WOOL CULTURE IN THE SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST. 149 



ed land and pastures became more extensive, I found that I 

 could winter my sheep to better advantage by suffering them 

 to run on blue grass pastures, kept in reserve for them, haul- 

 ing out and scattering on the turf corn fodder, when the 

 grass became too short, or was covered with snow. This 

 mode of feeding required less labor, and was less expensive, 

 than housing them ; and experience soon taught me that my 

 sheep passed through the winter in better condition than 

 when housed, and fed on hay and grain. 



" I have now about 300 acres of cleared land ; nearly one of 

 half of which is in meadow, clover, and blue grass — j^oa pra- 

 tensis ; and the other half reserved for cultivation in corn, 

 wheat, hemp, &c. ; and 150 acres in woodland, the greater 

 part well cleared up and sown in blue grass. I have been 

 taught by experience, recently, that sheep will do remarka- 

 bly well on the rankest clover, which will enable me in fu- 

 ture to keep more of my blue grass pastures in reserve for 

 winter feeding. During the last fall (the season being fa- 

 vorable), my clover fields furnished my flock, of somewhat 

 less than 400, sufficient pasturage till the month of January ; 

 and they have been since kept on my blue grass pastures, 

 without the necessity of feeding, except some four or five 

 days when the ground was covered with snow ; and there is 

 still grass enough to carry them through the residue of the 

 winter. 



" The low price of hemp, and agricultural products generally, 

 has induced me to sow down much of my cleared land in 

 clover, which will enable me to keep double the number of 

 sheep I now have, without interfering with my farming ope- 

 rations ; and when I get the whole of my woodland cleared 

 up and set in blue grass, I expect to extend my flock to 1000 

 sheep. Thus you see we are neither under the necessity of 

 incurring the expense of erecting buildings to shelter our 

 sheep, nor of raising grain or hay for their food ; nor even 

 to employ laborers to feed them, except during the short time 

 it may become necessary to haul out fodder for them, when 

 the ground is covered with snow. And in a single day 

 enough maybe hauled out on sleds to last them a week or more. 

 " It is argued by some that our rich lands are too valuable 

 to be appropriated advantageously to sheep husbandry. There 

 would be nmch force in this objection if they were entirely 

 appropriated to that purpose. But not so when sheep hus- 

 bandry is combined with large hemp and corn crops. Hemp 



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