SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 47 



tially alike and uniform, maintaining their identity and 

 imparting their qualities as surely as any other breed. So 

 highly are they esteemed that he has found ready sale for 

 all that he could produce from a flock of a hundred ewes, at 

 the uniform price of thirty dollars. He claims that they are 

 peculiarly adapted to the South, as they need no housing. 

 They are able to face the bleakest winter in Kentucky, with- 

 out any protection. 



The great Silurian limestone basin of Middle Tennessee 

 would seem to possess equal advantages with the last-named 

 State for growing the long-woolled sheep. Mr. Killebrew, 

 Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of Tennessee, in 

 the advance sheets from a work on Sheep Husbandry, just 

 published by him, thus describes this district : 



" There the meadows are luxuriant, the pastures are green, the soil is 

 fertile, the water abundant. . . . There all the grasses flourish ; even the 

 loftiest hills are set in blue grass, and countless flocks fleck the landscape 

 on every side. The highest evidence that can be adduced as to the 

 value of this basin for sheep-raising lies in the fact, that sheep are 

 grown upon nearly every farm, and, up to a certain number, are uni- 

 versally held to be profitable. Sheep require no feeding in this division 

 during winter, when upon good grass, barley, wheat, or rye fields, 

 except when there is a fall of snow. Then some oats, fodder, or corn 

 is fed. They are very healthy ; and, indeed, when attended to, prove a 

 most profitable investment, up to a certain number, say one sheep for 

 every five acres of open land, or two sheep on every acre of permanent 

 pasture, presuming that the farmer will have other stock in proportion 

 to the size of his farm. 



" The cost of keeping sheep per annum is about $1.25. The wool 

 of one sheep of high grade will about pay for the keeping of two. 

 Lambs are a clear profit, and the estimated cost of wool is below ten 

 cents per pound. The average yield of wool for improved lands in 

 this basin is between seven and eight pounds. Nearly all the natives 

 have disappeared from this locality, and high grades have taken their 

 place. Mutton sheep, near Nashville, good grades, bring in the market 

 five cents per pound, gross ; lambs, grade, three and a half to four and 

 a half dollars. A large trade in lambs has been built up within a few 

 years past. Hundreds of car-loads are shipped every spring from this 

 basin to points North, and good prices realized. Good sheep-farms 



