The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-07

let sheeptrun at large. Perhaps the owner
may see them once month and may not
more than twice year. They get literally
no care. know of a plantation of several
thousand acres, in North Carolina, where
sheep come for twenty miles around to
pass the winter, where the grazing is good.
and yet the owners seldom or never come
to look after them. IL predatory dogs kill
some of them nobody knows the difference;
or. if unprincipled hunters bring down a
mutton once in a while, it is considered
almost legitimate prey; or, II poor Sam
DO" takes toll out of the flock, he is no
more to blame in yielding to temptation
than the owner of the animals is in tempt
ing him. This is deplorably loose way 10
conduct the sheep business, or rather to
let it conduct itself; still, the owners get
the wool, and fiocks usually increase in
numbers Notwithstanding.
Sheep should have as good care as any
other domestic stock. They need some
grain in winter. They grow more wool
for 1t and raise stronger, better lambs. Cot
ton seed is excellent for sheep, and it IS
very cheap, but If animals are away on the
| range, of course they cannot be fed. Where
sheep are kept on a range in any part OF
the country, there should be enough in a
bunch to pay for keeping shepherd With
them for protection from all enemies TO
salt them, toffeed grain as needed, and 10
move them to new grazing ground when
desirable X Otherwise little or no profit
should be expected. l will make bold as
sertion. The manure sheep drops is
worth more to a southern farm as fer
tilizer than what feed it consumes could
be sold for, counting in necessary care of
sheep Have the farm or plantation di-
| vided into fields. Let some be in grass,
some in clover, Crimson and red, COW peas,
rape, turnips rye, winter oats, corn, sor-
| ghum, and anything else that is likely to
| help keep up a succession of green feed the
| year around, and then change the ant
mails from field to teld as
| deemed best Have a yard with open
| sheds attached, with troughs for salt
| affixed to the back side of the shed, and
| teach the animals to come up nights, shut
| them in and retain them there rainy days.
and have something on hand to feed them
when so detained. This would be sensible
| Strengthening, and return good profit II
managed correctly. But there would be
| an incidental profit. probably worth more
| than the real present profit Run south
| ern farm to it's capacity with sheep for
| five years, and the soil would be so well
fertilized it would produce immense crops
| of cotton or anything else suitable to the
| climate, for years, and without further
| fertilization. Cease purchasing fertilizers
make your own and make money while do
ing it. Sheep manure is particularly rich
| in fertility, and weight for weight 1t seems
to oe as beneficial as the average of com
mercial fertilizers. An acquaintance who
| understands the value of sheep manure
turns his 100 head on a ten-acre field, from
| which had been cut wheat, and which
was seeded in red clover and keeps them
there until "snow flies" If the grazing
| gets short, he supplements the feed with
| soWed corn grown in an adjoining field.
Late in the fall his clover meadow is al
most covered with sheep manure-''phos-
phate," he calls it. Just before solid
| freezing, he passes a fine tooth harrow
| over the field to more evenly distribute
the manure. and the next season he cuts
the meadows twice, getting at both cut
| tings about four tons of hay, or one cut
ting for hay and one for seed. Corn, oats
and wheat follow in successive years, and
his crops are usually enormous. and he
says the sheep manure does it. The south
ern farmer could devote a portion of his
land to sheep and test their capacity to
| enrich his soil.