256 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



wish to keep but few in the same inclosure, the large breeds will be as 

 healthy as the Downs ; if the pastures be wettish or marshy, the former 

 will better subsist on the rank herbage which usually grows in such situa- 

 tions ; if they do not afford so fine a quality of mutton, they, particularly 

 the Leicester, possess an earlier maturity, and both give more meat for 

 the amount of food consumed, and yield more tallow. 



The next point of comparison between the Long and Middle wooled 

 families, is the value of their wool. Though not the first or principal ob- 

 ject aimed at in the culture of any of these breeds, it is, in this country, 

 an important item or incident in determining their relative profitableness. 

 The American Leicester* yields about 6 lbs. of long, coarse, combing wool; 

 the Cotswold something more, but this perhaps counterbalanced by other 

 considerations ; the Down from 3 lbs. to 4 lbs. of a low quality of carding 

 wool. None of these wools are veiy salable, at remunerating prices, in 

 the American market. Both will become more so, as manufactures of 

 worsted, and of flannels and baizes, increase. The difference in the weight 

 of fleeces between the breeds is, ^->cr se, a less important consideration than 

 would first appear, and for reasons which will be given when I speak of 

 the connection between the amount of wool produced and the food con- 

 sumed, by sheep. 



Of the Cheviots I have taken no notice in this connection, as they are 

 obviously inferior to the preceding breeds, except in a capacity to endure 

 rigorous weather, and to subsist on heathy herbage. No part of the 

 South has a climate too severe for the more valuable races, and its grasses 

 and other esculents, wherever found, and as far as they go, are, making 

 the proper allowances for wet and dry lands, highly palatable and nutri- 

 tious to all the varieties which respectively feed in such situations. 



Under the natural and artificial circumstances already alluded to, which 

 surround Sheep Husbandry in many parts of England — where the fattest 

 and grossest quality of mutton is consumed as almost the only animal food 

 of the laboring classes — the heavy, early maturing New Leicester, and the 

 still heavier New Oxfordshire sheep, seem exactly adapted to the wants 

 of producer and consumer, and are of unrivaled value. To depasture 

 pooi'er soils — sustain a folding system — and furnish the mutton which sup- 

 plies the tables of the wealthy — the South-Down is an equal desideratum. 



Have we any region in our Southern States, where analogous circum- 

 stances demand the introduction of similar breeds 1 The climate, so far as 

 its effect on the lieaWi is concerned, is adapted to any, even the least 

 hardy varieties ; but not so its effects on the verdure on which they are to 

 subsist. The long, scorching summers, so utterly unlike those of England, 

 leave the grass on lands stocked heavily enough for profit, entirely too 

 dry and short for the heavy, sluggish Long Wools. This is particularly 

 true in the tide-water zone. Mutton, too, sheeted over externally with 

 three or four inches of solid fat,t even if it could be made acceptable to 

 the slave, in lieu of his ration of bacon — a thing more than doubtful — 

 would never find any considerable market off from the plantation. So far 

 as the supply of feed is concerned, the above remarks apply, though not 

 equally, to the South-Down. It will live and thrive where the Long Wo©ls 

 would dwindle away, but it is a mistake to suppose that the heavy im- 



* I use the word " American " Leicester, because it is notorious that this, as well as the Cotswold — and 

 all the other heavy English varieties, soon lose in the weight of their tieeces when subjected to the climate 

 and the (best ordinary) system of feeding in the United States. I should except, perhaps, a few highly 

 pampered animals. 



+ Five and even six inches of solid fat, on the rib, is not uncommon in England. In the Cotswolds the 

 fat and lean are more intermixed, and the mutton is of a better quality ; but it would be considered en- 

 tirely too luscious and tallowy by Americans. 

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