 _ SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. : cine Another difficulty followed the selection of these huge sheep. Over- grown parents do not always produce overgrown offspring; but the marvel must be kept up, and to do this, a concealed, or at least an un-_ avowed course of pampering was resorted to in some cases, The lambs were dropped two months before the usual time of having lambs dropped in the North—the ewes were stuffed with unusual and succulent food during the winter, regardless of cost; they were kept in close, warm stables at yeaning time; the lamb was often given the aid of a “ sucking- bottle,” or a foster-dam, in addition to its natural parent; it was taught as soon as possible to eat roots and grain; it was kept housed from every — storm, and even from the dews of the night, during the entire year. This added greatly to the beauty and weight of the wool—to its weight, (when sheared unwashed,) because none of its natural oil was washed out by rains, When at length it was exhibited, without any explanations of the preceding facts, at some State fair, in autumn, it presented about twice the size of careass,.and twice the length of wool, that it would have done if dropped at the common time, and treated in the common way. If not sold at a year old, it was not sheared, and the entire fleece was left growing to increase the marvellous product at two years old; or it it was feared that this fraud would be too apparent, (beyond the gulli bility of the particular market in view,) the yearling was “ stubble- sheared,” that is, shared a half-inch or inch from the skin, leaving three— or four months’ growth of wool thereon, to go into the next fleece. I do not say, that the breeder is not authorized to conduct his business to suit himself—men clearly have the right to pamper, and to manufacture “marvels.” But he who does so, is bound to give warning, “fair and true,” to the buyer, whether questioned or unquestioned, Uelas! what was so soon the matter with those gigantic French rams, which first scattered like wild-fire over the North? There came a chilly rain-storm, and they sneezed and coughed. Soon they began to mope, and fall off from their feed. They grew thin, and then weak. Their — heads drooped; yellow waxy matter collected about their dim, half-closed eyes; a sticky discharge clung about their nostrils; at length the faint but rapid heaving of the flanks began to indicate a low fever. Then an- other heavy cold shower, and the farmer’s boys presently ran into the house, crying: “Father, father, the great ram is dead!? The farmer had not known that he had set a hothouse plant owt of doors! Thus “departed this life,” a majority—ay, a majority—of the first inundation of great French rams—many of them without getting a lamb. When they lived, it often proved a greater disaster to their owners. They spoiled the carcass and constitution of his flock, lowered the quality of his wool, and not unfrequently actually diminished its quantity. These circumstances created a violent reaction against French sheep, and I should say, between eighty and ninety per cent. of our best North- ern and Eastern wool-growers now thoroughly detest them. I believe they have jumped off the bridge “on the other side!” Circumstances led me into an extensive course of fresh investigations on this subject last winter. I found French, like other sheep-raisers, divided in about the usual proportion, between quacks and legitimate breeders. I found French Merino flocks, and especially very high-bred grade French flocks, based on an American Merino foundation on the maternal side, which exhibited fine forms, sufliciently rugged constitutions, a good quality and large quantity of wool. If the wool lacked a little of the gloss and style of the choie American Merinos, it nevertheless was a Jesirable article, 4 (eS Aa kane Nie Sai cae So Ar ais rt ee oe te oe ee. Ro ~~ = Lm bel Se iy ye aad Fons ‘SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. 313 and especially + so for the manufacturer, on account of its cleanness. Per- -haps, after my preceding remarks, justice requires me to add that I found eer eeders raising the very Jargest French sheep with undeniably legitimate objects. They considered that great size desirable, and were therefore _ {erronepusly and unavailingly, in my opinion) attempting to perpetuate it without perpetuating its usual accompanying defects. The careful and certainly disinterested examination of many flocks, which had been judiciously bred for a number of years, and down to the _ present epoch, somewhat modified, I confess, my own previous views. I believe indeed, I found hardier and every way better sheep than the French stock first brought into our country. I made up my mind, that the prejudice against them was violent and excessive, and that by and by: another reaction will set in their favor, and that they will be extensiv rely used for an object which I shall treat under another head. THe American Merino.—About the same amount of fraud and de- ception attended the introduction of the Spanish Merino into the United. States, (after Livingston, Humphreys, Jarvis, and a few other elevated men had done their part,) that heralded the advent of the Saxon and French varieties. Like the French, the former sunk into contempt, before it received the general approbation of the country, And it en- countered a far more dangerous foe than contempt, in an almost universal admixture with the puny Saxons. But a remnant was fortunately kept pure, and many flock-masters, after a Saxon cross, bred back to their pre- vious Merino standard. The American Merino of the present day is a considerably heavier and stronger animal than his Spanish progenitor. He has been kept in smaller flocks than in Spain, better fed, (or more uniformly fed,) and subjected to a more careful and intelligent system of breeding. As long azo as 1841, the celebrated early importer and subsequent breeder, Hon. William Jarvis, of Vermont, wrote me that “twenty-five years’ experi- ence satisfied him that the wool of the Spanish Merino had rather im- proved” in this country ; that his own wool was better thau the samples received from Spain, when he purchased his imported flock. (The whole of this admirable letter will be found in the N. Y. Agricultural Society’s ‘Transactions, 1841, pages 820-328.) The same kind of improvement has continued down to the present time, in many flocks. The different Spanish varieties were, as a general thing, soon inter- mingled with each other in this country, as they had been in France, so that the names of Paular, Negretti, Gaudeloupe, etc., now have no mean- ing, unless in a very few instances, when applied to American sheep. But in pomt of fact, the same varieties, or somewhat analogous ones, have been reproduced i in our country by the systems of breeding pursued by particular persons. Some men, for example, have carefully shunned “oil? and ‘“‘ gum,” and made fineness of wool the primary consideration. These have substantially reproduced the Spanish Escurial, a sheep closely resembling the Saxon, except in its larger size. Others have made weight of fleece the primary consideration, at some sacrifice of fineness ; -and to this end they have bred as much oil into, and external gum upon the fleece, as practicable. The extreme of these sheep become coated over a few months after shearing, with a natural covering of gum of the color of tar, extending about an eighth of an inch into the wool, which in warm weather sticks to the hand, and in cold becomes a hard rigid crust. The interior of the fleecn looks as if oil had been poured into it, is it exists there not merely as a coating of each filament of wool, but 814 _ SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS, rather wears the appearance of a mass of oil, with filaments of wool | growing out through it, “7 Some breeders take a middle course, cultivating the oil, but avoiding — che gum. Some cultivate a medium share of both; and so on. The well-bred American Merino is probably now the densest and heaviest-fleeced sheep of its size in. the world, without the help of any extraneous circumstances; but when you read of the enormous fleeces you sometimes do, (whether they belong to H.S. R. or A. B. C.,) it is time that you, and all other intelligent men, understand that this enor- mous extra weight is made up of oil and gum. In the first place, wool of this character can not, at best, be well washed on the back of the sheep. In the second, many breeders do not desire to so wash it; they — choose to leave these heavy animal excretions in the wool, and they let their flocks run long enough between washing and shearing, to restore all that has been washed away. In fact, washing with them, is little better than a name, a pretence, to prevent the buyer from deducting the usual one-third from the gross weight, as on unwashed wool. Then, further to mislead the purchaser, they do up each fleece in two parts—claiming that if that personage sees fit to judge the wool solely by weight of fleece, instead of quality and condition, (as he often does,) it is but a fair retalia- tion, a warrantable “ spoiling of the Philistines,” to take a course which will compel him to judge the article by legitimate tests, or to suffer the con- sequences. (That is to say, they assume that if the buyer is a blockhead, or screw, it is right to cheat him, if it can be done by silence.) These excessively oily and gummy sheep are rather “the rage” at present in the North. There are two reasons for it. The wool-buyer has obstinately refused to make any proportionate difference in the price paid for their wool and that paid for cleaner wools. He will usually pay within three or four cents per pound, as much for the first as for the last, when the “ greasy” wool weighs two pounds most to the fleece, when it costs no more to raise it, and when it will lose twenty-five per cent. more in cleansing. The manufacturers could have corrected this evil, if they had chosen to do so; and a class of sham-hating men have continued to breed clean wools, expecting them ultimately to do justice in the matter. But indifference, or the temptation to force these breeders to sell (or sacrifice) their beautiful clips at two or three pennies above the price of “ greasy ” wool, has generally triumphed over all more manly considerations, though in regions where clean wools are extensively grown, and where the breed- ers can and will stand by each other, they have fared better. ~The other reason for the popularity of excessively oily and gummy sheep, exists in the fact that they generally sell better to those beginners who are willing to pay breeders’ prices. The first thing in a variety or breed, which attracts the eye of a novice, is its salient peculiarities— whether they involve valuable characteristics or the contrary; and they are very apt to become his standards of purity of blood and individual — excellence, until experience has taught him better. The Merino, com- pared with others, is an oily and gummy sheep, and “ argal,” the more oil and gum he possesses, the “more Merino” is he to the novice. The — same remarks apply to “ throatiness ’—large corrugations or folds of pen- dulous skin about the neck or throat, and similar lds on other parts of the boily. Breeders defer more or less to the tastes of buyers, and thus more “crease and wrinkles” are produced than would otherwise be. A pet- — tier personage—your nomadic ram peddler—carries his complaisance still — SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. _ $15 | further. He manufactures traits or peculiarities to please purchasers! | He buys up half or three-quarter bred Merinos, which chance to have abundance of “ wrinkles,” (the mongrel get of avery “ wrinkly” ram _ often show this peculiarity quite as "strongly as his full-blood descend -ants,) and if the natural gum is wanting, he puts it on by daubing them over, immediately after shearing, with a pigment of linseed oil and burnt amber—a composition known in the North as the “Cornwall finish,” _ from the fact that it was first used (as a winter protection to sheep I pre- sume) in Cornwall, Vermont. It soon makes a nearly black external + coating, so similar to the natural gum as to be entirely undistinguishable from it, except to avery practised eye. I should say, however, that it. was usually a little more evenly put on, and a shade handsomer, than the natural article! A second good oiling, with clear oil, towards fall, helps along. Armed with these paimted mongrels, a demure face, and a cer- tificate of pedigree, purporting to be signed by a Deacon,” and a “ Judge of Probate,” your ram- peddler sallies forth, Macedonian-like, conquering and to conquer—greenhorns ! Tue Bust Breep ror Trxas.