[821 



Never sow less than two and a half, or even three bushels 

 per acre. The only objection to a pasture of this kind 

 is the danger of having the wool injured by burrs, so com- 

 mon on most of our farms and especially found in the corn- 

 fields. The fault with the most of our rye pastures is the 

 want of seed. Rye does not tiller like wheat, and, there- 

 fore, if an abundant pasture is wanted, put the seed on the 

 ground and it will come. Sheep can run on a rye pasture 

 until the first of April, or even later, when it can be broken 

 up for a spring crop, and the droppings of the sheep will 

 far more than counterbalance the exhausting eifects of the 

 rye. 



Mustard is another valuable auxiliary to the farmer, not 

 only as a stimulant during the summer, but as a food for 

 winter. Sowed on a piece of cleared ground during Sep- 

 tember, or in the corn after it is laid by, it will afford fine 

 pasturage during winter, and even when covered by snow 

 the sheep will scrape the ground with their hoofs to get at 

 it. It can be plowed down in the spring and not allowed 

 to go to seed, and thus it will be easily got rid of after 

 it has subserved its useful purpose. 



Turnips, however, is and has always, in England, been 

 the staple food for sheep. In Tennessee, for the most part, 

 they are easily raised, and will stand out during our mild 

 winters with but little loss. In England the plan of allow- 

 ing sheep to feed off them in the field is fast falling into 

 disuse, but it is on account of the excessive rains they have, 

 which make the ground very muddy, and the sheep are 

 necessarily chilled by exposure while eating them. But in 

 our dry climate and porous soils the case is different, and 

 we can and do allow our sheep to run out all winter. Tur- 

 nips, as everyone knows, require rich land, and with proper 

 cultivation a thousand or even fifteen hundred bushels are 

 an ordinary crop. The writer of this once cut off the corn 

 from two acres of new land. He broke it up well, arid 

 threw up ridges about two and a half feet apart, which was 



