480 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



cribe to the opinion held by some that its advantages were as great for 

 large flocks as the ranges in Texas and California. He said : 



The pasturage of this section, called wire grass, affords fine grazing for sheep in 

 the spring, but for permanent and continuous food it can not be relied on. A fair 

 experiment in sheep raising, uniting good attention, selection, and crossing, with a 

 determination to secure the best development in frame and fleece, has not been made 

 in this section for many years. If it were properly attempted, by combining Ber- 

 muda with the wire grass for spring and summer pastures, and red winter oats for 

 one or two months in winter, for the ewes and lambs, I think the result would prove 

 of the most satisfactory and profitable character. 



In the middle portion of the State the Bermuda grass prevails, and 

 under the cotton system of culture it was the dread and bane of the 

 planter; but now, for its nutritious qualities and compactness of sod, 

 it is considered as valuable and as reliable as any grass, not excepting 

 the Kentucky blue grass. It affords sheep the very best pasture for 

 six months of the year, and if managed as on the pastures of Kentucky, 

 it would pasture the entire year. 



In upper Georgia the country is hill and valley, the land changing 

 very rapidly; the pasturage sedge, crab and other native grasses. Of 

 the cultivated, the orchard grass, red and white clover on upland, and 

 red-top on lowlands, succeed admirably. Lucerne and German millet 

 give ample supplies of good hay. Eed, rust-proof oats a reliable win- 

 ter variety, if sown in September can be pastured during the winter 

 and early spring, and then yield a full crop of grain. The same may be 

 said of barley, rye, and wheat. 



Mr. Peters believed that the future sheep husbandry of the State, if 

 intelligently pursued in accordance with its natural divisions, would 

 show three distinct systems. That of northern Georgia would some- 

 what resemble the industry in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and New 

 England; that of the middle of the State, Kentucky; and that of the 

 southern portion (with shepherds and dogs) Texas, Colorado, and Cali- 

 fornia. 



But Georgia has not yet become a wool-growing State. The people 

 raise neither sheep nor wool sufficient for their own use, although they 

 have one of the finest sheep-raising States of the country, where for 

 nine and ten months of the year, and sometimes the year round, they 

 keep fat on the native grasses. The life of the animal has no pro- 

 tection from man or dogs, and the latter eat more mutton than the 

 former. Nature does much for the sheep, but man expects more; he 

 acts as if he believed that the sheep should care for itself and in due 

 season lay his fleece at his feet clean -washed and free from burrs and 

 beggar-lice. 



But that sheep raising would pay as a factor in mixed husbandry is 

 shown by the experience of many. The commissioner of agriculture of 

 Georgia reports that the average annual cost per head of keeping sheep 

 did not exceed 54 cents. The average cost of raising a pound of wool 

 was only 6 cents, while the average price for which the unwashed wool 