—In the views I shall express under this _ head, I desire neither to advance nor to injure the interests of any indi- vidual—certainly to wound no man’s feelings. But if I speak at all, of - course I am called upon to express those candid convictions, for which I am willing to be held responsible. Iam free to say, on the start, that I believe there is altogether too much one-sidedness in the views entertained by individuals, and the pub- lic, in regard to this and other analogous questions. The current sets in some particular direction, and then all influenced by conviction, or the desire to take advantage of other people’s convictions, jump into it irre- spective of cir cumstances. Ihave no doubt that every variety of the true wool-growing sheep, _ tke Merino, has an appropriate and profitable place. AS long as costly woollen fabrics are demanded by the wealthy and luxurious, the delicate _ Saxon sheep is a want in agriculture. The Silesian supplies the next want, and soon down. If the production is accurately proportioned to the consumption, the laws of trade declare that all these breeds must be profitable, (and something like equally profitable, ) under the best circum- stances, for their respective cultivation. I desire to make another statement. In spite of all the pretences and quackeries of rival breeders, I have no doubt that the dest animals of each of these varieties, produce about the same value (not amount) of wool for the amount of food consumed. Some, however, require more human labor and supervision than others, some demand milder climate than others, and so on. The time may very probably come when each of the Merino families will be profitably grown almost side by side, in Texas. Your climate is as mild as the feeblest- constitutioned ones can elsewhere find. The extra Jabor demanded for the supervision of such, ought to be as cheap with you as in other portions of the United States. You have abundant suste- nance for the strongest fine-wool breeds. And who can say that when you have railroads covered with cattle and sheep-cars, that you can not supply the mutton eaten in our Atlantic cities, more cheaply than it can be grown nearer to them, and that it may not thus be made profitable ta you to grow coarse as well as fine wools? At present, fine wools pay best in the United States; and among these m2dium qualities find the most extensive demand and the most remuner 816 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS, ating prices. This class of wool is borne both by the American and Fr ench Merino. j _ Asa pioneer and experimental sheep, you want the hardiest variety— one capable of resisting a change of climate and circumstances, general or local difficulties in the w ay of acclimation, and the effects of inexperienced management. As a distinct variety, there can be no reasonable doubt, | I think, that the pure American Merino is better able to “rough it” in a new country than the pure French Merino, though I apprehend the latter will ultimately do well evough in your mild “climate. No person ac- quainted with both breeds will hesitate to believe, that in a summer drouth, or during a severe winter scarcity, the former. will suffer less than the latter—as much less as black cattle would suffer, under like cir cumstances, than the larger Shorthorns. The impression is also univers sal, and certainly every appearance and analogy would seem to fayor ity that the American Merino will herd best in very large numbers. But it is not necessary that you limit yourselves exclusively to one variety. He who wants to grow very large wethers for plantation use, or for sale, or he who wishes to growa larger fine-woolled sheep as a matter of taste, and is prepared to take care of them, will find his wishes met by the French sheep; or if wethers weighing from 150 lbs, to 200 Ibs. - and ewes weighing from 120 lbs, to 140 lbs., . are large enough for him, he can get them ‘by a cross between the French and American varieties, These last, if well bred, compose a beautiful and hardy sub-variety. I bought a flock of them, last winter, mostly French, which were dropped in May, 1858, They were kept in the common way, without pampering They were thoroughly washed and sheared at the common time, about the close of June, 1859. Their wool was destitute of gum, about as white — at the outer as inner end, and seemingly almost as free from oil as cot- ton. They averaged six pounds and four ounces of wool per head, I be-_ lieve that a cross between such ewes and a very heavy and “ greasy ” fleeced American Merino ram, would carry the average a pound higher in the produce, Iam so confident of this, that I am availing myself of - the results of such a cross on a comprehensive scale. The ewes are un-— commonly fine-woolled of their kind. The ram used weighs but 160 Ibs. in full fleece, and his washed fleece (as well as it could be washed) weighed 14 Ibs. Of course he was excessively oily and gummy, and it was for that very reason he was selected for the experiment. His lambs, two months after birth, began to be colored very perceptibly by the oil inherited from their sire. It is legitimate in breeding, to counteract one defect with another. I have noticed for twenty-five years that the oiliest and gummiest Merino — rams cross best with the dry coarse-woolled varieties. “I have recently noticed that the cross between the French ram and such varieties rarely results very satisfactorily. There is another reason for this. Where the size of the male is greatly dispr oportioned to that of the female, the un-— born lamb has not room to expand in the womb, and it is born crooked und unshapely—generally thin-chested and flat- ribbed. Hence I entirely prefer the cross between the French ewe and American Merino ram ton the one made conversely. Am I-asked at this point, if it is legitimate to breed extraneous suis stances, like oil and gum, and sell them for wool ? Certainly not. On ‘ the other hand, is it legitimate for the wool buyer and manufacturer to- make no fair distinetion between clean and dirty wool? He who sells “ greasy” wools in broad daylight, without splitting his fleeces or resort — —— a ! SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. 381i ing to any other trick, at leasts commits no fraud! On the whole, | _ would push towards neither extreme. In your climate, I think you will have to obtain pretty dark-colored and oily rams to keep up the proper medium in that particular in your full-blood American Merino flocks, and _ still oilier and darker ones, to produce that medium in a cross with coarse _ sheep. The wool of the French crosses I have described was a shade coarser and a shade lest “stylish” than fair American Merino wool. But the difference in cleanness was in its favor, and the difference in fineness was so little against it, that every lot I mentioned sold, or could have been sold separately, in July, for forty-four or forty-five cents a pound. Ar intelligent breeder of these, and of French full-bloods, candidily admitted to me last winter, that he considered the former worth quite as much as _ the latter for wool-growing. Under common care, and exposed to any disadvantages, I think they would prove most profitable. And such a cross would promptly give additional weight of fleece, and especially size, to American Merino flocks deficient in either particular. But the -eross must always be well made not to result in failure. SELECTION OF SHEEP.—The points of a good Merino’s carcass are, good but not extraordinary size for the variety, the barrel well rounded, the chest deep, the cross full, the back level forward of the hips, the loin and buttocks comparatively wide, the flank and twist well let down, the neck round and set on level with the shoulders, the head fine but broad between the cars, the eye lively and mild, the legs straight and moderate- ly long, the whole figure wearing a marked appearance of compactness and solidity. x The degree of throatiness is rather a matter of taste. It is a great im- _ pediment to smooth and rapid shearing ; but as a badge of blood, and as an indication of that loose, large skin which is a characteristic mark and valuable property of the highbred Merino, (and which is often found without throatiness,) it is liked to a reasonable extent by most breeders. The skin should be of a fresh pink color—not dead white, and especially not tawny. The wool of the Merino should be compact at all hazards, and of as great length as can be found united with compactness. It should open with some appreciable resistance to the hand, not drop apart at the touch, like the fur of furbearing animals. The pile,-in addition to its fineness, should be finely and regularly crimped from one extremity to the other. This is an‘important indication of quality, and in the case of the American Merino, of blood. The pure French sheep does not so perfectly or so uniformly exhibit it. The interior of the wool (after it has gained length subsequently to shearing) should be brilliantly glossy, and when properiy opened by the hand, every spire of its crimped filaments should seem to be moving, as if instinct with life. This last appearance (of which I can give no definite idea on paper) is the highest possible indication of good breeding. A dry, lustreless appearance, especially a dead appearance, is very objectionable. If, in addition to this, the wool is destitute of crimp, it is wholly inferior. Except near the outer end, wool should be white, or of a faint golden tinge. If saffron-colored near the skin, it is “ yellow- ed,” (by some abnormal secretion,) and injured for sale. Slightly brown- ish or nankeen-colored wools, unless so stained by earths, indicate defec- tive breeding. French wools are oftener of this color than those of any other family of the Merino, i The gum which is permitted to exist, should be on the outer extremity LPNS no RO PRONG VVUS LAaae ek Seg eee ede ae . ‘ \ i ; . ac ou Noe Cite or, whe! ‘eres r) eer, 318 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. ee of the fleece, not scattered through it in small yellow particles rese bling bee-bread, or in occasional white waxy concretions, The former defect is commonest in the American, the latter in the French Merine, Neither of them appertain to the Saxon. The oil of the fleece shonla appear like a delicate white perfectly transparent varnish, or some thinner fluid, barely coating over every fibre to give it lustre. As already said, it is objectionable to have it fill up the interstices of the wool, as if it’ had been poured in, and doubly so if its color is yellowish. If quite yel- low and viscid, it is called “ yolk.” The wool of the Merino should closely cover every wool-bearing part. It should be thick and long on the belly as well as on the back, and the bare spots for the movements of the legs, etc., should occupy only the surface absolutely necessary for that purpose. It should look, when its pelage is out at full length, like a bundle of wool on legs. But wool below the knees and hocks, and on the point of the nose, is like throati- ness, one of those “ fancy points” which is highly valued by some, and objected to by others. The wool on these parts is inferior, and trifling in weight. It does not, as novices often imagine, specially indicate a heavy fleece. That onthe legs gets foul with mud or dug, when it comes in contact with it, and that on the nose often so impedes the sight, that unless it is sheared away two or three times a year, the animal can see neither forward nor backward, nor scarcely sideways, without awkwardly — twisting about its head. I confess I rather like the peculiarity ; but there — can be no doubt it would be undesirable in sheep which must travel and — “look out for themselves” on extensive plains, and particularly so, if there was any chance of their being attacked by dogs or beasts of prey. — Price or Merrtnos.—I shall recur to this subject, because the inciden- — tal discussion which has taken place on it, in your paper, renders me ~ desirous to submit some definite and tangible statements. I therefore — say, definitely and tangibly, that pure-blood American Merino flocks ot — good quality, including the usual admixture of all ages and sexes, up to four years old, can be bought for eight dollars a head, where one hundred are taken; for ten dollars a head, where fifty taken; for twelve dollars a head, where twenty-five are taken ; for twenty-five dollars a head, where a half-dozen are taken, The pure-bred French sheep are comparatively — few, and though unpopular with the mass of wool-growers, are highly — prized by their breeders on account of their salableness in new regions. — I can give no approach to a uniform price on them. Good Jhigh-bred — French, grades, (a cross with the American Merino) resembling full-blood — French can be bought at from fifteen to twenty-five per cent. advance on — the price of American Merinos. 4 Mongrel American Merinos—not unfrequently denominated “ full- bloods,” by sheep-growers who have no record of pedigree, oftentimes — no distinet conception of what constitutes a pedigree—can be purchased — in nearly all the Northern and Middle States, at from two to four dollars a head, according to the prevailing market prices of sheep at the time. — Most of them are a cross between the Saxon and “ Native” sheep, with a — later infusion of Merino blood. Where the Saxon admixture was strong, — these sheep are often as fine as pure-blood Merinos. But their fleeces are — lighter; their constitutions much less vigorous; and like all mongrels — made up between distinct races, they are lacking in uniformity. a Cosr or Imporration.—There are three ways of getting sheep from — the Northern States to Texas—by the Ocean and Mississppi River routes, — and by th: land route. Where time is no object, and the number of | ‘ | a sheep to be taken large, the latter is by far the cheapest. Freights from ‘New-York City to Galveston, in ship-houses, (water found,) will average ‘about three dollars per head at proper seasons of the year. When enough are sent to fill a ship-house, the usual cost is two dollars a head, ' The cost of arranging ship-house, keep, and attendance on the passage is then to be added. I1t should not exceed two dollars per head. Under ee A” iy) _ SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN TEXAS. 