SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 91 



tains at different points, and now vigorously pressing through to a 

 connection with the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. These highways of 

 travel and freight open up every portion of it, and make connections at 

 Wilmington, Morehead City, and Newbern, on its own seaboard, and 

 the ports of Charleston, S. C., Norfolk, Va., and the cities and markets 

 of the North. 



This portraiture of the State of North Carolina presents an area of 

 45,500 square miles, and embraces all the varieties of soil and climate 

 to be found in the most favored latitudes and most desirable localities 

 on the earth. Nature has not distributed her gifts here with a partial 

 hand, by bestowing lavishly upon one section and withholding to impov- 

 erishment from another ; but, by an even and uniform meting out, 

 renders every portion desirable. From the sharp frost-line of its 

 mountains to the sunny bays and lakes upon its coast, where ice is 

 rarely seen, a uniform, equable temperature pervades the State. 



The radical change in labor in the last dozen years renders necessary 

 a corresponding change in the system of agriculture, which must, in 

 future, be pursued by the people. He who will present a proper direc- 

 tion for the enterprise of agriculturalists will be their benefactor. Our 

 ideas on such matters are naturally influenced by our business of life, 

 our education, or other circumstances which bend the twig and fix the 

 inclination of the tree. Being sensible of these influences, the writer 

 might feel more diffidence in presenting sheep husbandry to the consid- 

 eration of those interested in the future of North Carolina, as the lead- 

 ing occupation of its people, did he not feel satisfied that an intelligent 

 examination of the subject must lead the investigating mind to sustain 

 his conclusions. 



If the preceding description of the temperature, topography, and 

 general characteristics of the State be correct, the reader who is famil- 

 iar with sheep husbandry will at once perceive its adaptation to that 

 pursuit. Every one desiring to inform himself more particularly in 

 regard to the representations here given is invited to direct his investi- 

 gations with the view of scrutinizing its correctness and reliability. 



Twenty years' experience in manufacturing the wools grown in the 

 State has familiarized the writer with the manner in which our 

 sheep have been cared for ; and has convinced him that, without 

 great natural advantages, their utter neglect would long since have ex- 

 terminated them from the soil. There are but few plantation? in 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 



