THE SORT OF SHEEP FOR OUR MOUNTAINS. 12.5 



labor. If you have a boy in your employ, you may readily reduce lu's labor to mau's work, 

 and enter it in tho same column. 



The coliiniu of " Horse's Work " i:* quite es.seuti!il. By tills yon mny not only know tho 

 kind of labor your lioises perform each day in the year, and the number of days they ai-o 

 employed, but having kept ;ui accurate account of their e.xpenses, you may readily calculate 

 what each day's labor has cost you, and consequeutly know how iinu'h each gi-ain account 

 is debtor for their work. Few fanners, I apprehend, have a correct idea of the cost of 

 horses' labor, and yet a farm accoimt must uecessai-ily be quite imperfect without such 

 knowleds^e. 



Next is the weather column. The weather has so much influence on the gi-owth and pro- 

 duct of the fannerfs grain, that he cannot help feeling a lively interest in keepmg this column, 

 especially as it costs him so little (ixtra labor. II(! has. moreover, the means of knowing 

 what w;is the weather at any j)articular season, or any day of the yciu-, and by a compaii- 

 8on of the weaihcr colnuni of " Remarks" — for in this last he should note how the crops 

 thiTve — lie may learn tiie exact eflect of almost every change of wealher on the plants at 

 those particular stages of their growth, and thus he will learn more thoroughly the physi- 

 ology oi" jilants, and will be enabled, perhaps, in some respects, to profit by the knowledge 

 tJius obtained. 



The last column is for " remarks on the state of the crops," &c., and it may be used to 

 make memoranda of various events connected with fanu operations, which would otherwise 

 be forgotten. 



Once a year the farmer should post into anothei- book, or perhaps on the last pages of the 

 book posted, a complete Dr. and Cr. of each crop, a Dr. and Cr. of "stock account," (in- 

 cluding new buildings, &c.) a " fuel account," " horse account," &x;. &c. In short, a farmer 

 should ascertain by his books whence comes his profit and whence his loss, and leani, from 

 the same, to increase the former and avoid the latter. Yours, &c. 



CoicassdoK Springs, Smithjield, March, 1846. G. DE WITT EI, WOOD. 



THE SORT OF SHEEP FOR OUR MOUNTAINS. 



f 



AsHViLLE, N. C. 7th August. 1846. 



My Dear Sir : I this day received The Farmers' Library, and proceed to an- 

 swer the inquiry, about sheep, made by your correspondent. I consider the 

 ridge of mountains running through Virginia and North Carolina particuiary well 

 suited for sheep husbandry, and the principal obstruction to its being carried on 

 profitably is the want of fencing. The elevation is in no part too great for the 

 Cheviot sheep, wliich in nty opinion are better suited than any other ; they are 

 active and liardy, requiring less care and attention, and they will endure more 

 hardship and feed themselves in snow by scraping it away with their feet, and 

 thereby feeding themselves where the more tenderly brought-up sheep would 

 perish. Even on the top of the Black Mountain, in summer, the sheep feed 

 well and thrive ; and I know no ground better fitted for feeding sheep than the 

 Bald Mountain in this State. 



As to fencing, I have agreed for putting up 12.500 rails at 6i cents per panel 

 of 10 rails, and can get any number put up at that price, and for which they are 

 well paid — only it requires them to cut the rails as near as possible to the line of 

 fence. Otherwise the hauling has to be added [at their expense, we presume the 

 writer means]. Until the ground is fenced in, it is, in my opinion, quite useless 

 to attempt feeding sheep; twenty shepherds could not "attend to 600 sheep on 

 the mountains ; unless fenced in they will wander off" and never return ; and 

 among under-brush who could watch them ? Once fenced in, and part of the 

 ground cleared for giving some food for winter — as hay, or rowen, which 1 con- 

 sider better still, with some rape, which I prefer to turnips, as easier cultivated, 

 a better crop, and a hardier vegetable, and one which sheep are fond of and thrive 

 well on — I see nothing to prevent any person, with tolerable care and attention, 

 from feeding sheep. I apprehend little danger from wolves — much more from 

 dogs ; but either can be disposed of with some strychnia, and which I would 

 have no hesitation in using, if annoyed by either. I have been told if I did sj 

 the whole country would be up in arms on account of having their dogs destroyed ; 

 but I see no reason in any man keeping dogs to injure his neighbors' sheep or 

 property. I consider this range of mountains far preferable to the prairies oF 



(-2.59) 



