204 
THE BEST SHEEP COUNTRY. 
ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
THE BEST SHEEP COUNTRY. 
Iberville , La ., August \2th, 1843. 
Your correspondent, Americus, in his second 
paper on sheep-husbandry, page 12 asks, “ Where 
is the best sheep country? Is there no region 
within the United States, where, while it is cool 
enough in summer to be a grass-growing country, 
the winters are so short and mild, that sheep will 
not require much, if any feeding. I ask for infor¬ 
mation. Will not some of your readers at the 
south and southwest inform us ?” 
Accepting the question as a general one, I an¬ 
swer, that Louisiana and the southern part of Mis¬ 
sissippi will nearly fit the measure of the country 
required by Americus. Cool enough in summer 
to grow grass, and so mild in winter as scarcely to 
deserve the name. Here, sheep require little or 
no feeding, and yet they thrive well, and have the 
reputation of producing superior mutton. Perhaps 
a short description of the climate and country will 
not be amiss ; and then Americus can judge for 
himself, whether I can claim to have found the 
“ best sheep country.” 
The west bank of the Mississippi is level land. 
The east bank, from the gulf of Mexico to the 
bayou Manchac, or Iberville river, as it is called on 
some maps, is very level. From this place north, 
it is composed of clay-hills. So much for the 
country. The climate is generally equable. The 
severe weather of winter is seldom less than a 
week, or more than three weeks duration. In 
summer we sometimes have severe droughts. I 
have known them last six weeks, and this is the 
worst weather we have all the year round. Then, 
on the hills, the pastures are burned up, and in the 
lowlands much injured, though not entirely destroy¬ 
ed ; for nature, at that time, is prolific in dispen¬ 
sing her plenteous and refreshing dews. These 
are our extremes. This year we have had a wet 
season. The grass in the lots about my house has 
been green for twelve months past, never once 
having been poor feeding. I would not like to tell 
how many cows, calves, sheep, and occasionally 
hogs, have been pastured on them. The verdure, 
to be appreciated should be seen. So much for 
the pastures. Of the capability of the land to sup¬ 
ply food, Americus can judge when I tell him, 
that full crops of corn can be made (barring bad 
seasons), if planted any time from February to 
July. I have sowed oats in February, and cut 
them the last of March ; planted corn in May, and 
gathered 48 bushels per acre from the same ground, 
and all without manure. The land is inexhausti¬ 
ble, having no bottom. It would make northern 
farmers laugh at the idea of resting land with 
corn. But cane and cotton-land is always so reno¬ 
vated. Good planters sow peas with their corn. 
But to return. Some persons follow with peas, 
after oats; and such masses of verdure you never 
saw, and better hay made from pea-vines never 
was eaten. Of the quantity per acre I can not say. 
There is also a natural grass, which succeeds the 
white clover, called crab-grass. It grows in every 
and any place, and. much hay is gathered from the 
corn-fields after fodder is pulled, by provident plant¬ 
ers. The turning rows and hauling-roads on su¬ 
gar plantations are covered in the fall with it, and 
much hay made. Corn can be sowed broad-cast 
four or five times on the same land. Irish potatoes 
turn out 400 bushels to the acre; sweet potatoes 
and ruta baga half as much more. Oat, rye, 
and wheat straw, we save for fodder. In short, 
everything that can be converted into food for cat¬ 
tle and sheep in the northern states, can be made 
to serve the same purpose here. No attention is 
paid to artificial treatment. We are in that respect 
in “j vures naturalibus ” (a natural state.) Three 
fourths of the year on the coast,* sheep run on the 
roads and levees in front of the plantations ; after 
they are turned into the fields, the crops are gath¬ 
ered. So much for the country as it is, and what 
it might be. A word now about the sheep. 
Sheep have only been considered valuable on 
account of their carcase; and the flavor of Louisi¬ 
ana and Mississippi mutton has been celebrated 
for a long time in this part of the world. Of the 
breeds I can say nothing, though I fancy it would 
puzzle the most skilled to refer many of them to 
any “class and order.” I have been informed, 
however, that one capable of judging, has pro¬ 
nounced the common stock about Natchez to be 
the best “ common stock” in the United States 
since 1835. The South-Downs (where won’t they 
thrive?) have been introduced here, and are rapid¬ 
ly spreading, though I am sorry to see they are 
being crossed with inferior natives. Of their pro¬ 
ductiveness I can only say that it is most marvel¬ 
lous. “ Few die, and we have no fear from wolves,” 
vide American Agriculturist, page 115, and they 
receive no protection from sheds, although they 
ought, to our shame be it said. Food, except the 
pastures, they receive none; and no other care or 
attention, except to salt them twice a week. All 
the other aid they receive, is obtained from Dame 
Nature. No art used and none expended ; and yet 
they are just fat enough to be delicious. I have 
often seen mutton on the table so fat that I could 
not eat it. Of the quality of the wool I can say 
nothing; perhaps it would take one hundred hairs 
of an Austrian sheep to equal one of a Creole 
(vide Am. Ag., p. 93.) I have heard it said, and 
I believe it is by most persons considered as “ res 
adjudicata ,” (a thing settled,) that fine-woolled 
sheep degenerate in warm climates. Query ? as 
to the Merinos I fancy that the isothermal degree 
of latitude of the south of Spain, would not be very, 
very far, from the latitude of New Orleans. I am 
inclined to suspect that this, like many other 
“ generally received opinions,” will fail when test¬ 
ed by the talisman of experiment. I have been in¬ 
formed by a lady, a native of this country, that 
some thirty years or more since, it was thought 
that cabbages would not grow in this climate! 
Now we have spring cabbages, summer cabbages, 
and winter cabbages—the winter much the best. 
* Note. —The word 11 coast,” used at the south, means 
the banks of the Mississippi from its mouth to the distance 
of about 200 miles above New Orleans. It is a perfect 
paradise to look at, particularly in the months of April 
and May. See our description, Vol. I., p. 100, American 
Agriculturist.—E d. 
