The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-09-03
No. 80

10y -AO O4LAOS pOOE4y"A6uS III
or slow-grown young sheep will not
have raised it's last inoisors until
about five years old. Of the latter.
the writer has found hundreds
among the thousands on the Pampas
Of old Mexico and on the plains of
our own Southwest, where little or
no hard-grain is fed.
At seven years old the front teeth
are worn down some and the gums
may be leaving them at eight and
ten they may be slim and leaning TO-
warn the middle or falling ont, but
commonly there is but little GER
tainty in determining the age from
the mouth after the sixth or seventh
year, for as the conditions change
the time of sFfull mouth" SO oondi-
tions change the time of 'broken
mouth y
There is no doubt but many ewes
are good breeders at ten and even
fourteen years, but commonly at
eight to ten years it is best to fatten
them for mutton. If properly fat
tened, they make exceedingly good
tender mutton that is better to keep
fresh and use in summer than any
other kind of meat.
A little bunch of such ewes drawn
out of the breeding flock in the fall
because they are "broken mouthed"
and nicely wintered with the lamb
flock, which is supposed to be care
fully fed by itself, then shorn early
in the spring, kept in convenient
pasture and fed twice day on meal
OF chopped feed, they will soon be
very fat and continue so.
In Virginia it was our custom to
have little bunch of such sheep fat
from the beginning of summer, out
of which to draw savory mutton
at least every week. We didn't
then use Western hog meat. We
have TO.
supposing that the readers have
kindly followed me through this
writing about sheep, illustrating
years period OF the business, I might
we'll stop. If I do, it is with the
feeling that much which should have
been written has not been, for Ihave
tried to condense and cut short,
rather than expand and lengthen.
There are special features that are
legitimate outgrOwths of the busi-
ness in general, which properly
should and must have attention.
Some of these possibilities belong
uniquely to our great Southland and
cannot elsewhere be embraced by
the progressive people in other parts
Of our glorious nation.
In a future article I will, as 1 be.
lieve, prove clearly to the mind of
every one, especially to our highly
intelligent cotton growers that if
One-half the number of acres on q
given plantation now devoted to cot
ton shall be devoted to sheep hus-
bandry, the result will be that the
remaining half will produce as much
cotton as is now received from the
whole, leaving the net profits from
the sheep clear gain to the planter
over and above what he now receives
from his whole plantation for cotton
farming.
I will not say it will require less
outlay for industrial labor, but even
should it require more, the Increased
returns will foot the bills, and leave
a profit. Besides this, I shall show
that under such a system the land
actually farmed will soon begin to
appreciate in value at the,rate of at
least 50 per acre annually.
Labor in the South is abundant
and is waiting, to be inteligently
employed on the plantations. If it
could be so vigorously instructed
and used and promptly paid, as il
would be from the sheep business,
there would be less of it in the chain
gang.
The hog, or pork, is the natural
product of the great corn belt of the
Mississippi Basin. Heavy cattle for
beef as naturally reach their highest
development in that region.
The grass lands of the East, of the
Western plains and mountains and
the fbrous and legumous growths of
the cotton lands of the South may be
olassed together as axce1ling in the