The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-01-07

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capital in the outset, soon placv him in
atfluence, his wares being of kind always
in great demand at the highest pricesl
Raise sheep.
regret my inability to quote exactly
from an article so ably written and so
charmingly introduced to THE BULLETINS
readers as the one in question. Had Darius
been an editor, bank clerk, book agent
or anything but shepherd, would have
given him no peace till he acted upon
Its suggestions; and, for fear those flowing
sentences, worthy the pen of Eli Perkins,
mlslead some credulous body, ! will tell a
little of what | know Of (sheep) farming
Once upon time, we were afflicted by
evil spirits in the guise of government
agricultural reports, full Of the delights and
profits of sheep growing. Whereupon Da-
RUS Immediately turned from the pillow, a
la Cincinnatus, and gave up corn and
wheat for cotswolds. It was hot season
and promised to be a dry one, which was
immaterial, hover, when one considered
that the animals rarely tasted water, would
thrive on one blade of grass or jimson
leaf in summer, and fatteE to obesity on
two or three straws or gill of shelled
corn in winter. Yet, we started in our
venture with only one-seventh the number
our land could carry according to our adj
vice--printed, mind YOU we took the word
of intelligent men, only, and beside, the
drover, said they, would not need to water
oftener than every two or three weeks if
the dew was pretty heavy, and the grass
rank and juicy.
Grass and dew were all that could be
desired, but after ten days Darius, proud Of
his new enterprise and impatient to make
practical his theoretical knowledge, de-
cided to water and count his flock, All
the books said to count frequently. I'm
possible task With the desperate creatures
rushing along, piling upon each other in
frantic haste, the count varied every time
they were driven through the gate, and to
rid Darius of the feeling that either he had
some Of somebody else's sheep, or some
body had some Of his, I suggested that he
number them after the manner Of the old
uncle, "Once, two, free dar goes snudder,
dar goes anudder," till he supposed he
had his full complement
mo fencing to speak Of" | can vouch
for the truth of that statement. All of the
flock stepped over low fences, hoped over
ordinary ones and one bunch Of fifty reg
ularly climbed the highest fence on the
place. 1t was indeed hollow mockery to
speak Of restraining them. The leader, an
old, long legged slsbsided eve, that could
neither be sold nor given away, finally
broke her neck in attempting to ascend the
hay-lof ladder, and an innocent in an adj
joining county was wheedled into buying
the remaining forty mine.
Price-current wool, picked and washed,
was fifty cents in New York, with pros
pect of ranging higher; but upon reading
that agents had been sent from the east to
engage it by the million in Australia, we
rushed ours into market 1t brought the
munifcent sum of twenty-three cents. The
butcher refused to give the best price
for the sheep, saying they were not fat
enough. Darius gave orders to feed high.
In few weeks hay and corn which, in the
fall, he had intended to sell in the spring
for twenty dollars ton seventy-tiye cents
bushel, had gone at terrific rate, and he
again consulted his butcher, who said
"sheeps are not wanted so much like pork
now; wait two hunts" Which he did,
desperately pitching down hay, measuring
out corn, and chopping drinking holes in
the ice from daylight to dark night, the
only variation being to tend the crematory
Are back Of the barn instituted for the
benefit of those Of the woolly flock that had
either had fits and tumbled into the water,
been over or underfed, or died from sheer
contrariness.
shudder when | recall the manner of
cutting our eye teeth and getting our eyes
open. But the experience convinced us
that all written advice on the subject, was
snare and delusion, offered by men
whose most intimate acquaintance with
mutton was at the dinner table. The intro
ductory chapter Of "The Greens on Sheep"
will read something in this wise: "No
occupation will pay without labor; no live
stock will thrive without care, nor fatten
without feed no goods will always bring
price-current figures; and, lastly, no one,
without actual experience, is competent to
advise anybody"