112 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
April 
wooj^craowxira im iiiiinv-ois. 
Editors of the Cultivator —The extensive cir- 
eulation of your well known paper, induces me, awes* 
tern man, to offer a communication which I hope will 
contain information of some value to those wool-grow¬ 
ers in the east who may think of emigrating to the 
west, with a view of following the same occupation to 
greater advantage. 
The great extent of the west, its various climates, 
the different age of its innumerable settlements, the 
presence of destructive animals, and their extermina¬ 
tion at certain points, are all circumstances that may 
favorably or unfavorably influence the efforts of the new 
settler. The descriptions of new countries are, for the 
most part, of too general a nature. They speak of the 
salubrity of the climate, the fertility of the soil, woods, 
prairies and rivers, and the whole is but an outline of 
a grand picture. There is a great want in these com¬ 
munications of that precise information required by men 
of business. Many emigrants have been disappointed 
for want of accurate information of the circumstances 
of the country, as bearing on their particular occupa¬ 
tion. The failures frequently complained of, need not 
have occurred had the emigrants adapted themselves to 
the proper localities. To wool-growers, a correct 
knowledge of the very spot to which they intend re¬ 
moving, is all important, and absolutely necessary to 
secure them from many risks. But experience alone 
can point them out. 
I have resided in this immediate neighborhood for 
twenty-nine years, and during the whole of that time 
have been a flock-master, owning from three hundred 
to eight hundred sheep. For twenty-five years of that 
time the great drawback to the pleasure and the profit 
of sheep-keeping, was the presence of the wolf. The 
injury did not only incur from the numbers of the ani¬ 
mals destroyed, and they were very great; but from the 
necessity of keeping the sheep safely penned at night, 
summer as well as winter. This practice was highly in¬ 
jurious to the condition of sheep and lambs, as well as to 
the growth of wool and weight of fleece. But so long as 
the wolf existed in the country, there was no remedy. 
The wolf has left this part of the country for the past 
three years. The first year it was conjectural, for no 
one dared to leave his flock abroad. But for the last 
three years my flock, and other smaller flocks, haver 
laid out safely in the prairie range from April to No¬ 
vember, night and day. This circumstance forms a 
new era in sheep husbandry here, and opens a new field 
for capital and enterprise in that branch of business. 
Those who are conversant with sheep will allow, that 
every sheep suffered to repose in its own pasture, night 
and day, will pay its owner half a dollar a head more 
than one that is penned at night, especially where sum¬ 
mers are long and warm as they are here. 
The part of the country of which I am speaking, is 
in Edwards County, Illinois, a little south of Albion, 
the county town, in latitude 39. The easiest route to 
it from the east, is to descend the Ohio to Mt. Vernon, 
Indiana, thence to Harmony, 16 miles—from Harmony 
to Albion, 20. If Wabash boats are running, a pas¬ 
sage may be taken at Cincinnati on one of them as far 
as Grayville on the Wabash, which is ten miles from 
Albion. The prairies of which I speak, lie between the 
Great and Little Wabash—10 miles from each, at an 
elevation of one hundred and sixty feet from both. 
Drained by these two rivers, the prairies between them 
are rolling, high, and dry. The soil is fertile, and 
takes grass well. The winters are short, and gene- | 
rally mild. Where there is am abundance of tame grass,, 
sheep will get their living without much fodder, all 
through the winter. The cold weather that occasion¬ 
ally occurs in December, January and February, comes- 
in short paroxysms, with long spells of intervening mild 
weather. Snow seldom lies more than three or four 
days together. A falrof six inches is a deep snow with 
us. Shelter is quite necessary for all domestic animals; 
for they, like man, feel more sensibly the cold spells of 
weather in our mild winters, than those inured to the 
severe and steady cold of a more northern winter. 
The improvements made by the emigrant will be of 
a permanent or temporary nature, according to his 
capital and ultimate views. A- shed with clap-board 
roof and faggot back, is all that is necessary for the 
sheep. A house of any description may be erected, 
from a snug log cabin to a mansion of brick, frame or 
stone. Abundance of materials being at hand, and* 
workmen ready to erect them. The price of land is 
quite moderate. Choice situations for sheep-keeping 
may be found at from four to six dollars per acre. By 
choice situations, I mean those elevated and rolling sit¬ 
uations in the clear prairie, that require no previous 
expenses but the fencing, to their immediate cultiva¬ 
tion. few grubs and hazel bushels, entail an ex¬ 
pense of five dollars per acre, and heavy timber ten. 
The prairies are of moderate size, bounded by wood¬ 
lands, and interspersed with elurpps of full grown oaks, 
affording an agreeable shade to sheep and cattle, which' 
is essential to their comfort and condition during the' 
summer months. 
The facilities we have of steamboat navigation, al¬ 
low us to deliver our w r ool into any eastern manufactory 
at an expense not exceeding two and a half cents per 
pound. 
Nothing can exceed the beauty of the park scenery 
of this country, its fertility, and generally inviting as¬ 
pect. Neither must the emigrant think that he is leav¬ 
ing civilization and the comforts of life by coming here. 
The artificers of iron and wood are numerous and skil¬ 
ful in our small towns, making every tool and imple¬ 
ment that the farmer needs. Well stocked stores sup¬ 
ply our household wants. Churches and schools are 
well established. The whole United States cannot 
show a more peaceable,industrious,and contented pop¬ 
ulation. 
In the neighboring State of Indiana, common sheep 
may be bought for 75 cents or $1 per head. In this 
vicinity superior sheep of the finest wool, are from 
five to twenty dollars individually. But the chief ob¬ 
ject of this extended communication, was to give notice 
to my brother shepherds of the absence of the Wolf, 
a circumstance in itself that may. give success, when 
his presence would assuredly entail a loss, or perhaps 
inflict a failure. 
The astronomer who patiently watches a plane in 
the heavens for a quarter of a century, records per¬ 
haps the disappearance of a well known star, or the 
discovery of a new one. It is by recording these sim¬ 
ple facts that the science of astronomy has so astonish¬ 
ingly and steadily advanced. If farmers would follow 
this safe example, and give facts instead of theories, 
agriculture would make a more steady advance, and 
the recorded communications of its journals would be 
received with greater reliance. George Flower. 
Park House, near Albion, Edwards Co., III., Jan . 
24, 1848. 
