200 MARKET GARDE^T>fa. 



ing a luxuriant and nutritious feed for pastured cattle, 

 but of a habit of forming high tussocks, should not be 

 sown with the expectation of machine mowing ; nor, 

 again, should other sorts specially adapted to cutting 

 green and feeding in the pen or stable, but which, like 

 Alfalfa, have their crowns so elevated above the earth 

 level as to be nibbled off by sheep, be sown for sheep 

 grazing. 



Profitable farming in the Southern States can best 

 be developed and diversified by diverting from the ordi- 

 nary system of cultivation, or worse neglect, large areas 

 to pasturage, and hay fields of Blue grass. Clover, Alfalfa, 

 Alsike and Incarnatum, or, better, in some locations 

 wild grasses, thus enabling planters to feed some mil- 

 lions of sheep and clip six times as many millions of 

 pounds of unwashed wool, supplemental to which would 

 follow an extended culture in corn and oats. 



It is self-evident that, to realize the wealth which 

 millions of sheep, with their mutton and wool, would 

 add to the South, there must be less acreage in cotton 

 and a greater acreage in grass, for, while Mexican sheep, 

 having some of the qualities of the goat, may live on 

 such stuff as thistles and cactns, the finer-bred shee]) 

 must have an ample supply of succulent grass, with hay, 

 corn and oats. There is an old proverb which is very 

 true, *^No grass, no cattle; no cattle, no manure; no 

 manure, no crops;" or, to illustrate the idea in other 

 language, there is a French proverb, that grass is a 

 synonym for bread, beef, mutton and clothing. 



Sheep farming naturally follows an advance in grass 

 farming, but the grass must be provided before the 

 sheep. When obtained, the two preserve the fertility of 

 good lands, and, under good management, restore those 

 classed as unfertile, and enrich the State. Nearly every 

 farm of two hundred acres of arable land can support a 

 flock of thirty to forty sheep, and, if it is not in condi- 



