EAST OP THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 477 



South Carolina, but a deep-seated hostility against them. Some of this 

 hostility is inherited from those who looked upon sheep as rivals to the 

 cotton plant. A prejudice against them difficult to remove is that as 

 sheep require grass the grass will stop cotton culture. Grass is con- 

 sidered the great enemy to cotton culture. If half the area of South 

 Carolina, now annually planted in cotton, were devoted to grass and 

 turned into sheep walks, well stocked with good sheep, it would in ten 

 years enrich the people of the State fourfold that the same area of cot- 

 toii would, and the land would be renovated to a degree that it would 

 yield double the amount of cotton now raised upon it, and would main- 

 tain its fertility far beyond the time vouchsafed by patent fertilizers. 

 There is probably no State in the Union that needs a diversified agri- 

 culture more than South Carolina, and in that diversified agriculture 

 the sheep should be a prominent factor, not only for its flesh and wool, 

 but as an industrious renovator of the soil and a gleaner of briers and 

 weeds. There is no apparent reason why this day should not be hast- 

 ened, save the indifference of those who should lead public thought. 

 The climate of the State is congenial to sheep; grasses and other greeii 

 and succulent food can be cultivated and the cotton-seed that is an- 

 nually wasted or but partially utilized would support thousands. That 

 they can be raised cheaply is shown by the reports of the State officials, 

 and with care, proper management and protection from dogs the busi- 

 ness would be highly remunerative. 



GEORGIA. 



That portion of Georgia adjoining Florida early received the Spanish 

 sheep, but whether of the Merino breed or the coarse-wooled Churros 

 is a question. If of the former, it has become greatly degenerated 

 through many years of neglect. It is, however, a fact that in the pine 

 woods of that country sheep are found still bearing the characteristics 

 of the Merino, yielding a fine wool, but of whose origin nothing is known 

 save that tradition says they were descended from Spanish sheep. 



The first sheep of undoubted Merino blood known to have been intro- 

 duced into Georgia was in November, 1810, when 4 rams were offered 

 for sale that had been sent from New York. In February following a 

 ram and ewe, said to be Escurials, were offered for sale, and in May, 



1811, there was a large consignment to Mr. Scott, from Massachusetts, 

 of which but few were sold, the remainder being sent back to Massachu- 

 setts. Of all the seacoast States Georgia was the least desirous to 

 accept the animal, a fact sufficiently accounted for by the excellence of 

 its native wool and the great interest her planters had in the cultiva- 

 tion of cotton. 



No record remains of the purchasers of the few sheep shipped to 

 Georgia, or of their subsequent history; but at the close of the war of 



1812, when Capt. Butt's company of Hancock County men were about 

 leaving Savannah for their homes, March 1, 1815, John McQueen, on 