319 —————— a proper arrangements, the passage is as safe as that of the human passen- _ ger of the vessel. CrossING WITH COARSE SHEEP.—It may be laid down as a settled | rule, that the Merino can be improved, as wool-producing sheep by a | cross with no other breed whatever. All legitimate crossing, for that object, 1s confined to the several varieties of its own breed. Secondly, _ there is no other breed the quality and quantity of whose wool is not im- _ proved by a Merino cross. It is a matter of economy first to stock an extensive wool estancia with coarse, cheap breeds of sheep. Any thing, from English long-wools down to the puny, miserable Mexican sheep, can be used; and with well-selected rams, (medium-sized, compact, oily, gummy, and heavy-fleeced. American Merinos,) the rapidity of the im- provement will appear alreost miraculous to inexperienced persons. In selecting the coarse sheep, the carcass is of vastly more importance than _ the fleece, and hence the Mexicans are the least valuable. But even they are preferable to nothing. None but the full-blood Merino ram should be used under any circum- stances, A different course would, at best, lead to a retardation of the - desired improvement, of more amount than many times the cost of the necessary full-blood rams; and the degree and kind of improvement _ would become wholly a matter of uncertainty. Hvery breeder whose means admit of it, will do well also to start with a more limited flock of full-blood ewes. They constitute the foundaticn of a future pure flock, and are the nursery to draw rams from, without the expense of resorting to new purchases every two or three years. To meet this latter object, the ewes and rams originally imported should be of different strains of blood, and so marked as to be readily distinguish- able from each other. All extensive breeders should keep two or three separate strains of blood, for the convenience of purchasers. Miscettanrous Suaerstions.—Every new breeder should start with an established system of marks which will at once point out to him the blood of the particular animal. The brands may be cut out of wood, or constructed of iron, and they are dipped in some pigment and applied to the sheep (to prevent mistakes) as soon as it is sheared. On one side stamp the owner’s initials, on the other a cross, a circle, a triangle, or the like, ( or a: combination of these marks,) to indicate the precise family. Every sheep of inferior carcass of fleece, should receive a mark at shearing, which indicates that it is to be killed or sold. On the subject of winter shelter and keep, I shall here offer nothing. In this particular, experience is the only guide. But I repeat my former adjuration, to keep down the dogs—that curse of sheep-raising in Virginia, the Carolinas, etc., which is more fatal than ali others, and which it is next to impossible to get rid of, where it haa once got a firm footing. Yours truly and sincerely, Henry 8. RANDALL, Cortland Village, New- York, Aug. 12, 1859. 820 SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS, LLL ae. ‘ SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS. BY GEORGE W. KENDALL, ESQ. On commencing a third article on “Sheep Raising in Texas,” giving my experience for another year, or since September, 1858, I find that J have but a repetition of the same old story to offer the many readers of © your valuable almanac ; my good fortune has continued without an inter ruption, and my losses amount to next to nothing. My flocks have all been extremely healthy, and in the best possible condition, while the few — losses I have sustained, (not one per cent. probably,) have mostly resulted — from casualty or accident of some kind; no disease has visited my folds, You may recollect, that I last year said that I could not hope for a con- tinuance of such good luck or fortune as had followed me through the years ’56-7 and a part of ’58; it has continued up to this Ist of August, — 1859, and my sheep are now in finer order than I have ever before seen them. ; In the fall and early winter of 1858, or during the months of October, November, and December, I felt not a little uneasy about the effect of the acorns, of which we had a most abundant crop in the mountains, I had read in one book that they were hurtful to sheep; I had been told, by those who pretended to know, that their effect would certainly be injurious. To keep my flocks away from them was entirely out of the question ; within a hundred yards of the pens where they were nightly kept, and in almost every direction, they must enter an oak range when turned out in the morning, every tree loaded heavily with acorns. The sheep devoured them with avidity, would run from tree to tree in the © morning searching for such as had dropped fresh during the night, and this continued until‘ the heaviest mast we have had in many years was exhausted. What with the grass they cropped meanwhile, (and it was noticed that each day the sheep would graze for hours,) they would come home to their pens at night well filled. And all this time the flocks were bright, healthy, and never in better condition, thus proving past all doubt, — that acorns, instead of being injurious to sheep, are a positive benefit, and hereafter the heavier the mast may be at my place, the better I shall like it. In April last, at shearing time, I smeared the noses of my sheep, and — especially the lambs, bountifully with tar, and so far they have not been troubled at all with grub in the head. Last year, it may be remembered, I lost a few lambs from this cause; the tar certainly can do no harm, — costs but a trifle, and I believe is beneficial during the spring and early summer months, About the 15th of August, 1858, I weaned my lambs, over eleven hun- — dred in number, all on the same morning: as nearly all were dropped in the month of April preceding, they were then about four months old. The Merino buck lambs I turned into my regular wether flock, where I keep all my bucks save during the short tupping season in the fall; the ewe and wether lambs I have kept in a flock by themselves up to this time, and all have grown and thriven remarkably well—far better than when the old ewes with their lambs ran together, and from one end of the year to the other. Every one who knows anything about sheep must be well aware that SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS; 321 - long after a ewe has nearly dried up—when she gives but a drop of ‘| milk—the lamb will hang on and worry her, forty times a day, for that | drop. It does the latter no good—it pulls down and pesters the old ' ewes—in short, injures both. For a day or two after they are separated, _ of course there will be a terrible outery and clamor, lambs bleating for their mothers, and mothers calling for theirlambs. But this is soon over ; both soon set to work in earnest cropping their food, they have the entire day to fill themselves, and my experience has proved that both commence | fattening within a week after the weaning is over. The old ewes have a » chance to recruit and strengthen themselves before frost sets in, are in ~ fer condition for the bucks in November, and pass through the winter in far better order. I know that where a person has but a single flock of sheep, and that. flock small, it creates an additional expense to separate and wean the lambs. But I hold that anything that is worth doing at all is worth doing well, and the additional expense will be more than repaid by the increased size, strength, condition, and constitution of the flock. My last year’s ewe-lambs, (those dropped in the spring of 1858,) I shall put to buck on the 1st of the coming November, or when they are _ some nineteen months old. They will then be two years of age when _ they have lambs; and I am confident this plan is much better than the one so often practised in Texas, of allowing yearling ewes to run with bucks and have lambs before they have attained their growth, and before they are well able to sustain their offspring. I do not increase my stock ‘so fast by following this system; but I materially improve it, both in size and constitution, and that is what I am constantly striving after. We ean all afford to be patient in Texas. I shall have some two thousand ewes to put to buck this fall. Of these, about one hundred and thirty are full-blood Merinoes, which I shall turn _ into a pasture with two of the best bucks I can find, on 20th of October. On the 25th of the same month I shall put half of my grade ewes to buck, and on the 1st of November the balance. For six weeks only will the bucks be allowed to run with the ewes; I never wish to see a lamb come in one of my flocks later than the 15th of May. I have proved to my own satisfaction, that a lamb dropped on Ist of April, when the grass is young and fresh and the days comparatively cool, will be larger and better formed the day it is three months old, than will a lamb dropped on the Ist of July, when the grass is apt to be coarse and dry, and the days scorching hot, when it is six months old; and the former will turn out the best sheep in every respect. Many persons, anxious to increase the num- ber of their flocks, may be loath to believe all this, but let them try both or all systems. The custom of allowing bucks to run with the ewes the year round, and having lambs come twice a year, or during every month. in the year, I cannot but believe ruinous. It would worry me more to see a buck among my ewes in July, August, or September, or in Febru- ary, March, or April, than a wolf: the latter might kill half a dozen, and there end; the former would cost me more real loss in the long run, I am induced to give this statement in relation to my system because I am continually receiving letters from persons just starting in the sheep business, making inquiries on the subject. I do not say that I am right; I ask no one to follow my general plan of management. I shall change it the moment I hear of any one who has had better success than has befallen me, but not until then. _In the Texas almanac for 1859, I see that Thos. Decrow, Esq., after an co ; ; sii "\Y . a 4 vi > ¥. 4 Za 7 rb z Patel Sb Aloe 7.! te. Aa ‘ ' : : , * us : 4 $22 SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS, _ A Satgiaeay interesting account of his own great success in sheep-raising on Mata — gorda Bay, sees fit to disagree with me in my estimate of the necessity of breeding from no other than pure Merino bucks. Now, Mr. Decrow — may be right, and I altogether in the wrong; yet his argument does not convince me that a grade buck, which is perhaps just as apt to breed back as ahead, is as useful in a flock of Mexican ewes as a square-built, compact, stout, vigorous, well-woolled, thorough-bred Merino, an animal perfect in all those parts where the Mexican is naturally defective. I this ear sheared many grade sheep, three and four removes from common — exican ewes, which yielded 8, 85, and some of them 9 pounds of wool, and wool so fine that it would require a sharp sampler to distinguish it from pure Merino, while the animals were perfect in form, lusty, aud of most vigorous constitution. I could not have got along so fast with grade bucks, and I think Mr. Decrow was wrong when he says that he had made up his mind to “sell or exchange his thirteen pure Merino bucks, even at half-price, and furnish his newly purchased Mexican ewes (600 in number) with rams of his own raising, from his own flock in preference.” The flock master who breeds altogether from pure Merino bucks, knows always where he is, and where he will come out at the expiration of a certain time; but if he uses no other than grade rams, he is ever living in uncertainty, and will never reach any particular end. My great object is to breed up until every sheep I may own, may be safely marked a thorough, full-blood Merino; and in the course of a few years, should I live, I shall achieve this result. But not in a century could [ attain an end I neem so desirable, were I to breed continually from grade rains. I do not wash my sheep at all, and for what I deem good reasons. About the middle of April, or at the time when one half my ewes have young lambs at their sides, and the balance are about to drop, would be the only time I could wash in this region. At this period I would not race or worry my ewes at all on any account; they should be pestered as little as possible, and any advantage to the fleece from washing cannot make up for the injury to the animal. I might wash my bucks and wethers without injury, and my yearling lamb flock, made up of ewes and ~ wethers, and I may possibly try the experiment ; but my old ewes never. Could my lambs come the latter part of February, as Mr. Decrow deems best, I might then wash all; but in this high mountain region yeaning time cannot prudently come before the latter part of March or April, the the very period when we must commence washing and shearing. We are apt to have bad weather in February in this section, and even up te the 15th or 20th of March. Now, as my lambs come at the outset at the rate of over one hundred a day, a single cold, rainy or sleety norther — would carry off one half of those dropped during its continuance; and — hence I say that in this parallel of latitude, and north of it, our yeaning time cannot commence before the latter part of March, without running great risk of loss, ’ 4 I will not trespass farther upon your valuable space at this time: another year, should you wish it, I will give you a fourth article upon my experience in sheep raising in Texas. Respectfully, your friend, Gro. Witxins Kenpst. New Bravunrers, August 1, 1659, IND A. | Abdomen, the. Page 228. contents of the, 228—233. Abomasum, cut of the, 228. structure and functions of the, 229. Acarus of scab, cut of the, 259. description and habits of the, 258—259. how produced, 258. | Acetate of copper. See Verdigris. Afghanistan, advantages of, for sheep hus- bandry, 118. Africa, (exclusive of Cape of Good Hope,) sheep of, 151. exports of wool to England from, 110. exports of wool to U.S. in 1846, 124. quality of wool exported from, 90. Ajze, determined by the teeth, 237, 238. names indicative of the, 237. length of, in different breeds, 156, 157. Agrostis (stricta) vulgaris. See Herds-grass. Air-cells, description of the, 235. Alabama, population of, 17. number of sheep in, 17. pounds of wool grown in, 17. average weight of fleeces in, 18, 21. woollen factories in, 17. value of woollen goods manufactured in, 17. price of land in, 60. adaptation of mountain lands of, to sheep husbandry, 47. Ale, the use of, in sheep medicine, 274. Allegheny mountains. See Apalachian moun- tains. ; Allspice, use of, in sheep medicine, 276. Aloes, use of, in sheep medicine, 275. Alum, use of, in sheep medicine, 275. Anatomy of the sheep, 227, 238. how far necessary to be studied, 227. proper subjects for the study of, 227. directions for studying, 227, 228. cause and treatment of, 251.