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plainly indicatedlby the physical elements of the country. They are the 

 same as those of Spain, the oldest and most extensive wool-growing region 

 of the world; they are the same as those of California and Australia 

 which, in our day, are as yet her only rivals. High ranges of mountains 

 to the north and the south of us, furnishing shelter from arctic cold and 

 torrid heat; the intermediate space furrowed into innumerable ridges and 

 valleys; a dry soil, but an abundance of the purest living water; a cli- 

 mate strictly temperate, where all the valuable grasses flourish in perpet- 

 ual verdure; an atmosphere saturated with all the elements of health; 

 such are its chief characteristics, and such is the paradise of the sheep. 

 Notwithstanding these great natural advantages, we do not produce over 

 the sixth part of the wool consumed by our population. The number of 

 our sheep is scarcely equal to half of our population ; we have but one 

 sheep to every eight acres of our improved lands; one to every forty acres 

 of our entire territory. Our number is but a small fraction of what it 

 could and should be, as may be seen from the following statistics: Spain, 

 with neither a soil nor climate equal to ours, has two sheep for each of 

 her population, and one to every five acres of her territory. The State of 

 Vermont keeps one sheep to every four acres of her territory, and three to 

 every one of her population. New York has one sheep to every seven 

 acres of territory; Ohio, one to every six acres. The proportion of horses 

 and cattle in the two last mentioned States is also fully double that of 

 Tennessee. If in these States, where sheep-husbandry is not the chief oc- 

 cupation of the farmers but merely incidental to their other occupations, 

 where the climate is so rigorous as to require feeding from three to six 

 months in the year, and where the price of land is upon an average four- 

 fold that of ours, such numbers of sheep are maintained, how much better 

 could be our own showing if our people were only wisely alive to their 

 ow r n interest. The assessment rolls of East Tennessee show an aggregate 

 in round numbers of eight and one-half millions of acres, of which not 

 quite one-fourth is returned as improved. Without materially interfer- 

 ing with other agricultural operations this territory could support two 

 and one-half million sheep, which, at a low estimate, would yield in 

 money three-fourths as much as the entire crop of wheat, corn and oats, 

 basing the calculation upon the census report of 1870, and taking the 

 average price of wool and grain for the last five years. In other words, 

 the income of our farmers would be nearly doubled, with but little addi- 

 tional labor and expense. From our own experience and that of a large 

 number of farmers who do raise sheep, we believe that the results would 

 be considerably above our estimate. Moreover, this estimate does not in- 

 clude the value of the manure as a fertilizer, of which more will subse- 

 quently be said. 



If this representation is correct, the question naturally occurs, why do 

 not our people engage in the business? There are, it seems to us, three 

 chief reasons. There exists in many minds a prejudice against the sheep; 



