The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-10
PROFITS MADE IN WOOL.
SAVANNAH THE MARKET FOR
GEORGIA'S CLIP.

The Receipts of Wool This Year Tx
pected to Go Close to 100000
Pounds-The Clipping Season Later
Than Usual-The Dogs the Great
Hindrance to Sheep Raising in Geor-
gia-The Most Productive Counties.
The wool season may be said to have
actively opened, and the clipping is be-
ginning to come in lively. The season is
later than usual, and this accounts for the
light receipts thus far as compared with
former years. The cold weather of March
is assigned as the cause.
The clipping season in Georgia usually
begins about May 1 and rarely closes before
the latter part of June. This year it began
about two weeks later than the average.
Savannah is the commercial depot for
Georgia wool, and 1,25O, 900 pounds of wool
were sent out from this port last season,
shipped by local dealers and buyers in the
interior, and it is estimated that these re-
ceipts will be exceeded this year, due to the
fact that the new lines of railway have
been extended into sheep-raising sections,
and also to an increase in fiocks.
SAVANNAH AS A WOOL MARKET.
SaValDan mas a decided Us q
wool market. Parties in the interior can
ship wool to Savannah and from here to
eastern markets cheaper than direct by rail
to the north The railroad commission of
Georgia puts wool released as fifth-class
freight, which is not recognized by the
Southern Railway and Steamship Associa-
tion on through rates, and which still hold
to the third-class rate in all through ship
Rents. This difference in favor of Savan-
nah is equivalent to figures approximating
81 20 per bale.
Prices for wool are higher this year than
is usual at the opening of the season. Deal
ers are paying 2515 cents for prime wool,
and Georgia wool is such superior quality
that it is used in all the finer makes of cas-
simeres.
A BONANZA IN SHEEP.
A well-informed buyer, in discussing the
wool industry Of Georgia with MORNING
NEWS reporter yesterday, remarked that
Georgia has a perfect bonanza IN sheep.
With little care and attention the Georgia
farmer can make big money in sheep. 1t
costs Georgia sheep raisers only nominal
sum to keep sheep, cent per pound on the
wool being safe maximum of expense, and
the wool sells higher than Pennsylvania
wool. There is no expensive stabIing and
grain feeding in winter and spring in
Georgia as in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other
northern states, where the cost of the sleeps
keeping may be safely put as high as s
cents per pound on the fleece, and where
the hockmasters get only Is to 20 cents per
pound for the same grade as the Georgia
wool.
THE CLIMATE ALL RIGHT.
"How about the healthfulness of the
hockp' the buyer was asked.
Georgia sheep are equally as healthy as
the northern focks. Some cholera was re-
ported among the flocks in Bulloch county
last year, but it is the only section where
the sheep were affected. This, however, is
not an uncommon visitation among north
ern focks, and then there are heavy mid
winter and spring losses in the flocks of the
north and northwest during every rigorous
winter and spring.
'Is this the only disease the Georgia
focks are subject tor
''No; there is a much more devastating
disease. 1t is known as the waller dog
In some counties there are more dogs than
sheep, and l have known one worthless cur
to kill and main as many as fifty sheep in
a single night. This is disease, however.
that the farmers are to blame for. The
legislatures of Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey,
Missouri, and many other states where
sheep are raised, have found way to reduce
this disease to minimum, and at the same
time the fiock-masters get pay for the depre-
dations of the dogs
PROTECTION AGAINST DOGS.
A dog tax is levied which is fund for pay
ing all damages to flocks by the dogs, and the
surplus is turned over to the school fund
and poor fund, or both, in some states,
proof before the county commissioners
being required upon which the damage is
assessed. and paid by warrant upon the
county treasury.
1.-The most noted wool counties in Geor-
gia are Coffee, Emanuel, Bulloch, Tattnall,
Burke, Jefferson, Appling, Pulaski and
Pierce. In fact, the sheep belt may be said
to be embraced in line running from Eden
in Southeasterly course to the Florida
coast. This is the best sheep grazing coun-
try in the south, nearly all of it being
what is known as the wire,
grass country, the wiregrass being the urinci-
pal food of the sheep. The sea islands are
not SO well adapted TO the wool industry, as
the cookie burr grows rank, and bury
wool is not very merchantable. Some
farmers on the sea islands have succeeded
well with sheep, but only by keeping cookie
burrs well killed out.
COFFEE CoUNTYs PRODUCT.
"Coffee county is perhaps the largest
wool producing county in Georgia, but
there are some extensive wool-groWers in
all the counties / have mentioned, and
recall one farmer in Emanuel county who
has Z, 500 head of sheep. The wool industry
of Georgia may be said to be yet in its in
fancy. AS the country is developed, have
noticed, the t1ocks increase. This is due to
the fact that the animals and birds of prev
disappear with the development of the
farming lands, and the ravages among the
lambs cease. The iocks are still the prey
OF the mongrel ours, and it is high time
that the general assembly should tax the
dogs, and the result would be to increase
the output of wool and get rid of lot of
worthless dogs, A sheep-killing dog can
He does not eat the sheep, but mangles his
victims, and sometimes two or three dogs
will wipe out flock in single night.n