The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-22

I have heretofore said a good DEAL says
the Practical Farmer, in regard to the
South as a desirable section of country for
sheep husbandry on account of its equa-
bic climate, cheap lands and open ranges
for sheep and other stock as we'll Many
sheep growers OF Southern sections have
been for some years, in accordance with
the spirit of the age, breeding up their
flocks with pure-bloods until now there
are many punches of sheep there that
would be a credit 10 the best Northern
farms Prof H. Stewart, author of 1.-The
Domestic Sheep" has been located in
North Carolina a long while He tried
sheep ranging and now reports results in
letter to me last month. He says: Il am
now having lambs drop right along. and
my little flock kept for home use is hay
ing no feed but pasture in an old field and
a wood Dot My main flock thirty miles
away in the woods, has lambs six weeks
old, and has not had a bite of hand feed
ing all winter; and my shepherd SAYS the
lambs are coming fast and strong 1 am
trying TO get our people to keep sheep on
the millions of acres of Old fields, which
are slowly recovering from the cotton and
corn disease, by being left TO the weather
and weeds. 1t is the old story: The pro-
phet crieth aloud; but none hearken to his
voice. One of my fiocKs of 800 or more-I
DON'T know exactly-is on the range and
has not had a bite of anything except
what they pick up, in over three years.
This flock is the product of 10 ewes and 8
rams, started near four years ago. and
cost me less than Sl00 to START could get
$1,000 for the flock to-day What do Won
think of that for cheap sheep growlng?,
l think it proves the ground l stated
years ago, and have reiterated several
times, that the South 10 the place for
sheep men to migrate to if they are going
10 migrate anywhere. A young man could
start there with 100 sheep, do outside work
enough to pay his board, and in few
years accumulate means enough to make
him moderately independent OF course
Prof Stewart is breeding up his sheen
from the native ewes, and half his profit
is in that fact. But he is not alone in this
line of business A gentleman in Mobile
county, Alabama, writes me that he has
reared flock of 800 sheep, and he does
not own an acre of land. His sheen feed
costs nothing. He values his flock al 81. 40
a head Mr.. W. r. Malone OF The firm of
the smith d Malone Company, general
merchants, Barton, Ga, saws he can
buy there good feeding sheep for $3.50 TO
~ head He wants to purchase sheep
and cattle for Northern dealers BY the
carload. Since l first wrote on
this subject have personally
known of very many pure-blood
breeding sheep being shipped from North
ern fiocks TO the South, and the good re-
suits in a better class of sheep there and
more of them, are very much in evidence.
Prof Stewards prophet cried aloud. but
no one hearkened to his voice Not so
with the p. F.s prophet; for his voice
has been heard and needed in every South
ern state, as the shipping books of sew
eral Northern breeders are mute but re-
liable evidence. One in particular has
shipped rams TO nine Southern states
Such lively interest as this Will soon put
the quality of Southern sheep on a par
with those of the North and West.
What l have said of the progress of
sheep breeding in the South applies. but
in much less degree, TO the breeding IN
of hogs and cattle there. But these viii
follow rapidly. As yet II il believed that
not a carload of cattle, sheep or hogs mas
ever been shipped from the Lower South
or even the Middle South, to the Atlantic
seaboard cities UP as far as New Yorl, n
city nearer to the South than the great
West is and the greatest market for farm
products of any kind. But the time is
ripe now to commence running stock cars
on the roads leading TO the great cities of
the Northern seaboard. When a start Is
made and the farmers of the South aeual-
by see meat animals going out and money
coming in for them, II will remind MANY
other farmers to do likewise. Cotton il
low, old cotton lands are badly depleted
of their fertility, it does not pay to usa
commercial fertilizers, and the only rea-
sonable and practicable way to restore
them to a good state of fertility is 20 grow
stock, save the manure and return Il TO
the soil. The time is not far distant when