SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 85 



enjoyment the farmer has in the care of his flocks is no little 

 consideration ; neither is the gentle and humanizing influence, 

 which a love for animals is well known to exert, to be over- 

 looked. If the prejudice still lingers that sheep culture is a 

 less dignified occupation than that of cotton-planting, it 

 should be dispelled. The nobility of sheep-growing, and 

 especially of sheep-breeding, is recognized by all the advanced 

 nations. The Empress Eugenie took the flock of Rambouillet 

 under her special protection. France has recently erected a 

 monument to Daubenton, who first showed how the culture 

 of the merino could be made successful. The Queen of Eng- 

 land takes pride in the choice flocks which adorn her parks. 

 The first exhibitor of wools at our Centennial was an arch- 

 duchess. The princes of Hungary are as proud of the fine- 

 ness of their wools as of their own descent. The English 

 nobleman values the prizes for his perfected South Downs or 

 Lincolns above all the honors of the turf; and, at a dinner 

 of the landed gentry, the topic of sheep and turnips takes 

 precedence of all other table-talk. With such recognitions, 

 sheep husbandry has no need of urging its claims to a place 

 of honor on the plantation of the South. 



Precisely how sheep-farming in connection with the cotton 

 culture is to be carried on, we would not presume to indicate. 

 Fortunately, we have a Southern man Mr. Howard, before 

 quoted, and whose high authority as a scientific and practical 

 farmer is well recognized in Georgia to illustrate the appli- 

 cation of diversified husbandry to the cotton culture. He 

 submits the following rotation of crops, in connection with 

 sheep-growing, as suited to the agricultural condition of the 

 South: 



11 We will suppose a farm of 500 acres of open land under fence. 

 Let 250 acres be devoted to arable purposes, and the rest to grazing. 

 The rotation might be as follows : 1, Cotton and corn, in the same 

 field, in suitable proportions ; 2, oats, sown in August, on the cotton 

 and corn land; 3, rye, or rye and wheat, sown in September, the 

 land having been twice ploughed, in order to kill the permanent oats ; 

 4 and 5, clover, if the land is in sufficient heart to produce it ; if not, 

 the fourth year rest ungrazed, and the fifth year sheep and cattle penned 



