676 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



the sheep of the county, which is shown on many of the farms and in 

 the better quality and higher price of lambs and mutton in the Nash- 

 ville market. 



Smith County is in the blue-grass district, and there is no better 

 grass county in the State. Every hill arid valley that is not covered 

 can be covered with a rich blue- grass pasture. There is always plenty 

 of pasture for sheep in summer and for feed in winter, and yet but a 

 few years since a committee was appointed to consider the adaptability 

 of this county to profitable sheep husbandry. The committee came to 

 these conclusions : 



(1) That one acre of average pasture will keep 3 sheep in good condition the year 

 round, with only an addition of a little feed in winter for the few days that the 

 ground is covered with snow. 



(2) That the net profits on sheep in Smith County, as elsewhere, are large, amount- 

 ing to more than 50 per cent. 



(3) That the best breeds are the Leicester, Cotswold, a cross of the Leicester and 

 Cotswold, and the Southdown. One of our correspondents, we have seen, prefers a 

 cross of the Leicester upon the Merino, and certainly if the lambs, as he claims 

 they do from that cross, weigh from 75 to 100 pounds at four or five months, his 

 preference is justified by the result. 



(4) That here in Smith County sheep need scarcely any feed the year round. 



(5) That what are known as the common scrubs are not worth keeping. They 

 yield too little wool and make too little mutton, and are of too poor a quality to pay 

 for raising them. 



As one proceeds westward from this favored blue-grass region he 

 comes to the plateau slope of west Tenneseee, where in general the 

 lands are low and the surface generally broken by gentle undulations, 

 except in the river basins. Although the soil of this portion of the 

 State, being quite sandy, is not so well fitted for grasses as the section 

 we have just left, nevertheless some grasses find a most congenial soil. 

 Herd's grass grows luxuriantly and orchard grass finds a congenial 

 home. In the bluff loam lands, next the Kentucky line, clover attains 

 its highest development. The river and creek bottoms of the extreme 

 western counties are covered with a hardy grass that affords fair graz- 

 ing both summer and winter, and there is also a great quantity of 

 Smith cane that keeps green all winter, and of which sheep are very 

 fond. The best of all grasses in this section, though not a winter 

 grass, is the Bermuda, and for successful sheep farming this grass alone 

 would suffice. Turnips and fields of rye and wheat would make up the 

 winter pasturage. Blue grass will grow in this section, but it does not 

 make a good sod. Taken as a whole, west Tennessee has a larger pro- 

 portion of rich soils adapted to heavy mutton sheep than any other part 

 of the State, but the sheep husbandry has not claimed the attention there 

 that its importance warrants. In many counties there is not enough 

 wool grown to furnish stockings to the inhabitants or muttoA to a hun- 

 dredth part of them. Cotton- growing absorbs the attention of the 

 people and sheep husbandry is neglected. With access by railroads to 

 good markets^ where good prices could be realized for early lambs * and 



