The Southern herald., 1898-09-09
FARMER ANDPLANTER.
SHEEP IN THE SOUTHLAND.
A southern Farmer, who Has Had ExPe-
rienee with sheep, Writes 10
His brother FarnerA

have in writing letter for publication,
and | would not write this letter but il
seems that 50 few OF the farmers of
the south are taking sufficient inter
est in sheep raising.
| do not think that a farm is com
Plete without a flock of sheep. do
not know of any meat that is as nice
and wholesome as good mutton. An
invalid can digest piece Of lamb il It
is fat, tender, juicy and properly
cooked. A farmer who understands
sheep can have lambs large enough TO
kill to eat as early as the lst Of March.
| have had lambs some years that
would do to eat in January.
Farmers give different reasons for
not raising sheep, Some say that they
are not fond of mutton, some that it is
too much trouble, same on account of
dogs, and some have excuses too friv-
olous to mention. As to not being
fond of mutton, surely they have not
seen the right kind, or probably their
tastes have become vitiated from SMELL
ing too much commercial fertilizers.
As TO sheep being too muoh trouble, l
will say that my experience is that
they are not nearly as much trouble
as cotton, and if they were not more
profitable than cotton | would give my
flock away to the first man whom
| could get to take them. Now, will
admit that 1t would be very provoking
to have sheep killed by dogs, but l
have been raising sheep IS years, and |
have never had Il sheep killed by a
dog. have quite a number of bells
on my sheep, and II log comes near
them the bells make so much noise
that the dogs get SO frightened that
they forget they wanted to kill a
sheep. Besides bells being a good
thing TO scare dogs, they are also good
TO keep anyone from stealing sheep,
and when the bells are Of different
sizes and tone, it is a pleasant sound
to hear the tinkling Of the bells while
the sheep are grazing or being driven
to and from the fold
Instead of cultivating all of their
land, as most farmers arc doing, some
of it should be used for pasture for
sheep. They will make the land rich,
and in few years the pasture can be
cultivated and another section Of land
can be devoted to pnsturing purposes.
| have some land that have treated as
above suggested, and the Improvement
| has been so great that the yield OF
crops has been more than doubled
Every progressive farmer should strive
to ''cause two blades of grass to grow
where only one grew before"
What breed of sheep is the best? is
question often asked. Some
prefer one breed and some another,
each one claiming that the breed
that he fancies is the best; so,
"when doctors disagree who can de-
cide2" When first commenced rails
ing sheep bought the best native
ewes that | could, and most of them
were good sheep. bred them first to
Cotswold rams to give them size, then
/ bred them to Marino rams to give
them better class Of wool and to
make them strong and hardy | found
that the Cotswold sheep was too deli
cate for the south, and that the Meri-
no was not u frst-class sheep for NUT
ton. | had seen other breeds tried, and
from observation | decided that the
African broadtai sheep was the best
that | had seen, SO | have bred tC
broad-tail rams for the past 10 years.
They are well suited for this coun-
try, and one of the best, If not the best
mutton sheep in the world. They arc
easy to keep fat, and are strong and
vigorous. The ewes are excellent
suckers. They drop their lambs early
and, think, breed as early as any
sheep. and earlier than most sheep
Early fat lambs always find ready sale
at good prices.
Wool is higher now than it has beer
for several years, and the money from
the sale of lambs and wool comes at Z
time of the year when money is usual
ly scarce with most farmers.
Sheep are fond of a change OF food
Our native pastures furnish sufiicicn
variety of grasses and weeds, except il
winter. Then feed them on pea vines anC
cotton-seed hulls and meal, and it il
best to have something green during
winter for them to Craze on occasion
ally. raise red rust-proof oats large
ly, and | let my sheep Craze on tn,
early sown oats when the ground i
not too wet If grain is large enough
, iudicious grazing with sheep is beue
fetal to the grain and, of course, j
much relishcd by the sheep. hav
known pastures that had so many will
onions in them that the milk fror
cows was not fit to use, and shor
while after a flock of sheep Craze
in them you could scarcely Sc
any sign Of wild onions. Sal
should be kept where the sheep ca
have access to it whenever the
wish, as they seem to want it Otter
, but not too much at time, but sal
shosld never be put with their food, O
, in the food of any animal, us the
+ would eat more salt than they woul
!. otherwise, and too much salt is inju
rious.
have given close attention to rail-
ing and caring for sheep. | have ha
: quite number of people tell me tina
g had the best flock OF sheep that the
ever saw, which is indeed cncouragin
to inc. | have now some OF the fines
e lambs that ever saw. When | war
O fresh mutton TO eat, find it har
r to decide which one to kill. am S
busy that have to write this lctte
by piecemeal, which is very unsati
factory way of writing, for when
person has to stop writing to attend
. other things, or is interrupted, he
almost sure to get his mind off til
subject, or lose some thoughts that i
wished to bring in, Or write som
/. things first that ought to be last an
| vice versa. There is much more thi