1 48 SHEEP OF THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTH AMERICA. 



at the North, will gradually disappear with the increasing 

 settlement of the country. — " I believe the pine forest in the 

 middle and southwestern region of the State best adapted 

 to the raising of sheep. The climate is so mild that they 

 need no shelter during the winter ; the wild herbage is va- 

 ried, luxuriant, and succulent through the summer, and will 

 keep them in high flesh ; the hardy plants that stand the 

 winter sustain them in healthy store order. I think, how- 

 ever, there are still wolves in that region, which makes it 

 necessary the sheep should be guarded ; indeed, I am con- 

 vinced of this, from one or two years' experience with a 

 flock of five hundred, kept on the ' Lookout' mountains (in 

 the northwest corner of the State), that it cannot be safely 

 done in a wooded country. If the range of the sheep is 

 limited they become poor and sickly ; if permitted to roam 

 at pleasure, they scatter, and are lost and killed. In this re- 

 gion we are obliged to afford them grain pastures, or feed 

 them on corn or hay three months of winter. If we dared 

 to turn them in the forest, one month's foddering would suf- 

 fice ; but this the wolves will not permit us to do." 



It is deemed superfluous to particularize further the vari- 

 ous sections of the Southern States in which the culture of 

 wool can be profitably carried on. Suffice it to say, that 

 wherever the herbage is varied and suitable for the sheep, 

 in summer and winter, the soil dry, and industrious men to 

 manage, there can wool be grown, and probably with more 

 profit than the great staple, cotton. The influence of climate 

 upon the fleece has already been considered ; and the reader 

 will find fully discussed, under the head of " Summer Man- 

 agement," everything appertaining to localities and herbage 

 for sheep, thereby enabling each one to form an opinion as 

 to the suitability of his situation for sheep husbandry. 



The following extracts from a communication, recently 

 published in the American Agriculturist, by Judge Beatty, of 

 Kentucky, conveys some valuable information for the benefit 

 of those engaged in wool-growing in the South and South- 

 western States, as well as sets forth the great facilities for 

 that branch of husbandry in Kentucky, which, doubtless, is 

 equally applicable to large sections of Tennessee. 



" For some years after I commenced raising sheep (my 

 cleared land and pastures being then very limited), I housed 

 them during the winter months, and fed them with hay, 

 sheaf oats, and occasionally with corn. But when my clear- 



