476 



SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



others they were sometimes fed cotton-seed and oats. The average 

 cost of raising sheep per head throughout the State was 54 cents ; for 

 raising a pound of wool 10 cents. The average yield per sheep of all 

 kinds was 3 pounds. 



While the average of wool per head does not equal that from the 

 flocks of the North and the West; the cost of raising sheep is so low 

 that the industry would be a paying one but for that curse of sheep 

 husbandry all over the country, the worthless dog. Ten per cent of the 

 sheep of South Carolina are annually killed by them, and their existence 

 prevents the development of flocks. Col. Watts kept up his flock of 

 Merinos, and at the State Fair of 1889 showed some rams and ewes, the 

 only Spanish Merinos on the ground. The show of Southdowns, Cots- 

 wolds, Oxfordshires, Shropshires, Broad-tailed sheep, and Angora goats 

 was very creditable. 



Sheep and wool of South Carolina, 1840 to 1890. 



The advantage of the sheep as a renovator of the land is shown in 

 one instance in South Carolina. In 1866 a planter of Fairneld County 

 bought 38 common sheep and a Leicester ram. Afterwards he bought 

 a Merino ram and then a Southdown. In 1873 his flock of 38 had 

 increased to 350 sheep, worth $1,000. His wool had netted him $900, his 

 mutton $875, beside what his family consumed. No care was taken of 

 the sheep except to salt them and give them a little cotton- seed in 

 winter. Their manure so enriched 30 acres of land that it raised 1,000 

 pounds of seed cotton in 1873, where it raised but 200 pounds in 1866. 



Upon hilly, poor land in South Carolina the Merino thrives best; 

 upon rich pastures the Southdown, the Cotswold, and the Shropshire, 

 while the low, flat lands are not fit for sheep of any kind. 



There has been a very decided improvement in the sheep husbandry 

 of South Carolina within the last five years by the introduction of im- 

 proved breeds. Many Merino rams, Shropshires, and Southdowns have 

 been crossed on the flocks throughout the State; more care is paid to 

 the sheep, and the business is found to pay where attended to. Any 

 well cared-for flock of improved sheep will pay 80 to 100 per cent, as 

 either the lambs or wool will pay all the expenses, and the other crop is 

 the profit. 



There is not only a great indifference to sheep and their products in 



