SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 21 



by all stock. Dr. Randall says that, " for sheep and breeding 

 ewes, there is probably no feed in the world equal to nicely 

 cured pea haulm, with a portion of the seed left unthreshed. 

 It gives them condition and vigor, and prepares them to sup- 

 ply a bountiful supply of milk for their young." 



To this may be added the sweet potato, another peculiar 

 product of the South. It is estimated that from two to three 

 bushels of sweet potatoes are equal in value to one bushel of 

 corn. More than three times as many bushels of sweet pota- 

 toes can be raised on an acre as can be raised of corn on the 

 most fertile lands of the West. Well-cured pea vines and 

 sweet potatoes afford as cheap and valuable food for fattening 

 sheep as can be found in any country whatever. A still more 

 important product, peculiar to the South, must not be over- 

 looked, the abundant cotton seed, more nutritious than any 

 grain, and so cheap that it is afforded in Georgia for fifteen 

 cents a bushel. 



Alfalfa. California has recently brought into prominence 

 a plant of foreign origin, which is destined to replace all 

 others at the South for soiling or hay. This is the alfalfa, 

 Chili clover or lucerne, Medicago sativa. Although introduced 

 into California from Chili, whence its Spanish name, it 

 has long been the chief reliance of the French farmers. 

 While it will not succeed in England, for want of sun, nor at 

 the North, on account of the winter's cold, it has been thor- 

 oughly tested at the South, and found to thrive from Texas 

 to Virginia. Its requirements are very rich light and dry 

 land, such as will be permeable to its long tap root, which 

 penetrates the ground, sometimes as deep as seventeen feet, 

 for the moisture which enables it to resist any degree of su- 

 perficial dryness. These requirements being met, it will, 

 after the first year, yield from six even to eight tons of hay, 

 which is preferred by cattle and sheep to any hay whatever. 

 A writer in the Transactions of the State Agricultural So- 

 ciety of California for 1871 says that the alfalfa is the only 

 plant which will grow through the dry summers of that State, 

 and keep green all summer. He is assured, by those that 

 have pastured sheep upon it, that one acre of good land will 



