[110] 



It is the custom of many feeders to buy and sell contin- 

 uously. They keep a large feeding lot, and keep a buyer 

 out all the time, and every few days the flock is culled of 

 all suitably fat. In this way there is no remission of buy- 

 ing or selling. There will for a few years yet be some dif- 

 ficulty in getting the sorts most profitable for fattening, the 

 grade breeds, but that is gradually being overcome as the 

 stock of sheep is being rapidly improved throughout the 

 State. There are in almost every section of the State pub- 

 lic-spirited men who devote their entire energies to the pro- 

 duction of full blooded sheep, relying for their profits on 

 retailing here and there a ram or ewe, and sometimes a pair, 

 to their less enterprising neighbors, and this plan is fast 

 improving the breeds of every neighborhood. In fact, only 

 the "barrens" of the "rim" and the mountain lands are 

 wholly given up to the unadulterated native sheep, and 

 from these counties the ewes that go to the production of 

 grade sheep are principally derived. The time is not far 

 distant when the long-legged, naked-bellied native will dis- 

 appear from our State altogether. 



There is yet another class of sheep- raisers, who follow an 

 entirely different system for profit, and inasmuch as they 

 persist in it, we may suppose they find it profitable. They 

 will make a selection of as many ewes as their farms can 

 accommodate, in August. To every 35 or 40 ewes they 

 will add a good Southdown or Cotswold buck, and put the 

 ewes to them, say by the 15th of August. These ewes are 

 kept in fine condition through the winter, and in the latter 

 part of April they are sheared. The wool is sold as one 

 part of the profit, and the lambs are sold off in the latter 

 part of May, when the ewes are rapidly fattened and sold 

 to the butchers. By the end of June the farmer has dis- 

 posed of his entire flock, when he will clean up his lots, 

 spread his manure, and in a month is ready to tread again 

 around the circle. By actual demonstration, the following 

 account will exhibit the profits of this method of farming: 



