264 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



so or not, when we compare the profits which have inured to the growers 

 and manufacturers of fine wool for the last few years, it behooves tlie for- 

 mer both to speah and act decidedly. Their interests have been sacrificed 

 long enough ! But it is to be hoped that the grower of these wools will 

 not be hereafter driven to the alternative of either suffering himself, or of 

 defending himself by retaliatory measures. Some few of the manufac- 

 turers have always, I believe, taken a high and liberal course. Enough 

 others, as already remarked, now see the necessity of such liberality to 

 prevent any combined or general effort to depress prices. 



Will the North again turn its attention to the growth of su23erfine and 

 fine wools — again supply the demand, and keep up with it as it increases % 

 Not unless stimulated by the inducement of extraordinary profits — not, 

 certainly, against the competition of the South. The climate north of 41°, 

 or, beyond all dispute, north of 42°, is too severe for any variety of sheep 

 commonly known, which bear either of these classes of wools. In fact, the 

 only such variety, in anything like general use, is the Saxon ; and this is 

 a delicate sheep, entirely incapable of safely withstanding our Northern 

 winters, without good shelter, good and regularly administered food, and 

 careful and skillful management in all other particulars. When the season 

 is a little more than usually backward, so that grass does not start prior to 

 the lambing season, it is diflnicult to raise the lambs of the mature ewes — 

 the young ewes will in many instances disown their lambs, or, if they own 

 them, not have a drop of milk for them ; and if in such a crisis, as it often 

 happens, a north-east or north-west storm comes driving down, bearing 

 snow or sleet on its wings, or there is a sudden depression of the temper- 

 ature from any cause, no care will save multitudes of lambs from perish- 

 ing.* And it will not do to defer the time of having them dropped to es- 

 cape these evils, or they will not attain size and strength enough to pass 

 safely through their first winter.! A few large shecpholders, whose farms, 

 buildings, etc., have been arranged with exclusive reference to the rearing 

 of these sheep, may continue to grow fine wool vntil driven from it by the 

 competition of the South ; but many of these have recently adopted a 

 Merino cross. The ordinary farmers, the small sheepholders, who, in the 

 aggregate, grow by far the largest portion of our Northern wools, have im- 

 bibed a deep-seated aversion — nay, a positive disgust — against the Saxon 

 sheep. They have not the necessary fixtures for their winter protection, 

 and they are entirely unvvdlling to bestow the necessary amount of care on 

 them. Besides, mutton and wool being about an equal consideration with 

 this class of farmers, they want larger and earlier maturing breeds. But, 

 above all, they want a strong, hardy sheep, which demands no more care 

 than their cattle. The strong, compact, niedium-wooled Merino — or, per- 

 haps still more generally, its crosses wath coarse varieties, producing the 

 wool which I have classified as ordinary — will be the general favorites. — 

 The same reasons will weigh still more strongly in the North-Avest, where, 

 as I have shown, the climate is a still worse one for delicate sheep. All 

 these causes will tend to swell the amount of medium, ordinary and coarse 



concerted movement to bring the Eastern grower into taking last year's prices ? It actually did go, in a 

 multitude of instances — or, he was contented to receive the slightett advance on them ! This will be found 

 true of nearly all who sold soon after the market opened in the East. If not the result of a concerted and 

 combined movement, ihc general desertion of the Eastern and resort to the Wctteni_inarket by the manu- 

 facturers was a most singular coincidence ! These manufacturers are now/a;» to purchase Eastern wools 

 at a considerable advance from the prices of 1846 — and, as already hinted, il is highly problematical, in my 

 mind, whether they will not be compelled to import at a still higher advance, to eke out a deficiency ! It is 

 to be hoped that this will be the last Act in the drama of folly and suicide played by our manufacturers. 



* Not even in close barns, and with constant attendance. 



t North of latitude 42°, it is necessary, as a general rule, that lambs be dropped in the first half of May, to 

 give them this requisite size and strength Occasional cold stoi-ms come nearly every season up to that 

 period, and not unfrequently up to the tirst of June. Mr. Grove was a ib-cided advocate of early lambs. — 

 He used to say that " it was better to lose two of them in the spring than one in the fall." 

 (5.W) 



