lOO SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



tcqinve Jences to protect (Item from animals, until they attained a ronsider- 

 ble size ; and it is exceedingly questionable whether any good hedge- 

 plant can he found, which is capable of resisting the rigorous and fickle 

 climate of the North-western States. The different thorns, and other jilants 

 deed in England, have generally failed in all the Northern States. 



Timber fuai/ be grown, both for fuel, houses and fences, by the prope* 



Slanting, cultivation and protection of suitablr trees — but the expon?s and 

 'j'ay attending this course would raise the prairies to, or above the price 

 of New-York and New-England sheep lands. 



It has been claimed that the shepherd system will render fences unne- 

 cessary, to any but a very limited extent, on the prairies. Now, while there 

 is but here and thine a settler on the margins of some of these great plains, 

 and while a flock of sheep can constantly seek new pasturage, as the old 

 fails, over a boundless range, without encountering another man's flock, 

 sheep require so little looking after that the shepherd system is entirely 

 feasible and economical, notwithstanding the high price of labor. Unde'- 

 such circumstances, one man, provided with a horse and a brace of dogs, 

 can perhaps give the necessary attention to 1,000 sheep, and have some 

 time for other occupations. But this state of things, terminated already on 

 most of the prairies this side of the Mississippi, will soon be unknown 

 even on those in the territories bordering on the Missouri and its west- 

 ern tributaries. When wool-growers become to any degree numerous on 

 the holders of the prairies, (as they certainly soon will, if these regions do 

 possess any peculiar advantages for this branch of husbandry,) how are 

 sheep to be kept separate, without that multitude of shepherds which the 

 same services require in Spain, Germany, or Australia ? — and whose labor 

 and subsistence* would cost more, during a series of years, than Xhs fences 

 in regions where wood and stone are plenty. 



If the sheep are not kept separate — if allowed to run promiscuously to- 

 gether, how could the property of each holder be separated out of the vast 

 general flock on a prairie five, ten or fifteen miles in mean diameter, for the 

 purposes of slaughter, sale, washing, shearing, folding, or any other inci- 

 dent of their husbandry 1 What protection would there be against whole- 

 sale theft, when no man could count his scattered flock % AVhat would 

 prevent piomiscuous interbreeding — and what object would it be, there- 

 ibre, to attempt to procure choice breeds, or improve those already pos- 

 sessed ? What security would there be against those vagabond rams 

 which the carelessness of some individual is always sure to let loose on 

 a neighborhood, to beget lambs on every poorly-fenced farm, to perish in 

 the storms of February and March ?t Finally, how could contagious 

 and — unless promptly checked — highly malignant and fatal diseases, like 

 the scab and hoof-ail, be met with the proper vigor, and treated with the 

 necessary skill and care, among a multitude of holders scattered over miles 

 of surface ; and supjiosing all the necessary vigor-, skill and care brought 

 into action, what would they all avail whei'e it was impossible to sepa 

 rate the healthy from the diseased — the cured fi-om the sick 1 1 Let either 

 of these diseases break out among a flock of ten thousand sheep, ruiming 

 together without inclosures, and any one familiar with their diagnosis and 

 treatment, knows that if it were possible to drive them from the flock— 

 whi^n is extremely doubtful — it would cost far more than the value of tho 



* (Jopiinz fimr or perhn])!" six times inoro in tliis than in the former countries. 



♦ Ft i^ (luestioniil)lt! whether in a flock running in common on a prairie, one ewe in ten would eacHp* 

 antiinnlv impresnation. 



t r>nih of the^=e disseases are susceptilile of beinc communicated from a difea^ed sheep to one but 

 fof'ently cured of them ; conpequently, separation is tht ■'nly safe and economical mclhc J. in large flocka 

 prc^vi'iit cimstant reinoculatiou. 



