FARMERS' REGISTER 



743 



through the winter. They may be often made 

 fine meat, and will at least be a valuable arquisi- 

 tion to the slock of salt provision for the laborers, 

 instead of bein<r devoted to their common fate in 

 Q premature age, by want of (bod. 



The best and cheapest mode of raiding calvep, 

 and ol" faticnitig lambs, I have ever tried, is also 

 suggested by liie inclosing system. It is that of 

 folding them on red clover Irom about the twen- 

 tieth of April, or (i-om the clover's becoming three 

 or /bur inches high ; the calves uriiil frost. Small 

 common lence rails, and the common crooked 

 fences, make folds with less labor and stand better 

 than any I have ever tried. This pen ought never 

 to stand longer than three days, in which time it 

 ought to be grazed clean. It' it stands longer, the 

 grass is injured by treading. When it is to be 

 removed, the calves and sheep are confined in a 

 corner next to the new pen, by using some of the 

 lop rails. An acre of fine clover, unless it is dis- 

 abled by drought, will graze ten calves, ten ewes 

 and ten lambs, through the grass season, allowing 

 for the gradual rem.oval of the sheep, all of which 

 ought to be killed. To make them good mea', 

 they must be allowed other food. Wash of corn 

 meal, or well boiled corn itself, is the best and 

 cheapest I have tried. The acre will be frequently 

 fed over without destroying the clover, and the land 

 will be improved. Calves will make a reimburse- 

 ment with a profit for this mode of raising them, 

 by their superior value beyond those raised in the 

 common way, and by surrendering at an early 

 age their m.oiher's milk. And iis economy is in- 

 creased by selecting annually the old ewes and 

 their lambs for fiitteniiig, comprising so many as 

 that a portion of the latter and all the former may 

 be bestowed on the slaves. By harvest, Iambs 

 )iave grown too large and coarse for the table, 

 and the ewes have become good mutton. The 

 mother should die within three days of the lamb, 

 or she falls off. Both furnish a supply of excel- 

 lent food at that laborious season ; and as to have 

 good lambg we must make their mothers fat, the 

 bjxury of the master bestows a luxury on the 

 slaves, without an additional expense, and un- 

 doubtedly with more economy, than to devote such 

 sheep to their usual destiny. These old ewes 

 thus manacjed, yield fine lambs, much wool, jjood 

 mutton, and hides able to beartanninnr for the piir- 

 poseof making pads for the back bunds ol" the 

 plough horses to pass through. 



It is with reluctance that I am about to express 

 mj- opinions as to lliis stock, lest they may discre- 

 dit those upon subjects concerning which I have 

 had more experience. For sixteen years I have 

 labored to estimate their value and character, 

 upon a small scale, having a flock only of fi'om 

 one to [bur hundred, daily attended bj' a shepherd, 

 and my conclusions are that they require and con- 

 sume far more food, in proportion to their size, 

 than any other block, that they are more liable to 

 disease and death, and that they cannot be made 

 a profitable object, tliroughout the whole extent of 

 the warm dry climate and sandy soil of the United 

 Stales, but by banishing tillage from vast tracts cf 

 country. These opinions are by no means intended 



however to exclude them as a luxury for the table, 

 capable of being made to repay a considerable 

 portion of the expense it causes. 



It is probable that Ihe hot constitution of sheep 

 produces a rapid digestion, and that insatiable ap- 

 petite, by which the fact is accounted lor, of their 

 flourishing only to any extent in fine meadows or 

 extensive wildernesses. If this voraciousness is 

 not gratified, the animal perishes or dwindles; if 

 it is, he (lepopidates the country he inhabits. The 

 sheep of Spain have probably kept out of exist- 

 ence, or sent out of it, more people than the wild 

 beasts of the earth have destroyed from the crea- 

 tion 5 and those of England may have caused a 

 greater depopulation, than all her extravagant 

 wars. It may be owing to this animal that the 

 independence of one country is almost overthrown, 

 and of the other tottering. In both countries the 

 sufficiency of bread lor sheep, may have produced 

 this insufficiency of bread for man, and prepjdice 

 may have nurtured errors, of which our lolly may 

 relieve them, just as superstition has been known 

 to seize or steal an idol, which had long been a 

 cursa to the place of its invention. It is admitted 

 that the wool of sheep is to a certain extent a ne- 

 cessary, and often a luxury ; but if I fancied a 

 pearl, why should I dive lor it myself] when those 

 who love the employment, wish to supply me ; or 

 why should a nation depopulate itself to gain 

 them, if it can become strong pnd populous with- 

 out pearls? The earth's capacity lo produce food 

 and materials for clothes is limited, and by en- 

 dowing the brute creation with so much of the 

 fbrm.er, as to produce a deficit lor man's use, in 

 order to obtain a surplus of Ihe latter for exporta- 

 tion, the sheep policy is said to be perfected. It is 

 probable that an acre of the proper soil in Ihe pro- 

 per climate, is capable of raising ten times as much 

 cotlon wool, as sheep's, and if we shall only 

 glance at the vast quantity of the former material 

 lor clothing exported from a eaiall district of coun- 

 try, thinly peopled, we shall at once see the capa- 

 city of the earth to produce it to any needful ex- 

 tent without paying depopulation for raiment. 

 Although sheep's wool was ihe best resource lor a 

 state of ignorance, it is superseded to a great ex- 

 tent by a slate of colton manulacturing skill ; and 

 whilst the English nation have proved the high 

 value of our colton, and opened an inexhaustible 

 demand for the abundance we can spare, it is 

 certainly a responsible hostage fjr the email por- 

 tion of her woollens we may want ; and an ex- 

 change is probably better than turning our corn 

 fields into sheep pastures. It is exactly the case 

 in which commerce renders a mutual benefit, as 

 we under our warm and dry climate, and in our 

 sandy soil, can raise cotton cheaper than England; 

 and she by the help ol' her moisture and verdure, 

 can raise wool cheaper than the United Siaies. 

 It is curious that wool should be supplanting cot- 

 ton here, whilst cotton is supplaniing wool in Eu- 

 rope ; but as fashions wear out in one country they 

 flee to another. 



Their manure is the chief recompense for the 

 expense of sheep, and worth more than their wool, 

 if ihey are regularly penned. It is true, that this 

 will in some degree injure them, but it is indispen- 

 sable, unless by surrendering to Ihem a power of 

 grazing at will, ihe calamitous allernalive of 

 speedily reducing the farm to a barren is resorted 

 to. 



