SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



tions, Col. Edward Colston, of Berkley county, Virginia, makes the fol- 

 lowing statements : 



" The western part of our county, containing perhaps 30,000 acres, is mountainous. I 

 have ridden there for ten miles without seeing a human habitation, and although from iti 

 abundant herbage it might sustain for its owners 20,000 head of sheep, not a single one is t 

 be found grazing on its surface. In tlxis region may be found, also, much land fit for culd- 

 % ation, with fine meadows and abundant water. Yet all this is worthless to our community, 

 and a dead capital to the proprietors. There is territory and grass enough here to be di- 

 vided into three or four sheep-walks, each sustaining from 3,000 to 4,000 sheep during the 

 summer, with meadow and arable land enough, at a small expense, to provide amply for 

 winter sustenance." 



Hon. Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, in a letter to Mr. Skinner,* says : 



' Virginia has many advantages for breeding sheep, not surpassed in the United States 

 The middle part of the State, and especially the whole range of the south-west Mountains 

 and Blue Ridge, afford. the greatest facilities for fine sheep-walks. Hills covered with fine 

 herbage, extensive inclosures, abundance of running water, and well sheltered by trees 

 against the heat and sun of summer." 



The following extracts are from a communication in the Monthly Jour- 

 nal of Agriculture,! by Hon. W. L. Goggin, who recently represented the 

 District he describes in Congress : 



" Bedford, the county in which I reside, is bounded on the south side by the Stauntoii 

 River, on the north by the James River, while its western extremity, the whole length, 



reaches the top of the Blue Ridge The Peaks of Ottert are situated in this county, 



on the north-west corner they are not only beautiful themselves, when seen as they are in 

 the distance, but the whole range of the Blue Ridge presents, perhaps, here, the most inter- 

 esting view of the kind in the State. These mountains afford an unlimited range for stock, 

 and the advantages for sheep-walks (mild as is the climate, combined, with the productive- 

 ness of the soil) that are nowhere equaled, as is believed, except by similar situations in 



the neighboring counties Ranges for sheep may be had at a very reduced price on 



the mountains, and where, too, could be produced all the grasses in which they delight, such 

 as the red and white clover, the meadow fox-tail, short blue meadow-grass, lucern, rye-grass, 

 &c. These advantages, and then the beautiful, clear streams which abound in all the moun- 

 tain regions, invite a pastoral life." Speaking of Amherst and Nelson counties, he says : 

 * The ranges for stock here, too, are extensive, and the beautiful, rich mountain sides inter- 

 spersed with farm-houses, some of them even elegant mansions, betoken an independence 

 among the inhabitants that is often found in such situations. Many of the mountains, to 

 their very summit?, are covered with the richest verdure." Of Madison and Greene coun- 

 ties he says: " Here, too, are abundant ranges, and the wonder is that sheep husbandly is 

 not introduced." 



The character of the loftier mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, 

 for the production of grasses, would seem to leave no doubt, in this par- 

 ticular, in regard to the lower ones which form the prolongation of the 

 same chains in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Let us now turn 

 our glance to the great western chain the Cumberland Mountains in 

 Kentucky and Tennessee. 



The following extracts are from a communication published by Hon. A. 

 Beatty in the American Agriculturist : 



" But it is not upon our high-priced rich lands alone that we can carry on sheep husbandry 

 to advantage. Kentucky has a belt of hill and mountain country, bordering on the Virginia 

 line on the east, and on the rich lands of the State on the west, averaging about seventvfive 

 miles in width, extending from the Ohio River and Big Sandy, latitude 38 30', to the' Ten- 

 nessee line, 3G 30' north. The whole of this region is admirably adapted to sheen hus- 

 bandry ; the most northern part but a few minutes north of my residence, and extending 

 about two degrees farther south. The lands are very cheap : the State price of those not 

 yet appropriated only five cents per acre, and those purchased second-hand, more or less 

 improved, may be had from 25 to 50 cents per acre, and still less when unimproved. This 

 country in a state of nature furnishes, during the spring, summer, and full months,' a fino 

 range for sheep, and is susceptible of great improvement by clearing up and sowing the cul- 

 tivated grasses for winter feeding. This whole country is finely adapted to the' Spanish 



* Monthly Journal of Agriculture, July, 1S45, pp. 37-39. ft October 1845, pp. 181-183 



J Ine ioluest mountains, as before stated, of Virginia. 



