The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-25
Sheep for the South

One Is net at the threshold of the sub
lect 1 have chosen with a sheer. saws DIR.
Galen Wilson, in Farm and Fireside, per-
maps, and the remark, Don't you know
tarlH tlnkering has ruined the sheen in
aQstry and everybody is getting out of it
WOOL IS only Is cents a pound. - Well
what OF 1t! What is the price of hair
WOOL sells for as much as that, doesn't it ?
PEOPLE grow cattle purposely for beef to
eat and nothing is ever said about their
hair.
Now, meat is considered by most per-
sons as necessary part of their diet. 1t
Is generally considered that meat of the
sheep IS more nutritious than that of
cattle; II is more tender, more whole
some, does not waste away so much in
cooking, is generally liked better and
usually brings more IN market and to
cap the climax, it has been proven by
careful, scientific experiment that, DIS
cardlng wool from the account entirely, a
pound OF mutton can be grown cheaper
than pound of beef Now, as long as
people eat meat the sheep industry is not
ruined; and until cattle grow wool in
stead of hair, sheep certainly should take
precedence.
The farmer who keeps sheep has a GER
tain convenience that l do not remember
OF having seen noted. He does not wish
to confine his family and help to a salt
meat diet in the busy season of summer
1t would not pay to slaughter a beef /;
then, to secure change of salt to fresh
he must either purchase of travelling
butchers, who invariably sell the best
pieces in town and offer the farmer bone
and gristle, or he must hitch up a team
and drive TO town himself. In either
case he has to pay the cash, which it is
not always convenient to do. How much
better it would be for him to keep a
flock of sheep and slaughter fat lamb
when fresh meat became desira BILE A
lamb can be utilized fresh in an ordinary
family in warm weather, and beef can
not
Having, as believe, dispelled the idea
that ''sheep don't pay'-if any reader
still entertained such belief will pro-
coed in line with my text The southern
part of the United States is on the same
parallels Of latitude in which sheep four
ish best in the eastern hemisphere This
is assurance that the climate here is right
for these animals. The government re-
port states, believe, that only about so
per cent. of the south is occupied by
farms, or farmers; and everybody knows
that as rule only small portion of each
is titled. Open ranges, and some of them
very extensive, exist in every direction,
II.
They may be called stockless with much
more of truth than certain public man
is facetiously called "sockless"
Most of the ranges are wooded more or
less, of course, but have it from many
correspondents that where the under
growth is kept subdued grasses will cover
the surface / know of a pine forest of
400 acres where years ago bluegrass
seed was sown on portion of it. 1t has
spread all over and on adjoining lands
and now the territory is bea utifully set in
blue and Bermuda grasses clear up to the
trunks of the trees, furnishing pasturage
the year around.
Lespedeza, or Japan clover, is another
grazing plant of great value there A
southern professor of agriculture reported
that he had seen Lespedeza knee kigh in
thicket of small timber, so dense he
could hardly get through.
From correspondents learn that sheep
are almost entirely free from diseases.
They are troubled some from external
parasites, but dipping, as in the north,
would remedy that. All sheep should be
dipped twice year. ] have it from an
agricultural editor of Mobile, that the
Lower South" which EN- braces belt
from the Mississippi river to the Atlantic
ocean, and one hundred and fifty miles
wide from the Gulf of Mexico north, is
entirely free from burrs that adhere and
litter up wool.
There are but very few sheep in the
south. and these are mainly natives, and
they are doing well considering the al
most entire want of care. To gather
them once year for shearlng and attend
ing to the lambs is about the extent of
the attention they got. With this
equable sheep climate, lands at 81 to $40
an acre and extensive open ranges, it is
an ideal sheep country The subject is so
broad that only the main points can be
stated in this trial trip communica-
ton.