Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-11-21
ESTABLISHED 1850.

etc. lot for lot, than the wool Of any other
State. and works with uniform smoothness in
carding and spinning.
There are still other advantages to be placed
to the credit Of sheep husbandry in the South.
II a few million sheep could be scattered
through the barrens and old fields of Georgia,
they would soon cease to look either barren or
old. Sheep improve the land they feed on,
enriching the soil and enabling it to bear a
growth of feed constantly improving from
year to year. This, or some other kind Of fer
tilization or reclamation, is sadly needed every
where in the South. These Southern ''old
fields" have an infinitely more melancholy
appearance than the rock-strewn slopes of the
Green Mountains or of New Hampshire hills.
BILE cotton. they have been abandoned, one
after the other, as too sterile for further cult
vation, and now, partly grown up by sapling
pines, too poor to bear weeds and deeply gull
lied by the rains, showing the unnatural red of
the sandy soil in startling contrast to the dead
brown of the iuiceless grass, which thinly
covers the surface of the earth, these ''old
fields" look as il they had been cursed and
sown with salt Many Of them would be born
again to a new era of productiveness under
system of sheep husbandry an the cultivation
of Bermuda grass, which will grow anywhere
and take care of itself if once started.
But in spite Of these manifold advantages,
sheep keeping is practiced to but an insignifi-
cant extent in Georgia In 1860 there were
5l2:6lS sheep in the State; in 1870, 419,465; in
1875 Sa9. 1923, falling of of 3S per cent. in 10
years In 1873 the number had increased to
3S2, 800. More than double the number are now
kept. but there should be ten times sS many.
In the whole South there are not more than
100000 sheepPagainst 10000, 900 in the North.
The increase must henceforth be rapid Texas
is already great sheep raising State. Georgia
farmers are beginning to find out that their
wool is worth from to cents pound more
than most Northern woods, and that il costs
them not more than cents a pound
to grow It. These State and county fairs
are opening their eyes to the profits
nf nd nvrffVao md n
steady increase in the number and size OF focks
is to be confidently expected in coming years.
Dogs are at present the chief obstacle to sheep
raising. There are something like 100 600
worthless ours in the State. and their fondness
for illicit mutton amounts to an annual slaugh-
ter of from $1,000 to 10000 sheep. Sometimes
entire hocks are killed. A sweeping dog law
would, no doubt interfere with 'possum hunt
lars year to the State and the sheep raisers.
A Georgia newspaper estimates the profits of
sheep raising at 50 per cent, Notwithstanding
the loss by dogs; hang the dogs, and the profits
would rise to 70 per cent
Attempts have been made by the State De-
partment of Agriculture to encourage cattle
raising and dairy farming in Georgia, and these
occupations are attracting increased attention
every year The Jerseys are preferred for
dairy stock, and some very successful expert
ments in dairy farming have been made in the
vicinity of the large cities of the State. But in
making beef Georgia can never compete with
Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia. Up in
Fauquier;county, Va, there is a cattle rancho of
1900 acres which in its management is almost
a model establishment. met its owner. Col.
Robert Beverly, in Richmond He keeps shout
5000 steers and sells for the Philadelphia, New
York and Liverpool markets. His shipments
Of cattle on the hoof to England have until
recently been very large. But the wretched
accommodations provided by the steamship
companies greatly increasing the risks and
percentage of loss on the cargo, and the short
sighted policy of the English Privy Council in
requiring American cattle to be slaughtered at
the port of landing within a specified time,
leaves hardly any advantage in favor of export
over domestic sale Ool. Beverly buys his
young stock in Eastern Tennessee. On J is
Fauquier county farm cattle require no shell
ter. They have fine pasturage during seven
or eight months of the year, and through the
winter, when partial feeding is required, they
have the range of vast cornflelds. and find
abundant fodder. The waste of the steers is
eaten by hogs; pig to every steer is the rule
Of the rancho.
The owner of this great estate is man of
massive frame. and in New York would be
Williams and five Roberts who have been
taken for an Englishman. Through a line of two
Americans by settlement or birth he traces his
ancestry back to its English home. He is him
self the fourth Robert. and his son is the fifth
and the seventh heir in the American line. The
son now lives on an estate in Essex county, on
the Rappahannock, which has been handed
to CO.. Robert Beverly the fourth by an uncle
who died childless, it was by him-he being al
ready established on his twelve thousand
acres in Fauquier county, and having ne
present use for more land-given to his son
Robert This estate is held in the family by
a title of which few American families can
show the like. Coming into the possession of
the first Beverly, who settled in America by
grant from the Crown some time in the six
teen hundred and fortes, when Sir William
Berkeley, the loyalist was Governor Of the
colony, it has never had any other owner than
q Beverly. The old family mansion in Essex
county was built of bricks brought over from
England in the colonial times and is as strong
as a fortress. The great hall, &c by 10. is as
large as an ordinary house lot The walls are
erly was on General Lees staff. He has nine
children and seventeen grandchildren, though
not more than So years old, and looking even
younger. There is evidently no danger of this
old English stock becoming extinct in Virginia.