18 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



36th and 37th parallels of latitude, and has, within the last few years, been 

 acclimated with perfect success as far north as various points in Sweden. 



If any difficulty exists in the climate of the United States, rendering it 

 unsuitable for the rearing of sheep and wool, it must be its heat ; and this 

 must affect the wool-producing qualities of the animal alone, and not its 

 health, as the following facts will show. There were upward of 660,000 

 sheep in the five most southern States, in 1839. In Florida, they have 

 been acclimated as far south as the 29th degree. In Louisiana, Mississippi, 

 Alabama, and Georgia, they not only flourish in the northern and more 

 elevated sections, but on the low, fenny, tide-water region which skirts the 

 Gulf of Mexico. In the above five States there were, in 1839, upward of 

 190,000 sheep below the 32d degree of latitude, viz. : in Georgia 32,986, 

 Florida 7,198, Alabama 22,053, Mississippi 56,780, Louisiana 81,627-.* 

 They graze with equal impunity the vegetation on the margin of the 

 Great Okefinokee Swamp (in Georgia and Florida) and on that which 

 rankly flourishes among the ooze at the mouths of the Mississippi. It may 

 interest some less acquainted than you are, sir, with this subject, to know 

 that in 1839 the county in which New-Orleans stands (Orleans) contained 

 1,807 sheep; Jefferson, on the opposite side of the river, 6,871 ; St. Ber- 

 nard, extending from Orleans to the Gulf, 1,154 ; Plaquemine, almost sur- 

 rounded by the waters of the Gulf, and comprising the delta of the Missis- 

 sippi, 1,832 ; Lafourche Interior, on the Gulf, 1,253 ; Terrebonne, another 

 Gulf county, 1,013; St. Mary's, another, 8,211; and La Fayette, another, 

 2,622.t 



No portion of the United States is lower, hotter, or more unhealthy 

 than much of the preceding, and none, according to commonly received 

 notions, would be more unsuited to the healthy production of sheep. Yet, 

 that they are healthy in these situations is a matter of perfect notoriety to 

 all conversant with the facts. So far as health is concerned, then, we arc 

 assuredly authorized to assume the position that no portion of the United 

 States is too warm for sheep. 



We come now to the effect of climate on the wool -producing qualities 

 of the animal. Assuming the census returns of the United States in 1840 

 as reliable data, they would furnish strong proof that *he warmth of the 

 climate has a marked effect in diminishing the weight of w r ool per sheep ; 

 and they have been adduced as furnishing conclusive evidence to that ef- 

 fect, by persons more accustomed to broad assertion than patient invest! 

 gation. 



The following will give the weight of wool per head in the States enu- 

 merated in Table No. 1, estimated from the census returns of 1840 : 



TABLE No. 2. 



But an examination of the census will show that so far as several cf 

 these States are concerned, it is entitled to very little credit, in this par- 

 ticular, and that it is correct in relation to none of them. 



In Louisiana, in fourteen counties from which 30,261 sheep, or nearly 

 one-third in the whole State, are returned, not a pound of wool is returned. 



In Florida, four counties, returning 228 sheep, return no wool. Let ut 



U. 8. Onsus. 1B4G. 



Ib 



