690 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



I believe in the free use of salt, and always keep it where the sheep can have free 

 access to it. I use a box 3 feet long, 4 inches deep and wide, and from April to Sep- 

 tember keep the inside and edges of the box well and freely coated with tar. The 

 sheep in eating the salt get the tar on their faces and noses, and it keeps off the 

 flies. I think it otherwise healthy. I also use sulphur with the salt occasionally, 

 say once in each month, and particularly in winter; it keeps off the lice. I sow oats 

 in my cotton fields at the last working, and find it makes good winter pasturage. 

 I have no fine stock ; only the best I could select from the native stock of the country. 



My sheep average me 4 to r> pounds of wool each year. I shear in April and Sep- 

 tember. The fall shearing is more to keep the sheep from being laden with burs 

 during the winter, as our plantations are full of burs. I do not believe a sheep 

 should be kept after it is five years old. I kill off after they are five years old, and 

 all male lambs as early as they will dress 24 to 30 pounds. By such a course I have 

 no very old sheep, and rarely ever lose one. As for dogs I keep a bell on every fifth 

 sheep. It makes considerable noise, but I like it, and the dogs fear it. I have lost 

 but one sheep by dogs in two years, although there are fully 300 dogs within 3 miles 

 of my flock. 



The best natural grass that has made its appearance in my pastures is a grass 

 called "velvet" or "carpet grass." It completely covers the ground where it takes 

 hold, and affords good grazing. In the fields on our best lands there is a weed called 

 "chickweed" that grows all winter and affords good pasturage, and sheep are fond 

 of it. Old sedgefields afford good grazing all winter, as there is always a green 

 crop under the sedge. Sheep are ravenous feeders, and eat almost anything green 

 in winter. While the present open mode of cultivation is continued there need 

 be no fears of sheep suffering for the want of feed in the winter, as they will travel 

 3 miles and return the same day ; but when the present murderous and wicked system 

 of botching up the lands shall have come to an end, and we have a population of 

 live men, our farms will be inclosed and we shall grow rich by the production of 

 wool and mutton. Then it will be necessary to look more after winter pasture. 



A recent visitor reports this flock as numbering about 150 head, and 

 kept in inclosed fields, but not receiving much attention. They had an 

 inferior appearance, and seemed to be degenerated Leicesters, with 

 perhaps an occasional dash of the old Merino blood, which it is believed 

 was introduced into Florida by the Spaniards at its first settlement. 



John Bradford, of the same county, reports in 1878: 



Ten years ago the writer began with 25 ewes and 2 bucks, common stock. Four 

 years ago I procured a Merino buck. Have butchered about 130 muttons, lost heavily 

 in not looking after lambs in January and February, and very heavily (some years 

 as much as 30 per cent) by roguish negroes, and have now 130 in my flock. The 

 manure has more than paid for the actual cost of keeping. Have only had good 

 attention one winter, then with the very best results, as the wool clip and increase 

 of flock amounted to about 90 per cent of the value of the flock. 



That portion of the State west of the Appalachicola Kiver, and known 

 as west Florida, is the principal sheep-growing region. It embraces 

 only a tenth of the area of the State, but pastures more than two- 

 thirds of the sheep. Here large flocks run at large in the pine woods, ' 

 and the industry is a prosperous one. Whether wool is high or low< 

 the owner accepts, without complaint or comment on the tariff, what 

 he gets, for the proceeds are not offset by any expenses. What he 

 receives is all clear profit. The vast unbroken ranges of these pine : 

 woods are well adapted to the careless system of sheep husbandry as 



