SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 53 



1845,* I was indebted to a most respectable and extensive purchaser of 

 wool, and its accuracy is beyond question. 



TABLE No. 7. 



It will thus be seen that for a period of fourteen years preceding 1845, 

 the average price of good wools was 39y cents per pound.t 



The average weight of fleece in sheep yielding this wool has been about 

 3 Ibs. ; the pure-blood Saxons less ; but those -bearing the coarsest wool 

 included, in the average, more. 



The average price of sheep of the quality under consideration, has been 

 not less than $2 per head in the fall, and lambs half that price.J The an- 

 nual increase in lambs would be about 80 per cent., or if less by reason of 

 the number of wethers in the nock, the growth of the latter would give n, 

 corresponding increase in profit. One hundred sheep, properly littered, 

 will make at least forty loads of manure during the one hundred and fifty 

 days during which they are confined to dry feed, in our Northern 

 winters. 



The grazing lands of New-York, cut up as they are into small farms,[| 

 and each being provided with dwelling and farm buildings, are worth 

 from $15 to $30 per acre. Prime sheep lands will average about $20. 



In relation to the amount of land necessary to support a given number 

 of sheep, the experience of a good many years has satisfied me that the 

 rule commonly laid down on the grazing lands of New- York and New- 

 England, that, on the average, one acre of land will give subsistence to 

 three fine-wooled sheep throughout the year, is an accurate one.lj On 

 grain farms, it is considered good economy to keep one sheep for every 

 acre of cleared land which the farm contains ; on those where mixed 

 husbandry is practiced, two ; and, on those exclusively devoted to sheep, 

 three. 



In the following, and all similar estimates, I shall reckon the profits on 

 the land and expenditures, instead of the land and the commonly nuotcd 

 nriccs of grass, hay, &c., consumed. These prices, in the interior, are 



* See Report, of the Secretary of the Treasury, 1845, p. 461. I thought, and so stnted to Mr. Walker, that 

 the Table placed wools about H cents per pound too high. But subsequent information has convinced me 

 that 1 was in error. In my statement of the average profits of sheep husbandry, in those replies, I estima- 

 ted the average price of wool by the prides paid by a local and much smaller purchaser, and for a com- 

 paratively limited term of years. 1 was not then aware of the utter defectivencss of the U. S. Census re- 

 turns (pointed out in Letter II.) in relation to the annual product of wool, and therefore was misled in the 

 average weight of fleeces ; and, speaking from impression rather than experiment, 1 placed the value of 

 the manure altogether too low. Those questions and replies have led me into experiments and inquiries, 

 which have resulted in more accurate information. I allude to this subject, because I think it every man's 

 fluty to correct any errors or explain any discrepancies subsequently discovers'?- by him, in his statement* 

 which have been thrown before the public, and thus are placed in a position to mislead. 



t During 1846 it was from 30 to 32 cents per pound, but as this estimate is not based on extensive pur- 

 chases, like the preceding, I have not placed it in the table. 



J Including grade sheep, which form the greatest proportion of the whole number. There have been 

 rery few pure-blood Merinos in the State, and many of the Saxon flocks have been so miserably deterio- 

 rated in carcass and weight of fleece, that they have sold for low prices. But good Saxons sold much 

 nbove this until within three or four years ; since then, the Merinos have been rapidly driving out th 

 Saxons, and those of good quality and undoubted pedigree have sold for from five to twenty-five times as 

 much. The higher the price, the greater the profits, by reason of the value of the increase. 



|| It would be my impression that the farms in the grazing regions do not, on the average, exceed 138 

 acres each. 



Id est, in the grazing region. 



TT ! say " fine-wooled sheep," because the larger and coarser Downs, Leicesters, Cotsw jlde, &c. consume 

 much more, ae will hereafter be shown. 