—253. | Animals which destroy sheep in the South, in Australia, 65. at the Cape of Good Hope, 65. how guarded against, 65. Antimony, the use of, in sheep medicine, 275. Aorta, the, 234. Apalachian mountains of U. S., where situated, 30. area occupied by, 30. geology and soils of, 30, 31, 43, 44, 46, 49. altitude of, 43. grasses which flourish on, 43, 44, 47, 59, SSS SSsSss.s..sssSS.....9558°08...——S = 2. adaptation of, to pasturage, 44, 46, 47, Qe slimate on, 44—51, 59. price of lands on, 44, 46—48, 59. +! eporleny. confounded with grub in the head, : 28. 2Q EX. Arachis. See Pindars. Arctium lappa, injurious to wool, 14) Argentine Republic. See Buenos Agess.. Arsenic, the use of, in sheep practt:e, 275;. Arteries, the, 234. Artichokes, value of, as a fodder, 213. straw of, fed to sheep in Germany, 211 Ashes, as a fertilizer in the South, 67. leached, 67. analysis of, 67. Asia. See names of countries of. exporis of wool from to U.S. in 1846: 124, Asiatic sheep. See Broad-tailed sheep. Asia Minor, adaptation of, to sheep hus: bandry, 118. Auricles of the heart, the, 234. Australia, introduction of sheep into, 25. introduction of Merinos into, 25. effect of climate of, on quality of wool, 25—29. wools of, compared with Spanish, 26. wools of, compared with Saxon, 26. exports of wool from, 25. exports of wool brought down tol&46, 294, how sheep are managed in, 26. sheep husbandry of, compared witb Saxon, 26. general adaptation of, to sheep hus. bandry, 25, 119—121. soils and products of, 119. price of land and labor in, 119—121. climate of, 120. remarkable drouths of, 120. wild beasts in, destructive to sheep, 121 vast distance of, from European markets; 121. prospect of the increase of wool in, ?21 note giving statistics of wool trade of. brought gown to 1846, 294. Austria, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 114,116. See Germany and Hungary: soils of, 114. climate of, 115. management of sheep in, 139. exports of wool from, to U.S. im 1846; 124. Aquafortis, use of, in sheep practice, 276 B. Baden, advantages of, for sheep husbandry: 114. Bakewell, Mr., the former of the New Lei. cester breed, 142. the conduct of, as a feeder, censured; 143, 249. Barley, value of, in producing live weight; wool and tallow, 214. per cent. cf nitrogen in, 214. value of straw of, as a fodder, 213. straw of, fed to sheep in Germanys Mk 323 , - Je 1 * ven > , Ae . oe mer te a t , ; ‘ fe eect . “ bea’ 7 Wy oe 24 INDEX. sone —_—_—_—_—_—“—“—S_—ws::..OO _ Barns for sheep, cut of. Page 205. Bronchial tubes, the, 235. \ ground-plan of, with sheds and yards, | Bronchitis, description and treatment of, 240, 209. Bronchocele. See Goitre. ¥s Barrack for hay, description and cut of, 209. | Browse, feeding of, in winter, 217. Bavaria, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, | Buckwheat, value of, in producing live 114, 115. weight, wool and tallow, 214, — Beans, value of, as a fodder, 213. per cent. of nitrogen in, 214. straw of, fed to aye in Germany, «.- ace of straw of, as a fodder, 213. Beet field, value of, as a fodder, 213. straw of, fed to sheep in Germany, 211. white Silesian, value of, as a fodder, 213. | Buenos Ayresy advantages of, for sheep hus — Belgium, exports of wool from, 110. bandry, 105, 106. exports of wool from, to U. S. in 1846, 124. advantages of, for sheep husbandry, com late increase of manufactures in, 294. pared with U. S., 104, exports of wool from, 105. Beloochistan, advantages of, for sheep hus- exports of wool from, to U. S., in 1846 bandry, 118. Rermuda grass in the South, 38. its enormous product, 38. its adaptation to meadow or pasture, 38. its adaptation to barren sands, 38. Bichloride of mercury, use of, in sheep me- dicine, 275. Biflex canal, description of, 238. disease of, 261. Bile, account of the, 231. Biliary duct, description of the, 231. Eladder, the, 233. Blain, unusual in U. S., 222. Blankets for slaves, description of, 87, 90. cost of manufacturing, 87, 90—92. Bleeding, place for, 273, 274. rules for, 274. the quantity of blood to be abstracted in, 274 pampas of, 105. inhabitants of, 105, Burdock, injurious to wool, 131. C. Cabbage, value of, as a fodder, 213. Cabul, advantages of, for sheep husbandry. 118 Cachectic diseases, 254, 255. Camphor, use of, in sheep medicine, 275. Cape of Good Hope, 65, 119. Merinos introduced in, 26. Merinos, their increase in, 26. exports of wool from, 110. exports of, to U. S. in 1846, 124. . wool of, compared with Australia, 26. advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 65, 119. climate of, 26, 119. climate of, effect of, on quality of woo}, 26. face of the country in, 119. remarkable drouths in, 119. prevalence of wild beasts in, 119. Capillaries, functions of the, 234, Caraway seeds, the use of, in sheep medi cine, 275. Cardiac opening, the, 231. Carrots, value of, as a fodder, 213. Castration of rams, 180. Cataract, the, 239. F Catarrh, common, description and treatment of, 240. é malignant epizootic, description of, 240—-_ 247, Blood, the circulation of the, 235. the importance of purity of, in breeding, 168, 171, 172. Blue grass, as the food or’ sheep, 212. in the North, 33. in the South, 37. on the Southern mountains, 44, 47, 48. Blue Ridge of mountains, location of, 30. Also, see Apalachians. geology of, 30. soils and products of, 31, 44—47, 59. advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 44—47, 59. Bone dust, as a manure in the South, 67. Bot. See Grub in the Head. Box for feeding grain to sheep, cut of, 203. for dipping lambs, cut of, 192. Brain, description of the, 236. Bruzil, a portion of, in wool zone, 105. ; ‘ F exports of wool from, 110. malignant epizootic, ravages of, in U. &., exports of wool from, to U. S. in 1846, 240. : ‘ 124, malignant epizootic, treatment of, 245, — Breeding, principles of, 168—172. 246 importance of selection in, 168, 190. in and in, effects of, 169. in and in, how avoided, 170, 172. crossing, when admissible in, 170. crossing, how conducted, 172. crossing, method of starting flocks in the South by, 170. crossing, importance of selecting good rams for, 172. register, how kept, 180. British America, exports of wool from, 110. to U.S. in 1846, 124. British West Indies, exports of wool from, 110. to U.S. in 18446, 124. Broad-tailed sheep introduced into the U.S., 15%, Catechu, use of, in sheep medicine, 275. Cattle doctor, the most dangerous of mala-— dies, 226. Caul. See Omentum. ae Census of U.S., inaccurate in its wool re. turns, 18. Cerebellum, the, 236. Chalk, the use of, in sheep medicine, 275. Chelmsford plains, for slave cloths, 86, 90. quality and cost of manufacturing, 90—9 Cheviot sheep, introduction of, into U. &, 149 ‘ description of, 149, 150, 154. low quality of their wool, 151. Chili, portion of, in the wool zone, 105. exports of wool from, 110. ; ‘ exports of wool from, to U. S. in 1846 — ~ i 5 a See eS ae wool and mutton of the, 151. INDEX. 323 a | a China advantages of, for sheep husbandry, | Cumberland mountains described, 43. Also, ‘ age 118. Choking, treatment of, 273. Chyle, account of the, 231. Climate, not controlled. by latitude, 104. of various countries compared, 104. range of, in which fine sheep are bred, 5 lst range of, in which wool can be most eco- nomically grown, 103, 104. of U. S., favorable to sheep, 18, 103, 104. effect of, on health of sheep, 18, 103. effect of, on the amount of wool, 22. effect of, on the quality of wool, 23, 27—29. Clogging sheep, how done, 193. Clover, red, as the food of sheep, 212. value of, cut in different states, as a fod- der, 213. acclimation of, in Virginia, 36. acclimation of, on the mountains of Vir- ginia, 44, 47. acclimation of, south of Virginia, 44, 47. not indispensable, 44, 47. substitute for, as a fodder, and manuring crop, 39, 41. white, as the food of sheep, 212. flourishes on the southern mountains, 45, 47. Coecum, cut of the, 232. - Colic, symptoms and treatment of, 253. Cold storms, dangerous effects of, after shear- : ing, 191. Colombia, exports of wool from, 110. - Colon, cut of the, 232. Cobza, value of, as a fodder, 213. Copperas, sulphate of, use of, in sheep medi- cine, 275. Corn, Indian, as food for sheep, 216. - value of, as a fodder, 213. blades of, as sheep fodder, 41, 212, 214. stalks of, as a sheep fodder, 41, 212, 214. Corrosive sublimate, use of, in sheep medi- cine, 275. : Cotswold sheep, origin of, 149. introduction of, into the U. S., 149. description of, 149. crosses of, with other breeds, 149. cut of, 148. Cotton, statistics of the crop of, 79. cost of growing, 79, 85. __ cost of Browine: compared with that of growing wool, 85. should alternate with other crops, 78—83. alternating of, with wool growing pro- posed, 81. rotations for such alternation proposed, more should be grown on less land, 80, 85. seed of, as a food for sheep, 216. Crab grass, account of the, 37. Creeping panic grass. See Bermuda grass. Crimea, advantages. of, for wool growing, _ Merinos introduced in, 117. rook, uses of the, described, 196. cut of the, 196. Crossing breeds and varieties, object of, 170. effects of, 170—172. advantages of, under some circumstances, 162, 164, 170. Gud, loss of the, not a disease, 272. Cumberland grass. See Bermuda gras see Apalachians. the adaptation of, to sheep huspandry. 48. Curled kale, as food for sheep, 62. flourishes on southern mountains, 62 Cynodon dactylon. See Bermuda grass. Cynoglossum officinale, injurious to woo, 174. See Hound’s-tongue. Cystisis, unusual in U. S., 238. D. Dactylis glomerata. Sce Orchard grass. Dangerous rams, how managed, 193. Denmark, exports of wool from, 110. Depots for wool. See Wool Depots. Diaphragm, structure and functions of, 234. Diarrhea, description and treatment of, 250, Digestion, the process of, 229—231. Digitalis, use of, in sheep medicine, 275, Digitaria sanguinalis, account of the, 37. Diseases, the classification of, adopted, 226. same causes do not produce the same, in different countries, 220. popular superstitions concerning causes of, 220, 221. many of those of England not found in U. S., 221—223, 238. fs difference in the type of, in England and treatment of, in England and U. S. dif- ferent, 224. English treatment of, too expensive, 224, 225. English treatment requires too much skill for popular use, 225. English treatment, its pharmacopeeia toa extensive, 225. treatment of, by “cattle doctors’ dan- gerous, 226. better do too little for, than too much, 226 Dissection indispensable to learn nature and treatment of diseases, 227. amount of instruction necessary to per- form, 227. directions for, 227, 228. proper subjects for, 227. Division of flocks proper in summer, 193. necessary in winter, 199. Docking sheep, necessity for, 181. how performed, 181. Dogs, sheep. See Sheep dogs. - destruction of sheep in the South by, 64 legal enactments in relation to killing sheep by, in New York, 64. methods of protecting sheep from, 65. Down sheep. See Southdowns. Dropsy, acute, unusual in U. S., 222. Drouths, the severe, which prevail in Aus- tralia and the Cape of Good Hope, 119, 120. Ductus cho edochus, functions of the, 231. Duodenum, cut of the, 232. Dura mater, the, 236. Dutch West Indies, exports of wool from, is U. S. in 1846, 124. Duties on wool in different nations. Tariffs. . Dysentery, difference between, and diarrh@a, 251 Sea ¢ture and treatment of, 261. 