58 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



and are succeeded by the best ones ; and the sward becomes remarkably 

 dense and even. This is probably due to the richness and better distribu- 

 tion of their dung and urine. 



If upward of twenty per cent, profits, over and above all expenditures, 

 have been and still can be made, on lands worth $20 per acre, by wool- 

 growing on lands, too, where the reign of an iron winter confines sheep 

 to dry feed at least five months of the year how are we to estimate those 

 profits on lands costing but a small part of this sum, which, though inferior 

 to the former, will, by reason of the shortness and mildness of the winter 

 support about an equal number of sheep per acre, and also save the ex- 

 pense of preparing dry feed, of foddering, and a large proportion of thai 

 laid out in barns, shelters, &c. 1 



It will be seen that, by assuming the data of the last of the two preced 

 ing estimates (with the exception of the loss by death), the gross cost ol 

 producing 300 Ibs. of wool, on the grazing lands of New- York, is $82 16, 

 or 27^| cts. per pound. This is undoubtedly as low as it can be produced 

 where the fleeces do not exceed the average weight of 3 Ibs. Let us now 

 proceed to inquire what would be the gross expense per pound in the 

 Southern States. 



You inform me that " one or two not more " sheep find subsistence 

 during the summer on the natural pastures of the tide-water zone in South 

 Carolina.* The broad-tailed, and other large breeds, now mainly fed 

 there, consume nearly double the amount of feed required by the fine- 

 wooled sheep. But, to make our estimate perfectly a safe one, we wilJ 

 assume that two fine-wooled sheep only will consume the summer herbage 

 of an acre. Fields of rye sown in September or October, you farther in- 

 form me, will support " two sheep and their lambs" per acre, " from the 

 20th of December to the 10th of March." Numerically, then, here you 

 have the same stocking that is borne by the lands of Ndw-York, viz. three 

 sheep per acre. And, making the allowance already alluded to for the 

 different consumption of breeds, an acre would sustain three full-grows 

 Merino sheep. As the rye subsequently yields its crop, the wool is not 

 chargeable with the expense of its tillage. 



Rye will continue to grow in the winter on all lands not too sterile, 01 

 too elevated, south of latitude 36, and, in favorable situations, at least 

 two degrees farther north. Grass, and some other hardy esculents, also 

 maintain a winter vegetation in many portions of the whole of this re- 

 gton.f 



R. L. Allen, Esq., after a recent visit to the plantation of Col. Wade 

 Hampton, near Columbia, S. C., thus speaks of the winter verdure in that 

 region : 



" Though everything like grass or weeds is rigidly excluded in the early stages of the 

 srops, yet, as these approach maturity, the thick netting of crab and various other grasse* 

 and plants, which are ever struggling tor existence in this warm clime, are allowed to como 

 forward and mature ; and their growth furnishes forage for cattle and sheep during the win- 

 ter, and an important addition to the vegetable manures for turning inider and adding to the 

 fertility of the soil. . . . The sheep, together with the cattle, mules and horses, which 

 are not at work, are turned into the natural pastures in summer, and, in addition to these, 

 they have the run of the corn-fields in winter, and without seeing any other shelter against 

 the severest storms than a thicket or hill -side, they thrive and fatten throughout the year. 

 This condition is secured by the mildness of the climate, and the consequent growth of vego 

 latiou during the entire winter." 



* f These statements, and all others credited to Col. Allston, are, when not otherwise specified, contained 

 '.' letters from that gentleman to the writer] 



t Anioiy; iheee, " a plant called -Wild Rye.' affording excellent herbace during the winter months, springs 

 ip spontaneously on the rice-field banks, and between the cotton beds, on some plantations on the River 

 Vcngaree, S ~ " 



