SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



little more than a century ago furnished for exportation over 50,000 barrels of rice, now lie* 

 utterly waste, constituting, where trees have not overgrown it, the finest natural pasture 

 which could be desired."* 



Mr. Ruffin in his Report of the Survey, of the same year, asserts : 



" Few countries possess greater natural facilities, or which are more improvable by in. 

 d istry, for producing in abundance, grass, hay and live-stock, and their products of meat, 

 milk and butter, all .of which are now so deplorably deficient.''! 



The Committee appointed by the State Agricultural Society of South 

 Carolina to take into consideration the scheme of reducing the quantity 

 of cotton grown,J in their Report observe : 



" Millions of acres in South Carolina, including the lower country, are admirably adapted 

 to the raising of rich grasses. This might be added as another branch of industry, from 

 which reasonable profits could be realized, and might very well bo added to the cotton 

 planter's income." 



Corresponding statements, on equally indisputable authority, might be 

 indefinitely multiplied, not only in relation to that portion of the tide- 

 water zono lying within the limits of South Carolina, but in all the South- 

 ern States. South Carolina occupying a central geographical and lati- 

 tudinal position, in reference to this zone, and its soils on it, about 

 averaging, so far as I can learn, with that of the other States, it is not 

 necessary to pursue the inquiry. 



Where fine natural pastures spring up spontaneously on deserted lands, 

 more or less impoverished probably in most instances considerably so 

 how little difficulty would there be in forming, almost immediately, the 

 best artificial pastures and meadows on millions of acres of just such land, 

 (only that it is in its virgin state, and consequently far better,) now in un- 

 productive forest ! And how small would be the amount of skill requisite 

 to convert millions of acres more of cotton lands which do not now yield 

 emunerating crops into pastures and meadows, which, as I shall show, 

 would yield their owners a handsome remuneration ! 



And the culture of the grasses need not stop with these comparatively 

 good and medium lands. They can be made to stretch their carpet of 

 green over the poorest of your sands over those now covered with stunt- 

 ed pines, or which, scorched and naked, reverberate back fiercely the 

 burning heat of a southern sky. 



There are few regions in the tide-water zone possessing poorer soils 

 than some cultivated portions of New- York. In the vicinity of Albany, 

 (between that city and Schenectady, for example,) the same loose, silicious 

 sands, the same, though perhaps rather more stunted, growth of pines, 

 would almost compel you to fancy yourself somewhere between Richmond 

 and "Wilmington, on the route of the great Southern Railroad ! Denuded 

 of their meager covering of dwarf pines, and the cohesion produced by 

 their interlacing roots, these sands would be lifted and driven about by 

 the winds. Yet on such a soil as this, you find the farm of the late cele 

 brated Jesse Buel ! And fertile grass fields, dotted here and there with 

 splendid mansions, are every year stretching out farther and farther amonfl 

 the arid sands. How are these rapid transformations in the fertility of 

 the soil accomplished I The stables, and mews, and cesspools of Albany 

 can give the answer ! 



The following description of the natural soils of Flanders, now prover* 

 bial for its fine crops and rich pastures and meadows, is from the pen of 

 that able English agricultural writer, Rev. W. L. Rham : 



* Asrriculturft.1 Survey of South Carolina, 1843. Appendix, p. 14. t Ih. p 73. 



J The Committee consisted of Whitemareh B. Seabrook, Esq., John B. O'Neal!, Esq., and W. J. 

 Ewj. tnd the Report was Kale, I believe, in January, in 1846. 



