The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1898-09-17
FARMER GRANDFATHER.
SHEEP IN THE SOUTHLAND.
rience with Sheep, Writes to
His Brother Farmers.

have in writing letters for publication,
and would not write this letter but it
seems that SO few of the farmers of
the south are taking sufficient inter
est in sheep raising.
do not think that q farm is COM
plete without 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 If it
is fat, tender, juicy and properly
cooked. A farmer who understands
sheep can have lambs large enough to
kill 10 eat as early as the LIST of March.
l 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.
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 !
have been raising sheep IS years, and /
have never had a sheep killed by
dog. have quite number of bells
on my sheep, and if dog comes near
them the bells make SO much noise
that the dogs get SO frightened that
they forget they wanted to kill q
sheep. Besides bells being q 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 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 are doing, some
of it should be used for a 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 pasturing 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-
cider When first commenced rails
ing sheep l 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 Marine rams to give
them a better class of wool and to
make them strong and hardy. / found
that the Cotswold sheep was too deli
cate for the sonth, and that the Meri-
no was not a first-class sheep for NUT
ton. had seen other breeds tried, and
from observation l decided that the
African broadtail sheep was the best
that had seen, so / have bred to
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 are
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 been
Tor several years, and the money from
the sale of lambs and wool comes at q
time of the year when money is usual
ly scarce with most farmers.
Sheep are fond of change of food.
Our native pastures furnish sufficient
variety of grasses and weeds, except in
winter. Then feed them on pea vines and
cotton-seed hulls and meal, and it is
best to have something green during
winter for them to Craze on occasion
ally. raise red rust-proof oats large
ly, and I let my sheep Craze on the
early sown oats when the ground is
not too wet. If grain is large enough,
judicious grazing with sheep is beue-
fetal to the grain and, of course, is
much relished by the sheep. l have
k0 own pastures that had SO many wild
"a
c@ws was not fit to use, and short
while after flock of sheep grazed
irE them you could scarcely see
aEy sign Of wild onions Salt
SHOULD be kept where the sheep can
have access to it whenever they
wish, as they seem to want it often,