236 



On Sheep Husbandry, 6fC. 



Vol. VIII. 



would see the new firkin with its golden 

 contents, — the joint product of the labour 

 and skill of the thrifty husbandman and his 

 accomplished daughter — meeting ready sale 

 in this and foreign markets, at double the 

 price of the present article. Index. 



Philadelphia, Second mo., 1844. 



From the National Intelligencer. 



On Sheep Husbandry.— Where are the 

 best Sheep-walks in the U. States? 



To THE Editors, — Having been recently 

 called upon to Americanise a popular Eng- 

 lish work on the Diseases of Cattle and 

 Sheep, to be shortly publislied by Lea 4- 

 Blanchard, my attention has been given to 

 the subject in the broader aspect of sheep 

 husbandry generally, as it exists in the 

 United States. A slight examination of it 

 leads me to think that the investment and 

 distribution of capital and labour, in refer- 

 ence to that branch of American industry, 

 are in a great measure misplaced, not to say 

 unnatural. Can it be that the snow-clad re- 

 gions of the North, where the feeding sea- 

 son lasts five months in the year, and where 

 the price of land is so high, should consti- 

 tute the most eligible sheep-walks to supply 

 our large cities with mutton, and our rising 

 manufactories with wool, in preference to 

 the slopes and table-lands of the mountains 

 in the middle and Southern States, and the 

 prairies of the West, where land is so cheap 

 and pasturage almost perennial 1 



Addressing some inquiries, as you will 

 see, to the Hon. Mr. Clingman, of North 

 Carolina, as to the natural advantages of 

 the mountainous portions of that State for 

 rearing sheep and wool, I have been prompt- 

 ly favoured with an answer, which, tliough 

 written under circumstances not allowing 

 the fullest development, is yet highly inte- 

 resting, and, as it seems to me, wortiiy of 

 general circulation. Therein, we have 

 opened to our view, in one of the glorious 

 "old thirteen," a district of terra incognita 

 unsurpassed in salubrity, peculiarly adapted 

 to the constitution of sheep, according to all 

 experience and observation, where land is 

 very low in price and of remarkable capa- 

 city for the production of the grasses, grains, 

 and roots which form the basis of sheep hus- 

 bandry in countries where it is most pros- 

 perous. 



For a more detailed view of the subject 

 in all its bearings, as to the characteristics 

 of the various breeds, management, &c., re- 

 ference is made to the forthcoming work 

 already alluded to, which will embrace the 

 letters here sent for your country paper. 

 You will observe that the district of country 



described by Mr. Clingman, has the advan- 

 tage of possessing unbounded water power, 

 for manufacturing machinery, while it is 

 surrounded by States that are great con- 

 sumers of woollen manufactures, depending 

 now for their supplies on either New or Old 

 England. A company has just been formed 

 in Boston, to invest another million of dollars 

 in the manufacture of mousselines, a branch 

 of manufacture new in this country, and de- 

 manding the coarser kinds of long-combing 

 wool, which are accordingly already coming 

 into greater demand. J. S. Skinner. 



House of Representatives, Feb. 3rd, 1844. 



Dear Sir, — Your favour of the 30th ult. 

 was received a day or two since, and I now 

 avail myself of the very first opportunity to 

 answer it. I do so most cheerfully, because, 

 in the first place, I am happy to have it in 

 my power to gratify in any manner, one who 

 has done so much as yourself, to diffuse cor- 

 rect information on subjects most important 

 to the agriculture of the country ; and, se- 

 condly, because I feel a deep interest in the 

 subject to which your inquiries are directed. 



You state that you have directed some at- 

 tention to the sheep husbandry of the United 

 States, in the course of which it has occurred 

 to you that the people of the mountain re- 

 gions of North Carolina, and some of the 

 other Southern States, have not availed 

 themselves sufficiently of their natural ad- 

 vantages for the production of sheep. Being 

 myself well acquainted with the western 

 section of North Carolina, I may perhaps be 

 able to give you most of the information you 

 desire. As you have directed several of your 

 inquiries to the county of Yancey, — I pre- 

 sume from the fact, well known to you, that 

 it contains the highest mountains in any of 

 the United States, — I will, in the first place, 

 turn my attention to that county. First, as 

 to its elevation. Dr. Mitchell, of our Uni- 

 versity, ascertained that the bed of Tow 

 river, the largest stream in the county, and 

 at a ford near its centre, was about twenty- 

 two hundred feet above the level of the 

 ocean. Burnsville, the seat of the court- 

 house, he found to be between two thousand 

 eight hundred, and two thousand nine hun- 

 dred feet above it. The general level of the 

 county is, of course, much above this eleva- 

 tion. In fact, a number of the mountain 

 summits rise above the height of six thou- 

 sand teet. The climate is delightfully cool 

 during the summer; in fact there are very 

 few places in the county where the ther- 

 mometer rises above 80° on the hottest day. 

 An intelligent gentleman who passed a 

 summer in the northern part of the county 



