SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



daring the sqpfimer months with profit, provided he had not too many neighbors in tho 

 8Hme business. But such flocks would continually lessen their own range at the same time 

 tliat it is lessening by immigration, settlement and extended culture. I have been in the couu- 

 try about nine years; having gone, at tlie first, into an entirely unsettled region, and have 

 paid much attention to the matter ; and it is my belief that the wild prairies are desirable 

 for wool-growing to a very limited degree ; but that the cultivated prairies are desirable for 

 tliis purpose to an almost limitless extent." 



The following fully sustains my preceding statements in relation to the 

 time of foddering. In answer to Mr. Morrel's question, " what length of 

 rime is foddering necessary in Northern Illinois V Mr. Wight savs : 



" The seasons have been extremely variable since my residence here — now near'y nine 

 years. The winter of 1842 and '43 was the severest one since the settlement of the State; 

 and the foddering season lasted from the middle of October to the middle of April. The 

 winter of 1843 and '44, and the present one (1844-5) would require foddering for a less time, 

 by full two months. This is on (he supposition, however, thai good artificial pastnrape 

 is provided. If the wild prairies are relied on alone lor pasture and hay, full two monthi 

 must be added to the foddering season ; and stock would baiely get through at that ; and I 

 think that sheep, in multitudes of instances, would perish. In this latitude with Timothy 

 Red-top and Clover pastures, the average time would be from 4^ to 5 months. If a "ood 

 bl'.ie-grass pasture were provided, in such winters as the last and present, it might be reduced 

 to two months, and I am told that some so provided for, one hundred miles south of here, 

 have, the present winter, scarcely foddered at all. I apprehend, however, that our winte i 

 here will always be variable, and that it will be far more difficult to predict their len<^*> 

 and intensity than in New-England." 



In another place Mr. Wight says : 



" If, however, the question is asked, ' Does not the pasture on the prairies fail early in au 

 tuinn, so as to compel the removal of sheep to other pasture before it is time to go into winte- 

 quarters ?' I answer, yes — long bef()re. In many sections the prairies afford no adequatf 



[jasture for dairy purposes after the first of SeptemlDer The wild grasses are extreme 

 y vigorous while they last, but are all, without an exception, short-lived." 



The great diminution of the foddering season, where the domestic ot 

 cultivated grasses are already made use of, which Mr. W. anticipates map 

 result from the introduction of blue-grass, will be found utterly unattain- 

 able. Blue-grass (known as June or spear grass), is one of the common- 

 est varieties in New- York and New-England. Peoria, in Illinois, is in 

 about the same latitude with the City of New-York, and consequently that 

 portion of Illinois north of Peoria, corresponds with a considerable portion 

 of New- York, and all of Connecticut and Rhode Island. And the climate 

 of the former is not less rigorous, and is far more variable, than in the lat- 

 ter named States, as I shall presently show. Now in no portion of New- 

 York or New-England will the blue-grass reduce the foddering season to 

 two months, or anything like it. It is true that small flocks will pick up 

 a subsistence on this and other grasses in the winter, when the "-round is 

 not covered with snow, and if the pastures are not fed down in the fall. To 

 suppose, however, that this or any other herbage will continue to grow, 

 when the earth is frozen almost to the consistency of a solid rock, far be- ■ 

 low its lowest roots, is an obvious eiTor. In New-York, the ground remains 

 so frozen usually during the entire winter, and in Northern Illinois the cold 

 is equally intense, and there is less snow to protect the earth from its ef- 

 fects The ground, therefore, is frozen quite as solidly, and considerably 

 deeper than in the former. Grass left standing for winter consumption, 

 in either State, becomes, by freezing and thawing, tough and innutritions 

 In ^ew-York, the larger flock-masters have long since ceased to make any 

 provision of this kind, for winter-feeding — preferring to keep their sheep 

 in yards, and entirely from grass. 



As Mr. Wight himself very accurately remarks in another part of his 

 communication, " It is found to be decidedly better to keep sheep up in 

 •mall flocks, with very little ground to run over, while kept on ha^, than 