326 _ E. Ear, numbering sheep by notching. Page 179. Von ‘Thaer’s system of, 178, 179. cuts illustrating, 179. when done, 180. notcher, described, 180. holes in, to record age, 179. holes in, how made, &c., 179. East Indies, increasing exports of wool from, 110, 111. in a countries of the, wool is grown, ll Ellman, Mr. the great imp over of the South- downs, 144, Emasculation of rams, how performed, 181. England, duties of, on imported wool, 106. table of imports of wool of, and from whence imported, every fifth year for thirty years, 110. imports of wool of, compared with other nations, 108. imports of, brought down to 1846, 294. vast increase of imports of wool of, in sixty-nine years, 123. subsequent increase in imports of, 294. exports of woollens from, 108. exports of wool from, 109. exports of wool from, to U. S., 110. exports of wool from, to U.S. in 1846, 124. number of sheep in, 109, produce of a 109. production of wool in, does not meet the home consumption, 109. . general advantages of, for wool growing, lll. . sheep necessary to sustain tillage of, 71. sheep dogs of, 286. Enteritis, little known in U. S., 238. Epiglottis, description of the, 236. Epilepsy, little known in U, S., 253. Epsom salts, the use of, in sheep medicine, 275 Erysipelatous scab, 261. Ethmoid bone, cut of the, 236. Ewes, proper age of, to begin breeding, 137. proper number to be put to one ram, 197. different methods of putting to ram, 198. feed and management of, during preg- nancy, 217. pregnant, should be watered separately, 199, Eye, inflammation of the, how treated, 239. F, Fall feeding, a good preparation for winter, 195 Febrile diseases, account of the, 238—251. Feeding sheep in yards with other stock im- proper, 210. Felting property in wool accounted for, 137. Fences, poor ones teach sheep to jump, 194. Fever, inflammatory, little known in U. S., 238 malignant, little known in U. S., 238. typhus, little known in U. S., 238. Flaxseed. See Linseed. Fleece, evenness of, important, 167. how prepared for folding, 187. now folded, 187, 188. INDEX. ey ty 4% 7 alas ee enti Fleece, cuts of table and trough for folding the, 187, 188. proper twine for tying, 188. cut of, properly done up, 188. Florida, population of, 17. number of sheep in, 17. pounds of wool grown in, 17. average weight of fleeces in, 18, 21. woollen factories in, 17. woollen goods manufactured in, 17. Fluke worm, cuts of the, 248, account of the, 247, 248. Fly, its attacks and their effects, 173, 192. how avoided, 173, 192. Fodders, table of nutritious equivalents ef 213. increase in weight, wool and tallow, from using different kinds of, 214, 215. table of winter variations in, for sheep, 211. table of, for ewes, a month prior to lambing, 212. for winter feed of breeding ewes, 217. amount consumed influenced by tempe- rature, 217, 218. cereal grains for store sheep, 215, 216. ruta bagas for store sheep, 215, 216. Indian corn to be fed with care, 216. regularity in giving, very important, 217. F olding, how done in England, 72. objects of, in England, 72. inexpedient in U.S., 73. Folding of fleeces. See Fleece. Food. See Grasses and Fodders. Foot rot. See Hoof-ail. Fouls, cause and treatment of, 270. Foxglove. See Digitalis. Fractures, treatment of, 273. France, area of, 111. population of, 111. number of sheep in, 111. exports of wool from, 110. exports of, to U. S. in 1846, 124, exports of woollens from, 108. late increasé in manufactures of, 111,296 imports of wool of, 108. duties of, on imported wool, 106. advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 111. soil and products of, 111. French Merinos, account of, 133. cut of wool of, 135. , quality of wool of, compared with Spa nish and American families, 135, 136. weight of fleeces of, 133. French sheep dogs, 285. Frontal bone, cut of section of, 236. Frontal sinuses, cut of, 236, P locality of the bot or grub in the head 256. G. Gad-fly of the sheep. See C2strus ovzs. Gall bandon: account of the, 233. Garget, description and treatment of, 251. Gastritis, little known in U. S., 238 Generative organs, the, 233. ay Gentian, the use of, in sheep medicine, 27& Georgia, population of, 17. number of sheep in, 17. pounds of wool grown in, 17. average weight of fleeces in, 18, 21. woollen factories in, 17. Oo ate wee TEP. ee y + Lae 7 Pak. aN +4 - ‘ - ~ “ 3 vk os INDEX’ ee tSeorgia, woollen goods manufactured in. | Guano, as a manure in the Scuth, 67. Page 17. advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 42, 59, 60. price of land in, 60. adaptation of mountain lands of, to sheep husbandry, 47. Germany, area of, 114. population of, 114. face of the country in, 114. soils of, 114. climate of, 115. jand tenures in, 115. svstem of sheep husbandry in, 115, 139. method of managing sheep in, 139. circumstances under which the wool of, is grown in, 115, 116. export of wool from, 110, 114. export of woollens from, 108. late increase in woollen manufactures of, 296. general advantages of, for woo! growing, 114—116. general advantages of, compared with U.S., 116. © general advantages of, Mr. Grove’s opinion, 116. Gestation, period of, 197. Gibraltar, exports of wooi froin, {19. exports of, to U. S. in 1846, }24. Ginger, the use of, in sheep medicine, 275. Glands, the parotid, 236. the thyroid, 236. ‘the thyroid, diseases of, 270. the salivary, 236. Glottis, account of the, 236. Goggles. See Hydatid in the brain. Goitre, account of the, 270, 271. Grain, policy of feeding to store sheep in winter, 215. best kinds of, for winter feed, 216. equivalents of, in nutriment, 212. effects of different kinds of, in producing wol, tallow and muscle, 214. Grain box for sheep, cut and description of, 203. Grasses, natural ones of the South, 36—39, 44,45, 47—49, 58, 59. varieties of, which should be tried in the South, 33, 35—38. best acclimated ones of the South, 33, 36—38. manner of forming swards of, in the Pf South, 73—75. Great Bucharia, wool trade of, 118. Greece, exports of weol from, 110, 114. (In Table on page 110 it is called Morea.) advantages of, for sheep husbandry. See Remarks on Turkey, 104, 114. Grub in the head, description of the, 256, 257. the larva of the (Estrus ovis, 257. cuts and description of the Géstrus, 256. time Cistrus deposits its eggs, 256. locaJity and habits of the larva, 256, W2bi. cuts and description of the larva, 257. cut and description of the chrysalis, 257. do the larva produce disease in the sheep ? 257, 258. epinions of eminent veterinarians in rela- tion to, 258. method of preventing and expelling the larva, 258. Guatemala, exports of wool from, 110. Guernsey and Man, exports of wool from 110. Gullet, obstructions of, how treated, 273. Gypsum as a fertilizer in the South, 67. H. Handling sheep, directions for, 174. Hay, different value of different qualities al, as fodder, 213. comparative value of, in producing live weight, wool, and tallow, 214. nitrogen in, 214. Hay holders for winter foddering described, 211. Hanse Towns, exports of wool from, to U. 8S. in 1846, 124. Head, for proper form of, see the descrip- tions cf the several breeds, and prin ciples of breeding. cut of the bones of the, 236. Heart, structure and functions of the, 234, 235. Hedysarum onibrichis. See Sainfoin. Hepatization of the lungs, description of, Paleh, Herds grass, character of, 33, 37. flourishes in South Carolina, 36, 59. flourishes on the mountains of North Carolina, 44. the soils adapted to, 37. Hindostan, wools exported from, 108. Holland, exports of wool from, 110. exports of wool from, to U.S. in 1846, 124. exports of woollens from, 108. Honeycomb, or second stomach. See Reti- culum. Hooding dangerous rams, how done, 193. Hoof, periodical shortening of the, necessary, 183. best time and method for cutting the, 183. cut of toe-nippers for shortening the, 183. Hoof-ail, erroneous statements of English writers concermng, 262. author’s experience with the, 262. consecutive symptoms of, 263. treatment of, 264—269. preparation of the foot for treatment m the different stages of, 265. common remedies for, 265, 266. common method of treating, ineffectual 264. effectual method of treating, 266, 267. effectual method of treating, expense ef, 267. : cheap method of keeping under, 267, 268. cheap method of keeping under, cuts of arrangements for, 267, 268. evident contagiousness of, 269, 270. propagated by inoculation, 269, 270. is it propagated otherwise than by ins- culation? 270. does not originate spontaneously in U.S., 222, 223, 269. originates spontaneously in England 223. Hoof-rot. See Hoof: arl. Hoove, cause and treatment of, 272, 273. As WAN a Sh gaa aaedie oy LAE Saeed Sag) 7m se “a Th % . iY uy, iS Toad ‘ ae bs ORS Ae + s Ne » . i J 7, 70m B28 INDEX. “ a Sete ——————___. ______. x Horns, objectionable. Page 166. method of shortening, 192. j cause and treatment of maggots under the, 192. Hoppling sheep, how performed, 193. Hospital for feeble sheep, in winter, 199. Lound’s-tongue, the burr of, injurious to wool, 174. {lungary, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 115—117. advantages of, compared with those of other countries, 117. climate of, 115, 116. soils of, 116. land tenures in, 116. want of market facilities in, 116, 117. Prince Esterhazy’s flock in, 116. sheep dogs of, 284. Hydatid in the brain, 254, 255. causes of, 254. prevalence in England of, 254. not very common in U. S., 254. barbarous popular method of treating, 255. proper treatment of, 255. I. Ileum, cut of the, 232. Hlinois, advantages on prairies of, for wool growing, 96—103. Saxon sheep introduced into south of, 27. rot prevails in south of, 222. In-and-in breeding, effects of, 169. Independent Tartary, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 118. Indiana, advantages of, for wool growing, 96—103. Inflammation of the bladder. See Cystitis. of the brain. See Phrenitis. of the eye. See Opthalmia. of the intestines. See Enteritis. of the larynx. See Laryngitis. of the lungs. See Pneumonia. of the Jiver. See Rot. of the stomach. See Gastritis. of the udder. See Garget. of the membrane lining the thorax. Pleuritis. of the mucous membrane lining bronchial tubes. See Bronchitis. of the mucous coat of the smaller intes- tines. See Diarrhea. of the mucous coat of the larger intes- tines. See Dysentery. of the mucous membrane lining the nasal passages. See Catarrh. of the cellular tissue of the tongue. See Blain. Intermaxillary bone, cut of the, 236. Intestines, cut of the, 232. Todine, use of, in sheep medicine, 275, 276. lowa, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 96—103. Italy, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, ris; See the exports of wool from, 110. exports of woollens from, 208. area of, 113. population of, 113. , soil and climate of, 113. vasturage of, 113. Jejunum, cut of the, 232. " J 2hn’s-wort, bad effects of, on sheep, 271. bad effects of, how treated, 271, 272. J gular vein, the best place for bleeding 2 une grass. See Blue grass. . K. Kalmia angustiflora. poisonous to sheer,271 antidotes for, 271. Kentucky, population of, 17. number of sheep in, 17. pounds of wool grown in, 17. average weight of fleeces in, 18, 21. woollen factories in, 17. woollen goods manufactured in, 17. fine wooled sheep bred in, 27. nonBDIAGPs of, for sheep husbandry, 27 47, 48. adaptation of mountain lands of, for sheep husbandry, 47, 48. Kidneys, structure and functions of the, 233. L. Lacteals, the, 231. Lambs, how fed in winter, 215, 216. should be wintered separately, 199, Lambing, proper time for, 175. shelters necessary for, 175. assistance when to be rendered ewe in 175! care of the newly dropped lamb, 176. changing dams, how done, 177. irritation of the bag, how managed, 177 the convenience of pens in, 177. pinning of young lambs after, 177. Lard, use of, in sheep medicine, 276. Larynx described, 235. Laryngitis, little known in U. S., 238. Laurel, low, poisonous to sheep, 271. Leg, treatment of, when fractured, 273. Leicester sheep, origin of the, 142, cut of the, 142. cut of the microscopic appearance ef wool of, 136. general description of, 143, 154, characters of as breeders, 143. degree of hardiness of, 143. oints aimed at by breeders of, 144. introduction of, into U. S., 144. ae Lentils, value of, as a fodder, 218. , Straw of, value of, as a fodder, 213. straw of, fed to sheep in Germany, 211. Lice, method of destroying, 192. Lime, chloride of, use of, in sheep medicins 276 carbonate of, use of, in sheep practice, 276. as a fertilizer in the South, 67—70. as a fertilizer, when valuable, 68. as a fertilizer, Johnson's opinions con- cerning, 68. i as a fertilizer, Von Thaér’s opinion con: cerning, 68. , as a fertilizer, Petzholct’s opinion con cerning, 69. } x ‘ . . INDEX. r = Lime, as a fertilizer, Chaptal’s opinion con- cerning. Page 69. Linseed, use of, to guard the end of a pro- bang. See Choking. eaked, value of, as a fodder, 213. oil, use of, in sheep medicine, 276. {,ittle Bucharia, exports of wool from, 118. Iuiyer, structure and functions of the, 232 23 3. diseases of the. See Rot. _ Lolium perenne. See Aye grass. Lombardy, advantages of, for sheep hus- bandry, 113. Long wool, the goods in which it is em- ployed, 143, 151. pe psheep which produce it, 143, 149, 51 market for, in U. S., 154. Loss of cud, not a disease, 272. Louisiana, population of, 17. number of sheep in, 17. pounds of wool grown in, 17. average weight of fleeces in, 18, 21. woollen factories in, 17. woollen goods manufactured in, 17. price of land in, 60. Licern, unsuccessful in the North, 33. succeeds on the southern mountains, 47. value of, as a fodder, 213. fed to sheep in Germany, 211. Lunar caustic, use of, in sheep practice, 276. Lungs, structure and functions of the, 235. epatization of the, described, 239. diseases of the, 239, 240. Lupins, white, as a green manuring crop in the South, 74. ; : Lupinus albus. Lymph, the, 231. lymphatics, the, 231. M. Madia, value of, as a fodder, 213. Maggots on sheep, cause and treatment of, 192 See Lupins. Malta, exports of wool from, 110. Man, Isle of. See Guernsey and Man. Mangel wurzel, value of, in producing live weight, wool, and tallow, 214. per cent. of nitrogen in, 214. Maniplus, structure and functions of the, 229. cut of the, 228. Manufactures of wool. See Woollen Manu- pee ree: Manufactories. See Woollen Factories. Manufacturers of wool, American, their suc- cess identified with that of the wool growers, 161. have not properly discriminated in the prices of different qualities of wool. 160. combinations of, to lower prices of wool, 161. Meaures, table of comparative values of, 40. the available ones in the South, 67—76. green, use and economy of, 70, 72, 74,75, the cheapest, for the South, 73—75. 