SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 85 



The number of years depastured to depend upon fertility the poorer the 

 land, the longer* it should be kept in pasture. 



The following is the rotation which was introduced by Col. Taylor, 

 north of the cotton-growing region : 



let year, Corn. 3d year, Clover (and weeds) not mown nor 



2d .. Wheat and clover sown if too grazed, 



poor for wheat, left at rest and not grazed. 4th - - Clover not mown nor grazed. 



Of this, Mr. John J. Thomas, one of the Editors of the Albany Cuhi 

 vator, very justly remarks : 



" It was materially opposed to ihe principles of good husbandry in several respects.- It 

 furnished vegetable manure only to the land. A large portion of the value of this vegetable 

 growth was lost, by dissipation into the air, during its decay. The returns from the land 

 were necessarily small, as only two years out of four produced crops for harvesting. And it 

 greatly increased the labors of tillage, by the increase of noxious weeds." 



Had this clover been fed off by sheep, a portion of the above objections 

 would be inapplicable, and there would be no danger of the corn 

 leaving the soil too impoverished for wheat, particularly if peas were 

 sown with the former, to be plowed under. A crop of weeds is, of all 

 others, the most to be avoided, as the seeds deposited by it will continue 

 to sprout for years with the subsequent tillage crops, rendering them foul 

 arid difficult of cultivation. 



I may be in a profound error, but I cannot but believe, after carefully 

 studying Southern Agriculture, and the circumstances which invest it, 

 that by adopting the six-shift system of rotation above recommended, or 

 something analogous to it, on the cotton lands, the desideratum expressed; 

 in Judge Seabrook's Report will be attained. More cotton will ulti- 

 mately, if not even now, be produced from less land : the other necessa- 

 ries of life will become mainly the product of the plantation ; a new staple 

 will be introduced to employ the surplus capital, as profitable at least in 

 its acreable products as cotton, and tending to the constant reparation, as 

 cotton tends to the constant waste of the fertility of the land. , 



I will not tire you, Sir, with a comparison between the relative profits 

 of wool and cotton growing. On looking over the answers of Southern 

 gentlemen to Mr. Walker's Treasury Circular, (1845,) I find that the 

 stated profits on cotton in the Atlantic and Gulf States, west of Louisiana, 

 range from 1 to 8 per cent, on capital invested the average of all the 

 statements being about 4J per cent. ! 



I may remark incidentally that in your own able replies to that Circular, 

 you set down the profits of rice growing between 1842 and 1845, at 7 J per 

 cent.; for the ten preceding years, at " about 8 per cent." 



A reference to Letter V. will show you how these profits compare with 

 those of wool-growing. Admitting the accuracy of the data therein given, 

 there is no very great difference in the cost of growing a pound of wool 

 and a pound of cotton ! 



We come now to the /0#rZA point of view in which we are to regard the 

 profits of sheep husbandry in the Southern States "whether independent 

 of preceding considerations, and even if the staples furnished by sheep hus- 

 bandry proved no more profitable, in direct returns on capital invested, 

 than some of the present staples, it would not be better economy, on the 

 whole, for the South to produce the raw material and manufacture do- 

 mestic woolens, particularly for the apparel and bedding of slaves, than to 

 be dependent for them on England and Massachusetts ] " 



The woolen apparel and bedding of slaves, when no part of it is manti 

 factured on the plantation, costs about $6 per head per annum. The 

 blankets imported from England weigh about 4J Ibs. and cost a little over 



