SHEEP HUSBANDRY.—NO. III. 
109 
feeding, large or small, on Mr. Gill’s plan or any 
other, and communicate the whole case to me, 
postage paid, prior to August 15th, I will send a 
copy of the pamphlet. I say August 15th, because 
I shall have little confidence in any result brought 
out after that date. Yet should any late returns 
come in, they shall be published in the Annual Re¬ 
port of the New England Silk Convention, which 
will be out in October or November. 
J. R. B. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY—No. III. 
In my last communication, which appeared in 
your April number, I inquired where is the dis¬ 
trict of country within the limits of the United 
States, naturally best adapted for profitable wool¬ 
growing ? Though my inquiry has not, so far as 
I have observed, been publicly answered, yet from 
various private sources of information, I have be¬ 
come satisfied that the best and most profitable 
sheep districts will be found, not in the old north- 
ern states (avhich have heretofore produced most 
of our fine wool), but in the western and south¬ 
western portions of the United States, and in the 
upper or hilly districts of the southern states, 
where, with anything like decent care and manage¬ 
ment, sheep can not fail to thrive and do well, and 
by furnishing in their wool a new, extensive, and 
valuable article of export , will become a source 
of great income, and will ultimately enhance ma¬ 
terially the value of the land throughout those dis¬ 
tricts of country. As bearing upon this subject, I 
am permitted to extract a few passages from a re¬ 
cent letter of an intelligent gentleman, who is him¬ 
self an extensive wool-grower in the state of New 
York. He has travelled extensively in the far 
west, and speaks from personal examination and 
actual knowledge. He says: 
“ There is no doubt of the great capabilities of 
Illinois, and other new states, for producing fine 
wool. It is not now a subject of conjecture, but is 
well ascertained and certain. That is the region 
whence our manufacturers are to derive their great 
supplies of wool with which to drive foreign com¬ 
petition from our shores, and to carry the war into 
foreign markets. Not only in price of wool, but 
in other products, are the farmers of the old states 
to be brought to the standard of the new , and we 
in the old states can only sustain ourselves by the 
aids of science, and by exact economy and system 
in our husbandry. At the west, theirs will be the 
advantage of easy and cheap production; while 
ours must consist mainly in proximity to market. 
We have, for instance, an advantage over Illinois, 
of nearly or quite two cents per pound in the 
transportation of our wool to market, in itself no 
inconsiderable item; besides, labor and capital are 
both always dearer in the new portions of the 
country than in the old. We shall need all the 
aid of such circumstances to enable us to sustain 
the competition; and withal we may make up our 
minds to live under low prices, for we may per- 
naps never see, under any circumstances, a return 
to the high prices of a few years since, though I 
trust we shall recover somewhat in our prosperity, 
and enjoy a stable and permanent market.” 
It is now a well-ascertained fact, that fine wool 
grown in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, 
and in the northwestern portion of Virginia, and 
southern part of Ohio, is of a softer and more de¬ 
sirable quality than such as is now usually produ¬ 
ced in the state of Vermont; the latter having a 
very undesirable harshness , and is also often high¬ 
ly objectionable on account of its weather-beaten 
character, evinced by the extensive prevalence of 
the “ dead-end,” as it is called, especially among 
the finer classes of their wool. From these ob¬ 
jectionable peculiarities, the fine wool of the re¬ 
gion of country first named, is, in some good de¬ 
gree free—so much so that an extensive wool- 
dealer from one of the eastern cities who is now 
purchasing, informs me that he is paying a higher 
price for it by five cents per pound, or say twenty 
per cent., than for the Vermont wool. That these 
same advantageous peculiarities also belong to the 
merino wool produced on the prairies of the west , 
especially when the sheep are well sheltered by 
sheds from the drenching and beating of the cold 
rains and storms of winter, I have the assurance 
of a distinguished and extensive eastern manufac¬ 
turer. You and your readers will, I think, agree 
with me that these are very interesting facts. 
But let us now, without further delay, turn to 
my proposed topic, i. e., “ the best and most profit¬ 
able hind of sheep.” It is, to do it justice, a wide 
and important subject, deserving and requiring 
much and careful consideration, which it will well 
repay. Presuming that your readers would not 
wish the question adjudged and settled summarily 
by the mere “ ipse dixit” of any one, I do not see 
that we can well do less or better, than to glance 
first at the different hinds of sheep which are now 
or have been in the United States, and examine in 
course the merits of the leading sorts. In doing 
this, let us, in the first place, look at the native 
sheep, so called, as they existed in the country 
some thirty-five or forty years ago, prior to the ex¬ 
tensive introduction from Europe of the Spanish 
Merino blood. Of those sheep called native I 
once had a flock, of which I yet retain a very dis¬ 
tinct recollection, extending even to the individual 
countenances of each sheep, which I can recal at 
this day with all the distinctness of yesterday, 
though it is now about thirty years since. 
The native sheep, especially in the northern 
states, were generally understood to have been, 
for the most part, of English origin, brought over 
at an early period by the emigrants or settlers from 
that country. They, however, like the horned 
cattle of this country, called “ native and of sim¬ 
ilar origin, did not appear to be of any particular 
breed, and did not possess the distinguishing pecu¬ 
liarities of any of the English breeds of sheep 
known at the present day. 
Indeed, I suppose it may admit of question, 
whether, at the period of the settlement of the 
English North American colonies, breed was strict¬ 
ly attended to, and as strongly and distinctly mark¬ 
ed as it has been of late years with the sheep and 
other domestic animals of England. It can hardly 
be supposed that the sheep , any more than the 
