470 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH, 



pound.* My own impression, however, is that the land, properly in- 

 closed, that will support 3 sheep per annum, will cost, ex''-ept in occa- 

 sional localities, not less than $4 or $5, let the amount be more or less ; 

 and this would bring the cost of production (wilh 3-lb. Heeces) to between 

 7 and 8 cents per pound. I shall hereafter assume it to be 8 cents. 



On many of the moi-e northern mountains of the iSouthern States, and 

 on the high peaks farther south, neither the grasses nor grain grow suffi • 

 ciently to supptjrt sheep, unless the range is very large in ])roportion t<t 

 the number, during the winter.t Here, as in the Northern States, dry feed 

 must be prepared for the winter subsistence of sheep. This can be read- 

 ily done, as the best meadow grasses of the North and the clovers flowish 

 on the sides of the mountains.^ There is little doubt that sheep can be 

 wintered on dry feed on many of the mountains, and yet, on account of 

 the extreme cheapness of the lands, the cost of producing wool not exceed 

 eight cents per pound. 



In the circumstances of many of the lowland plantations, it would be 

 a most economical arrangement to summer the sheep on the mountains, 

 and then drive them to these plantations to be wintered on pasture, fog, 

 or grain fields, according to convenience. After the lambs have reached 

 a sufficient age in the spring, and the sheep are shorn, marked, &c., a 

 flock might be sent thirty, fifty, or even a hundred miles to its summer 

 range on the mountains, at a trifling expense ; and Jarge numbers could 

 be kept there under the surveillance of a single shepherd and a brace or 

 two of dogs. By this system the lowland plantation would be saved from 

 maintaining pasture on more expensive lands ; many of its less marketa- 

 ble products could be convei'ted into wool, meat, and manure ; and it 

 would be etn-iched by the wintering of the sheep. 



Such, you are aware, is the system of sheep husbandry in Spain. The 

 sheep are wintered on the plains of Estremadura, sometimes reaching the 

 north of Andalusia. Both of these provinces, though in a latitude cor- 

 responding with that of a portion of the United States, extending from 

 Albemarle Sound to a little north of Philadelphia, are parched, during the 

 summer, to a state of arid sterility, by the burning winds of Africa. || In 



* See Monthly Journal of Agriculture. 



t With sufficipnt rana;e. however, they not only obtain subsistenee. but get fat. John .'<. Skinner, Esq.. 

 writes me : " In the mountKins of Virginia, viz , at the Warm Springs, Dr. Brockciiboro told me that a 

 flock of sheep which he hiid bought for' use during the watering season, strayed, and got otf beyond reach 

 during the summer ; that the winter after they were rarely seen : and that as chance oH'ered they were 

 shot ; and that liner and fatter mutton he never desired to see." The Warm Springs are in Hath county, 

 among the Wostern or Allegany Mountains, a few minutes north of latitude \if^o_ 



X See Mr. Goggin's statements in Letter IV. Since the above was written, I have received the following 

 statements from Mr. W. Murdock, of Asheville, Buncombe county, North Carolina : 



" Kxcellent swards of grass arc grown in this district from Orchard grass or Cock's-foot. Timothy and 

 Italian Rye grass I have found to thrive remarkably well. I never saw them do better in any country. 1 

 received my seeds from England, and they succeeded admirably, and in ground by no means favorable to 

 a fair trial. Turnijis succeed remarkably well here, and even ITiO miles farther south, as I am informed by 



Mr. Kdward Calhoun— the kinds 1 don't know — but here the (ilobe, .Aberdeen, Norfolk, &c., do well 



If grounds were reserved as you suggest, for the winter feeding of sheep, the fall growth being imder- 

 pastured, and if some of the stubbli-s were plowed up and sown broadcast with tumips mixed wilh rape 

 or colza, very little fodder will be required, in fact only when snow is on the ground, which seldom ex- 

 ceeds fifteen or twenty days during tlie year." [This fully contirms the positions assumed by me near the 

 c'lose of Letter IV.) 



•'I think that Cuiicd Kale would be excellent for the winter keep of sheej), or cattle of any kind. J got 

 some seed from England and sowed it like any cabbaee se^nl. I put out the plants two feel asunder in but 

 tolerable ground. It grew three feet high and two feet in diameter. Thai I planted in the open field the 

 sheep got at in October, and ate it, stock, branches and all. to the cround. That planted in the garden has, 

 like the rape, stood the severe frosts uninjured. It is a delighlful veiietable all the spring, and stands a 



wiirir. or a cold climate This and rape are, I think, all the green food necessary to keep sheep 



throUL'h the winter, wilh the addition of a little buy. Kapt- may be sown broadcast in moist weather in 

 May or June, and mown otl' for the sheep, when required, about six inches above ground. If the shoots 

 are not required for pHsture, let them go to seed, and the feed will pay belter than any other crop, for 

 making oil and rape cake." 



II Here is a notable instance of the want of correspondence between isothermal and latitudinal lines be- 

 tween the west of Kurope and th<^ eastern portion of our own Continent. The two .^-^paiiish provinces the 

 Wtilude of whicli is ))bov<! given, havi» a climaKi more resembling the scorched llanos of Caraccaa than any 

 portion, even the most southerly, of the United Suilea. 

 (950) 



