146 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN KENTUCKY* 
Oe. I trust that a brighter day will dawn upon us, 
when State and county agricultural societies are 
formed throughout our land. They are beginning to 
wake up the farmer to the importance of scientific 
agricultural knowledge in the cultivation of land. 
The shows and meetings of the societies tend to dif¬ 
fuse practical information among them, and incite 
them to study the best methods of using their ma¬ 
nures, and what manures they should use on their 
different soils to produce the best crops, and such 
other agricultural information as they need, leading 
them to expect greater results as the reward for their 
labor from year to year. Much has been accom¬ 
plished in the few last years by the aid of these so¬ 
cieties in raising the standard of agriculture; but 
there is still a greater work to be performed by the 
agriculturists of our land, before it will occupy the 
high position to which it is entitled. Let us see to 
it, that New England has the honor of being first in 
this as well as other enterprises. 
Middletown, Ct. S. C. Charles. 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN KENTUCKY. 
I am highly gratified at the various indications 1 
have observed in the American Agriculturist, of a 
disposition favorable to an extension of sheep hus¬ 
bandry in the United States. This is a subject in 
which I have Always taken a deep interest, because 
I believe it will not only greatly promote the agricul¬ 
tural interest, but tend, in an eminent degree, to ad¬ 
vance the wealth and prosperity of the whole Union. 
The difficulty of finding an adequate market for our 
rapidly increasing agricultural products, renders it 
necessary that we should avail ourselves of as many 
new sources for the profitable employment of land 
and labor as possible. Nothing, in our present cir¬ 
cumstances, is better calculated for this purpose than 
sheep husbandry. We have land in great abundance, 
whilst labor is comparatively scarce. Sheep hus¬ 
bandry requires much land, and is attended with the 
advantage of requiring comparatively few laborers; 
and instead of exhausting, tends greatly to fertilize 
the land thus appropriated. Sheep husbandry may 
be practised in almost every part of our extensive 
country, but doubtless some portions of it are better 
adapted to the business, and it can be carried on more 
economically, than in others. Without pretending to 
speak disparagingly of other parts, allow me to set 
forth the claims of Kentucky as eminently adapted to 
this highly useful branch of agriculture. To illus¬ 
trate its fitness for this purpose, suffer me to refer to 
my own practice in a small way. 
For some years after 1 commenced raising sheep 
(my cleared land and pastures being then very limit¬ 
ed), I housed them during the winter months, and fed 
them with hay, sheaf oats, and occasionally with 
corn. But when my cleared land and pastures be¬ 
came more extensive, I found that I could winter my 
sheep to better advantage by suffering them to run on 
blue grass pastures, kept in reserve for them, hauling 
out and scattering on the turf corn fodder, when the 
grass became too short, or was covered with show. 
This mode of feeding required less labor, and was 
less expensive, than housing them ; and experience 
soon taught me that my sheep passed through the 
winter in better condition than when housed, and fed 
on hay and grain. 
I have now about 3QQ acres of cleared land : nearly 
one half of which is in meadow, clover and blue 
grass —poa pratensis ; and the other half reserved for 
cultivation in corn, wheat, hemp, &c.; and 150 acres 
in wood land, the greater part well cleared up and 
sown in blue grass. I have been taught by experi¬ 
ence, recently, that sheep will do remarkably well on 
the rankest clover, which will enable me in future to 
keep more of my blue grass pastures in reserve for 
winter feeding. During the last fall (the season being 
favorable), my clover fields furnished my flock, of 
somewhat less than 400, sufficient pasturage till, the 
month of January; and they have been since kept on 
my blue grass pastures, without the necessity of feed¬ 
ing, except some four or five days when the ground 
was covered with snow ; and there is still grass 
enough to carry them through the residue of the 
winter. 
The low price of hemp, and agricultural products 
generally, has induced me to sow down much of my 
cleared land in clover, which will enable me to keep 
double the number of sheep 1 now have, v/ithout in¬ 
terfering with my farming operations; and when I 
get the whole of my woodland cleared up and set in 
blue grass, I expect to extend my fiock to 1000 sheep. 
Thus you see we are neither under the necessity of 
incurring the expense of erecting buildings to shelteF 
our sheep, nor of raising grain or hay for their food; 
nor even to employ laborers to feed them, except dur¬ 
ing the short time it may become necessary to haul 
out fodder for them, when the ground is covered with 
snow. And in a single day enough may be hauled 
out on sleds to last them a week or more. 
It is argued by some that our rich lands are too 
valuable to be appropriated advantageously to sheep 
husbandry. There would be much force in this ob¬ 
jection if they were entirely appropriated to that pur¬ 
pose. But not so when sheep husbandry is combined 
►with large hemp and com crops. Hemp has hitherto 
been a profitable crop, though now it is too low to 
justify its extensive culture; and large corn crops are 
necessary with a view of raising horses, mules, cat¬ 
tle, and hogs. There is no system of husbandry so 
well calculated to prepare our lands for large products 
of corn and hemp, as feeding sheep on our clover 
lands. I had supposed, till I made the experiment, 
that sheep would not do well on rank clover (a). 
To satisfy myself on this point, I put about 150 
wethers on a clover field, when in flower, early in 
May. The clover was at the time nearly a3 high 
as the sheep’s backs (Merinos). 1 kept them on this 
during the whole summer, and in the fall they were 
fat enough for the butcher. It is true they trod down 
much of the clover; but, as 1 had an abundance of 
pasture, this was an advantage, as it left a thick mat 
of grass on the ground, intermingled with tb, v drop¬ 
pings of the sheep, distributed with much regularity 
This thick covering prevented a loss of manure by 
washing rains, and rapidly brought on a second 
growth of clover, which furnished my whole fiock 
with an abundance of pasture till the early part of 
January. The season was, however, unusually 
favorable, and hence the clover pastures lasted two 
of three weeks later than usual. In future I intend 
to keep my sheep entirely on iny clover fields from 
the time they are in flower, and thus I shall be able 
to-' keep in reserve a greater supply of blue grass for 
winter feeding. 
But it is not upon our high priced rich lanos alos# 
