The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-07-26
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL
Making Sheep Proftab's.


I&otice that farmers entertain fea'
that we can not compete with fofefgtf !
wool-growers Ii the tariff is taken on
of wool; that they can sell their WOOL
in our markets cheaper than we can
afford to raise it here. While advocat-
ing d high tariff and all needed home
protection, yet can not see why we
can not grow wool here as cheap as
foreign nations, if we take proper care
of our sheep. We have quite as many
verdant hills and rich plains, and sure
" can be as energetic if we will. My
observation shows that farmers do not
take proper care of their focks and
otherwise manage them to make all
the profit they might make. Raising
sheep is very profitable branch
of farming, yet few farmers give
it thought enough to see
whether they are making "a profit or
that branch is an expense. Many
farmers give no more attention to their
sheep than to feed them little corn
through the winter season. A few
blades of fodder scattered on their
backs or little hay composes their
feed, and many flocks are without shell
ter more than the sides of barn or a
cold shed. AS SOON as spring sets In
these farmers turn their sheep out to
get their living in the woods, or some
will turn them into an old field to reno
vate the soil, with nothing to eat but
briars and sassafras leaves.
In May, when rainy spell comes,
to save time in clear weather, they are
brought out and their fleeces taken OFF
just when the poor animals need their
coats. They are then turned back in
to the old field to continue fleece-grow-
ing, killing out the briars and bushes
and enriching the soil. / have heard
farmers remark that sheep needed
nothing more than an old field with
plenty of briar and sassafras leaves to
eat; that sheep loved this, and would
soon free an old field of these pests
sheep at this so-called renovating the
soil, turning old fields into fertile gar
dens, half frozen, so to speak, looking
similar to the soil they were renovating.
To think sheep can live, furnish a
fleece and make manure to improve old
farms, living principally on briars and
sassafras leaves, is an absurd and cruel
idea. | believe it takes hungry sheep
to eat briar leaves, and the stomach of
a hungry sheep is preying too strongly
on the general system to make wool or
manure of any value.
| believe sheep are very profitable to
renovate old farms if they are properly
managed and cared for, but to renovate
old fields is not all the p. loft derived
from raising sheep. In mutton
and wool is where lies the most
profit; still, to gain all the
profit that may be realized, sheep must
be well fed and otherwise treated,
and all their products properly cared
for and disposed of. Most every farmer
is aware of the fact that sheep must
be fat to make the best mutton. But
few conceive the idea that a properly
fed sheep produces more and better
wool than poorly-fed one. The skin
of the sheep is the soil, so to speak,
that the wool grows in, and the fatter
| the sheep the richer this soil. In this
way wool is a product from feeding, the
same as fat and flesh. Many farmers
lose half the profit, or make none at all,
from neglect to feed properly with a
view to the growth of wool and mutton.
| Sheep, when well cared for and of a
| good breed, are as profitable as any
stock that belongs to the farm. A
sheep should have dry, clean quarters,
| sheltered from cold rains ard storms,
certainly after the fleece is taken off.
Nothing Injuries wool more than filth,
| or more effects the health of sheep, es-
| pecially if their quarters are damp.
| Many times fine fleece is credited to
the breed, when really there is more
in the feed and care the sheep receives
than In the breed. - Cor. Southern
| CttitiUator.