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FKOM MAJ. GEO. T. ALLMAN. 



STOCKWELL, MARSHALL Co., TENN., July, 1877. 

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



In reply to your letter of the 25th ult., I do not know of any stock 

 kept on a farm that is more profitable than sheep. They pay two divi- 

 dends a year lambs and fleece besides a daily dividend of manure, and 

 are indispensable on a stock farm to keep down weeds, bushes, etc. 



I do not know how I can better illustrate the profits than by giving a 

 recent occurrence. A gentleman had seventeen very inferior sheep, sold 

 them for $20, and gave that money for a very fine ewe, then with lamb. 

 This was three years since. He received $62.50 for two lambs sold and 

 the wool. I paid him $100, a few days since, for the original ewe and 

 nine others all her produce and descendants. He lost several lambs by 

 the severe winter of 1876-7; never provided any shelter, and never fed 

 them one bushel of grain. 



My best ewes pay me annually an average of $25 per head (sales of 

 lambs and wool). 



The second question is more difficult to answer, as all depends upon the 

 number of other stock kept on the farm, and whether luxuriant pastures 

 or a scanty bite. There is neither profit nor pleasure in handling inferior 

 stock, and there is no pay in short grass. From three to four sheep to one 

 acre of grass can be well kept with other stock in such quantities as are 

 usually kept on our farms. 



For mutton, the Southdowns have no equal. For carcass and fleece 

 combined, I prefer the Cotswold. When large flocks are proposed to be 

 kept, I would give the preference to the Merino. I prefer the Cotswold 

 from the fact there is more demand for them and they pay better. I find 

 that sheep and all other stock do best and pay most when protected from 

 sleets, snow, etc. When there is plenty of grazing they require very little 

 feed. I think it advisable to change their pastures, and they should have 

 salt, water and shade free of access. During severe winter I feed one ear 

 of corn per day to each sheep, and when the ground is covered with snow, 

 all the hay they will eat. Sheep properly cared for seldom have any 

 disease with us. If kept in good flesh, they are seldom annoyed with 

 "sheep ticks." A tobacco dip will rid them of ticks. It is an excellent 

 plan to bore holes with a two-inch augur, fill the holes nearly to the top 

 with salt, and put pine tar around the holes, so that when the sheep lick 

 the salt they get the tar on their noses, and are not much annoyed by the 

 fly in summer. Early lambs should be clipped in July, which renders 

 them less liable to disease. This applies more especially to the long- 

 wooled sheep. When the fly annoys them, the lambs run from tree to 

 tree and get very hot and perspire very much, then lie down on damp 



