FARMERS' REGISTER- SHEEP HUSBANDRY— INDIAN CORN. 



701 



JVIississippi, below the Munchac. An effort is now 

 milking lo introduce the thin rind hog info tlie 

 parish")!' St. Helena, and we do not entertain a 

 doubt of its entire success. Many arc the abor- 

 tive attempts made in the culture of llie grape, on 

 the banks of the Mississippi. Yet a grape, deli- 

 cious to the palate, and capable ol" producing ex- 

 cellent wine, is indigenous to the parishes o! 

 Natchitoches, Claiborne and Ouachitta. So it is 

 Ibund that the rich lands around New Orleans is 

 not tavorable to the culture of the sweet potato — 

 whereas the pine woods is the soil in which that 

 vegetable most delights. 



As with the vegetable, so with the animal king- 

 dom. No domestic animal, calculated lor service, 

 or the table, is reared with the same i;\cility on 

 the low, as on the highlands. The leathered tribe 

 we believe is an exception to the rule. 



the nature of the case, to casualty and loss, which 

 timely shelter might prevent. The sheep well lt?d, 

 irom its ileccy covering and gregarious habits, 

 whence results an atmosphere of considerable 

 warmth, i-emains very little aii'ecled by intense 

 cold, if unaccompanied by moisture; he is perhaps 

 more untiivorably utlected by great heat, but contm- 

 ues sate under either extreme, with the advantage 

 of sutlicient shelter, obviously one ol" the most im- 

 portant points in sheep husbandry. The various 

 diseases incident to sheep have their origin almost 

 exclusively in neglect, improper situations and 

 treatments, or errors in Itieding. Reverse these, 

 and diseases among sheep would be as l(?w and 

 rare, as they are now numerous and rile through- 

 out our sheep districts; anothergrand point in their 

 husbandry. — lb. 



HINTS ON SHEEP HUSBANnRY. 



Selected and collated for the Cultivator. 



In an agricultural view, simply, the importance 

 of sheep is extreme; since, by their assistance 

 alone, thin, barren, upland soil, so often the far 

 greater part ol" a country, can be cultivated to ad- 

 vantage, which otherwise could not generally be 

 cvdtivated at all. The sheep will subsist and mul- 

 tiply on those barren soils, Avhere no other animal 

 Avould be maintained with equal profit: he is 

 equally calculated lor the most deep and lertilc, 

 challenging competition, and dividing the palm oi 

 profit with an ox, and is excluded from such only 

 as abound in stagnant water, the moist exhalations 

 of which are naturally destructive to his constitu- 

 tion. — Z,awrence on cattle. 



The bodihj coiistiiufion of the sheep, as of the 

 goat, the deer, the camel, the hare and the rabbit, 

 is usually called hot and dry; we however know, 

 iirom unquestionable experience, that dry soils, 

 a dry air, dry provender, and green food, which 

 does not abound in cold and watery juices, are 

 most appropriate and salutary to them. Indeed 

 the contraries are replete with danger to the 

 Bheep, most particularly, which is naturally and 

 constitutionally subject to serious effusion, pro- 

 ducing a dropsy of peculiar kind, either universal 

 or circumscribed, but more usually the latter, ex- 

 tending indifferently to all parts of the body. 



This efflux of water, or rather watery tendency, 

 in all the fluids of the body, gradually produces 

 in the solids disorganization, mortification or rot. 

 Catarrhal affections are the most usual primary 

 causes of rot. These ideas very plainly indicate 

 the proper situations, food and treatment of 

 sheep. 



Sheep have often been described as, of "a weak- 

 ly constitution, liable to be exhausted by fatigue, 

 and ill able to bear the extremes of heat and cold, 

 subject to many diseases, most of which are con- 

 tagious." Such notions are to be received with 

 much allowance, for in truth, this useful race scenis 

 ennobled by nature to accommodate itself to all 

 the vicissitudes of climate, and to nearly the ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold, of which the husbandry, 

 ancient and modern, of both northern and southern 

 countries, forms the best proof. We see them ac- 

 customed to brave the most rigorous of these ex- 

 tremes unhurt, liable, as might be expected from 



From the Cultivator. 

 INDIAN CORN. 



There is no crop which habit has rendered 

 more indispensable to the Avants of our I'arailies 

 and our farms than this. The late John Taylor, 

 of Virginia, termed it our "meat, meal and ma- 

 nure." Holding this high rank in our farm eco- 

 nomy, it is a subject of moment to adopt the best 

 mode of culture. As many districts are shy in 

 producing wheat, and as this crop is seriously 

 threatened by the new (to us) wheat insect, it be- 

 comes more a matter of" solicitude to render our 

 corn crops productive. Eut as this grain demands 

 more labor in its culture than other grain crops, 

 so it is more important, on the score ot" profit, 

 that it should be vv'ell managed: for if thirty bush- 

 els an acre, be considered only a remuneration lor 

 the labor bestowed on the crop — all that the pro- 

 duct liills short of this must be a loss — and all 

 that it exceeds, a net gain to the cultivator. The 

 first consideration in regard to the corn crop, is to 

 give it a dry mellow soil; the second, that this 

 soil be rich, fat or fertile; and the third, that the 

 seed be timely put in and the crop well taken care 

 of. Neither wet grounds, nor stiff" clays, nor poor 

 grounds, will repay, by their product, the labor re- 

 quired on a crop of" corn. He who has no other 

 lands but these, should not attempt to raise it as a 

 field crop. He had better bestow his labor upon 

 other objects, and buy his corn. We think the 

 best preparation for corn is a clover lay, well cover- 

 ed with long manure from the barn-3'ard, well 

 ploughed — and well harrowed. It is better to 

 give sixty loads of" dung to three acres than to 

 ten, upon the ordinary lands of our neighborhood. 

 The difference in product will not make up for the 

 difference in labor. Corn can hardly be dunged 

 too high. What vre have to recommend, that is 

 not common in the culture of this crop, is — that 

 double the usual quantity of seed be applied — the 

 number of plants to be reduced at the weeding — 

 in order to ensure three or lour stalks in each hill; 

 that the roots be not broken, nor the manure 

 thrown to the surface, by the plough, but that the 

 harrow and cultivator be substituted for it, which 

 will sufficiently mellow the surface and destroy 

 weeds; and that the hills be but slightly earthed. 

 By ploughing and hilling we conceive the manure 

 is wasted, the roots broken and bruised, and limit- 

 ed in their range for food, the crop more exposed 

 to injury from drought, and the labor increased. 



