The Springdale news., 1888-09-28
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.
The OId-Time Way of Raising Sheep.

land is $50 to $l0O per acre, and wool at the low prices ruling to-day, the old plan of raising sheep is a thing not to be considered by any thinking man. Such it was in Illinois forty years ago, when prices of grain and land were very cheap. An open prairie afforded excellent pasturage six months of the year. The price of a sheep was dol lar. Wool was for many years so trihing as to be almost nominal. The few sheep we sold were cash ar ticle. as was also the wool. It came in as godsend to pay taxes with in the spring. No business pur- pose or methods were considered. We kept sheep as our neighbors kept flock of geese, 'just because some body else did"
 Between the dogs and the hogs, and lambs coming at any and all times, freezing in winter in an open yard or around a straw-stack, and the few diseases we had then, We managed to keep our numbers up and have d few whethers to sell each year, and occa- sionally mutton for family use. The mishaps with the lambs and dogs and hogs were of small moment In summer they had no attention unless it was to salt them. Sometimes when the dogs were raiding the focks, they were hunted up by the children and penned at night with the COWS as pro-
 (. II l. taken up and kept at the farms, not al- ways of their owners. They were fed d half ear of corn apiece once day, in some sort of a hollow log trough, and they ran their chances in the coin-stalk fields and at straw stacks with the cattle and colts. They had, may be, ration of corn-fodder, and, at rare times, hay or sheaf oats.
 At shearing time each farmer got his cwn sheep, or balanced with his neigh bor in number of heeces, as all sheep taken up were wintered. The expense was trihe, and easily arranged be- tween each other. Two or three dol lars was a big price for q ram; four or five dollars was proof of insanity-akin to building l sheep-shed, even. There Was one fact about such business: if we got one dollar out of sheep or wool it had not cost us ninety-nine cents. We considered each dollar We got as almost clear one This was pioneer sheep-raising.
 When We came 10 using improved .4,J lya.,.iy1fr r,41aa- l,,.4] HaslyG sheming six, eight and ten pounds of wool in the dirt, we feltthat We were getting about as far along as we had any right to hope. We had barns and conveniences that We felt put Us at the top and in front We felt that We had reached the highest point as sheep raiser5, and had q perfect right to grow rich. There were none doing better for their sheep than NC were. If man was making money out of his sheep, We doubted his veracitv or con cluded he was taking more pains than was necessary, and more than We could. If he paid $25 for q ram OF $l0 for eve, we said he was foolish, and would never get his money back. We ridicHled all Improvements and all progress in breeds and methods of management, and decided to stay where we were and wait for boom to come; it always came, and we got ahead some.
 The few who have managed to make q little money out of sheep every year have been laughed at for taking so much pains. Instead of trying to find out how they did it, some of Us have staid by sheep because others did; be- cause they used to pay, We think they must again. Our fathers kept these same sort of sheep, perhaps, and they Were as good us any body's We care for them as well Us most of our neigh bors. and so we are respectable enough. We can not afford the outlay for new rams; it will not pay We can not see how feeding tifty-cent corn, thiMy-cent oats and ffteen-dollar hay, and buying wheat bran or oil-ca<e to feed, can pay; but the queer man over the way who does this claims he has as much money out ot his sheep as his wheat or cattle.
 We do not see how fesling sheep for mutton can pay. It never seemed to us sheep would fatten in the winter. Mutton lambs sold pretty well, but they seemed to be lots of trouble. Six and eight pounds of washed wool to the fleece was d pretty big yarn. We had as good sheep, and only got three or four pounds, and We did not see how it was; in fact, we did not believe it at al. A fat wether. two or three years