The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-08-23
IS NORTH CAROLINA ADAPTED TO WOOL AND
MUTTON2
Address Before North Carolina Farmers, Convention,
Raleigh, August 3, 1904, by Samuel Archer, Esq,
of Irede1 County, N. c.
in TWO PARTs-PART III.

bdl1u10 mas UCSOLhO I'LL IhPO OohO Oo "OOA
has been the chief object of the business, while
mutton was secondary. / fail to see a substantial
reason why the South should be an exception to
that rule. Time will not permit discussion here,
of the many reasons / see why the South will con-
form to it in the future. The mutton and meat
market is a fuctuating one. In fact, there is no
dominant mutton market in the South. The wool
market is a stable one, slow to change, and there
is an increasing demand for it South which would
increase almost at once commensurately with an
enlarged production offered by our people. The
machinery could and would be added rapidly to
the cotton manufacturing business already in the
South. 1t would not curtail the demand for cot
ton, but greatly increase it. 1t would not cut
shorter the cotton crop, but rapidly increase the
production of cotton per acre, from the fact that
the acres would become sheep walks whereon this
most useful animal would change heritage, fodder
and grain into the very best of fertilizers for the
roots of the cotton crops.
While sheep husbandry is adapted to the sub
~jugation of virgin forests and plains from wild
state to successful agriculture, and to the growth
of countries from primitive farming to onward
and upward progress, the higher and thorough
bred classes of all the breeds will and do fully ad-
just themselves in yielding adequate proportion
of profit to the most intelligent management III
scientific agriculture. The young man whose
mind is being trained in the science of agricul-
ture and stock raising is ambitious to reach its
heights, and he may be thinking that these heights
of sheep husbandry are ranged along as foot hills
between him and mountains of knowledge that to
his mind tower in heights beyond.
Allow me to ask such young men to think with
me a few minutes. These blooded, fine wool
sheep we have in Iredell County, with poor feed
and care will shear eight pounds of wool and dress
forty pounds of mutton, but with proper food and
care are made to dress twelve pounds of wool and
sixty pounds of mutton. Here is a difference OF
one-third in each purpose for which the sheep are
kept. This increase in each purpose requires an
adjustment of elements in the sleeps feed neces-
sary for the sleeps dual purpose of producing
wool and mutton. Who knows the kind OF food
needed; when and how to give it! Any one may
toss to a sheep an armful of hay and a pint of
corn which will fill up it's stomach, but that does
not supply it's wants with the many elements to
increase it's products of fine wool and extra NUT
ton. One should know how to have all these, and
how to give them, and also understand the physl-
cal organization and capacity of the particular
sheep in hand. Again, from extra specimens OF
these sheep a eve may be selected that can be
made, to clip % pounds of wool and net 80 pounds
of mutton. Also a ram made to clip 80 pounds
of wool and no pounds of mutton. Strictly adj
herring to the law that "like produces like" while
carefully avoiding a cross with other blood, one
who understands the science of breeding and
feeding may by mating such extra specimens,