329 Marking sheep, on the ears, how done, 179. Marl, as a fertilizer, South, 67—70. as a fertilizer, when valuable, 68, 70. as a fertilizer, expensiveness of, 70. Meadow fox-tail grass, flourishes on the southern mountains, 47. Medicago sativa. See Lucern. Medicines, list of, for sheep, 274—277. directions for administering into the sto- mach, 273. Mereury, preparations of, in sheep medicine, Merinos, introduction into the U. S., 132. their gradual spread in the U. S., 132. causes of their subsequent decrease in U.S., 158, 159. their rapid restoration to public favor in U.S., 160, 161. Spanish families of, 132. ‘Spanish, amount and quality of wodl yielded by, 133, 135. Spanish, cut of wool of, 135, 137. French family of, described, 133. French, amount and quality of wool yielded by, 133, 135. French, cut of wool of, 135. American families of, described, 133, 134. American, amount and quality) of woo yielded by, 55, 134—137. American, cuts of wool of, 135, 136. American, cut of ram of, 131. American, cut of ewe of, 134. American, hardness of, 137. American, profits of a premium flock of, 55. American, prices of wool of, 55. range of climate endured by, 137. countries successfully introduced in, 17 18 consumption of food by, compared with other breeds, 137. as breeders and nurses, compared with other breeds, 137. proportion of wool to amount of food consumed, compared with the English breeds, 156. as mutton sheep, compared with English breeds, 158. for production of fine wool, compared with Saxons, 163, 164. crosses with Saxons, 134, 138, 141, 164. crosses with native sheep, 164. crosses with Southdowns, 170, 171. crosses with Leicesters, 171. the best variczy of sheep for the South, 163, 165—168. proper size of, 165. proper form of, 166. proper weight of fleece of, 165. proper length and density of woal of, 167. proper evenness of wool of, 167. proper style of wool of, 168. proper amount of gum on wool of, 167. proper quality of skin of, 166. points to be avoided in, 168. Mesentery, cut of the, 232. where applied in a proper rotation of | Mesenteric glands, the, 231. crops, 84. Manyfolds. See Maniplus. Blarking sheep, the brand for, 191. ' suitable pigment for, 191. how wd when done, 191. Mexico, adaptation of, to sheep husbandry, 105 exports of wool from, 110. exports of wool from, to U.S. in 1846, 124. _ 330 eee ee Mexico, sheep dogs of. Page 284—28v. Microscupic views of wool, 135—137, 145. Middle wools. See Southdown wool. Midriff. See Diaphragm. Millet, productiveness of, South, 37, 38. straw ef, fed to sheep in Germany, 211, 212, value of, as a fodder, 213. Milt. See Spleen. Miscellaneous diseases, 271-273. Mississippi, population of, 17. number of sheep in, 17. pounds of wool grown in, 17. average weight of fleeces in, 18, 2] woollen factories in, 17. woollen goods manufactured in, 17. fine wooled sheep bred in, 27. latitude, &c., of, compared with Aus- tralian, 27. Missouri Territory, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 96—103. Modena, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 113 Mogadore wool, 90. Morea, exports of wool from, 110. Greece. Morocco. See Africa. Mountains of the South. See Mountain zone, under head of Southern States. Mud, as a fertilizer. See Swamp mud. Muriate of soda. See Salt. Muriatic acid, use of, in sheep medicine, 276. Mutton, economical food for slaves, 56, 57. its effects on the system compared with other meats, 56. the quality of, in different breeds of sheep, 153, 154, 158. Also, see the different breeds. sheep, the English. See Southdewns, Leicesters, and Cotswolds. sheep, where they constitute the most profitable variety, 153, 154. sheep, comparison between var:eties of, 153, 154 sheep, unadapted to most parts of the South, 154, 155. sheep, less profitable in the South than Merinos, 158. See N. Naples, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 113 Nasal bones, cut of the, 236. Native sheep (so called) of the U. S., origin of, 130 f general characteristics of, 131. crosses with other breeds, 131, 164. policy of grading up with the Merino in the South, 164, 170. selection of, to cross with Merincs, 170. do not cross successfully with Saxons, 164. Nerves, the, 236. Nervous diseases, the, 251. New England, advantages of, for wool rowing, 95. New Jersey, advantages of, for wool grow- ing, 95. New Leicester sheep. See Leicester. New Oxfordshire sheep. See Cotswolds. New South Wales. See Australia. New York population o', 17. INDEX. New York, sneep introduced in by the Dute’ colonists, 130 number of sheep in, 17. pounds of wool grown in, 17. average weight of fleeces in, 18, 21. woollen factories in, 17. woollen goods manufactured 1m, 17. grass lands of, how managed, 32. price of grazing lands in, 53. price of sheep in, 53. cost of producing wool per pound in, 61, profits of wool growing in, 53—55, Nitrate of silver. See Lunar caustic. N tate of potash, use of, in sheep medicine 0. Nitre. See Nitrate of potash. Nitric acid, use of, in sheep medicine, 276. North Carolina, population of, 17. number of as in, 17. amount of wool grown in, 17. average weight of fleeces in, 18, 21. woollen factories in, 17. woollen goods manufactured in, 17. price of land in, 44, 60. adaptation of mountain lands of, te sheep husbandry, 44—46. Norway, exports of wool from, 110. climate and flora of, 104, 105. Numbering sheep, advantages of, 178. See Registering. Von Thaér’s system of, 179 cuts illustrating, 179. Ons Oats, value of, in producing live weight, wool, and tallow, 214. per cent. of nitrogen in, 214. value of straw of, as a fodder, 213. straw of, fed to sheep in Germany, 211. Odessa, exports of wool from, 117. QGésophagus, course of the, 234—236. entrance of, into stomach, 228, 229. obstructions of the, how treated, 273. (sophagean canal,structure and functions of the, 229. (Estrus ovis, description of, 256. natural history of, 256, 257. © cuts of, 256. Ohio, advantages of, for wool growing, 95. Omentum, description of the, 228. One crop system of the South, 81. exhaustion of land consequent on the, 81, 82. ; exhaustion of land consequent on the, De Candolle’s, Macaire’s, Mirbel’s Braconnet’s and Gyde’s theories and experiments on, 81. Opium, use of, in sheep medicine, 276. — Opthalmia, treatment of the, 239. Orchard grass, unsuccessful in New York, 33 flourishes on the southern mountains, 62 Orkney, wool of, 90. . Otter sheep of the U. S., 129. Ovaries, the, 233. P. Palsy, nature and treatment of, 253. Pancreas, structure and functions of the, 238. Panicum milliaceum. See Millet. INDEX. ~ Panicum sanguinale. See Crab grass. Papal States, advantages of. for sheep hus- bandry, Page 113. Parietal bone, cut of a section of, 236. Parma, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 113 Parotid glands. the, 236. Parturition. See Lambing. Pastures, the natural ones of the South, 33, 34, 36, 4448, 59, 60. how formed on sterile lands, 73—75. Patagonia, portiou: of, in wool zone, 105. Paunch. See Rumen. Peas of the South, 39. substitute for clover in the South, 39, 41. value of, as a fodder, 39, 41, 213, 214. value of, in the production of live weight, wool, and tallow, 214. per cent. of nitrogen in, 214. mee of, as a green manuring crop, 74, 75. what time plowed under for green ma- nure, 795. haulm of, valuable as a fodder, 39, 213, 14 haulm of, valuable as a manure, 40. chemical analysis of, 39. Pedigree; only, value of, 171. Pelt-rot, description and treatment of, 255. Pens for the lambing season, how con- structed, 177. Pennsylvania, adaptation of, to sheep hus- bandry, 95. Pepper, black, use of, in sheep medicine, 276 ~ Pericardium, the, 234. Persia, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 104, 118. Peru, exports of wool from, 110. exports of wool to U. S. in 1846, 124. Pharynx, the, 235, 236. Phleum pratense. See Timothy. Phrenitis, rare in U. S., 253. Pia mater, the, 236. Pimento, use of, in sheep medicine, 276. Pindars, value of, as a fodder, 213. Pinning, fatal to lambs, how managed, 177. Pleura, the, 234. Pleuritis, little known in U. S., 238. Pleurisy. See Pleuritis. Pneumonia, nature and treatment of, 239, 240. - Poa pratensis. See Blue grass. Poisonous plants to sheep, 271. Portugal, exports of wool from, 110. Potatoes, Irish, as a winter feed for sheep, 41, 213. value of, in the production of live weight, wool, and tallow, 214. F per cent. of nitrogen in, 214. sweet, winter feed of sheep, 41. Poudrette, as a manure, South, 67. Prairies of the Western States described, 95—107. advantages on the, for wool growing, 95—107. natural grasses of the, 96—99. natural grasses, succulent during but a snort season, 96, 97. nuturai grasses, rapidly exterminated, 96. natural grasses, will not alone tigen) sheep, 96. natural grasses, make poor hay for ak.eep, 98. cud Prairies of the Western States will not pre _ duce winter pasturage, 98. ine of winter foddering necessary on, cost of sheep husbandry on, compared with Eastern States, 99. poe of fuel, fences and buildings on, 99, difficulties in the way of the shepherd system on, 100, 101. scarcity of water on, 101. cna of, variable and excess:ve, 102, climate of, States, 102. climate of, compared with Southern States, 102, 103. climate of, unfavorable to fine wooled sheep, 103. Pregnant ewes, how managed. See Ewes. Prussia, for general description of, see Ger- many, 114—116. exports of wool trom, 110. exports of woollens from, 108. ' advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 116, climate of, 104, 115. management of sheep in, 139. Pulse, place for feeling the, 274, natural rapidity of, 274. Purging. See Diarrhea. Pylorus, the, 228, 231. compared with Eastern R. Rabies, uncommon in U. S., 253. Racks, for feeding sheep, 200—2038., ’ box, cut and description of, 200. hole, cut and description of, 200. sparred, cut and description of, 201. hopper, cut and description of, 202. Rams, method of castrating, 180, 181. dangerous ones, how managed, 193. importance of careful selection in, 172. objections to several running in the sare flock of ewes, 197. necessity of selecting ewes in reference to quality of, 197. proper age of, to put to ewes, 197. different methods of putting to ewes, 198. how fed when running with ewes, 199. time allowed to run with ewes, 199. number of ewes those of different ages will serve, 197. not allowed to run witli ewes in sum- mer, 193. Rambouillet Merino. See French family of, under head of Merinos. ; Rape, as food for sheep, 62. flourishes on southern mountains, 62. Rectum, the, 232. Red-top. See Herds grass. Red water. See Dropsy, acute. Registering sheep, Mr. Grove’s and authar 3 method, 180. importance of, 178. Respiratory passages, the, 235. Respiration, how preduced, 234. Resting lands, meaning of the term 1 agn culture, 82. theory of, 82. inexpediency of, 82, Reticulum, description of the, 22& a Se ee ROR ae es ees oe : car Bo yas iG : eh , | whe : 332 INDEX. hs -__—_~ Reticulum, functions of the. Page 230. Rice, value of, as a fodder, 213. Roots, = winter feed of sheep, 213, 214, 216 Root troughs, cut of, 203. Rot, not known in most parts of U. S., 222. "other diseases mistaken for, 222. bas appeared in ‘Tennessee and Illinois, 222. prevalence of, in Europe, 221, 222. causes assigned for the, 223, 248, 249, symptoms of the, 247. post-mortem appearances of, 247, cuts of the fluke-worm of, 248. suddenness with which it is engendered, - 249. English custom of selling rotted sheep to the butcher, 249. treatment of the, 249, 250. Rotation in erops, necessity of, 81, 82. necessity of, in the South, 78—83. a system of, recommended for the South, 8 D. Rumen, structure of the, 228. cut of the, 228. functions of the, 229. unnatural distension of the. Rumination, the process of, 230. Russia, climate of, 104, 117, 118. soil and products of, 117. face of the country in, 117. the south of, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 117. the south of, compared with Hungary, Live See Hoove. the south of, compared with prairies of the U. S., 117. Merinos introduced in, in 1802, 117. Merinos, rapid increase of, in, 117. exports of wool from, 110, 117. exports of wool to U. S. in 1826, 124. Ruta bagas, as sheep feed, 213, 216. Rye, for winter pasturage in the South, 40, 58. value of grain of, in producing live weight, wool, and tallow, 214. per cent. of nitrogen in, 214, dry straw of, value of, in different states, as a fodder, 213. fed to sheep in Germany, 211. Age Brake, unsuccessful in New York, 33. ourishes on southern mountains, 47,62. Ss. Sacking wool, how performed, 189. proper sacks for, 189. Salt, necessary for sheep i in summer, 194. necessary for sheep in winter, 218. Saxon ee German management of, 6 ‘ introduction of, into U. S., 140, 141. deterioration of blood of, in U. 8., 141. omaeiy and quality of wool of, in U.S, 141.