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THE COUNTRYMAN.
TURNWOLD, GA., OCTOBER 13, 1862.
Sheep-Husbandry.
Du. Lee : 1 sheared, about the begin
ning of May, 65sheep, which yielded about
145 pounds of wool—an average of 2:7-11
pounds to the sheep. The average would
have been better hut for a number of old
sheep which had partially lost their fleeces.
This average, though small when compar
ed, with the yield of the improved breeds
when well provided for, is better than or
dinary with the old-field sheep common in
Georgia, .
Mr. Dantzler, in the essay which you
published in the Field & Fireside of 22d
inst., says his sheep realize him yearly a
net income of 50 per cent upon their value.
Mine have yielded me, for the past twelve
months, over 100 per cent net income on
their value. Fifty-five sheep at #2 per head,
the price they bring at sales through the
country, are worth $110. I sold my wool,
unwashed, at 25 cents per pound, which
brought me $36,25. Then my flock of 55
raised for me, this spring, 40 lambs ; which,
at $2 per head, their market value, are
worth $80. Add this to $36.25, the price
the wool brought, and it makes $116.25—
over 100 per cent upon $110, the value of
the 55 old sheep.
But some one may ask why I dont de-
ductthe cost of keeping my flock. I answer,
because the keeping cost me nothing. A lit
tle salt occasionally, with possibjy a few cot
ton seed semi-occasionally, in order to pro
duce an impression upon the minds of the
sheep favorable to the idea that they were
sometimes fed, is all they got, with the ex
ception of what they themselves gathered
in the open fields. And they more than
paid me for this little salt and cotton seed,
with the manure which they brought to
my lots. * •
In the matter of raising lambs, I have
tried paying a great deal of attention to the
flock during lambing season, and, strange
as it may seem, 1 have uniformly succeed
ed better, just to turn my sheep in an open
field, with a pine thicket to protect them
from cold, than I have when I bestowed
all manner of attention upon them. One
winter, I had a wheat field sowed express
ly tor my sheep, and the succeeding spring,
nearly all my lambs died with the scours.
But I will not jump to the conclusion that
wheat grazing is, at all times, and in prop
er quantities, improper for ewes and lambs.
I was once relating mj experience with
wheat in sheep-busbandry to a friend, and
be told me that be also bad once sown
wheat to be grazed by bis slieep, and bis
ewes and lambs flourished finely upon it.
Probably I confined my flock too exclu
sively to the green wheat, and did not al
low them (through negligence) as much
salt, and such a change of food as were
proper for them. I am inclined to think
that rye would he better for sheep than
wheat, because less liable to scour the
lambs.
Sheep are very fond of cotton seed, but
it is not certain that these are healthy for
them. I have heard it asserted that they
are not : and it may be true that the furze
upon them causes lung complaints, snuffles,
&e. It is certain that cotton seed in their
natural state will kill hogs, and I do not
think it is more the hulls upon them than
the furze : tor if you will either rot or boil
the seed, they furnish good food for hogs.
It is true that boiling or rotting them, soft
ens the hull, and this may improve them
as much as the destruction of the furze.
But that the furze of the cotton seed does
a great deal of the harm caused by feeding
them, in their natural state, to stock, I am
confident. I have always noticed that
when my dogs sleep upon a pile of cotton
seed, they are very apt to have inflamed
lungs, and inflamed mucous membranes.
So is the negro who feeds the gin : not
less from the furze of the cotton than the
dust which flies from it.
It may be, then, that the reason that my
sheep do better, and raise more lambs
when I turn them in the field and let them
alone, is that when I pay them a great
deal of atrention, I feed to them too many
cotton seed. I dor.t think sheep would like
them boiled, because they are not a water
animal, and dont like water mixed with
their food. Nor do 1 think they would
like them rotted : but decorticated, I think
cotton seed would be an excellent food for
them.
Usually, I pen my sheep every night,
for the sake of their manure, and to keep
the dogs off.
But in lambing season, I do not pen
them, because the lambs, when they first
come, are too feeble to be driven about.
Besides this, the ewes, particularly the
young and timid ones, frequently become
confused, and lose the maternal feeling for
their offspring, when huddled up promiscu
ously in driving the flock. Especially is
this the case when the driver is harsh and
careless—and all negroes are apt to be
so. In addition to what I have said,
all animals instinctively seek seclusion in
the season of parturition and lactation.
After the lambs get large and strong
enough, I begin to pen my flock again,
driving them up, and penning them with
my cows. It is true that sheep graze a
great deal at night, and but for the protec
tion they need from dogs, would perhaps
thrive better, to be allowed to run on the
pasture at niglit. But I have a good deal
of wood-pasture in my fields, and my sheep
can graze in the shade. Besides this, they
can g? aze late in the evening, and are turn
ed out to graze again early in the morning.
I think that the protection from dogs and
the value of the manure more than compen
sate for the one disadvantage as to grazing,
which the sheep suffer from being penned
at night. *
As I have said, I pen my sheep with my
cows. The cows fight off the dogs, if they
go into the pen, and in the day, the sheep,
from habit, stay near their protectors. Or
if, perchance, they get off from their horn
ed friends, during the day, and are attack
ed by dogs, they fly immediately to their
bovine companions. To pen sheep with
cattle, also serves to make them gentle.
When my little negro boy goes for my cows,
every evening, he has no trouble in bring
ing up my flock of sheep, now numbering
nearly 100. They follow the cows like
brothers.
You may imagine from what I have said
in relation to turning my sheep out int-o the
field , and its costing me nothing to winter
them, that I think it best not to feed them.
Far from it. My success, with the little
cost and attention bestowed upon my flock,
only proves how little expensive sheep-hus
bandry is, and how admirably adapted this
climate is to the production of wool and
mutton. When my sheep have not done so
well from too much attention and too much
feeding, it has been on account of too much
attention and feeding of the wrong kind. I
kept the ewes up in too small a compass,
drove the lambs about when too feeble, and
produced disease by too much cotton seed
and green wheat. My impression is, that
the best plan for wintering sheep, which
embraces the lambing season, is to give them
a rye field to run upon, with a shelter of
woods, or a pine thicket. I am decided
that in our climate, this is sufficient, and
better than housing them, because housing
them genders so much filth, and produces
disease. Failing a rye field, a good trough
kept well furnished with a portion of cotton
seed, cut wheat-straw, chopped turnips and
as much com as you are willing to spare,
the whole mass well mixed, will supply its
place.
1 think the best breed of sheep for us, is
what is called the “ native breed.” Take
the finer breeds, and with our treatment and