SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 69 



John 8. Skinner, Esq. thus writes me :* 



" Col. Hampton's flock numbers 800, 1 believe. He kills the finest sort of mutton tlaxjugh 

 rot the winter and spring — very fat and excellent in all respects. He told me last summer, 

 Bt Saratoga, that they never get a mouthful except what they can find in the woods and 

 fields." 



Hon. R. F. Simpson, Member of Congress, of Pendleton, South Caro 

 lina, thus describes the region in which he resides, and some of the contig 

 nous ones :t 



Ubn-by S. Kandall, Esq. Washington, Jan. S'j, 1847. 



Dear Sir : I take much pleasure in answering your inquiries, and only regret that I have 

 aot more time to do full justice to the subject. If my answers lail to inform you with suffi 

 cient clearness on any point, I shall be most happy to add to them, at your suggestion. 



The Allegany Mountains, as you are aware, run from N. E. to S. W. That part of them 

 north of the S. C. line lies spread out in different chains or ridges to a distance of nearly 50 

 miles ; and the whole region is commonly called " on the mountains." The climate is healthy 

 and the gi-ass fine. Many of the valleys in this region are very rich, particularly on the wa- 

 tt -r-courses. The giound is covered with snow as much as four weeks annually. The range 

 is good, but there may be too much humidity for sheep.t The land is cheap, say $1 per 

 acre — but much can be bought at .50 cents. I have learned from good authoiity that sheep 

 can be farmed out during the winter at ten cents a head, in any ordinary quantity.. The 

 fanners who take them, too, will be liable for loss by death, in many instances. 



There is a stnp of country lying east of ths Blue Ridge, and parallel to it, from 20 to 30 

 miles wide, extending through North and South Carolina and Georgia, which I think espe- 

 cially adapted to sheep husbandry. The land is poor for the production of our southern sta- 

 ples, and is sparsely settled, but the pasturage is good. There is a perennial grass, known 

 as " woods grass," which sjirings up in the woods after they are buniod each winter, which 

 makes excellent pasture for all kinds of stock. It starts vigorously in the spring, and sheep 

 fatten on it by the middle of July. It lasts all the summer, and provides sufficient food for 

 sheep during the entire winter, except when snow is on the ground, which is not more than 

 two or three days at a time and usually not more than ten days duiing a winter. 



The few days during which the grass is covered up with suow ai-e the only ones, during 

 the enlu-e year, when it is necessary to feed sheep. This is usually done with oats in the 

 sheaf. . . . Supposing ten sheep equal to one cow, I think one acre would afford sub 

 eistence to three sheep. 



But few people mow here. In a few instances, herds-grass has been sown and mowed, 

 but the product not weighed, to my knowledge. Both herds-grass and the natural ones, on 

 our bottom lauds, look much richer, and to all appearance would turn off a heavier crop of 

 hay than any meadows to be seen on the line of travel through Virginia. 



As I have before remarked, the land is poor, except the small bottoms on creeks and 

 branches. The latter are lich, and will produce 30 bushels of corn and I'rom 10 to 15 bush- 

 els of wheat per acre. They also produce oats and rye, but I do not know how much by 

 measurement. I suppose fiom 10 ro 20 bushels each. The land is valued low — from 50 cts. 

 to $1 50 per acre — and it is o''] ;; necessary to buy $500 or $1,000 worth of it, to embrace 



sufficient bottom to raise provis/.ns, and oat-« to feed sheep when snow is on the giound. 



The rangell is veiy large, and 'everybody's stock has liberty to roam over it, without hin- 

 drance or compensation. 



Our common method o^ /ranaging sheep is as follows: The flock are kept in the planta- 

 tion during the winter by 5ome ; others turn out in the woods. In May they are sheared 

 the lambs marked, &,c., and they are turned into the out fiaslnres. When they come up. 

 they ai-e salted, and no other attention is paid to them until liill, when most persons shear 

 a<rain. They are rarely brought up unless to get a lamb for the table. This treatment ren- 

 ders them wild, and prone to jump into the owners' or neighbors' wheat fields, from which 

 they are driven out with rocks and sticks, and sometimes with dogs. They are, in all re- 



* Jan. 15, 1847. 



1 This letter wouW have been loore appropriately included in my IVth Letter, but was not rtceivel ia 

 time, and it is by far too valuable and interesting to be omitted. 



t The effect of humidity on ghn^l) is, 1 think, often misunderstood and gieatly exaggerated. Wet, or id 

 mnls are uncongenial to sheep, h\ t they sufler no more from thope ordinary fogs and vapors which prerVJ 

 in insular positions, or which art attracted by mountain ranges, than other domestic animals. As has bcea 

 before remarked, sheep thrive in the peculiarly (hggy atmosphere of England — also in Holland. Their 

 heUthiness on mountains is i)roverbial, yet these elevations are usually subject to fogs, and clouds rest on 

 the sides or summits of the loftier one.» As the southern mountains are cleared of their trees, their atmo- 

 sphere will be less humid, atd that soft vegetable mould (which excited the fears of Mr linckley) will ac- 

 quire the consistencv which it always d.'.es on a dry foundation, when exposed to the sun and air; and it 

 wili he the means of* supplying the sheep with rich vegetable nutriment, instead of poisoning them with 

 •hoof-ail." 



!l The provincial signification of this word, S-juth, is the uninclosed pasturage in the Jbreet and "onl 

 Beida."— t. e., worn-out lands thrown out to commons. 



