Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois (c) Bill Oliver 14 September 2003 Vol 2 Issue: #33 ISBN: pending Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, A couple of weeks ago, Grandma Bobbi got me to thinking about plants and their uses, but I thought I would file those ideas away for next spring, except for one item. Grandma Bobbi might say, "Don't follow a cow and eat what they eat, ... cows are awf'ly dumb animals." That got me to thinking about what animals do eat, and that led me to what sheep eat, which led me to wondering about an ancestor who just might have tried sheep raising for their wool. Every so often I review what I know about sheep raising and wondering about 3rdGreat Grandpa Frederick ... did he try raising wool on the hoof, as an enterprise? When Great Grandpa Frederick was born in the Louisiana Territory, sheep raising was an important facet of frontier life. Without a sheep or two, wool for clothing would not be available. Weaving was an important part of frontier living. Today, weaving has rather gone out of style, and is not needed by the average person or family. Clothes are taken "off" the rack, so to speak. And, sheep raising by the average family just isn't done. So sheep raising is left to the mega- firms, and then not so much for the wool, for the wool market has been stagnant. Even so, sheep today are bred larger in size so as to produce more wool and/or mutton. They are also fed greater amounts from storage rather than left to forage from the land. Back in Great Grandpa's day, sheep wouldn't weigh more than forty pounds. Also, they weren't treated much special, so they had to be hardy little rascals ... withstanding cold, hunger and disease. In the past, New England was [and is] a good sheep region, as were the western hills and mountains. And, in the mid-1800s, before the development of the western United States there were millions of acres in open range, in which great rivalries developed between cattle and sheep ranching. In the hill country of middle America, sheep were not given the Shepard's care that we picture so frequently. In the west we picture the sheep herder with his "camper" tending the sheep daily, protecting them from the "wilds" so to speak. In contrast, in the hills west of the coastal areas of the east, sheep foraged for themselves. Farmers fenced in their gardens and what was outside was left for stock. In fact cattle, hogs and sheep were let loose in the hills to graze. They would stay together and rounded up when needed. The sheep would wander away and return when they needed salt or something or, in the fall they would be rounded up so that they could be "brought through the winter". Thus, care of the sheep in the summer was pretty easy ... furnish pasture, water, and some salt. Furnishing shelter and feeding them in the winter was different. Rams were kept for breeding and to keep from inbreeding, they were often traded around the neighborhood. One ram to twenty ewes seemed to be the ratio. Surplus rams were eaten. Surplus rams were usually castrated and raised for ‘wethers' or mutton. Somewhere in reading, it was estimated that one acre of good forage would support three ewes. At those figures it would take more than a quarter section of land to support three hundred sheep. In the southwest, the Spanish introduced sheep into the that area before 1700. There was the owner [the haciendaro], who supervised the mayordomo, who in turn supervised three caporales. Caporales supervised three vaqueros, who in turn supervised three pastores or herders. Each herder tended [day and night] about 1500 sheep. I'm sure there were larger and smaller ranches, but it was a patterned or organizational hierarchy. Americans during the 1830s and 40s made changes to the raising of wool by introducing new breeds, though they maintained the Spanish style of organization. This was due to demand for wool by the New England mills. This new demand reached its peak in the 1870s. This could have stirred Great Grandpa into trying his hand at it during the 1850s. Who knows? I still don't know, and I keep finding small bits of history which do not eliminate the possibility. Ahhhhh, sweet mystery ... !! e-la-di-e-das-di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- Other sites worth visiting: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html