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20 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