34 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



is practised, that the planter is compelled to take any labor 

 that offers, whether good, bad, or indifferent; and thus the 

 exclusive cotton-planter belongs to the negro, as the negro 

 once belonged to him : that, if but half the usual quantity of 

 cotton were planted, the value of the crop would be about 

 the same, and but half the labor would be required : that 

 by high farming, or cultivating with the plough, fewer acres, 

 and those only which can be heavily manured, greater results 

 may be obtained with diminished labor, the cost being rather 

 in the manure than in the cultivation ; and that high farming 

 would be remunerative in the cotton States, with the triple 

 effect of improving the soil, increasing profits, and diminish- 

 ing, and therefore controlling and improving, the labor. None 

 of the language in the above paragraphs is our own: it is 

 literally taken from Southern writers. 



If they speak correctly, and the Southern landholder must 

 cultivate only the small proportion of land which he can 

 manure heavily, what is to become of the rest of it? The 

 only answer is : The rest may be devoted to small grains, to 

 meadow and pasture. To utilize the meadow and pasture, 

 sheep can be more profitably used at the South than any 

 other stock. Cattle can be better raised at the West. Dairy 

 and cheese farming are more difficult and more laborious than 

 sheep farming. Sheep culture has other advantages over 

 cattle-raising. It gives annual dividends in the fleeces. In- 

 deed, the ewe gives two dividends, her fleeces and her lambs. 

 The beef-producing animals give no dividends ; and the grower 

 must go on adding his expenses till the end of their lives, 

 when he must find his compensation (if he can) in one gross 

 sum. The capital required for the purchase of sheep 

 enough stock for a fair trial is small. Large flocks are 

 not required. 



Sheep-growing is commended by other considerations, ap- 

 parently slight, but too important to be overlooked. Wool 

 never has to seek a purchaser. Poor or good, it is eminently 

 the cash article on the farm. The little addition from this 

 source to the resources of the farm affords a satisfaction to 

 which every wool-growing farmer will testify. The absolute 



