28 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



cents, or twenty-seven and a third cents net." These results 

 are alleged to have been, and undoubtedly were, derived from 

 returns addressed to those engaged in the business. Partic- 

 ulars are given of only two cases, which we will quote : 



" Mr. David Ayers, of Camilla, Mildred County, in South-western 

 Georgia, where snow never falls and the ground seldom freezes, and 

 where the original pine-forest is carpeted with native grass, says his 

 sheep 3,500 in number cost him annually fourteen cents per head, 

 clip three pounds of unwashed wool, which sells at thirty cents per 

 pound, giving a clear profit of ninety per cent on the money and labor 

 invested in sheep. Mr. Ayers does not feed his sheep at any time dur- 

 ing the year; neither has he introduced the improved breeds, using 

 only what is called the native sheep." 



" Mr. Robert C. Humber, of Putnam County, in Middle Georgia, 

 keeps one hundred and thirty-eight sheep, of the cross between the me- 

 rino and the common sheep. He says they cost nothing, except the 

 salt they eat ; while they pay one hundred per cent on the investment, 

 in mutton, lambs, and wool. They yield an average of three pounds 

 of wool per head, which he sells at the very low price of twenty-five 

 cents, less than the market-price. It costs him nothing, except the 

 shearing. His sheep range on Bermuda grass, old fields in summer, 

 and the plantation at large, embracing the fields from which crops have 

 been gathered, and the cane bottoms in winter." 



We are not disposed to deny that the estimates of profits 

 made by the commissioner, or given in the particular cases 

 cited, are literally correct. But we are compelled to state, 

 that some of the returns from the above-named State, at the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, express dissent from the 

 commissioner. One return says : " His figures are too low 

 for my county, and too low for almost the entire State." 

 Indeed, it may be generally said that no particular estimates 

 of the cost of raising sheep and the profits resulting there- 

 from can be relied on as inducements for others to embark 

 in the business. The broad proposition that the annual profits 

 from raising sheep throughout an entire State are sixty-three 

 per cent must be fallacious. While it may be true that a 

 particular owner, having a vast range very favorably situated, 

 in which two or three thousand can pick up their sustenance, 



