The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-25
THREE TONS
 PURE HONEY Illinois Immigrant Is Pleased With State. SHEEP IS ALSO LONG SUIT Buf Dogs Are the Implacable
 Enemy Here. xfr. Min Also Talks Interestingly of Politics in Illinois, Where Me-
 groes are Now Dem-
 ocratic.
SHEEP IS ALSO LONG SUIT

Three tons of the purest, sweetest, clearest honey is the yield William D. Null of Prairieville, Hale County, Ala, ,.has obtained from sixty colonies of bees since he settled In Alabama last January. In that time his colonies have increased from sixty to 10e, and they are increasing still.
 Mr. Nulls story is one of exceptional interest to Alabama farmers and what he has achieved in so short a time seems almost wonderful. He said yes- terday that thirteen years ago he started business in Illinois with a small flock of sheep on wornout farm. too sterile to raise more than twenty-five bushels of corn to the acre. With careful attention he man. aged to make a good thing out of the sheep and later as they fertilized the land he was enabled to get an average yield from the land of eighty bushels of corn to the acre. and not one ounce of commercial fertilizer was used on the place.
 For twelve years he ran the farm and made enough money to come South with, having to leave Illinois because his health was impaired by the cli- mate. He visited upper North Caro- lima. but found the land for sale there only contained few acres of land fit to be cultivated In the large tracts. the hiiiy country being almost beyond use for farm purposes. He vistted Georgia. but did not find what he wanted. and then came to Alabama last January. and bought a farm that is suitable for sheep raising. having extensive Bermuda pasturage.
 On this farm he put 250 pineywood sheep for which he paid $500. Recent 1y he realized s45 from shearing eigh- ty-eight of them. MT. Null says sheep will do more for rundown land than anything else, that had he expended the $500 in fertilizer he would not have gotten as beneficial a return as the sheep will give him in fertilizer alone.
 But there Is one trouble" he con tinued, dogs. Never have I seen so many in an agricultural community. By actual count in my neighborhood I have found there is an average of two dogs to every family, and this does one dog can destroy half of a large flock in night.
 That Dog Pest.
 Near my place an old darkie lives who is too poor to support himself, has wife and three children, and sup ports them on the milk from one COW and corn meal that is given him, but all the same he has four dogs.
 Unless something Is done to do away with the vast amount of useless dogs In the county. sheep raising can never be developed. It is a fact that the dog industry In this State is bet ter protected than the raising of sheep. A high tax on them would do much to relieve the situation.
 Mir. Null has the sheep in a big pasture partially fenced in and says that in time if he can preserve them he will have a fine flock. In a month many of them will be ready for the meat market, and they have picked up to their present condition from almost skeletons when he got them.
 There Is a good price offered these days for mutton, wool Is always in demand, and the sheep return their cost in a short time by the splendid state of efficiency they bring any kind of farm land to. I don't believe there Is a better chance for agricultural de- velopment than in the raising of sheen. In the first place they always repre- sent ready money, and In case of ne- cessity fine food. Their wool alone will make them profitable and as I said. after sheep have been on land a certain length of time, other fer tilizer is not needed.
 Continuing, Mir. Null said:
 Please do not misunderstood me and think I am trying to teach any body anything. know sheep have been raised and raised profltably in this State for hundreds of years. know that the people have been con-