CHAPTER VI. 



THE SHEEP HUSBANDRY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA AND THE PAN- 

 HANDLE OF WEST VIRGINIA. 



The district embraced by the southwestern counties of Pennsylvania 

 and the counties of Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, and Marshall, of West Vir- 

 ginia, is one of the leading sheep-breeding sections of the Union. 

 Much of the soil is limestone, friable, and easily broken up, cultivated 

 without difficulty, and containing no element injurious to the feet and 

 fleece of sheep. Such is the general freedom of the soil from every- 

 thing that can destroy the whiteness, pliability, and silken character 

 of the fleece, that after washing the sheep in the spring, preparatory to 

 shearing, they are turned out in the pasture fields with their fleeces 

 still wet, without the slightest injury to the wool. Water is abundant 

 and of the very best character cold, clear, and invigorating, meeting 

 every requirement of the shepherd. It is written by one of the leading 

 breeders that the whole section might be divided into 10 or 20-acre 

 lots, each of which would have either a perennial stream or a never- 

 freezing fountain. 



The natural fertility of the soil, taken in connection with the genial 

 climate, makes this section the favored home of the fine-wool industry. 

 Pasture and winter food are abundant, and of the best kind. Of the 

 former, red clover, timothy, and blue grass are the principal varieties, 

 and of the latter are the grains, corn, and oats. Corn-fodder, clover, 

 hay, and timothy make excellent rack feed. All these products are 

 produced in such abundance that the cost of wintering sheep and other 

 stock is much less than in most of the other sheep-breeding States east 

 of the Mississippi. The climate, though much milder than that of New 

 England and some parts of the Middle States, is sufficiently severe to 

 cause the consumption of food enough to produce a heavy fleece, rang- 

 ing from 10 to 20 pounds in Spanish Merino ewes and 15 to 28 pounds 

 in rams, weights which are increased with greater care and shelter. 



There is an advantage in the diversified nature of the surface of the 

 country, thus commented upon by a successful sheep breeder : 



In our deep valleys, watered by cool, pure, never-failing streams, in the smooth 

 slopes of the hills covered with luxuriant and succulent grass, and in the lofty 

 rounded crests or table-lauds that crown the summits, the shepherd has an assem- 

 blage of all the good things that nature can provide for him. 



This, said of West Virginia specially, applies to the whole country 

 adjacent. It furnishes in the warm months of the year a high and dry 



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