SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 97 



merinos, from ten to twenty. The price in market here for grown 

 mutton sheep would be from four to five dollars. 



My pasture has been broom sedge and Japan clover (Lespedizea 

 striata), until after harvest ; then we give them the run of the grain 

 fields. For winter pasturage, I usually sow rye lots for the ewes and 

 lambs, and give all the flock the run of oats sown in August and Sep- 

 tember ; also, allow them the range of the corn-field and the cotton- 

 fields. As a mixed food, cotton -seed is wholesome, economical, and 

 profitable. My sheep are very fond of it : after feeding on green bar- 

 ley all day, they will eat cotton-seed with great relish. Some feed is 

 needed in this section for three months, as there are little cultivated 

 grasses ; with herdsgrass and clover cultivated, much less time for 

 feeding would be needed. 



Sheep are usually very healthy in this section : there are no epi- 

 demics nor prevailing complaints here among them. 



The main obstacles to the industry here are dogs, thieving negroes, 

 indolence, and ignorance. The presence of a shepherd and the Span- 

 ish sheep-dog will remedy the first ; and education, the latter. 



We utilize the manure from the sheep, housing them in winter, 

 and littering the stalls frequently, throwing it broadcast for ruta- 

 bagas, in July or August, or in drills, as the case may be. In summer, 

 I use John H. Ruchman's portable fence, the best iron wire ; and 

 keep at the rate of a thousand sheep to the acre a week : the value 

 of which I regard as equal to about four hundred pounds of guano, 

 the first year ; and its effects are perceptible for several years. My 

 belief, from careful experimenting, is, that fifty-two acres of land can 

 be so well fertilized in twelve months, with one thousand sheep, as to 

 be rich soil for five years following. The effects of such manuring are 

 wonderful. 



The sheep are great helps to the farmer in eradicating useless 

 weeds, such as the cockle-brier, which they eat with avidity, either dry 

 or -green. In fact, there are few plants with us they will not eat. 



I think all varieties of sheep can be successfully and profitably raised 

 in our State. On the rich bottom lands of the coast, the African 

 broad-tails, or a cross, as I have suggested, with the Cotswold, 

 which would give a variety that would thrive in any climate South. 



In the middle district, near the lands under rich cultivation, the 

 Bakewells and other varieties of heavy sheep for mutton. In the 

 section where I am, and up to the line of the Blue Ridge, the merinos, 

 and, on the Blue Ridge itself, the merino ; and I should also strongly 

 recommend the Cheviot, so successful in the districts of England and 

 Scotland of similar altitude and climate. 



