Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1901-02-16
SHEEP AND SHEEP DOGS.
The Interesting Experience Of General Brat
ton In Fairfield.

The Interesting Experience Of General Brat
ton In Fairfield.
1t has always surprised me that the
average legislator cannot be brought to
realize the immense damage that the
people of the State, especially the far
mers, have suffered from the multitude
Of dogs that infest the country, and
should be deferred from legislating up
on the subject for fear Of losing the
vote of the poor man, whose chief love,
they seem to think, Is the "yaller
dog"
I believe that the large majority of
the people Of the State greatly favor a
dog law. In discussing the matter with
hundreds of people, I have met only
one man who objected to law taxing
dogs. I believe if such a law were once
tried it would meet with almost uni
Versal approval as was the case with
the mo fence law" which the writer
was first in the State to advocate and
also helped to enact. The dog evil has
increased imperceptibly, so that many
do not stop to consider the enormity of it.
Before the war no legislation was need
ed; for the whites kept the number of
dogs within safe bounds. so that the
rearing of sheep was little interfered
with, and rabies was almost unknown.
before the war I never heard Of any
human being dying Of hydrophobia in
Fairfield but one, and that occurred
one hundred years ago. Since the war
there have already been five or six
deaths from this cause in this county
alone. and it is common to hear Of a
valuable life lost from hydrophobia or
only saved by resort to a Pasteur Insti-
tute.
At the close Of the war, Major T. w.
Woodward, the best lover of dogs in
this county, did not believe that there
was such a disease as rabies, yet in a
few years afterward he lost several
packs of valuable hunting dogs, and
since that time he has been an earnest
advocate Of a law that would reduce
the number of dogs. The only mad dog
I ever heard of before the war was
killed after run of about so miles, in
which course he bit good many cows
and hogs, but only one or two dogs.
A run Of that distance now would
innoculate possibly 100 dogs.
The rearing of sheep is now almost
Abandoned; but a law causing the re-
ductlon Of the number of dogs to about
one-third the present number would
give such security that first one farmer
and then another would begin to keep
sheep, so that in many places there
would be hundreds of sheep where now
there is not one. Old abandoned fields
would be utilized with sheep and their
original fertility restored and the rush
of farmers from country to town would
be somewhat stayed. There are proba-
ly 100000 acres out Of 100000 in Fair
field that are worthless, and can only
be restored by sheep, under whose hoof
the Scotch say there is gold.
In 1866 General John Bratton bought
40 sheep, and after six years time he
had sold $1,70O worth Of wool and NUT
ton, and his flock had increased to $50,
having purchased no other sheep, except
Ia South Down buck as needed, and had
enriched 80 acres Of extremely poor
land so that it produced 1000 pounds of
cotton to the acre. Notwithstanding
the great profit he had derived from
sheep, some years before he died the
increase of dogs and other enemies of
sheep compelled him to give up the bus
mess.
Besides robbing hens nests, the half
starved Negro dog destroys the eggs Of
wild turkeys, partridges and insectiv-
orous birds, like the bullbat, which are
now almost exterminated, and other
ground-laying birds. I think that a
law requiring owners of bitches to
purchase from county auditors collar
yearly for each bitch, paying SIS for
same, would in year or two greatly
diminish the number of vicious dogs
and encourage the owning of hunting
and other useful dogs. Valuable
bitches would then be kept and all 9TH
ers would be killed. 1t is believed that
a large majority of the dogs kept by
the Negroes are female.
A great advantage of this law is its
easy enforcement. Also the amount
paid into the treasury would probably
be ten times as much as is now collec-
ted on dogs (about $4,000 for not more
than half of them are returned for tax
ation.-G. H. McMaster in Winnsboro
News and Herald.