SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 59 



John S. Skinner, Esq. thus yvrites me :* 



" Col. Hampton's flock numbers 800, 1 believe. He kills the finest sort of mutton through 

 out the winter and spring very fat and excellent in all respects. He told me last summer, 

 at Saratoga, that they never get a mouthful except what they can find in the woods and 

 fields." 



Hon. R. F. Simpson, Member of Congress, of Pendlefc>n, South Caro 

 Una, thus describes the region in which he resides, and some of the contig 

 nous ones :t 



HENRY S. RANDALL, Esq. WASHINGTON, Jan. 2&, 1847. 



Dear Sir : I take much pleasure in answering your inquiries, and only regret that I have 

 not more time to do full justice to the subject. If my answers fail to inform you with suffi 

 cient clearness on any point, I shall be most happy to add to them, at your suggestion. 



The Allegany Mountains, as you are aware, run from N. E. to S. W. That part of them 

 north of the S. C. line lies spread out in different chains or ridges to a distance of nearly 50 

 miles ; and the whole region is commonly called " on th mountains." The climate is healthy 

 and the grass fine. Many of the valleys in this region are very rich, particularly on the wa- 

 ter-courses. The ground is covered with snow as much as four weeks annually. The range 

 is good, but there may be too much humidity for sheep.t The land is cheap, say $1 per 

 acre but much can be bought at 50 cents. I have leamed from good authority that sheep 

 can be farmed out during the winter at ten cents a head, in any ordinary quantity. The 

 farmers who take them, too, will be liable for loss by death, in many instances. 



There is a strip of country lying east of tti3 Blue Ridge, and parallel to it, from 20 to 30 

 miles wide, extending through North and South Carolina and Georgia, which I think espe- 

 cially adapted to sheep husbandry. The land is poor for the production of our southern sta- 

 ples, and is sparsely settled, but the pasturage is good. There is a perennial grass, known 

 as " woods grass," which springs up in the woods after they are burned each winter, which 

 makes excellent pasture for all kinds of stock. It starts vigorously in the spring, and sheep 

 fatten on it by the middle of July. It lasts all the summer, and provides sufficient food for 

 sheep during the entire winter, except when snow is on the ground, which is not more than 

 two or three days at a time, and usually not more than ten days during a winter. 



The few days during which the grass is covered up with snow are the only ones, during 

 the entire year, when it is necessary to feed sheep. This is usually done with oats in the 

 sheaf. . . . Supposing ten sheep equal to one cow, I think one acre would afford sub 

 aistence to three sheep. 



But few people mow here. In a few instances, herds-grass has been sown and mowed, 

 but the product not weighed, to my knowledge. Both herds-grass and the natural ones, on 

 our bottom lands, look much richer, and to all appearance would turn off a heavier crop of 

 hay than any meadows to be seen on the line of travel through Virginia. 



As I have before remarked, the land is poor, except the small bottoms on creeks and 

 branches. The latter are rich, and will produce 30 bushels of corn and from 10 to 15 bush* 

 els of wheat per acre. They also produce oats and rye, 'but I do not know how much by 

 measurement. I suppose from 10 to 20 bushels each. The land is valued low from 50 cte. 

 to $1 50 per acre and it is only necessary to buy $500 or $1,000 worth of it, to embrace 

 sufficient bottom to raise provisions, and oats to feed sheep when snow is on the ground. 

 The rangell is very large, and everybody's stock has liberty to roam over it, without hin- 

 drance or compensation. 



Our common method of managing sheep is as follows : The flock are kept in the planta- 

 tion during the winter by some ; others turn out in the woods. In May they are sheared, 

 the lambs marked, &c., and they are turned into the out pastures. When they come up. 

 they are salted, and no other attention is paid to them until fall, when most persons shear 

 again. They are. rarely brought up unless to get a lamb for the table. This treatment ren- 

 ders them wild, and prone to jump into the owners' or neighbors' wheat fields, from which 

 they are driven out with rocks and sticks, and sometimes with dogs. They are, in all re- 



* Jan. 15, 1847. 



f This letter would have been more appropriately included in my IVth Letter, but was not received in 

 time, and it is by far too valuable and interesting to be omitted. 



1 The effect of humidity on sheep is, I think, often misunderstood and greatly exaggerated. Wet, cold 

 toils are uncongenial to sheep, but they suffer no moi-e from those ordinary fogs and vapors which prevail 

 in insular positions, or which are attracted by mountain ranges, than other domestic animals. As has been 

 before remarked, sheep thrive in the peculiarly foggy atmosphere of England also in Holland. Their 

 heUthiness on mountains is proverbial, yet these elevations are usually subject to fogs, and clouds rest on 

 the sides or summits of the loftier ones. As the southern mountains are cleared of their trees, their atmo- 

 sphere will be less humid, and that soft vegetable mould (which excited the fears of Mr. Buckley) will ac- 

 quire the consistency which it always does en a dry foundation, when exposed to the sun and air; and it 

 will be the means of supplying the sheep with rich vegetable nutriment, instead of poisoning them with 

 hoof-ail." 



|| The provincial signification of this word, South, is the uninclosed pasturage in tht Jbrest and "out 

 Eelds," f. e., worn-out lands thrown out to commons. 



