The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-08-16

| and he hauled their wool to the factory, and they
beat me one cent a pound, but L sent mine by
rail and Mr.. Chatham paid my freight, making us
all about co al. He fed a little over a half pound
of corn per day to each sheep during the whole
winter and the entire cost of keeping the sheep
was one dollar and seventy-ive cents per head,
allowing a liberal price for all the food and pas
ture consumed and the attention given them, in
Guiding shearing, which cost 10 cents a head. 1t
may be noted that the wool brought him an aver
age Of about $3.50 per head, yielding him a profit
on the wool alone of more than so cents per head.
From lack of experience in handling the ewes his
lambs saved we're not quite seventy per cent.
MI. Gibson, the other one-third owner in the
original flock, had his lambs mostly come in mid
winter and by giving them very close attention
did better than that, though his whole flock num-
bers a half dozen less and his wool a little lighter,
yet his heaviest eve fleece was Is pounds, a little
heavier than Mr.. Aderholt's heaviest eve fleece.
lie keeps his sheep on a little farm on which he
has built a very fine sheep barn, three miles away
from his home place, and I think it is because of
his exceptionable perseverance and energy that
his flock has done so well and are now prosperous.
for the focks of sheep should live very near to the
owner or at least close to their special shepherd
all the time. Mr.. Gibson had some five pounds
of tub washed wool and they paid him IS cents per
pound for that, so it is easy to be seen that there
is quite a difference in price between cleansed fine
Merino wool and cleansed coarse or ~combing wool.
The whole crop of wool was heavier than last
year, and this was the third clip since they came
to North Carolina.
My flock went into winter quarters in rather
bad condition and did worst of the three both in
wool clip and increase, but / hope I am permanent
ly fixed now not to get in that condition again.
Besides this / have been selling samples of these
sheep one or two IN a place all over the State and
l cannot estimate closely what I have done. Ny
heaviest eve fleece was twelve pounds, and stock
ram twenty-eight pounds, and the other stock
rams twenty-eight and thirty-fve pounds. We
have been keeping the stock rams in too high con-
dition and will cease to do so, and for that reason
may not reach the extreme heavy weight of thirty
two to thirty-eight pounds again.
s. TO So NET PER HEAD FOR YEARLING LAMBS.
I wish to emphasize the fact that all the adj
verse things we have met in the business are not
unavoidable results from the climate or products
of North Carolina and that our several notable
successes are the results of industrious manage
ment of sheep in this Southern climate with the
products of North Carolina.> Mr.. Aderholt has
lambs that weigh one hundred pounds at one year
old and they were not at all fed up for mutton
purposes. If they had been so fed from the first
he says they would have averaged one hundred and
twenty-five pounds. That is extra for American
Merino lambs, and such lambs would have sold
in New York or Washington this season for ten to
fourteen dollars each. To net Sc to So per head
for lambs under one year old is a profitable bust
ness.
Several large lots of high grade Merino lambs
topped the market" in price of all lots sold on
the Chicago market this last spring and thew