SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 27 



these improvements are known to be distinctly manifest in neighbor- 

 hoods thirty years after their introduction. Being able to withstand 

 all the hardship and neglect, and promptly to respond to every effort 

 to improve their quality or condition, it is evident that there is in 

 North Carolina an adaptation of natural gifts to their peculiar wants." 



The returns to the Department of Agriculture before re- 

 ferred to make no mention of the large flocks reaching as 

 high, in some cases, as 3,500 which are spoken of by the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of Georgia, as occur- 

 ring on the pine-lands of that State. We learn from General 

 Abbott, of North Carolina, that flocks reaching up to 1,000 

 head are found on the pine-lands of that State. These flocks, 

 if they can be called flocks, are never fed ; the care of the 

 owners being limited to marking and gathering them up for 

 shearing. This can scarcely be called sheep husbandry ; for 

 husbandry implies care, and provision for sustenance. Indeed, 

 of the large portion of the South, especially the lower South, 

 excluding Texas, with exceptions which almost could be 

 counted on the fingers, taking into view the general want of 

 care and provision for sustenance, it may be said that sheep 

 husbandry, in the proper acceptation of the term, does not 

 exist in that country. This cannot be considered a reproach. 

 The exclusive devotion to cotton accounts for it. And the 

 interest now taken in sheep culture by the most intelligent 

 men of the South, and the general interest recently manifested 

 by the numerous letters received by the Department of Agri- 

 culture, asking for information on the subject, are guaranties 

 of a brighter future in this industry at the South. 



Our view of the actual condition of this industry at the 

 South, we admit, does not correspond with the impression 

 readers would be apt to form from the report of the Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture of the State of Georgia, upon the 

 sheep husbandry of that State. He says, that " the average 

 annual profit on the capital invested in sheep in Georgia is 

 sixty-three per cent. The. average annual cost of keeping 

 sheep is only fifty-four cents. The average cost of raising 

 a pound of wool is only six cents ; while the average price 

 for which the unwashed wool sells is thirty-three and a third 



