SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



pound.* My own impression, however, is that the land, properly in- 

 closed, that will support 3 sheep per annum, will cost, except in occa 

 eional localities, not less than $4 or $5, let the amount be more or less ; 

 and this would bring the cost of production (with 3-lb. fleeces) to between 

 7 and 8 cents per pound. I shall hereafter assume it to be 8 cents. 



On many of the more northern mountains of the Southern States, and 

 on the high peaks farther south, neither the grasses nor grain grow suffi 

 ciently to support sheep, unless the range is very large in proportion to 

 the number, during the winter.! Here, as in the Northern States, dry feed 

 must be prepared for the winter subsistence of sheep. This can be read- 

 ily done, as the best meadow grasses of the North and the clovers flourish 

 on the sides of the mountains-! There is little doubt that sheep can be 

 wintered on dry feed on many of the mountains, and yet, on account of 

 the extreme cheapness of the lands, the cost of producing wool not exceed 

 eight cents per pound. 



In the circumstances of many of the lowland plantations, it would b 

 a most economical arrangement to summer the sheep on the mountain^ 

 and then drive them to these plantations to be wintered on pasture, fog, 

 or grain fields, according to convenience. After the lambs have reached 

 a sufficient age in the spring, and the sheep are shorn, marked, &c., a 

 flock might be sent thirty, fifty, or even a hundred miles to its summer 

 range on the mountains, at a trifling expense ; and large numbers could 

 lie kept there under the surveillance of a single shepherd and a brace or 

 two of dogs. By this system the lowland plantation would be saved from 

 maintaining pasture on more expensive lands ; many of its less marketa- 

 ble products could be converted into wool, meat, and manure ; and it 

 would be enriched by the wintering of the sheep. 



Such, you are aware, is the system of sheep husbandry in Spain. The 

 sheep are wintered on the plains of Estremadura, sometimes reaching the 

 north of Andalusia. Both of these provinces, though in a latitude cor- 

 responding with that of a portion of the United States, extending from 

 Albemarle Sound to a little north of Philadelphia, are parched, during the 

 summer, to a state of arid sterility, by the burning winds of Africa. || In 



* See Monthly Journal of Agriculture. 



t With sufficient range, however, they not only obtain subsistence, but get fat. John S. Skinner, Esq., 

 writes me : " In the mountains ot Virginia, viz., at the Warm Springs, Dr. Brockenboro told me that a 

 flock of sheep which he had bought for use during the watering season, strayed, and got off beyond reach 

 during the summer; that the winter after they were rarely seen: and that as chance offered they were 

 rJiut; and that tiner and fatter mutton he never desired to see." The Warm Springs are in Bath county, 

 among the Western or Allegany Mountains, a few minutes north of latitude 38. 



{ See Mr. Goggin's statements in Letter IV. Since the above was written, I have received the following 

 statements from "Mr. W. Murdock, of Asheville, Huricombe county, North Carolina : 



" Excellent swards of grass are grown in this district from Orchard grass or Cock's-foot. Timothy and 

 Italian Rye grass I have found to thrive remarkably well. I never saw them do better in any country. 1 

 received my seeds from England, and they succeeded admirably, and in ground by no means favorable to 

 a fair trial. Turnips succeed remarkably well hew, and even lf>0 miles farther south, as I am informed by 



Mr. Edward Calhoun the kinds I don't know but here the Globe, Aberdeen, Norfolk, &c., do well 



If grounds were reserved as you suggest, for the winter feeding of sheep, the full growth being under- 

 pastured, and if some of the stubbles were plowed up and sown broadcast with turnips mixed with rape 

 or colza, very little fodder will be required, in fact only when snow is on the ground, which seldom ex- 

 ceeds fifteen or twenty days during tli<e year." [This fully confirms the positions assumed by me near the 

 close of Letter IV.] 



' I think that Curled Kale would be excellent for the winter keep of sheep, or cattle of any kind. I got 

 ome seed from England and sowed it like any cabbage seed. 1 put out the plants two feet asunder in bu 

 tolerable ground. It grew three feet high and two feet in diameter. That I planted in the open field the 

 heep got at in October, and ate it, stock, branches and all, to the ground. That planted in the garden has, 

 like the rape, stood the severe frosts uninjured. It is a delightful vegetable all the spring, and stands a 



warm or a cold climate This and rape are, I think, all the green food necessary to koep sheep 



through the winter, with the addition of a litile hay. Rape may be sown broadcast in mois. weather in 

 May or June, and mown off for the sheep, when required, about six inches above ground. If the shoota 

 are not required for pasture, let them go' to seed, and the feed will pay better than any other crop, for 

 making oil and rape cake." 



l| Here is a notable instance of the want of correspondence between isothermal and latitudinal lines be- 

 tween the west of Europe and the eastern portion of our own Continent. The two Spanish provinces th< 

 <*titude of which is above given, have a climate more resembling the scorched llanos ol'Caraccas thuuaoi 

 portion, even the most southerly, of the United States. 



