SOLON ROBINSON, 1846 9 



a year. In Mississippi, about 5 or 6 degrees farther south, 

 both fine and coarse-woolled sheep are sheared twice a 

 year. Mr. C. still prefers that country to grow wool, but 

 not for his family residence, and he says what I have 

 often said, that no man can succeed with sheep who de- 

 pends upon his negroes — the master himself must be the 

 slave. And this is why he keeps his flock in Tennessee 

 instead of Mississippi ; not on account of the sheep-family, 

 but his own. 



The grasses cultivated for hay are timothy, orchard 

 and blue grass, and clover. The soil, as I have said, is 

 strong limestone, and supported a natural growth of 

 large timber, of oak, elm, sugar-tree, walnut, ash, hack- 

 berry, poplar, hickory, &c. Fencing timber is already 

 becoming scarce, but whenever they shall learn how to 

 build stone fences, they have the material in great abun- 

 dance. Mr. C. trains his sheep not to jump, and if they 

 were not so, his fences would not restrain them. The 

 object Mr. C. has in view in sending the long-woolled 

 sheep to Mississippi, instead of the fine-woolled ones, is, 

 that he intends to feed his negroes largely upon the heavy, 

 fat mutton of this breed, and use the wool for negro 

 clothing. By shearing them twice a year, their fleeces do 

 not become burthensome, and the gain upon shearing 

 twice a year instead of once, he finds to be fully 15 per 

 cent. Mr. Cockrill keeps his sheep in moderate sized 

 flocks, in summer as well as winter, with the rams always 

 separate. 



I mentioned his manner of feeding in the March No., 

 upon the ground, without rack or trough ; and I am well 

 satisfied that it is not the slovenly way that some of your 

 Eastern readers will be inclined to think it is. It is the 

 natural way for the animal to pick up its food from the 

 ground, and by the manner of feeding in alternate lots, 

 so that the hay is laid upon the ground before the sheep 

 are let in, they do not waste it. There is another advan- 

 tage, the seed does not get in the wool as it does from 

 racks. 



