2l5 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



valuable animal (the sheep) has been cared for ; and has convinced him 

 that, without great natural advantages, their utter neglect would long 

 since have exterminated them from the soil. There are but few plan- 

 tations iu the State upon which there was not to be found a flock of 

 sheep, intended to be only sufficient to furnish the wool necessary to 

 clothe the family, and furnish an occasional mutton. These sheep 

 were generally the 'native' breed, rarely improved by crosses upon 

 foreign blood. As a general rule, these small flocks never entered into 

 their owner's estimate of his valuable property, and they were never 

 so treated. In the spring, they were shorn of their fleeces, and turned 

 outside their owners' enclosures to seek their summer's support in the 

 forests and waste lands, over which they chose to roam, and to run the 

 gauntlet for life among hungry hounds and gaunt curs, almost as numer- 

 ous as themselves. All that might escape, and were able to find their 

 homes in the fall season, and would seek its inhospitalities in the win- 

 ter, would be admitted within the gates, and permitted to eke out a 

 scanty living in the denuded fields and corners of worm-fences, which 

 is supplemented by a morning and evening allowance of corn fodder, 

 which the compassionate and appreciative owner allows to be fed to 

 them by a boy who has not yet attained sufficient size to be otherwise 

 useful. The only protection against the rains and occasional storms 

 of winter, afforded to a majority of the flocks, being such as their 

 instinct leads them to seek, by hovering on the sheltering sides -of barns 

 and out-buildii>S that may be accessible. Yet, under this treatment, 

 the flocks of the farmers kept their numbers full, and occasionally 

 multiply beyond their wants." 



The facility with which these flocks may be improved is 

 well illustrated by General Young. He says : 



" Of necessity, the fleeces of these sheep are light and inferior. But, 

 wherever an effort has been made to improve the stock by crossing on 

 merino or other approved blood, the effect is satisfactory and lasting. 

 From the universal custom of turning the entire stocks into the com- 

 mon ' range,' the impression of a merino, Southdown, or other impor- 

 tation, would manifest itself upon the flocks of entire neighborhoods. 

 So apparent is the improvement thus made, that, in purchasing the 

 surplus brought to market, there would be no difficulty in recognizing 

 the wool from a neighborhood that had been favored by some enter- 

 prising farmer having imported from Virginia or Pennsylvania a pair 

 of blooded animals. Without any change in the mode of treatment, 



