54 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



been able to learu about the subject, admirably. They are just 

 barren enough, just dry enough, and just elevated enough to pro- 

 duce the best quality of wool. It has been found by experiment, 

 that luxurious pasturage and high feeding, though it promotes 

 bulk of carcase and fatness, is unfavorable to the growth of the 

 finest wool. It was in testimony some years ago, before a com- 

 mittee of the British House of Commons, that the artificial food 

 and forcing sj'stem, which produced the mutton for which England 

 is famed, had deteriorated the character of its wool. Of the Nor- 

 folk sheep it was stated that whereas in 1*780, 420 pounds of wool 

 produced 200 pounds of prime, in 1828 the same quantity would 

 produce but 14 pounds. 



Dr. Parry, an English writer on sheep says : " The fineness of 

 a sheep's fleece of a given breed is within certain limits inversely as 

 its fatness, and perhaps also as the quickness with which it grows 

 fat. A sheep which is fat has usually comparatively coarse wool, 

 and one which is lean either from want of food or disease has the 

 finest wool." 



John H. Erving already quoted says, in speaking of the influ- 

 ence of climate on sheep : " Much depends in my opinion on the 

 soil. High, poor lauds will produce better wool than rich low 

 lands. I sent a flock a few years since to Warren county, Illinois, 

 about our latitude ; and after three years I hardly knew my own 

 wool. The quantity' of fleece and size of the sheep have increased, 

 but the wool has not retained its fineness. This no doubt arises 

 from the pasturage ; they become very fat in the summer, which 

 increases the brashness of the wool, and destr(5ys that delicate tex- 

 ture it has in the more eastern and high lands." 



Mr. Morrell, in whose treatise I find the foregoing citations, 

 adds among other remarks confirmatory of these opinions : " It 

 may, however, be remarked that the cheap uplands not easily made 

 arable for general agricultural purposes will eventually be occu- 

 pied for the cultivation of the finest wool, simply because they are 

 best suited to the purpose." It has already appeared from our sta- 

 tistical tables, that fineness of Northern wool is not at the expense 

 of weight, and that with their rich prairie pastures the western 

 farmers produce a pound less wool to the head than the northern 

 farmers. 



These principles tend to establish the advantages of our county 

 for wool growing over the Southern States, in that our cold cli- 



