SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



67 



health, would be inconsiderable. And whether more or less, it would noi 

 pay the cost of transportation to any considerable distance by land car- 

 riage. Guano, poudrette, bone-dust, and all the expensive manures of 

 commerce, are still more out of the question. Gypsum, on account of the 

 smallness of the quantity requisite, is a cheap manure, and, reasoning from 

 analogy, should be. a valuable one, under proper circumstances, at least on 

 the granitic soils of the South.* Mr. Ruffin states that it produces little ef- 

 fect in the Tertiary sands.t It is considered by practical men to be, at 

 the best, rather an aider of organic manure than a substitute for it, and 

 when repeatedly applied without any other fertilizing substance, it ceases 

 to produce any visible effect. On an exhausted soil, the chemical consti- 

 tution of gypsum shows that it could not replace all the substances ab- 

 stracted by the plants ; and on one naturally sterile, there is small proba- 

 bility that it would happen to supply the only deficiency necessary to the 

 production of vegetation. Wood ashes constitute- a most valuable manure 

 on probably every class of soils, and. unlike lime, gypsum, soda, etc., which 

 afford only a limited number of those substances which constitute the 

 necessary food of plants, they afford in a greater proportion than any 

 other manure the inorganic substances which are taken up and assimilated 

 by plants.f They are used with the most beneficial effect on the granitic 

 soils of New-England, the calcareous and aluminous ones of Middle New 

 York, the silicious ones of the southern or grazing region, and on the Ter- 

 tiary sands of Long Island. On the latter, of the same geological forma- 

 tion with your tide-water zone in fact but a continuation of it even the- 

 leached or washed ashes bring a shilling per bushel (the same that is pai<fc 

 for the unwashed ashes by the soaper and manufacturer of pearl or pot 

 ashes) for agricultural purposes. || But the supply cannot be made suffi- 

 ciently large for extensive agricultural ameliorations, without a destruc- 

 tion of the forests, which wouM inflict a grievous and utterly inexcusable 

 wrong on posterity. 



The Southern Atlantic and Gulf States possess two natural arid inex- 

 aaustible deposits of fertilizing matter, which, it is supposed by many,, 

 would be fully adequate to the general "reclamation " of their barren and: 

 exhausted evils. The first of these is the marl, which underlies large por- 

 tions of the low country of Virginia and South Carolina, and probably the 



* I refer here to the successful example of its use on the granitic soils of New-England. I have particu- 

 'arly specified this class of soils because your barren ones are limited to them and to^the Tertiary. Gypsum, 

 is used nt the North on nearly every class of Boils with advantage calcareous, aluminous, silicious and alii 

 intermediate varieties. It will be found very valuable, I have no doubt, on your mountain lands, particu- 

 larly in localities where the clovers flourish. 



t Ruffin's Agricultural Survey of South Carolina. 1843. ' 



J To show the value of ashes as the food of plants, and at the same time the difference between those' 

 made from different woods, I append the following analyses of those of two well-known southern trees. 

 That of oak ashes is by Sprengel, that of pitch-pine ashes by Berthier: 



|| This fact I consider an important hint to the planters of the tide-water zone, and it is to be hoped tnat; 

 it is one which will not be thrown away. Leached ashes are valuable also on every other class of lands. 

 The southern portion of my farm (lying on Chemung rocks) is silicious. The northern part is covered: 

 with " northern drift," and is therefore calcareous. I use from 3,500 to 4,000 bushels of leached ashes per 

 annum, without any discrimination as regards the soil, and on almost every variety of crops, and invariably 

 with marked advantage. Doct. Emmons, our State Geologist, having in charge the volumes ou Agriculture, 

 stated to me that he considered these leached ashes far more valuable by bulk than a rich marl (accessible 

 to me) containing 90 per cent of carbonate of lime. 



This word ("reclaim") has a provincial signification throughout the North, when applied to land. It; 

 means "to render productive." Unlike the words "fertilize," "enrich." etc., it implies degree as well a 9. 

 manner. To " reclaim " land, therefore, is to fertilize or enrich it to such a degree that it will yield fair 

 crops. I shall use the word both as a verb and a noun, to avoid the circumlocution otherwise necessarv 

 to express this idea. 



