302 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



brought in April and May ; (here February is esteemed by many a better 

 month.) To do this, the bucks must be kept impounded, except at the 

 time desired. From, the great superiority of early lambs, this part of sheep 

 husbandry is esteemed very important. . 



During lambing season, close attention is required to guard both ewe and 

 lamb from storms and cold winds to see that the ewe acknowledges her 

 lamb, and to keep up the marking and altering as the lambs get between 

 five and ten days old. 



Ten days previous to shearing time they prepare for it by washing the 

 wool on the sheep' % s back, that the natural oil of the wool, which is destroyed 

 by the washing, may have time to be renewed, without which the wool feels 

 and works harsh. The washing is done at spouts or pools, prepared for the 

 purpose, and the other flocks are kept on clean pastures till sheared. As 

 the proper preparation of an article for market is justly considered of the 

 next importance to a good article, I will describe this process minutely, ac 

 practised for the northern market. The shearing is done on a clean floor, 

 and each fleece is kept unbroken. When sheared, it is roiled outside in, 

 until it is reduced to a lump about ten inches each way, and then tied with 

 strings in two places. For packing the wool, a bag is used nearly as large 

 as our cotton bags, which, after sewing to a hoop at top, they hang through 

 a hole in an upper floor, a little less in diameter than the hoop ; here the 

 fleeces are packed down by the foot, the weight of an ordinary sized man 

 being a sufficient pressure. Thus finished, the wool is ready for a northern 

 or European market. Manufacturers will not give full price for wool unless 

 the fleeces are unbroken ; because, before manufacturing, they consider it 

 necessary to have each fleece divided into five qualities, which they cannot 

 do if the wool of different fleeces is emptied together. 



Different modes of summer management are followed in different coun- 

 tries. The one followed in Australia, as described by Mr. Randall, is not 

 only less troublesome, but would be better suited to our mountain region 

 There they roam over the plains, under charge of a shepherd, in flocks of 

 three hundred to one thousand. Every night, some two or more of these 

 flocks are penned together, during the entire year. Breeding promiscuously 

 from the bucks that run with the flocks, allowing three or four to the hun- 

 dred ewes. At the Cape of Good Hope, he says the same practice pre- 

 vails ; and from both of these places the wool exported is equal, and in some 

 instances superior in quality to the Merino. 



The statements here given, Mr. President, we have carefully considered, 

 and believe to be true and we submit them under the belief that if the im- 

 portance of sheep husbandry was duly considered, especially by the districts 

 lying north and contiguous to the mountains, much additional comfort and 

 wealth might be added to that already delightful region. 



All which is respectfully submitted. 



R. F. SIMPSON. 



Note . Since this report was read, I have been informed by Mr. Thomas 

 ]Vi. Sloan, that his wool does not cost him more than five cents a pound 

 and by Mr. Morris, at Pickens C. H., that for care, shearing, &c., of a 

 small flock of eight ewes, worth eight dollars, kept on Ocone mountain, he 

 paid one-half of the spring clipping, equal to three-quarters of a pound per 

 head, and that from them he had, after paying all expenses, $3 60, arid eight 

 bmbs worth eight dollars $11 60. And bi r Mr. Shepherd a tenant oii 



