188 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



How different are the circumstances of sheep husbandry in the 

 North, may be estimated by the following account of his treatment 

 of his flock, by Mr. Leonard Jarvis, of Claremont, New Hampshire, 

 a sheep breeder of great intelligence and experience, owner of four 

 distinct families of fine-woollcd sheep. He says, in a letter to the 

 Rev. Mr. Coleman, " I annually commence with dry fodder by the 

 middle of November^ and discontinue by the 5th of ^lay, (nearly six 

 months) ; generally, however, for the first and last fifteen days, giving 

 no hay, unless the ground should be covered, but feeding aljout half 

 a gill of Indian corn to each sheep twice a day. As far as my ex- 

 perience extends, a ton of ^ood hay will suffice for ten sheep with the 

 above quantity of grain ; they are fed from racks in the yard, and 

 have sheds to retire to at will ; I have fed under cover, but believe 

 that it has a tendency to diminish the appetite and weaken the con- 

 stitution. They are kept in separate yards, in number from fifty to 

 one hundred, taking care to keep those of about the same degree of 

 strenorth to themselves, and have runnino" water through; when the 

 ground is covered with snow, I think they do well without it. I 

 allow about four bushels of salt to the hundred sheep, the greater part 

 of which is consumed when the sheep are at grass. My bucks run 

 with the ewes from the 1st to the 10th of December, allowing three 

 to one hundred. The number of lambs reared depends much upon 

 the season. Sixty lambs to the hundred ewes may be the average 

 from flocks of quality like mine ; from coarser flocks the return is 

 greater. The ewes are not permitted to receive the buck until after 

 thev are two years old ; and I prefer bucks from two years old to 

 four." 



We must here close this introduction to the work on the " diseases 

 of sheep''' with the following correspondence, opened on the part of 

 the editor, in the hope of obtaining some reliable information as to 

 the advantages held out for the growth of sheep and the manufacture 

 of woollen goods in the districts of country which have been strangely 

 overlooked since facilities were created and the rage inspired for 

 emigrating to the far wed ! leaving behind immense tracts of cheap 

 land, abounding in water-povrer, and adapted to the growth of every- 

 thing conducive to successful sheep husbandry; in truth, wanting 

 nothing but capital and industry. In presenting Mr. Clingman's 

 letter, we may express the hope that its interesting character, and the 

 freshness of the country it opens to our view, will atone to the reader 

 for the length and drj^ness of the route by which he has been led 

 to it. 



Washington, 2Qth January, 184-1. 

 Hon. T. L. Clingman, 



Dear Sir,— I have lately had occasion, as a leisure hour has offered, to bestow some 



consideration on the sheep husbandry of the United Slates; in the course of which it 



has occurred to me that the people of Virginia and North Carolina, Kentucky and 



Tennessee, have not availed themselves to the e-xtent that they might probably do 



of that source of reward for labour and capital. It seems to me that the middle or 



