St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1908-02-01
SHEEP ON EVERY FARM.
Few Section Of Any Country Can
Equal South for This Industry.

the writer is most familiar is that part
of the eastern shore of Maryland,
where it seems that everything raised
land is susceptible to very high
state of cultivation. But the par ex-
cellence of all it's products are its fine
sheep and geese. The latter, which
are grown by the thousands, when fat.
tened, will weigh all the way from
twenty to twenty-five pounds each,
selling for $3.50 to $500 a piece, be-
sides yielding one pound of feathers
to the goose. There are nine coun-
ties in this section in Maryland be-
sides two counties in Virginia, and
with the state of Delaware form a
peninsular, with the Chesapeake Bay
on one side and the Atlantic Ocean
on the other.
Few sections of any country can
equal this for sheep growing, where
good pastures prevail, and the way the
portunity is an object lesson for other
sections of the South where conditions
are just as good.
It is not an unusual thing for a
farmer to own a flock of twenty-five
to fifty ewes that will average $50 to
200 pounds in carcass, and ten to f1f-
teen pounds wool to- the fleece, with
a crop of lambs from 100 to $50 per
cent to the eve, worth from 81 to Sc
each.
This was brought about thirty years
or more ago by the introduction of I'M
ported Cotswold and Southdown rams,
which were crossed on native ewes
until the present high standard has
been attained. 1t is true that "high
grades" are often used as sires. but
there is always some one who keeps
up the standard by furnishing his
neighbors with pure-bred rams.
The present high standard of sheep
raising was introduced by some lead
ing spirits many years ago, and hence
we grow these fine f1ocks, which thrive
only in small f1ocks of twenty-five to
fifty head.
Our farmers are getting educated
to look to their best interest, and in
stead of allowing rams to run with
the flock all the time and have their
lambs drop any time from Jan. l to
April 1 and lose rs per cent of them,
they breed late, so the lambs drop
about April l and save nearly all of
them. In the latter case we castrate
the ram lambs, which sell in the early
fail for as much as eve lambs. which
usually bring from SIS to Sc each. They
are valuable perquisite to the ten
ant and an income to the owner when
he runs the farm himself,
The use of clover and other grasses
and proper cultivation will put almost
any section of the South in a position
to grow sheep that can not be sur
passed by any country in the world.
And everybody should have them, too.
Help to furnish the market with lambs,
wool and mutton.
Sheep raising, while an invaluable
adjunct, can not be made a speciality,
however, as is done in the West, on
account of diseases that result from
keeping large f1ocks together.
There have been thousands of com
mon Western ewes brought with us
and crossed with one improved ram,
with the result in two or three years
of attaining the same high standard
in the flock.
When the ram lambs are made weth-
ers and kept until eighteen months
old, they can be made to weigh $50
pounds, with the favor and succuIence
of &c Southdown and the size of the
CotsWold, which the world can not
beat.
In travelling over the different Sec
ton Of this country the writer a few
weeks was more than agreeably
surprised at the improvement attained.
What is now an accomplished fact
in general way far exceeds his ideal
of what might have been possible to
realize 20 years ago. Every farmer
keeps fiocks to correspond with his
acres, but one seldom sees more than
fifty together, as they generate dis
ease from grazing on the same pas
ture continuously, and unless moved
from one field to another, they seem
to get sick, and many die.
Too much fat one might suppose,
could be lessened by keeping larger
fiocks, but such is not the case, be-
cause when crowded they generate
disease from inhaling impurities from
their own weddings. This can be rem
edied only by removing them to fresh
pastures once every two weeks, which
allows the grass to become more
healthful.-E. c. Legg in Southern Ag-
riculturist.