EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 693 



sheep range. The fleeces run from 3 to 4 pounds each, depending much 

 upon the season, and sell for about the same price in the dirt as Ohio 

 brook-washed wool. There are some of these sheep, however, grown 

 very close to the Gulf coast, that yield but 2 pounds of wool, which is 

 so coarse that it is almost exclusively used for making carpets. 



During the summer and fall great flocks of these sheep roam unat. 

 tended through the pine woods, feeding on what they can find. They 

 range in groups during the day, traveling in circuits of many miles, and 

 come together at night in a bedding place where they lodge. When 

 winter approaches the rams separate from the ewes, flock together in 

 bunches of 10 to 50, and feed by themselves. The ewes are not so 

 socially inclined, but divide up in groups of 2 to 5, keep, however, within 

 sight of each other and other groups, and usually come together at 

 night. 



Thus, unattended and unprotected, they are at all times subjected to 

 the ravages of the dogs and the thieving propensity of those who like 

 mutton but are not willing to pay for it. Self-reliant as these sheep are, 

 and as much as they have learned to care for themselves by ceaseless 

 vigilance, many fall a prey. But it is at lambing time in the early 

 spring that the flocks suifer most. Then the eagles, the vultures, the 

 foxes, the dogs, and the hogs combine to feed on early lambs. Of these 

 the lean " razor-back" hogs are the most greedy and the most destruc- 

 tive. They seem to know when lambing time approaches, for days before 

 they follow the ewes, and the first faint bleat of a new-born lamb is a 

 signal as welcome to them as the call of a Northern farmer to his cattle 

 and chickens at feeding time. They make an onslaught on the helpless 

 thing, and if the mother ewe undertakes to defend her oifspring she sel- 

 dom escapes alive. It is a striking commentary on the social condition 

 of some parts of Florida and southern Georgia, that when a man pro- 

 poses to raise some hogs he counts in as one factor of his success the 

 probable number of his neighbor's lambs the hogs can secure. It is 

 rarely that more than three-fourths of the increase survives the lamb- 

 ing period ; indeed, the owners of the flocks expect only to save from 40 

 to 70 per cent of lambs, and then only when the feed has been such as 

 to give vigorous health to the ewes and there are not too many old ones 

 at lambing time. 



After lambing, and as warm weather approaches, comes the shearing, 

 which is preceded by grand " round-ups" similar to those of the cattle- 

 men on the Western plains and to those already described in Mississippi. 

 The owners are assisted in this work by the u ear-flies" which come 

 about the same time as the shearing season. It is observed that upon 

 the coming of these flies " the sheep bunch again and resort to bedding 

 places where they can, by numbers and stamping, raise the dust and 

 keep off the flies." 



The owners await this time, and a man is sent to hunt the bedding 

 place, which is readily found, for there are many trails leading to it. 



