The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-01-16
Sheep Husbandry No. 3.

Int a necessity forced upon us " aooP'
methods and means that will improve
the soil, and at the same time return q
nroft TO the owner. No animal gives
as ouick returns for capital invested as
the sheep. A good sheep will pay an
nually its cost and keeping in wool, tc
say nothing of its body for the butch
ar as proit. The Argentine Republic
numbers fifty millions sheep, which
produces over two hundred million
n,unds of wool, and the sheep farmers
Of to-day, that were but a few years
ago the shepherds from the poorest
classes of English and Irish immigrants,
have become wealthy proprietors, and
the Republic, through her sheep mainly
has become the most prosperous OF the
States Of South America. Just so 1t
might be with us in North Carolina, II
proper attention was given to tins
branch of industry. liz 1860 the whole
country produced, according to the
census returns, but sixty thousand
pounds of wool, while California alone
produced over fifty millions last year.
A New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Michigan and California are the five
largest stock and wool-growing States,
a~geregating sixteen millions of sheep.
Wooden manufactures will spring up
in every State, county and neighbor-
hood just in proportion as they will
give encouragement and protection to
the raising Of sheep to furnish the raw
material to work ON. Look, for Illus
%tration, at the State of Ohio-the first
of the wool producing States-and you
will find there are 1877 wooden mills,
distributed among 157 counties.
The Western States seem to be taking
the lead in this branch of industry. For
instance, Ohio has 1S7 wooden mills;
California has 10; Illinois, 90; Indiana,
Isl; Iowa, 90; Michigan, So; Missouri.
81; Oregon, 9; Wisconsin, 57,-aggre-
eating, in these nine States alone. 749
WOODEN mills, consuming exclusively
the wool produced in their immediate
nelghborhoods. Here is a great saving
TO the producer and consumer, both
IN transportation and in dispensing
With middle men. Our people must
be taught to know that the first princi-
pal of independence is in self-reliance,
ana that, as a people, we cannot afford
TO import from foreign countries that
which we cannot pay for. To raise
wool and encourage its manufacture at
nome, would diversity the occupations
IN our State-this would remove all
surplus population from our worn out
lands, and equalize by the aid of ma
chlnery, the weak muscle of more than
nan our working population. In Mas
sachuSetts ia thousand persons are
employed In manufacturing the MAJ,
'erlaI and working it up into fabrics,
while the numbers employed in agri
culture is only about eighty thousand.
"hat a change of prosperity would
come to us in North Carolina if
the same proportions of her people
were thus employed in this State.
The manufacture of WOODEN goods
since the requirements of fashion de-
lhand new fabrics or new designs
every season Of itself, should teach us
The way to 60. Without domestic
WOOL We should not have mills. and
"i'nout mills we will not likely have
II Is 'ald the value of imported
laying cards exceeds the value of ali
Tile wool sent abroad from this coun-
n.y. Inc last, and perhaps the most
Important thing l have to say in con-
l1o.ion with sheep husbandry is, that
sleep contribute materially to
me necessities of people by supply
."e animal food, the benefits and COM
they confer in supplying another !
clothing is beyond calcula-
The life statistics show that the
H"ge period of life in civilized ma
- nas been heightened in propoi-
, 0n as WOODEN goods have been intro>
- LEU and worn by them. A quarter |
century ago wooden underclothing. y