SHEEP HUSBANDRY. IN THE SOUTH. 39 



its favor on millions and millions on the thinner and poorer soils of that 



zone as once admitted, it will put an end to the unprofitable tillage 



practiced on them, and remove all temptation to resort to it on others, as 



;y are gradually rescued from barrenness. It will thus compel the 



Joption of that pastoral system which can alone make these lands prof- 

 itable, or save them, if the forebodings of those who have been reared on 

 them and are deeply attached to them, can be credited, from ultimate de- 

 ecrtion.* 



You have another fodder crop and which may be made a green ma- 

 nuring one, in no respect inferior to clover. The pea is to the South what 

 clover is to the North.t There is something in your soil or climate, or 

 both, which seems to be specifically adapted to the development of this 

 plant f Dr it nourishes with you under a much greater variety of soils -and 

 circumstances than at the North. A leguminous plant, like clover, it draws 

 much of its aliment from the atmosphere ; and it is perhaps as sensibly 

 affected by the same cheap manure, plaster. Its haulm or straw, if cut and 

 cured greenish, and well taken care of, makes a good, rich fodder relished 

 by all kinds of stock. Peas are greedily eaten by neat stock, swine, and 

 sheep, for which they form a healthy and highly nutritious- food. The 

 white field pea of the North is considered equivalent to our corn,f by 

 measure, in fattening swine. For sheep, and particularly for breeding 

 ewes, there is probably no feed in the world equal to nicely cured pea 

 haulm, j| with a portion of the seed left unthreshed. It gives them condi- 

 tion and vigor and prepares them to yield a bountiful supply of rich milk 

 to their young. 



Though the pea is an annual, it becomes in effect a perennial, South, 

 when it is desired, by suffering it to stand until some of the grain shellw 

 out.ft It will mature in a southern climate, sown late in the summer, so 

 that one, and even two preceding crops of it might first be plowed in as a 

 manure. It will ripen among Indian corn, sown after that plant has ceased 

 to grow, and there have been successful experiments of sowing it late with 

 wheat, oats, &c., to have it obtain its growth (to be plowed under as ma- 

 nure) after those crops have been harvested. 



Sprengel gives the following analysis of the pea. 1,000 parts in the 

 common dry state yield 



* Statements of this kind have been repeatedly made in the pages of the Monthly Farmer by southern 

 gentlemen. 



t I had labored under the impression that the so-called pea cultivated as a manuring crop in the South 

 ern States, was in reality a variety of the bean ; but Mr. Ruffin in his Agricultural Survey of South Caro- 

 lina, (see Report of 1843, p 81,) and Hon. VV. 13. Seabrpok in his Memoir on Cotton Culture, (see Monthly 

 Journal of Agriculture, Dec., 1845, p. 287,) speaks of this crop the former again and again as peas, with- 

 out the qualification which would be expected from gentlemen of so much learning, in case they wero 

 cpeaking of a plant by a vulgar misnomer, instead of its real name. The peculiar value of the crop at th 

 South in the particulars described, I find asserted by Mr. Ruffin, Mr. Affleck, and various other writers and 

 Agricultural Societies, in the strongest terms, and therefore it makes little difference, practically, whether 

 the name is correct or not , but if not, the following analyses, &c., are misplaced. The bean resemble* 

 the p?a in its qualities and value, but is rather inferior to it. 



J The small, hard corn of the North contains more nutriment per bushe? than the ]arge southern com. 



|| That is, cut and cured so that it will come out of the stock or mow bright, and with the leaves looking 

 green instead of having the ferruginous hue of over-ripe clover. 



If cut greenish and well cured, the greener pods will not thresh out readily, and then they are in ex- 

 actly the proper condition for breeding-ewes. If the crop is very light, cut it when all the pods are quito 

 green, and feed it out without threshing. 



IT This is, however, poor economy in any case. If the objec is peas, it is wasteful to the crop, and the 

 quantity sown is uncertain ; besides, the haulm is ruined for fodder. If the object is manure, the loss is 

 etill greater. Plants in drying lose the nitrogen contained in their sap, give up their saline matters, and are 

 " resolved more or less completely into carbonic acid, which escapes into the- air, and is so far lost." See 

 Liehig on this subject, and ilso the clear and able remarks of Johnston, (Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry. 

 vrL ii. p. 176, et supra.) 



