Arkansas true Democrat., 1860-01-18
The Climate and Products of Arkansas.

The Climate ana Fr00uctS oI ArKansas. The general climate of Arkansas may be described as a mean between the temperate and warm. But our State is so large; 250 miles from the northern to the eastern line and 300 from east to west, that we may be said to have more than one climate. In the mountain and ultra mountain counties of Carroll, Madison, Benton and others, the spring is two or three weeks later and winter sets in two or three weeks earlier, than in the counties on the Louisiana and Texas line. In the counties above named the climate is not adapted to the raising of cotton, while the southern and eastern parts of the State have asfne cotton lands as are in the world.
 Experience has demonstrated that ours is one of the best fruit countries in the world. Not only are the hourishing or chards in the northwest considered equal of the size to any in the older States, but we have received, from Hampstead and other counties, specimens of as fine apples as were ever eaten. Peaches, plums, apri- cots grow freely and finely. Tobacco has been tried in almost every county north of us and in some south ofthis point--Saline, Hot Spring and Prairie. In every case the crop grew finely and thetobacco of an excellent quality. The vine, it is almost needless to say. is indigenous to the soil. In time, vineyards will be common and native wines bansh the bottled cider and compounds of logwood and other drugs, now sold by the names eff q champagne, port and cherry The cereals grow obundantly and many of our counties are now wheat exporting.
 North and west Arkansas offer superior inducements to the sheep-raiser. We are satisfied that the Merino sheep would at tain it's utmost perfection on the hills and prairies of our State. Our winters are so short that it would not be necessary to pro- vide large quantities of hay or grain for the subsistence of the sheep during the winter months. Nor need losses occur during the time when the lambs are born, for the months of April and May are warm and pleasant. Wolves are comparatively few and dogs are easily disposed of. Land is cheap and the natural pasturage is excellent to the very tops of the hills or mountains. From such experiments as have been tried, it is demonstrated that sheep increase here as fast as in any other country. The wool here is superior to English wool, because our climate is better one. In Spain, where the Merino fleece is so fine in texture, the climate is much like ours. English and Scotch sheep have heavier, but coarser fleece. They breed for the mutton as we'll as for the wool. The aim here should be to raise the finest wool as meat IS much cheaper than Tn other countries.
 The Bengalese sheep were taken to Aus tralia, some fifty years ago. There are now ten millions there and sixteen millions of dollars worth of wool is annually exported. At the foot of our mountains and hills are prairies and bottom lands During the summer, the sheep would seek the cool air of the mountains in the winter, the shelter of the valleys and river bottoms. The range is so extensive, the natuarl grasses so plentiful and the land so cheap, that it seems to us no country can offer so many and so valuable inducements to the sheep raiser. But if the pursuit is gone into let the raiser have nothing to do with scrubs. Get the best sheep, if there are but two of them. The shearing of a common scrub hardly pays for the clipping and baling, while that of Merino or Saxony sheep pays six times as much. The following table, from California paper, should have about twenty per cent. added to the prices to make it fit here, but it shows the differ ence in the yield and price from different breeds of sheep:
 Merino. ....... 5 lbs wool at 60c. .S3 co Saxonv. 6 lbs wool at 60c. , 50 Half breeds. .6 lbs wool at 33c. ....... l 9S Scrub. lbs wool at l2c ..... 4S