Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-12-07
KNOXVILLE TENN.
Another interesting Letter and More
Inquiries Answered.

inquiries Answered.
Meadville Pa.) Republican.
Mr.. EDIToR:-I am in receipt of a
number of enquiries from various
quarters of the country as to the
adaptability of this section of Ten
nessee to sheep husbandry. 1t might
be well, with your permission, to an
swer them through the columns of
the Republican.
can state emphatically that there
are few sections of the Union better
suited for this business than East
Tennessee. It combines in my judg-
ment, the principal elements neces-
sary to make it success.
First, the climate suits. There is
no better climate on the continent !;
mild, enviable, genial, invigorating.
There are no violent extremes of heat
and cold. The thermometer rarely
ever reaches SO degrees in mid
summer and never below zero in
winter. The winter season usually
"sets il" about the first of December,
and spring "opens" the first of
March. Our winters are SO mild
that ice never forms over three or
four inches in thickness, and snow
not more than an inch or two deep,
and disappears in a day or two. The
consequence is that our grass crops
remain, for the most part, green and
fresh all winter. This, as you must
perceive, is very favorable to the
rearing of sheep. 1t costs so little
to keep them, not half as much as in
Pennsylvania. the New England
States, or the States north of the
Ohio River. You feed all of six
months-we only about three. Then
your rigorous climate must be death
to sheep.
Again, the topography of East
Tennessee is another argument, and
a potent one, in it's favor for sheep
husbandry. 1t is high and dry
region, which is conducive to the
health, vitality and longevity of this
somewhat delicate animal.
There are two extensive ranges of
mountains skirting it's northern and
southern boundaries, the Cumber-
land range on the Kentucky side,
and the Smoky Mountains or Blue
Ridge bordering on the Western
North Carolina line and touching the
northern borders of Georgia. Either
range affords an immense area of
grazing fields during the entire sum-
mer season, and dipping deep into
the fall and winter seasons. Here
thousands upon thousands of sheep
can be kept IN supurb condition at a
nominal cost, the only attention re-
CURED is to herd and salt them. In
numerous instances they are kept
here all winter without feeding them a
bundle of fodder or grain of any de-
scription. It is so of cattle as we'll.
You know better than [ can tell
you that sheep naturally taken to
high grounds. Nature has endo wed
them with this sort of instinct. 1t
is to them the law of self-preserva.
ton, and therefore conducive to
robust health, as our sheep are.
They are not troubled to any fatal
extent with those diseases peculiar
to them in colder climates and low
and damp sections of the country.
They are hardy and long lived.
Here, then, is a most favorable
section for sheep husbandry; it
presents an opening worthy the at
tention of those who have desire
to embark in business. It will pay,
in my judgment, an hundred fold.
The highlands, of which I have made
brief mention, can be purchased for
a song, SO to speak. There are ex-
tensive bodies, embracing as much
as 10000 acres together, which can
be had for one dollar and a quarter
an acre, and Astounding in the mean
time, with almost every variety OF
timber. G. W. CHARLTON.
Knoxville, Tenn, Nov. Is, 1882.