- wool of, in U. S., compared with parent stock, 141, 142. rade ‘description of, 141. — of, as breeders and nurses, 139, deta of, in hardiness, 139, 141. how far adapted to climate in northern states, 162. aupsrmeded the Merinos for a time in rapid decrease of, in the U. S., 160. dislike to, among northern farmers, 162. compared with Merinos for growing fine wool, 163. ms iar by across with Merinos, 136, 137, 14 crosses = with native sheep, 141, 164. Saxony, soils of, 114. climate of, 104, 115. face of the country in, 114. management of sheep in, 116. Scab, description of, 258, cuts of the acarus producing it, 259. habits of the acarus, 258. circumstances under which the acarus makes its attacks, 258. short-wooled sheep comparatively ex- empt from, 259. contagiousness of, 259. prevalence of, in England, 259. treatment of, 260, 261. Scotland, (included, in most respects in de scription of England.) exports of wool from, to U.S. in 1846, . 124 mountains of, only kept in* pasture by sheep, 71 Scours. See Diarrhea. Sedge grass, eaten by sheep, 49. Selection, annual necessity of, in flocks, 190. rules "for, 190. form of a Tegister to expedite, 190. Shade, necessity of, in sheep pasture, 195. Shearing, proper time of, 184. time between, and washing, 184, cut of arrangements for, 154. rules and regulations for, 185, 186. of lambs, objected to, 186. : of sheep, semi-annually, objected ta, 186. Sheds for sheep, cuts of, 205, 208 the cheapest, 208. Shelter for sheep in winter. Stills, &c See Sheds, effect, in conjunction with fodders, in in- | Sheep, bred in ail climates, 17. creasing live weight, wool, and tallow, 4. as a medicine, 276. box, for salting sheep, cut of, 194. Saltpetre, use of, in sheep medicine, 276. Sainfoin, 33. fed to sheep in Germany, 211. Sardinia, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 113. faxon sheep, origin of, 138. cut of ran, 138. varieties f, 139. microscopic appearance of wool of, 136. number of, in the southern states and in New York, ive ais ep for support of poo~ lands, indispeneable to support tillage in Eng- land, 71, 72. system of sna tillage lands by, in England, 71, 72. poor lands improved by, in northerr states, 72. system of i a poor lands by, ir ; ‘ the South, 73— better manurers re other stock, 71, 2 ’ INDEX. —— ——$—— tion. Page 57. -extirpators of briers and shrubs, 57. small risk by death, in breeding, 57. impropriety of feeding, in yards with other stock, in winter, 210. comparison of breeds of, 153, 154, 163, 164. comparison in respect to weight of fleece, 154, 156, 157. comparison in quality of wool, 154. compsrison in consumption of food, 154, 156. e€omparison in proportion of wool to food consumed, 156. comparison in hardiness, 156, 157. comparison in longevity, 156, 157. comparison in mutton, 153, 154, 158. comparison in bearing hard stocking, 154, 155, 156. comparison in profitableness in the South, 156, 157. how they should be caught and other- wise handled, 174. - washing of. See Washing sheep. shearing of. See Shearing. (for other particulars of the management of, see the different heads.) cordial, how compounded, 250. dogs, of the ancients, 278, 279 dogs, of Spain, 280—284. dogs, of Spain, cut of, 281. dogs, of France, 286. dogs, of Hungary, 284. dogs, of England, 287. dogs, of England, cut of, 287. dogs, of Scotland, 288. dogs, of Scotland, cut of, 288. dogs, of Mexico, 284—286. dogs, of South America, 285. dogs, sheep must be familiarized with, 288 ~ Silesia, climate of, 104, 115. face of the country, 114. character of the soil, 114. Slave cloths, description, 85, 86, 89, 90. expense of imported, 85, 86, 89. actual first cost of, 90, 91. great profits of manufacturers of, 90, 91. should be manufactured in the southern states, 87. : offers of northern manufacturers to fur- nish below present prices, 90, 91. cost of manufacturing as good or beiter plains in the north, 86. R cost of manufacturing ‘‘ at the halves,”’ 87. cost of manufacturing by hand on plan- tations, 89. Smith’s Island sheep, 129. Smyrna wools, quality of, 90. Snuffles. See Catarrh. South America, portion of, in the wool zone, 105 climate of, 104, 105. ’ exports of wool from, 105. sheep husbandry in, 105. advantages of, for wool growing, 105, 106 advantages of, compared with U. S., 105, 106. pampas of, compared with prairies of Go, 105. sheep dogs of, 285. B33 ‘Sheep, imnprove the character of the vegeta- | South America, for other particulars of, see Buenos Ayres, &c. Southdown sheep, origin of, 144. cut of ram, 145 cut of ewe, 146. out a wool viewed through microscope , 5. general description of, 144, 145, 148, 154 value of, as a mutton sheep, 146, 147. weight and quality of fleeces of, 146. wool of, deficient in felting properties, 145, 146. introduction into U. S., 147. South Carolina, population of, 17. number of sheep in, 17. pounds of wool grown m, »>- average weight of fleeces in, 18, 21. woollen factories in, 17. woollen goods manufactured in, 17. price of land in, 59, 60. neglect of grass culture in, 31. hay imported into, 31. adaptation of soils of, to grass cuaure, 31, 32, 34. 59, 80. adaptation of climate of, to grass culture, 36 system of cropping in, 32, 79. system of cropping compared with New York, 32, 33. system of cropping, change in, recom- mended by legislature, 79, 80. . system of cropping, utility of sheep husbandry in effecting such change in, 85 cost of keeping sheep in, 59, 60. winter pasturage for sheep in, 58—60. adaptation of mountains of, to sheep pasture, 47, 59. present method of managing sheep in, ? wolves in, 64. Southern States, what states included under this designation, 30. area of, 30, 94. natural features and geology of, 30, 31. quality of soils of, 30, 35, 42, 69. profits of sheep husbandry in, 58—62. profits of, compared with other hus- bandry in, 76, 77. advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 77. advantages of, compared with other states and countries. See Wool grow me. advantages of, for migratory sheep hus- bandry, 62. advantages of, for migratory sheep hus bandry, compared with Spain, 62—64, expense of keeping sheep in, 59, 60. expense per pound, of growing wool in, 61 expense per pound, of growing wool in, compared with New York, 61. prejudice in, against sheep husbandry, and causes of, 72, 81. sheep exposed to dogs and wolves in, 64, compared with other countries in above particular, 65. prices of land in, 44, 46, 47, 60. amelioration of sterile and worn-out soils of, by sheep husbandry, 52, 70—72. amelioration of stevile and worn-out soils of, by sheep husbandry, more cheaply than by the available manures, 67. ’ a}, | “ ena yy. i +, fj F ’ 334 INDEX. : ai a chess ‘ Southern States, amelioration of sterile and; Southern States, mountain zone of, 30. — worn-out soils of, by sheep husbandry, more cheaply than by marl. Page 58—70. amelioration of sterile and worn-out soils by sheep husbandry, considered cheap- est in England, 71, 72. amelioration of sterile and worn-out soils by sheep husbandry, considered cheap- est in the Northern States, 73. amelioration of sterile and worn-out soils by sheep husbandry, why preferable to cattle husbandry, 71, 72. amelioration of sterile and worn-out soils by sheep husbandry, other means available in conjunction with, 74, 75. method of forming pastures on sterile soils of, 73, 74. effect of present one-crop husbandry in, 78—81. sheep husbandry, basis of convertible husbandry in, 52, 78. convertible musbandry in, the strong ne- cessity for, 82. convertible husbandry in, recommended by a committee of the legislature of South Carolina, 79, 80. convertible husbandry in, recommended in Judge Seabrook’s Report, 80. rotation of crops for, proposed, 83—85. should rear their own products for con- sumption, 76. should manufacture their own coarse woollens, 85—89. cost of manufacturing and importing these in, compared, 86—87, 89—93. cost of manufacturing slave cloths in, by hand, 88. divided into three zones, 30. ee territorial limits of these zones, 30, i {12e-water zone of, 30. natural features and geology of, 30. quality of the soil of, 30, 35, 69. pampered with portions of New York, compared with Flanders, 35. how ameliorated, 35, 68. adaptation of, to the grasses, 31—38. adaptation of, to clover, 32, 36. adaptation of, to other fodders, 38—41. causes of failure in acclimating grasses 715 BS jes OR proper grasses to introduce in, 37—40. natural grasses of, 36, 37. natural pastures of, 33, 34. number of sheep per acre which could find subsistence in, 58, 94, winter pasturage of, 31, 40, 58, 59. prices of lad in, 60, 61. present system of cropping in, 32. ° climate of, adapted to growing fine wool, 23—29. hilly zone of, 30. face of the country and geology of, 42. quality of the soil, 42. altitude of the Blue Ridge, Alleghany, and Cumberland chains, 43, 630 ; altitude of, compared with the moun tains of Spain, 63. shape of the mountains of, 43. geology of, 43. character of the soil of, 44, 46, 49. large portions of, arable, 43. table lands on, 43. grasses of, 43, 44, 47, 59, 62. white and red clover, lucern, and rye grass flourish on, 47. timothy and orchard grass flourish on, 44, 62. adaptation of, to pasturage, 44—47, 59, 62 adaptation of, to sheep husbandry,44—51, 59 adaptation of, to Hon. T. L. Clingman’s statements concerning, 44, 45. , adaptation of, to Mr. H. M. Earle’s state- ments concerning, 46. c adaptation of, to Col. E. Colston’s state- ments concerning, 47. adaptation of, to Hon. W. L. Goggins’s statements concerning, 47. adaptation of, to Hon. A. Stevenson’s statements concerning, 47. adaptation of, to Hon. A. Beatty’s state- ments concerning, 47. adaptation of, to Mr. C. F. Kramer's statements concerning, 48. adaptation of, to Hon. R. F. Simpsen’s statements concerning, 59. adaptation of, to Mr. N. Murdochs statements concerning, 62, winter pasturage on, 47—49, 59. adaptation of, to turnips and other xod- ders, 62. cre climate of, 44—51, 59. climate of, shown by vegetation of, 50, — Dis climate of. compared with that of New York, 49, 50. price of lands in, 44, 46, 47, 48, 59. wolves in, 64. Spain, sheep husbandry of, 62, 63. great decrease in wool growing in, 111. migratory sheep husbandry of, and its disadvantages, 113. advantages of, for migratory sheep hus- bandry, compared with those of south- ern states, 62, 63, evil effects of the Mesta in, 113. height, climate, and vegetation of moun ~ tains of, 62, 112. general advantages of, for sheep hus- bandry, 62, 63, 112. soil and products of, 112. number of sheep in, 112. decreased exports of wool from, 110,111. exports of wool to U. S. in 1836 and 1846, 111, 124. other exports from, 112. sheep dogs of, 280—284. Spear grass. See Blue grass. 84 Spergula arvensis. See Spurry. Sphenoid bone, cut of, 236. a Spirit of salt. See Muriatic acid. ‘a of tar, use of, in sheep practice, 275: ee Spleen, structure and fun+tions of ine, 231 232. method of enriching soils of, 72. alaptation of, to grasses and grains, 27, 2, 59. method of forming pastures in, 74. adaptation to sheen husbandry, 43, 59. price of lands in, 59, 61. tlimate of 42, 59. ‘, me ouality of, west of the mounteins, 51. | Spurry,asa green manuring crop, South, 74, — ry? INDEX. gers. See Uanaena in the brain. Bef description of tne. Page 206, 207. cut of outside one, 205. cut of ancient ones, 206. cut of inside circular ones, 207. cut of circular one, with racks, &c,, 207. Sternum, the, 228. St. Helena, exports of wool from, 110. Stomachs of the sheep, description of, 228— 231. cuts of the, 228. structure and functions of each of the, 228, 229. course of the food through the, 229, 230. conflicting theories concerning, 230. Storing wool, 189. Also see Wool depots. eos a effects of cold ones after shear- Sturdy, Be "Hydatid i in the brain. Sulphate of copper, use of, in sheep prac- tice, 275. Sulphate of magnesia, use of, in sheep prac- tice, 275 Sulphur, use of, insheep medicine 276. Sun-scald, cause and treatment of, 191. Swamp mud, its value as a fertilizer, 70. Sweden, exports of wool from, 110. Sweet-bread. See Pancreas. Syria, climate of, 104. adaptation of, to sheep husbandry, 117, 118 T. Tadle 1. OF population, number of sheep, pounds of wool, woollen factories, and value of manufactured goods in south- ern states and in New York, 17. 2. Of average weight of fleeces in southern states and New York,18, 20, 21. 3. Of average weight of fleeces in four counties of each of the above states, 20. 4. Of comparative value of manures,40. 5. Of the flowering of plants, &c., in New York, 49. 6. Of thermometrical observations in New York, 50. 7. Of the average prices of wool in New York, 53. 8. Of importations of wool into Eng- land every fifth year, from 1810 to 1840, 110. 9. Of importations of wool into U. S. annually, from 1837 to 1846, 124. x0. Of importations of wool into U. S. in 1846, with countries from which imported, 124, 11. Of woollens annually imported into U. S., during twenty-five years, 125. 12. Of i increase of population in U. S., from 1790 to 1840, 127. 13. Ofincrease of population and amount of wool required in U. S., at different periods, for one hundred and fifteen years, 128. 