WOOL CULTURE IN THE SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST. 151 



is finely adapted to the Spanish mode of sheep husbandry. 

 Very large flocks might be driven to the mountain region, 

 some thirty to sixty miles from the rich lands, immediately 

 after shearing time, grazed till late in the fall, and then brought 

 back to be sustained, during the winter, on the luxuriant blue 

 grass pastures of the rich lands of the interior. 



" A very intelligent friend, residing in the southern part of 

 the above district of country, speaks of it in the following 

 terms : ' One of the strongest proofs of this region of coun- 

 try being favorable to the growing of sheep stock is, that we 

 are situated in the same degree of north latitude with the 

 sheep-raising parts of Spain — Leon, Estremadura, Old Cas- 

 tile, &c. — only that our mountains are more richly and abun- 

 dantly clad with luxuriant wild grasses and fern, pea-vine 

 and shrubbery, than the mountain regions of Spain, where they 

 raise such abundant stocks of sheep. Wayne county, with a 

 few adjoining counties, affords more fine water power than 

 any country of the same extent that I have ever known ; and 

 for health and fine pure drinking water, no country excels it 

 on the face of the globe. Now is the time to commence the 

 business of sheep husbandry, whilst land can be got almost 

 for nothing. It is worthy of remark that our sheep which 

 are suffered to roam and graze in the mountains altogether, 

 produce about one fourth more wool at a shearing than the 

 sheep that are raised and grazed altogether on our farms, and 

 of a MUCH BETTER QUALITY !' In another part of his letter 

 he says, ' The tops of the mountains of Spain are sterile, 

 without verdure, producing no food for sheep or other ani- 

 mals to graze on ; our mountains are quite different ; they 

 are thickly clad from bottom to top, and all over the top, 

 with fine rich wild grasses and shrubbery of every variety 

 for stock to graze on. In the midst of our mountains are to 

 be found a great abundance of salt water, and stone coal of 

 the finest quality, together with a great variety of mineral 

 waters and pure springs.' 



" Another friend, residing in Knox county, writes to me, 

 ' My sheep upon my farm, adjoining Barboursville, do not 

 thrive, even with pasture and winter food, like the sheep in 

 the extremities of the county, which have neither pastures 

 nor winter food, except what they get in the woods. Without 

 cultivated grasses of any description, sheep will live and do 

 well all the winter, subsisting on the spontaneous growth of 

 the country.'' 



