APPENDIX. 



LETTERS FROM PROMINENT SHEEP RAISERS. 



FEOM TOM CEUTCHFIELD, ESQ., HAMILTON COUNTY. 



J. B. KIKLEBREW, Commissioner of Agriculture, etc. 



Dear Sir You ask me, for the use of your bureau, ray experience in 

 sheep husbandry, and such suggestions as I may see proper to make. I 

 would much prefer some one more competent and of greater experience 

 than I, had been called upon. 



My first practical experience with sheep commenced in 1864, since 

 when and up to the present time I have given it more than ordinary at- 

 tention, having found it not only a great pleasure in conjunction with 

 other duties of the farm, but also one of greater profit in proportion to the 

 capit* invested, than anything else pertaining to the farm. 



I had been accustomed to the native sheep of Tennessee, had never seen 

 any of the improved breeds, and well remember my astonishment when I 

 first saw the massive Cotswolds at Laurel Hill, the beautiful home of 

 James P. Johnson, of Williamson county, from whom I made my first 

 purchase of Cotswolds. 



In 1864 I purchased a lot of native ewes, and was fortunate in getting 

 the use of a superior Spanish Merino ram, bred by R. Peters, of Atlanta, 

 Georgia, to cross upon them, which cross gave great improvement in car- 

 cass, form and fleece, covering the naked places of the natives, and making 

 the fleece much more dense and the fibre finer and stronger. 



I saved the ewe lambs of this cross, and bred them to an improved 

 Kentucky buck, bred by Eobert W. Scott, of Frankfort, Ky., which in- 

 creased the size of carcass and gave greater length and yield of wool. 



The ewe lambs of his get were bred to the Cotswold buck bought from 

 James P. Johnson, and I have continued to breed to the best Cotswold 

 buck I could procure, American breed and imported, never using one 

 buck longer than two years, and never breeding in-and-in. In the mean- 

 time I have added to my flock American bred and imported Cotswold 

 ewes at heavy cost, breeding them to the same bucks. 



