76 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



I propose to investigate this question at considerable length, because there 

 are various considerations which, at first view, give great plausibility to this 

 claim. And if the prairies caii pi'oduce wool cheaper than the South, it is 

 in vain for the latter to embark in the business— rat least, beyond the ex- 

 tent of supplying the home demand — for so limitless is the extent of these 

 natural pastures throughout the whole northern basin of the Mississippi, 

 that they could, perhaps, supply the entire market demand of the United 

 States for this staple, for an indefinite period, vast as that demand is des- 

 tined to be. 



But a very few years have elapsed since the most sanguine anticipations 

 were indulged in, by large numbers of our Northern and Eastern flock- 

 masters, in relation to the superior capabilities and advantages of the prai- 

 ries over Eastern lands for sheep-walks ; and large flocks were driven hun- 

 dreds of miles, lands purchased, and establishments created, to realize 

 these supposed advantages. It is not too much to say that these anticipa- 

 tions — so far at least, as keeping sheep on the natural herbage of the prai- 

 ries is concerned, were briefly and summarily blasted. Many of the flocks 

 driven there, actually perished in the midst of seeming plenty. On the 

 whole, the experiment is generally conceded to have resulted in failure. 

 Let us see whether this was occasioned by mismanagement — temporary 

 and removable causes — or whether we must look for those causes in na- 

 tural and unchangeable circumstances. 



Kjiortion of the wild prairie grasses are relished by sheep, and they thrive 

 on them ; but these grasses, as well as all the other varieties growing there, 

 flourish during but an unusually limited portion of the season. They be- 

 gin to dry up and lose their nutritive qualities in midsummer, and long be- 

 fore the foddering season has commenced on the bleakest highlands of 

 New-England, they are as unfit for the subsistence of sheep, as dry brush ! 

 Where the natural grasses are alone depended upon, the foddering season 

 on the prairies, north of latitude 40°, will range from six to seven months 

 — rarely, perhaps, fall short of six, on lands which have been previously 

 depastured, provided the sheep are maintained in good condition. 



And there is another material difficulty with the prairie grasses which 

 sheep feed on. They soon — many of them even in a single season — be- 

 come extirpated if kept fed down while growing. This is so singular a 

 fact in vegetable physiology, that I chose to state it in the words of an in- 

 telligent resident of the prairie region — whose local pride and partiali- 

 ties would naturally prompt him to give as favorable a coloring to the 

 agricultural advantages of his chosen home, as a regard for truth would 

 admit of. From a communication of J. Ambrose Wight, Esq., Editor of 

 the Prairie Farmer, to L. A. Morrel* — replete with useful information, 

 and characterized by an admirable candor — I make the following extracts : 



•' Sheep or other stock, but more particularly tlie fonner, put upon a given piece of wild 

 prairie, and confined to it, unless the range be very large, would not continue to keep 

 fat one season after another, though they v^fould at first; but if allowed a new range each 

 season, they would always keep fat. The reason is this : Sheep in such cases will go over 

 their ratige and select such food as they prefer, and will keep at it luitil it is gone. Hence 

 the wild beau and pea vine, and a few other kinds of plants, will obtain their constant at- 

 tentions, and will be kept so short that they will, on a given piece of land, die out the first 

 year. Therefore if turned out on the same grounds another season, the best food will be 

 gone, and the poorer, with which they must then tjike up, and which itself gets continually 

 poorer, will not sustain them in their first condition. A small flock of sheep will thus rua 

 over a large extent of ground. 



Hence the utter hoUowness of a supposition which appears to be common at the East, 

 that large flocks of sheep can be sustained on the wild grass of the prairies alone. There 

 are many places, it is true, where a fanner might keep a large flock on the wild prairies 



■• American Shepherd, p. p. 138—145. 

 (172) 