14. Of the progressive redntevionen in du- ties on wool and woollen, under the “« Compromise Tariff’’ of 1833, 159, Tegging, necessity of, 173. ow performed, 173, 174. cut explanatory of, 173. ____ Tar, propriety of feeding of, to sheep, 194, uses of, in sheep practice, 277. Tariffs on wool, of France, 106. of England, 106. of U.S., on wools and woollens, enacted in the years 1824, 1828, 1832, 1833, 1841, 1842, and 1846, 158, 159. effect of those of U.S. on the prices of wool, 159, 160. effect of those of U. S. on importations of wool, 159, 160. effect of those of U. S. on importations of woollens, 160. effect of those of U. S. on domestic pro- duction of wool, 159. effect of those of U. S. on the quality of domestic wool, 159, 160. frauds practised in invoicing coarse wools imported into U. S., under that of 1842, 107. effect of that of 1846 on manufactures of U.S., 106, 125, 126, 161. effect of fluctuations in, on monies tures, 126. Tasmania. See Australia. Taurida. See Crimea. Taylor, Col. John, of Virginia, his erroneous views in relation to sheep husbandry, , ol. Teeth, number and description of, 237. indicative of the age, 237. cuts of, at different ages, 237. difference in the retention of, by different breeds, 238. causes of premature loss of, 238. should be removed in some cases, 238. Temperature, influence of, on quality at wool. See Climate. Tennessee, population of, 17. number of sheep in, 17. pounds of wool grown in, 17. average weight of fleeces i in, 18, 21. woollen factories in, 17. woollen manufactured in, 17. fine wooled sheep introduced in, 27. fine wooled pheep, wool of, not deteriw- rated in, 27. adaptation of, to sheep husbandry, 27, 48. adaptation of mountains of, to sheer husbandry, 48. price of lands in, 47, 48. Tetanus, unusual in U. iS 253. Thibet, advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 118. wool exported from, 118. Thoracic duct, the, 231. Thoracic viscera, the, 234. Thorax, the, 234. Thyroid glands, the, 236. diseases of the, 270, 271. Ticks, mode of destroying, and keeping ort of flock, 192. Tobacco, use of, in sheep practice, 277. dimers, the favorite meadow grass, Nor‘h as ae food of sheep, 212. success on southern low.ands question: able, 37. succeeds on southern mountains, 44, 62 Toe-nippers, description and use of, 182 cut of, 183. Tory weed. See Hound’ s-tongue. Trees, clumps of, for winter shelter, 207. ue w ; a“ 7. ~*~ ; n? mee Fee ey Sook eg | ’ - » iv. . we + : ; Rene ; ’ ee oe 336 INDEX. CL Trifolium repens. See Clover, white. Trifolium pratense. See Clover, red. ‘Troughs, for feeding roots or grain. Page 203. for feeding roots or grain, cuts of, 203. for folding wool, 187. for folding wool, cut of, 187. Tunica aracnnoides, the, 236. Tunisian sheep, introduced into U. S., 15] character of, 151, 152. Turbinated bones, cut of the, 236. Turnips, succeed on the southern mountains, 6 how fed off by sheep in England, 72. value of, as a fodder, 213, 216. Swedish. See Ruta baga. Turnsick. See Hydatid in the brain. Turpentine, spirits of, use of, in sheep prac- tice, 277. Turkey, soils and climate of, 118. soils and climate of, in Europe, 114. face of the country in, 114. opulation of, 114. Institutions of, unfavorable to sheep hus- bandry, 114. exports of wool from, 109, 110. exports of carpets, 108. Tuscany, advantages of, for sheep hus- bandry, 113. Typbus fever, not common in U. S., 238. Ui. Ukraine, Merinos introduced in, 117. advantages of, for sheep husbandry, 117. United States. number of sheep and pounds of wool in, in 1839, 123. breeds of sheep in, 129. exports of wool to England for thirty years from, 110. exports of wool in 1845, 1846, 122. annua. imports of wool of, from 1837 to 184}, 124. ‘ annus. imports, from what countries, in 1846, 124. annual imports of woollens, from 1821 to 1845, 125. annual consumption of woollens in, 126, 127. annual consumption of woollens in, per head of population, 127. proportion of woollens consumed in, do- mestic, 126. proportion of woollens consumed in, im- ported, 126. proportion of domestic made in manufac- tories, 126. proportion of domestic made in families, 126 increase of population in, 127. amount of wool which will be requisite for population of, at different periods, for one hundred and fifteen years, 128. adaptation of, to sheep husbandry. See Southern States, New England, Prai- rites, and the states by name. adaptation of, to sheep husbandry, com- pared with Germany, 116. adaptation of, to sheep husbandry, Mr. Grove’s opinion concerning, 116. Qcaptation of, to sheep husbandry, com- pared with other countries. See Wool growing. United States, woollen manufactories of. Ser Woollen factories. tariffs of, on wool. See Tariffs. (for all other particulars concerning, eee names of the things in relation ia which information is sought.) Uraguay, in the wool zone, 105. Ureters, the, 233. Urethra, the, 233. Urinary organs, description of the, 233. Uterus, description ef the, 233. ve Vagina, description of the, 233. Van Diemen’s Land. See Australia. Veins, description of the, 234. Vena cava, the, 234, Ventricles, the, 234. Verdigris, use of, in sheep practice, 277. Vetches, dried into hay, value of, as a fodder. 3 213. s Veterinary works, character of American, 219 character of English, 219. how far English ones are applicable in U. S., 220. Virginia, population of, 17. number of sheep in, 17. wool grown in, 17. average weight cf fleeces in, 18, 21. woollen factories in, 17. woollen goods manufactured in, 17. adaptation of, to sheep husbandry, 42, 47, 60. adaptation of mountains of, to sheep husbandry, 47. adaptation of north-western, to sheep husbandry, 60. winter herbage on mountains of, 62. winter pasturage in other parts of, 6U. cost of keeping sheep in, 60, 61. price of lands in, 60. Vitriol, blue, value of, in sheep practice. ae green, use of, in sheep practice, 276. oil of, as a caustic in sheep vractice, 276. W. Washing sheep, cut of apparatus for, 181. vats and yards for, 181. directions for, 182. time to elapse after, before shearing, 184. Water necessary for drink of sheep, 195, 218. Weaning lambs, proper time for, 195. how managed, 195. Welsh plains, for slave cloths. See Slave cloths. . 3 Wheat, value of, in producing live weight, wool, and tallew, 214. per cent. of nitrogen in, 214. straw of, value of, in different stetes, ag a fodder, 213. fed to sheep in Germany, 211. chaff of, value of, as a fodder, 213. bran of, value of, as a fodder, 213. Wind-pipe, the, 235. Winter feed. See Fodders. Wire grass. See Bermuda grass. | Wirtemberg, advantages of, for sheep hus bandry, 114. INDEX. 337 Wisconsin, advantages of, for sheep hus- Wool, amount of, imported into U. S., from } bandry. Page 95—103. - Wolves, in the Southern States, 64. Wile how guarded against, 65. See Shee i Os. Wool, tone in which it can be profitably grown, 103, 104. fabrics of. See Woollens. chemical analysis of, 214. quality of that of different breeds com- pared, 154. growth of, influenced by quantity of feed, 28. growth of, influenced by kind of feed, 214 quality of, influenced by climate, 23—29. quality of, influenced by climate, opinions of eminent judges on this point, 23— 29 - grows softer and longer in warm cli- mates, 28, 29. quality of, made coarser by abundant feed, 23. can this tendency of abundant feed to coarsen, be counteracted ? 24, 28. felting property of, accounted for, 137. terms used to express different qualities of, 161. fine, proper characteristics of, 167, 168. fine, proper amount of yolk and gum of, 167. fine, proper length of, 167. fine, proper evenness of, 167. fine, proper softness and elasticity of, 168. fine, proper serrations of, 168. fine, proper color and brilliancy of, 168. Merino and Saxon compared, 163. cuts of Merino and Saxon, 135—137. middle character and uses of, 110, 145, 146. middle character of, the sheep which pro- duce it, 145. cut of the Southdown, 145. long, character and uses of, 143, 151. long, character of the sheep which pro- duce it, 142, 149, 151. cut of Leicester, 136. comparative profit of growing fine and coarse in U.S., 154—163. comparative value of fine and coarse for strength and wear, 157, 158. not a fair discrimination in prices of, made by manufacturers of U. S., 160. promised improvement in above parti- cular, 161. shrinkage of, in manufacturing, 86, 88, prices of, in New York, for fourteen years, 53. prices of, in England, 25. amount of, grown in U. S., 123. amount of, grown in Southern States, 17. amount of, grown in New York, 17. average weight of, per fleece, in Southern States, 18, 20. average weight of, per fleece, in New York, 18, 21, 53. amount of, grown in U. S., does not meet home consumption, 123—126. amount of, annually grown in U. S., 123. amount of, consumed in U. S., 123—127. ue of, consumed per head ir 17 S., 1821 to 1846, 124, 125. 5 amount of, exported from U. S., 122. amount of, manufactured in U. S., 126 127. amount of, required to supply demand ‘n U. S., at different future periods, 125 table of imports of, into England, 110. table, brought down to 1846, 294. increase in amount of, imported into England, from 1771 to 1840, 123. increase in amount of, imported into England, from 1840 to 1846, 294. increasing demand for, throughout tne world, 123. one of the most marketable agricultural products, 77. amount of, grown in different countries. See names of countries. comparative profits of growing in differ- ent countries. See Wool growing. can be more profitably grown in southern than northern U.S., 163. will northern compete with Southern States in growing ? 162. method of washing, 181. method of washing, cut of arrangements for, 181. method of shearing, 184. ~ method of shearing, cuts of arrange- ments for, 184. method of doing up, 187—189. method of doing up, cut of arrangementa for, 187, 188. method of storizg in wool room, 189. method of sacking, 189. room for storing, how arranged, 189. depots, origin and objects of, 269, 290. depots, plan and regulations of, 290. depots, advantages of, 291. depots, peculiarly advantageous to the southern wool grower, 292. Woollens, some processes and facts in manu- facturing of, described, 87, 88. amount of, made in factories of U.S., > 126, 127. amount of, made in families in U.S., 126, 127. amount of, made in Southern States in 1839, 17. amount of, made in New York, in 1839, 17. amount made in families decreasing, and causes, 89. amount imported into U.S., from 1821 to 1845, 125. amount consumed in U. S., 126, 127. amount consumed per head in U. S., 127. amount required for future consumption in U. S., 128. ° for slaves. See Slave cloths. Woollen factories, table of, in Southern States, and in New York, in 1839, 40, rapid increase of, in the North, 86. further increase of, called for, 125, 12, 128. great profits of, m the North, 86—93 125, 161. would be equally profitable in the South, 86 stability of, in U. S., 125, 126, 161. foreign competition defied by, oresent tariff, 125, - B38 ; eee Woollen factories, injured by vacillating | Wool growing, in Mexico, 105. legislation. Page 126. Wool growing, probable increase or decrease of, in various countries, 121, 122. in U. S., advantages for. See names of states and regions. in Alabama, 42, 47, 60. in Florida, 42, 60. in Georgia, 42, 47, 60. in Iilinois, 27, 95—103. in Indiana, 95—103. in Iowa, 95—103. in Kentucky, 27, 47, 48. in Louisiana, 18, 30, 38. in Mississippi, 27, 38. in Missouri Territory, 95—103. in New England, 95. in New Jersey, 95. in North Carolina, 43—46. in Ohio, 95. in Pennsylvania, 95. on prairies, 95—103. in South Carolina, 47, 58—60. in Tennessee, 27, 48. in Virginia, 42, 47, 60. in Wisconsin, 95—103. Wool growing in foreign countries. names of countries« in Afghanistan, 118. in Asia Minor, 118. in Australia, 25, 119—121, 294. in Austria, 114—116. in Baden, 114. in Bavaria, 114. in Beloochistan, 118. in Modena, 113. in Naples, 113. in Papal States, 113. in Parma, 113. in Persia, 104, 118. in Prussia, 114, 116. in Russia, 117. in Sardinia, 113. in Saxony, 116. in Silesia, 104, 114, 115. in South America, 105, 106. in Spain, 62, 112. in Turkey, 114, 118, in Tuscany, 113. in Ukraine, 117. in Van Diemen’s Land, 121, in Wirtemberg, 114. Wool market, of the world, 108, 109, 123. of England, 108, 110, 294. of France, 108, 109. of German States, 114, 295, 296. of United States, 123—128. foreign producers cannot compete with us in that of U. S., 108, 122, 123. U.S. producers can compete in foreign with foreign producer, 108, 122, 296. prospect of increase in, universally, 123 296. Wool oil. See Yolk. oF Yards for sheep in winter, 199. necessary in the North, 200. Yoking rams, how done, 193. Yolk of wools, chemical analysis of, 182, proper amount of, in fleece, 167. in Buenos Ayres, 105, 106. in Cabul, 118. in Cape of Good Hope, 65, 119. in China, 118. in Crimea, 117. in England, 111. in France, 111. in Germany, 114—116. in Great Bucharia; 118. in Greece, 114. in Hungary, 116, 117. in Independent Tartary, 118. in Italy, 113. in Lombardy, 113. Youatt, his character as a veterinary writer, 219. Z. Zinc, carbonate of, use of, in sheep practice, 27 sulphate of, use of, in sheep practice, APPENDIX, SaeEP HUSBANDRY IN SouTH CAROLINA < v\.ccccecccvecdsncveccé cous Gunn alaneniae 391 Brees HUSBANDRY: IN: TEXAS. <0. ovclcccied ccevccdiciecces ceca eusie s eleciaeraieltn anni SH¥EP RAISING IM TREAM. cc cccccvccccecccsscccsceccesce eaescsasabeeaanmen anne Cag ge LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 7 0 002 847 791