254 THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL. 



beneath the trees, and interspersed amongst the forests, there is an 

 abundant growth of grass. In Western North Carolina, East 

 Tennessee, West Virginia, and Southern Pennsylvania, blue grass 

 and other valuable permanent pasture grasses are indigenous, and 

 spring up spontaneously when the timber is " deadened," by gird- 

 ling or removing the bark in a ring around the trees. Upon some 

 of the open table-lands, especially in East Tennessee and 

 North Carolina, there are open grassy tracts, free from timber, 

 which furnish the finest pasturage the year round. The hillsides 

 and the valleys, when cleared, bear luxuriant crops of clover and 

 grass, while the geological character of the soil, which overlies the 

 carboniferous formations of limestones, sandstones, and shales, is 

 favorable to the health and vigor of flocks. The abundance of 

 land and the sparseness of population in this portion of the region 

 tend to very low values, and large tracts may be procured for one 

 dollar an acre and upwards. Further north, the soil is less fertile, 

 and the climate less genial ; but the sides and summits of the Alle- 

 ghany ranges bear heavy crops of clover and grasses of various 

 species so soon as freed from the rubbish and debris of the timber 

 which has been removed by the lumberman. So the rougher lands 

 of New England, culminating in the ridges of thu White Moun- 

 tains, may be utilized as pastures for those breeds which are fitted 

 by nature for such exposed situations. The still more bleak and 

 less productive mountains of Scotland furnish homes for some 

 millions of sheep, and it is around the storm-swept granite crags 

 of the Scottish mountains that flocks of Black-faced sheep, num- 

 bering from one or two thousand, up to forty thousand each, are 

 reared and fed. 



The various mountain breeds of sheep are exactly fitted for such 

 pastures, and the Scotch Black-faced, the Cheviot, and the Welsh 

 sheep might be introduced upon the rougher portions, while our 

 native sheep, improved by the lighter-bodied varieties of the 

 several " Down " breeds, would be suitable to the better pastures 

 of the southern portions of this district. It is in these localities 

 that the choicer kinds of mutton, and the short but valuable wools, 

 suitable for the manufacture of flannels and hoisery, would be 

 cheaply and profitably produced. The great pest of the shepherd 

 throughout the mountain region is the dog. Here game being 

 plentiful, the hunter is abroad, and scours forest and open ground 

 with his hounds. Contrary to common belief, the hound and other 

 sporting dogs will pursue and destroy sheep with greater ferocity 

 than the maligned and malignant cur. Cruel and costly experi- 

 ence in a portion of this mountain district has proved this to tli 



