SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



53 



1845, 



Wool, 



I was indebted to a most respectable and extensive purchaser of 

 nd its accuracy is beyond question. 



TABLE No. 7. 



It will thus be seen that fcjr a period of fourteen years preceding 1845, 

 the average price of good wools was 39-|- cents per pound.! 



The average weight of fleece in sheep yielding this wool has been about 

 3 lbs. ; the pure-blood Saxons less ; but those bearing the coarsest wool 

 included, in the average, more. 



The average price of sheep of the quality under consideration, has been 

 not less than $2 per head in the fall, and lambs half that price.| The an- 

 nual increase in lambs would be about 80 .per cent., or if less by reason of 

 the number of wethers in the flock, the growtli of the latter would give a 

 corresponding increase in profit. One hundred sheep, properly littered, 

 will make at least forty loads of manure during the one hundred and fifty 

 days during which they are confined to dry feed, in our Northern 

 winters. 



The grazing lands of New-York, cut up as they are into small farms, [j 

 and each being provided with dwelling and farm buildings, are worth 

 from $15 to $30 per acre. .Prime sheep lands will average about $20.§ 



In relation to the amount of land necessary to support a given number 

 of sheep, the experience of a good many years has satisfied me that the 

 rule commonly laid down on the grazing lands of New- York and New- 

 England, that, on the average, one acre of land will give subsistence to 

 three fine-wooled sheep throughout the year, is an accurate one.1] On 

 grain farms, it is considered good economy to keep one sheep for every 

 acre of cleared land which the farm contains ; on those where mixed 

 husbandry is practiced, two ; and, on those exclusively devoted to sheep, 

 three. 



In the following, and all similar estimates, I shall reckon the profits on 

 the land and eo'pcnditurcs, instead of the land and the comviovhj emoted 

 prices of grass, hay, &c., consumed. These prices, in the interior, are 



* .•*e<? Report of the Secretary of the Treasury. 1845, p. 461. I thought, and so stated to Mr. Walker, that 

 the 'I'able plnred wools about U cents per pound too hiah. But subsequent information has convinced me 

 that I was in error. In my statement of the nrerage profits of sheep husbandry, in those replies, I estima- 

 ted the average price of wool by the prices paid by a local and much smaller purchaser, and for a com- 

 (larativoly limited term of years. 1 was not then aware of the utter defectiveness of the U. S. Census re- 

 lums (pointed out in Letter II.) in relation to the annual product of wool, and therefore was misled in the 

 iverage weight of fleeces ; and, s(>eaking from impression rather than experiment, 1 placed the value of 

 the manure altogether too low. Those questions and replies have led me into experiments and inquiries, 

 which have resulted in more acctirate information. I allude to this subject, because I think it every man's 

 duty to correct any errors or exi)lain any discrepancies subsequently discovered by him, in his etatemenl* 

 which have been thrown before the public, and thus are placed in a po.sition to mislead. 



! During 1841 it was from 30 to 32 cents per pound, hut as this estimate is not based on extensive pur- 

 chases, like the preceding, 1 have not |)laced it in the table. 



X Including ^rnrfc sheep, which form the greatest propoition of the whole number. There have been 

 rery few pure-blood Merinos in the State, and many of the Saxon fiocks have been so miserably deterio- 

 rated in carcass and weiaht of fleece, that they have sold foi low prices. But good Saxons sold much 

 above tliis until within three or four years : since then, the Merinos have been rapidly driving out tho 

 Saxons, and thuse of good quality and undoubted pedigree have sold for from five to twenfj'-five times aa 

 much. The higher the price, the greater the profits, by reason of the value of the increase. 



II It would be my impression that the frirms in the grazing regions do not, on the average, exceed 130 

 »crps each. 



S Id est, in the grazing region. 



It ! say " fine-wooled sheep," becatise the 'arger and coarser Downs, Leicesters, Cotsw }ld9, &c. consum* 

 much more, as wLU hereafter be shown. 



