EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVEE. 463 



fleece that each sheep at 4 years old on grass would not command 

 more than $2.50, the best, fed on grain in the winter, would not bring 

 over $4. To supply a butcher each year a lot of fat sheep of a farmer's 

 own raising would require him to keep four lots on hand to sell one, 

 the fleece but little more than paying for its keep. To rely upon the 

 fleece alone was too insignificant a matter. At the highest price paid 

 per pound in the United States, it would require many sheep to make 

 a small amount of money. Not satisfied with this condition of affairs 

 he determined to purchase some of the large mutton sheep of England, 

 and chose the improved Cotswold to see what could be done with them. 

 Believing it the true policy to have the best, as it soonest repays out- 

 lays, he imported each year the winners of the highest prizes of the 

 Eoyal Agricultural Society of England, confident in his acquisition 

 that if they beat England he must surely have the purest and best that 

 England could produce. Col. Ware found, after putting three crosses 

 of his imported rams on his ordinary flock, that the fleece greatly 

 increased in weight, and sold for as much per pound as the fleece of 

 ordinary sheep ; and he sold the mutton from these crosses readily, the 

 fall after 1 year old, for $10 on the farm, so that he sold out clean 

 every year, keeping none over the winter but the breeding ewes and 

 the lambs of the same spring. The result of the improvement was that 

 where he formerly sold one mutton sheep 4 years old for $2.50 on grass 

 and $4 on grain in winter, he sold 4 of his improved sheep for $40, and 

 realized more on the wool. The success was not lost on the farmers of 

 his section, who procured rams from him and improved their flocks, 

 until, in the words of Col. Ware, "this little county of Clarke that I live 

 in has now a reputation for mutton probably unequaled by any State 

 in the Union. It is not unusual for a flock of 40 to 50 ewes, part bred, 

 to yield in mutton and wool each year from $500 to $650." 



The improvement in this county was emulated in others and the whole 

 State was showing a great advance in sheep husbandry, when the war 

 of secession extermiuated many of her fine flocks and disheartened her 

 people. But the sheep of Clarke, Loudoun, and of the entire Shenan- 

 doah Valley are still held in high repute and find good markets. In 

 recent years the interest in sheep has revived and many fine sheep 

 have been introduced, including the Cots wolds, Hampshires, and Shrop- 

 shires. In 1872 Seville and Landale, of Salem, imported a number of 

 Border Leicester rams and ewes, selected from the flock of Eev. Mr. 

 Bosanquet, England. 



The valley of Virginia, the Blue Eidge, and the Piedmont, are all 

 admirably adapted to the production of the cultivated forage plants 

 necessary for winter feeding, and in summer there is an abundance of 

 white clover and blue grass pasturage. But with unrivaled advan- 

 tages sheep-raising has not become a prominent industry in this section, 

 and the fine mountain pasturage is not used. Some returns made to the 

 Department of Agriculture in 1880 show possibilities. 



