SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



23 



dred, a tenth of an acre in the same time. The manure de- 

 posited by the sheep in that time will suffice for four years' 

 rotation. Mr. Howard, in his admirable paper on the condi- 

 tion of agriculture in the cotton States, says of this system, 

 which he has practically tested on Georgia lands : 



" The advantage of folding turnips is twofold. It is by far the 

 cheapest method of manuring land. No hauling manure is required, 

 as the sheep haul their own manure, both solid and liquid, to precisely 

 the spot on which it is desired to apply it. It is evenly spread, without 

 labor, no part being excessively manured at the expense of another 

 part. The effect of this manuring will be felt for years. Land so 

 manured is good for two bags of cotton to the acre the following year. 

 The other advantage is the fine condition into which the sheep are put 

 at a season of the year when mutton brings the highest price. When 

 land is put into sufficiently good order to bring five hundred bushels of 

 turnips to the acre, the gain in mutton is equivalent to the cost of the 

 crop. The heavy manuring of the land is, then, clear gain." 



Present Condition of Southern Sheep Husbandry. When 

 we turn from this picture of the possibilities of sheep hus- 

 bandry at the South, to its actual condition at the present 

 time, the contrast is very painful. The reports of the very 

 able statistician of the Department of Agriculture, which, 

 from a careful examination of the system adopted by him in 

 arriving at results, we regard as very reliable, show the num- 

 bers of sheep in the States of the cotton belt, excluding 

 Texas, to have been as follows, in January, 1878 : 



