Sharp County record., 1888-10-11
| SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.
The OId-Time Way of Raising Sheep.

land is $50 to 500 per acre, and wool
at the low prices rulingtO-day, the old
plan of raising sheep is 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 sheep was dol
lar. Wool was for many years so
trihing as to be almost nominal. The
few sheep we sold were a cash ar
ticle, as was also the wool. 1t
came in as a godsend to pay taxes
with in the spring. No business pur-
pose or methods were considered. We
kept sheep as our neighbors kept a
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 q straw-stack, and the few
diseases we had then, we managed to
keep our numbers up and have a few
whethers to sell each year, and Occa-
s;onally q mutton for family use.
The mishaps with the lambs and dogs
and hogs were of small moment. In
summer they had no attention unless 1t
was to salt them. Sometimes when
the dogs were raiding the flocks, they
were hunted up by the children and
penned at night with the COWS as pro-
lection. In the fall the sheep were
taken up and kept at the farms, not al
ways of their owners. They were fed
half ear of corn apiece once day,
in some sort of a hollow log trough,
and they ran their chances in the
corn-stalk fields and at straw stacks
with the cattle and colts. They had,
may be, a ration of corn-fodder, and, at
rare times, hay or sheaf oats.
At shearing time each farmer got his
own sheep, or balanced with his neigh
Dor in number of feeces, 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 a ram; four or
five dollars was proof of insanity-akin
to building a sheep-shed, even. There
vas one fact about such a 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 a clear one. This was pioneer
sheep-raising
When we came to using improved
rams and keeping pure-bred hocks,
shearing six, eight and ten pounds of
wool in the dirt we felt that 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
raisers, and had perfect right to
grow rich. There were none doing
better for their sheep than we were.
If man was making money out Of his
sheep, we doubted his veracity or con
cluded he was taking more pains than
was necessary, and more than we
could. If he paid $25 for a ram or
$40 for a eve, we said he was foolish,
and would never get his money
back. We ridiculed 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
a 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 as any body's. We care
for them as well as 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, thirty-cent oats and
fifteen-dollar hay, and buying wheat
bran or oil-cake to feed, can pay; but
the queer man over the way who does
this claims he has as much money out
of his sheep as his wheat or cattle.
We do not see how feeding sheep for
mutton can pay. 1t never seemed to
us sheep wou' | 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 a 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
all. A fat wether, two or three years
old, that would weigh 125 to 200
pounds after shearing, and bring So or
sS, was little too big yarn to be be-