WEST VIRGINIA. 



61 



Counties. 



Hancock 



Brooke 



Ohio 



Marshall 



Total 



Farm lands. 



Acres. 



49, 132 



55, 488 



54,840 



121,679 



281, 139 



No. of sheep. 



21,402 

 40, 620 

 40, 050 

 10,022 



112,094 



Lbs. ■wool. 



60,214 

 112,774 



102,032 



27, 385 



302, 405 



The area of a county of average size, little more than five hunflred square 

 miles, with 281,139 acres in farm lands, supports 112,094 sheep — one for every 

 three acres of the entire tract, inclusive of wild or waste lands ; one for every, 

 two and a half acres of the actual farming lands ; and in the three counties 

 above Wheeling, one for every acre and a half. In fact, for 110,490 acres of 

 improved land in Hancock, Brooke, and Ohio, those counties have 102,072 

 sheep — almost an acre to each sheep, rivalling England itself in numbers com- 

 pared with area, and far distancing Ohio, whose productive acres are more 

 populous with sheep than any State in the Union, having eight acres to each 

 sheep in 1860, with a great increase since. 



This would look like giving up pasture and field to sheep, and leaving no 

 place for cattle or grain ; but, no — there is undoubtedly more of these products 

 than if the sheep were absent, the flocks of the farm adding more to its fertility 

 than they subtract from it. The following table shows that sheep husbandry 

 tends to no diminution in price of lands, or extent or variety of farm products : 



Counties. 



Value of 

 farms. 



Price per 



acre. 



Value of 

 live stock. 



Bushels of 

 wheat. 



Bushels of 

 Ind. corn. 



Hancock . . . 



Brooke 



Ohio 



Marshall 



Total 



$1,676,745 

 2, 447, 903 

 2, 423, 520 



2, 489, 909 



$34 12 

 44 11 

 44 17 

 20 40 



$182,746 

 282, 439 

 253, 090 

 280, 800 



16, 423 



23, 490 



20, 048 

 74,759 



61,346 

 142, 122 

 138,430 

 241,911 



9, 0.38, 077 



32 14 999, 135 



134, 720 



583, 809 



It is a curious fact, that lands of Brooke and Ohio (one with a large city, 

 the other having no towns) are almost precisely alike in price, in exact propor- 

 tion to the number of sheep kept ; while those of Hancock, with flocks 40 per 

 cent, less numerous, lose ten dollars per acre in value ; and those of Marshall, 

 ■witJi one-fourth the number of sheep in twice the area, have less than half the 

 value, or twenty dollars per acre. 



It cannot be said here that sparseness of population accounts for diminished 

 values and products. Hancock has a population of 4,445, and Marshall of 

 12,997, giving a slight advantage to Marshall ; Brooke has 5,494, and Ohio 

 22,422; yet the price of their lands is the same. It would seem that the popu- 

 lation of Wheeling have less influence than the flocks of the neighboring farms 

 in raising the price of the lands of the county! 



The mountain regions are unexcelled as sheep walks, and are beginning to 

 be improved as such. Preston has 19,084, Monroe 12,288, Greenbrier 16,067, 

 Pendleton 14,143. The whole State is waking up to the fact of its peculiar 

 adaptation to this business.. Yet it is only a beginning that has been made. 

 The number of sheep already there (453,334 in 1860) is but a moiety oi t"he 

 number that will at some time contribute their triple munificence of fertilization 

 to the soil, and food and raiment to the people, to blees this new Alleghanian 

 State. 



