684 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



pounds, which is generally sold at the county seats on certain days. 

 It is put up at auction and the price at which it is bid off sets the price 

 of the clip of the entire county, just as the selling price of wheat in 

 Liverpool fixes the price in New York and Chicago. The wool is 

 mainly worked up by the local mills; some of it, however, reaches the 

 Mobile and New Orleans markets. The sheep of this part of the State 

 are shipped in moderate quantity to the New Orleans .narket. 



For over three hundred years these u piney- woods" sheep have existed 

 on the Gulf coast without the attention of man. They have lived and 

 increased in spite of his neglect. They are not appreciated, because they 

 have come without effort and without cost. They do n ^ interest their 

 owner, for they are never in his sight, except at shearin te .mie, and for 

 the rest of the year he is ignorant of their whereabouts. In the heat 

 of summer the trees provide them with shade, and the winter has no 

 fear for them, as the climate is so equable. As shearing t; ne approaches 

 their owners begin to think of them, and about April 1 tlio inhabitants, 

 sometimes of the county or section of country, organize a wool hunt, 

 which means catching the sheep. This is not a difficult undertaking, 

 as the sheep are not very wild and do not stray far from home. They 

 are corralled and caught, sheared, marked with the owner's brand, and 

 turned loose until another shearing time runs round. Every man is 

 entitled to the wool of the sheep marked with his brand. The entire 

 clip is then generally taken to the county town and sold to the highest 

 bidder. 



A correspondent of the Sheep-Breeder and Wool-Grower gives an 

 account of the annual wool sale for Jackson County, Miss., for 1889. 

 The day fixed was May 18. Long before daylight the teams from the 

 interior of the county began to arrive at the county-seat, their approach 

 heralded by the cracking of whips over the ox teams and the shouting 

 of the negroes. A good three-yoke ox team hauled about 4,000 or 5,000 

 pounds of wool. During the day from twenty to thirty of such teams 

 arrived loaded with wool. Then came small cartloads drawn by a horse 

 in the old primitive style, a man or boy riding the horse. They own 

 only a small flock of sheep, but they come all the same to be at the 

 grand sale of wool. After all parties have breakfasted at one of the 

 hotels the buyers and farmers assemble at the railroad depot, where 

 the whole clip of the county is to be disposed of to the highest bidder, 

 and there are bidders from New Orleans and Mobile. 



When this wool is unloaded on the platform and on the sidewalks it makes a very 

 formidable show. The first bid was 22 cents, but fiockniasters would not listen to 

 the bid, insisting that there was no tariff issue in the way this year; that last year 

 they were cut out of 4 to 6 cents per pound, and they would yield to no such price. 

 Kidding continued, and they bid one-half cent at a time until they got up to 25 

 cents; then the farmers retired for dinner, with all hands. After dinner, say about 

 4 o'clock p. in., they met and compromised on 26 cents for the clip of Jackson County. 

 Those who did not get their wool in on that day have been bringing it in ever since. 



