Morning journal and courier., 1882-02-04
Letters From West Virginia
No. 6.

Different Branches Of sheep-RaisIng- The Mountains or West Virginia Pe-
 culfarIy Adapted to sheep-PIan or a Colony, Etc., Etc.
 HAYWOOD, Fayette Co, ". Va, Jan. 90, 1882. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: That sheep-raising is one of the most profitable pursuits in which a man can en- gage is so well known ss not to call from me for sheep-fsrmer's profit and loss account. What is broadly termed f'sheep-raisingH is | divided into two branches differing widely from each other in character. First, Ee have the rearing of thoroughbred sheep for breeding purposes. To be successful in this business requires high degree of training and an insight into animal nature which can only come by long years of patient obserrs- ton and of costly experience. Add to these farm in the very highest state of eultiya- ton. Now a farm in the highest state of cultivation can only be found in districts where farming has long since been redneed to 8 science and its methods to mathematical problems. This means high civilization and higher prices-both for land and for living. The second and most popular branch of the sheep industry is that of vintsring sheep for the wool and the increase and the only things necessary for success in this line are a moderate amount of judgment and exPsri- ence and land upon which the sheep can be kept at a minimum of expense both for feed and for care. It is sheep-rais;ng upon this plan that has attracted so many young men IA 3t- pleasure of the free life, some for their health and some only for the enormous profits which they proposed to realize
 But in addition to cheapness, land must be free from marshes, high, dry well vatered and partly wooded, for stock sheep must be ranged in the woods during the summer in order to obtain the highest excel Ience in wool and flesh The mountains of West Virginia present all the most favorable conditions for sheep-rsiging. The lands are cheap high, well watered, and not subject to floods and the vast forests give the finest kind of cool range where cattle and sheep can browse in summer comparatively undis- turbed by the pestiferous gnats and flies Add to these features that the settler in West Virginia cannot remove himself completely from all human society as he must often do in the West that the journey to old friends and the old home is neither long nor an ex- pensive one; that the comforts of life are brought more within the range of limited in comes than they are in New England; and that the climate ''makes the rage of the doe tors" and you have the sum of the material advantages that West Virginia can offer to the stock raiser. The great difference be- tween West Virginia and Wyoming or New Mexico is that out there the one grasd idea of the stock raiser is to make his pile and then to make a home somewhere else; while SIa in, TaofT Ts-Osv,fa ,vsI k %Ia purpose of building for himself pleasant home at the start.
 The surprising number of letters which have received during the past few weeks, and which have been called forth by my articles on West Virginia, shows me that many peo- pie in New Haven alone are thinking ser iously of setting their faces towards a new country. large proportion of these letters are from persons who wish to engage solely in mercantile business. These should re- member that there is limit, and a compara- lively near one, to openings of this kind and that the openings which exist are the result of lack of internal capital and of outside the state of the case, all available claims will be promptly jumped First come, first served. Still others gre from wholesale pro- duce dealers, consumers of lumber and other products which this State has for sale. etc, who are desirous that shipments should be made to them. All such should understand that We are in no need of a market for our wares The name of OUT consignees are le- zion; we want shippers It is e strange thing that within days ride of the Atlantic seaboard. in a region of such wonderful sdaptability, the agents of the consumers should outnumber the agents of the pro ducers.
 But the letters which give the greatest amount of satisfaction are those which come from men representing almost every kind of occupation, who are inquiring with view to engaging in some agricultural pursuit, pref ersbly stock raising. These are the men who ought to organize colony to settle up some desirable tract ir Greenbrier or Faystte of this State. The solitary settler in a strange country, among uncongeniRl-even if kindly disposed-strangers, must of neces- sity Nave to contend with many things which would be smoothed over for him were he so to speak, among his own people an not advocating anything approaching sociAlis- tic enterprise-I disapproye of such under takings, even where they succeed But sup pose a colony were started on plan some thing like that of which the following may be called rough outline Let twenty, or any convenient number of families, each with sufficient capital, buy, say, 5000 acres of land in one tract Let each family own fifty acres of land for general farming purposes then let them all join together and put
 
 tract, which can then be used as a common sheep and cattle range. This method, it seems to me, would possess very signal ad- vautages; for each family having its own homestead would enjoy the undivided results of its labor. and although the range would be common property and would be kept up at the common expense, yet each man would have his own flock or his own herd, branded in his own mark. Of course the number of stock which each man could run in this range would have to be fairly apportioned- The cost of merely put ting boundary fence around a large tract to the cost of fencing it into twenty different about onethird. Of course this proportion would vary with the shape of the land
 The next step would be to have a store on the cooperative plan. either where the mem bers of the colony would purchase their sup plies at cost, or the profits of which would yearly be divided among the subscribers. There should also be a sawmin and grlst- mill in the colony; and these could also be carried on on the co operative plan or, better still by the private enterprise of one of the individuals of the colony.
 A plan of this sort could be almost indef- nitely elaborated, and it seems to me that the nature of this part of the country IS pe- culiarly adapted to the carrying out of scheme of this kind and to the obviating of those disaQreeable features which must enter more or less into every enterprise into which the cooperative system is introduced even to degree.
 particularly desire to be communicated with on this subject of a colony. To my mind. not only is the thing feasible, but it is eminently desirable from the point of view of expediency. New countries must in time become settled, and when these countries have once filled up the solid men in them are those who were the first to see and profit by the advantages held out. J.W.
 Auotha. p;g Sbin,,aut