Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1878-11-27

lIuC, uOtniuS 10 Cudt rSu dS0ihoN WV
sheep for two winters OF care and feed.
ing. nor for two summers of pasturage,
and the General has been more fortu
nate than /, if in the last two years he
has been able to find market for his
yearliug wethers and ewes at his est-
mate of their valse: $40 for wethers and
as for ewes. But making due allow
ance for all these, there is a much
better profit than is generally realized,
Let us look upon the subject now as a
source of public wealth.
Gen. Meem says there are in Vir-
ginia 80, l9l farms Of240 acres Of i'm
proved land each. 1t is claimed that
farm can carry IN addition to other
necessary stock a sheep TO every acre
of improved land. Suppose we try one
TO every three acres, making 80 to
every 240 acres; that would be 300
$50 for the State. Deducling 423, 1875
reported by the auditor Of the State,
2,233, l54 must be supplied, which at
81 each, charging nothing extra for
bucks, would cost SS,92S,Sll. Allow
inc a buck to 50ewes, we should have
80, los. leaving US 2,602, l75 ewes, from
which we might reasonably expect that
many lambs next spring. raise more
lambs than / have ewes.
II they average lbs. Of wool (my
grades average s. we shall have TO-
| 62l, 120 Tbs. If we sell the lambs at So
and wool at 80 cents, we should have
s7.806, 525 Tor lambs. aud 50, l96. 33G Tor
wool. making the snug little sum 5lO,-
500, SCI just s2,064,O45 above paying
for the sheep, and they still en- hand.
This is a very rose-colored showing;
but where would we find market Tor
over q millions of lambs and over lO3
millions of lbs. Of wool 1t will hardly
be urged that it would be profitable to
overrun the country with Sheepfor the
wool alone; and five could not sell the
lambs, what could we do with them but
raise them to make more wool? We are
told we must eat mutton. We can t.
Few families are large enough to eat a
mutton, or even a lamb, before part OF
it would spoil, and fewer still are pre-
pared to keep it from spelling until they
could eat it.
By the way speaking Of n market for
wool: A year or more since L saw II
charged in your journal oy a FTgnian
as a disgrace to the State that manu-
facturers had to import wool; about the
same time l saw also in your journal an
explanation by another citizen. ne
said that having the control Of 2O,UOO
fJs. OF wool he offered 1t 10 the manu-
Gaclurers in the State, who offered but
D cents perlb. for it; he shipped 1t to
Boston aud got As. Your correSpon
dent did not seem to know that large
proportion of the wool raised III the
State is exported. From this NIUE
town of " arrenton there Is annually
exported 50,O0Olbs. Why, then, should
the manufacturers import. it, when they
can get it cheaper at their doors?
BY way of showing how far we are
behind in sheep, we are told that New
York has two millions OF sheep, while
Virginia has $4,000. Considering that
New York has nearly twice az much
territory and more than three times the
population. half OF which live in cities;
that with her uneoualled facilities Tor
transportation, TO say nothing OF other
large cities, she has home market ID
the city of New York with over million
of inhabitants, besides The millions Of
visitors in the mutton-eating seasons,
we might safely conclude that she could
proftably keep twenty instead Of h'e
times as many as Virginia.
lean hardly think of a greater calam-
ity that could befall Virginia than to
have one sheep for every three acres o
improved land. Instead Of being
source sei wealth and profit, they would
be a destructive nuisance, and soon ey'
erybody would, like JOhu Randolph,
feel like going out Of his way TO kick a
sheep
The experience OF the world bar pro
ven that 20 employment that IS open
to everybody can permanently yield
more than moderate profits.
Extraordinary ability, skill, energy,
industry and economy, will in any bust
of lite work out more than average prot
its: but the excess is due not to the
business itself, but to the Qualities OF
the man.
Comparing the profits Of the best
| farmer. or, indeed, the best in any BUS
mess. with those of the poorest, they
seem very large: but it must be remem-
bered that there are great many not
far behind him, while there are but lew
of the poorest 50 that the profits ei the
most are not very largely above the
average.
Occasionly some shrewd man takes
hold OF some old business that has been
worked down to the lowest margin OF
profits upon which it can live, and by
the possession and exercise Of those e.
ements Of extraordinary success has re-
allied from it marvellous profits. This
pecomss the subject Of common surprise
it is published in all the papers, the
people are told there's millions in it, ii
furore is created, aud everybody is gong
to.get rich. Those who get into it first
generally make money. unless they
hold on too long; those who get last in
to the dance pay the piper
This has been fully illustrated in the
Hast twelve years in almost every kind
Of livestock. from ShOrt-hom COW al
forty thousand dollars to an ltaiJn
Queen bee at fifteen.
Fortunes have been made and for
tunes have been lost in these speCula'
tons, and more may yet be made anC
lost, but these things cannot last. The
highest permanent price Of anything o
general utility Is a small percentage up
on its cost Of production, because that is
that is the highest price which Tx
world is able permanently to pay
When the price rises much above thai
point, the production soon outrun'
| the ability of the world to pay. If fol
two seasons lambs were TO commdnC
readily in Baltimore five dollars anC
wool fifty cents. the third year woulC
ind million of sheep in Virginia, tn'
worthless cur to the contrary notwlth
standing.
The truth is that a careful, industri
Gus economical. systematic farmer. whC
econOnises his time and directs his Ia
Dor properly can make fail profit upon
| almost any thin0 smiled tn the climate