SHEEP HUSBANDRY LN THE SOUTH. 467 



John S. Skinner, Esq. thus Avrites me :* 



" Col. Hampton's flock numbers 800, I believe. Ho kilJB the finest fiort of mutton throut^h 

 out the winter and spring — very fut anil excellent in all resiiects. He told me last summer, 

 at Saratoga, that they never get a mouthful except what they can find in the woods and 

 fields." 



Hon. R. F. Simpson, Member of Cono;ress, of Pendleton, South Caro 

 hna, tlius describe.s the region in which he resides, and some of the contig^ 

 uous ones :t 



Henry S. Randall, Esq. Washington, .Ian. 22, 1847. 



Dear Sir : I take much ple:isure in answering your intpiii-ies, and only regret that I have 

 not more time to do fiill justice to tlio subject. If my answers liiil to iiiibnii you with suffi 

 cient clearness on any point, I shall be most hapjiy to add to them, at your suggestion. 



The Allegany Mountains, as you are awai-e, run fi-om N. E. to S. W. That part of them 

 north of the S. C. line lies spread out in diflercnt clinins or ridges to a distance of nearly 50 

 miles ; and the whole region is coinmouly called " on the mountains." The climate is healthy 

 iuid the grass fine. Many of the valleys in this region are very rich, particularly on the wa- 

 ter-courses. The gi'ound is covered with snow as unich as t(>ur weeks annually. The range 

 is good, but there may be too much humidity for sheep. t The land is cht^ap, say $1 per 

 acre — but nmch can be bought at .'iO cents. I have learned from good authority that sheep 

 can be farmed out during the winter at ten cerits a head, in any ordinaiy quantity. The 

 fanners who take them, too, will be liable for loss by death, in many instances. 



There is a strip of couuti-y lying east of tlie Blue Ridge, and parallel to it, from 20 to 30 

 miles wide, extending through North and South Carolina and Georgia, which I think espe- 

 cially adapted to sheep husljandry. The land is poor for the pioductiouof our southern sta- 

 ples, and is sparsely settled, but the pa.sturage is good. There is a perennial grass, known 

 as " woods gi-tLss,'' which springs up in tlie woods after they are buined each winter, which 

 makes excellent pasture for all kinds of stock. It starts vigorously in the spring, and sheep 

 ialten on it by the middle of .Fuly. It la.sts all the sunnner, and provides sufficient Ibod for 

 sheep during the entire winter, except when snow is on the ground, which is not more than 

 two or three days at a time, and usually not more than ten days during a winter. 



The few days during which the gi-ass is covered up with snow are tlie only ones, during 

 the entu'e year, when it is necessary to feed sheep. This is usually done with oats in the 

 sheaf. . . . Supposing ten sheep equal to one cow, I think one acre would afford sub 

 sistence to three sheep. 



But few people mow here. In a few instances, herd.s-giass has been sown and mowed, 

 but the product not weighed, to my knowledge. Both herds-gi-ass and the natural ones, on 

 our bottom lands, look much richer, and to all appearance woidd turn off a heavier crop of 

 hay than any meadows to be seen on the line of travel tlu'oiigh Virginia. 



As I have before remarked, the land is poor, except the small bottoms on creeks and 

 branches. The latter are rich, and will produce 30 bushels of corn and from 10 to 1.') bush- 

 els of wheat per acre. They also produce oats and lye, but I do not know how nnich by 

 measurement. I suppose from 10 to 20 bushels each. The land is valued low — from 50 cts. 

 to $1 50 per acre — and it is only necessaiy to buy $.")00 or $1,000 worlh of it, to embraci^ 

 sufficient bottom to raise provisions, and oats to feed sheep when snow is on the ground. — 

 The rangell is very large, and everybody's stock has libeity to roam over it, without hin- 

 drance or compensation. 



Our common method of managing sheep is as follows: The flock are kept in the planta- 

 tion during the winter by some ; others tuni out in the woods. In May they are slieiu-ed 

 the lumbs marked, &:c., and they are turned into ihe out pastures. When "they come up, 

 they are salted, and no other attention is paid to theni until fall, when most persons shear 

 again. They are larely brought up unless to get a lamb ff)r the table. This treatment ren- 

 ders them wild, and prone to jump into the owners' or neighbors' wheat fields, from which 

 they are driven out with rocks and sticks, and sometimes with dogs. They rue, in all re- 



* J«n, 15, 1847. 



t Tliis letter would have born more appropiiatcly included in my IVth Letter, but waa not received in 

 time, and it is by far too valuable and interesting to be omitted. 



I The etiect of /u/mirf(«y on shuep is, I think, often misunderstood and greatly exaggerated. Wet, cold 

 soils are uncongenial to sheep, but they suffer no more from those ordinary fogs and vapors which prevail 

 in insular positions, or which are attracted by mountain ranges, than other domestic animals. As has been 

 before remarked, sheep thrive iti the peculiarly foggy atmo.sphere of England — also in Holland. Their 

 healthiness on mountains is proverbial, yet these elevations arc usually subject to fogs, and clouds rest on 

 the sides or summits of the loftier ones. As the sotUheni mountains are cleared of their trees, their atmo- 

 sphere will be less luimid, and that soft vegetable mould (which ticil^id the fears of Mr. Kucklry) will ac- 

 quire the consistency which it always doei on a dry foundation, when exposed to the sun and air ; and it 

 vrill be the means of supplying the sheep with rich vegetable nutriment, instead of poisoning ihem with 

 ** hoof-ail." 



H The provincial si<niiticalion of this word, South, is the unincloscd pasturage in the forest and " ont 

 fields,"— I. e., worn-outlands thrown out to commons. 

 (947) 



