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THE COUNTRYMAN.
21
our pasturage they would not be fine breeds
long. Fine pastures are the base of fiue
stock. Take away the base, and the su
perstructure must fall, of course. To ex
pect to have, the finest kind of improved
cattle, sheep, and hogs, on stunted broom-
sedge, transferring these improved breeds
out of their element of fine pastures, would
be like attempting to raise fine shad out of
water. I am not at all acquainted with the
improved breeds of sheep, but from what
Mr. L)a::tzler says, I would imagine it best
to cross the South Down upon our common
stock. I am not opposed to grafting a bet
ter breed upon our hardy stock : but with
out more care than our planters bestow up
on their sheep. I am confident it would be
a losing business to invest too much in the
improved breeds.
The Southern planter, without detriment
to his cotton crop, can raise a great many
sheep, and make it profitable. The best
sheep for his purpose is the long and coarse-
woolled one. He wants his wool to make
clothes for his negroes, which are manufac
tured from coarse kerseys.. You say in
your article No. 3, on ‘ Sheep Husbandry
in the South,’ that fine wool will make more
durable cloth than coarse wool. This may
be true, and doubtless is, but this makes
no difference with the negro. He is going
to have his new kersey jacket every win
ter, and nothing you can do is going to
make him take care of that jacket more
than one winter. Hence to make negro
clothing, coarse-woolled sheep are the best,
because they yield so much more.. Bv sa
ving one’s rams exclusively from the long-
woolled lambs, I think one might have a
flock of sheep, before the expiration of
many j^ears, that would, with only tolerat
ble treatment, average five pounds of wool
to the sheep. I am confident that I shear
ed sheep, this spring, whose fleeces would
have weighed five or six pounds.
Now in what I say, I want it understood
that I do not pretend to set forth what is
best for those who make sheep-husbandry
their chief business. Mr. Dant^ler and
others have done that. My object is to
show that our planters can make all the
wool and all the mutton they need,, and not
let it interfere at all with their other busi
ness. With little or no outlay, they can
realize upon the value of their flocks from
50 to 100 per cent,, per annum. And thev
can do it by pursuing the course I have—a
course attended with scarcely any expense.
There, is one thing, though, I must add
with reference to the treatment of sheep,
and that is that a man must never let his
sheep “run out,” if he wishes to be suc
cessful. They will become as wild as
bucks, if he does, and the dogs will certain
ly devour them. It is very important that
sheep should be kept gentle, and a good
way to do this is to raise a pet lamb, occa
sionally, and when he is grown, make him
the bell-wether of the flock. He will nev
er forget his raising, but will always re
main gentle, and come and lick salt out of
your hand. There are hut few of my sheep j
that will not do this, anyway.
And now as to the glorious delicacy of
mutton. This food cannot be extolled too
highly, whether fresh or dried. No ven
ison 1 have ever tasted, equalled good fat
mutton, well dressed. Of course it must be
well dressed, or it is offensive to taste and
smell: and few know how to dress it prop
erly. This is why so many are prejudiced
against mutton. I have passed off upon
many persons who boasted themselves epi-
cures and connoisseurs, my dried mutton j
hams as dried venison hams. Let your
butcher be careful never to make the
smallest puncture in the entrails of your
sheep, while dressing him ; let the sheep be
entirely cool when you kill him ; not at all
heated by running ; let him be fat and ten
der ; let him not be spoiled in cooking ; liis
flesh not dried up in the oven like a chip ;
but on the other hand, cooked slowly, aud
“ smothered,” like a chicken ; this “ smoth
ering” being a cross between a bake and a
stew; then with some nice green corn,
green peas, okra, or young and tender Irish
potatoes—Kind I am ready, with this feast
set before me,, to close this long, rambling
letter on slieep-husbandry. J. a. t.
The foregoing was wiitten June 28th,
1861, and published in the Field & Fire
side.'
The Orator and the Tyrant.
“ The report of the miserable state of
slavery into which the Agrigentines had
fallen under the tyrant Phalaris, so affec
ted Zeno Eleates, that he resolved to leave
his native country, and make a journey to
Agrigentum, in order to try whether he
could not by his counsels effect some ame
lioration in its condition. The philosopher
made his first overtures to Phalauis himself,
but finding the ear of the despot deaf to all
wholesome counsel, he turned his attention
to the patrician youth, whom he endeavor
ed by every effort to animate with a love
of liberty, and a determination to free then-
country from bondage. Phalaris, being
infoimed of the proceedings of Zeno, or
dered him to be arrested, and calling the
people together into the forum, he put the
philosopher into the rank before tbeir fa
ces, and repeatedly called upon him to
point out who among those around him
had lent a favorable ear to his counsels.
Zeno observed on this point the most obsti
nate silence, but turning to the citizens, he
began to reproach them in suclt glowing
terms with their abject submission to such
a tyrant, that all at once they were filled
with an impulse of indignation not to be
repressed, and stoned the tyrant Phalaris
on the very spot which he had designed
for the martyrdom of a philosopher and
friend of liberty.”
Southern Pluck.
“ A correspondent of a Western paper,
writing in regard to the recent battles in
Northern Virginia, makes the following
candid admissions :
It is to be noted that all who were in the
late battles bear witness to the splendid
generalship and bravery of the enemy.
Said a colonel with his arm in a sling,
when surrounded by a crowd of eager lis
teners at his hotel, ‘There is a dash about
these Southerners absolutely terrific : we
can’t stop the devils when they charge,
without killing all—and sometimes we do
that-: but if we dont, they are bound to
take our batteries.’
The advance of the enemy on Pope’s
left, on Saturday, is described as the
greatest scene of the kind in the war.
When Lee arrived, every gap in their line
of battle was filled up, and the whole ad
vanced in phalanx so solid and deep, it
looked like a forest of bayonets, stretching
up and down our front for full three miles,,
and overlapping our extreme left wing.
On they came, steady and slow at first,
our batteries playing on the.ii columns, but
theirs, in commanding positions, throwing
shot and shell over their heads into our ar-
tilleiists and guns. Their line never wa
vered, hut, advancing within musket range,
it drew the fire of our troops without flinch
ing. Then their guns came to a level, and
belched forth a staggering fire, followed by
a charge of the whole mass. Arriving at
close quarters, the musketry was contin
ued, while more than two opposing regi
ments crossed bayonets. Five minutes de
cided it. The left could not stand the
pressure, and began to waver. Our bat
teries were silenced or captured, as the
foe had desperation and numbers on then-
side. ‘Fall back! fall back!’ rang out
along our lines, from left to centre, and
from centre to right, and the enemy once
again triumphed on the field of Bull Run.