FISH-PONDS. 369 



Blades of corn, well cured, are relished by sheep, and they thrive on 

 them.* 



The sweet potato is also readily eaten hy them, and it fattens them per- 

 haps as rapidly as any other root crop. Although it might be regarded as 

 too valuable for sheep feed, in regions where the whole fon-e is given to 

 the cuhure of cotton, there are others where, 1 cannot but btdiove, it might 

 be occasionally if not regularly resorted to with profit, unless rye, oats, 

 barley, &c. can be provided so much more cheajily that it is no object so 

 to do. It is so cheaply planted by slips, and tilled with so little trouble, 

 and it so admirably prepares land for subsequent crops, t that, on rich and 

 otherwise favorable soils, my impression is strong it is, at all events, as 

 cheap a winter feed for stock in the South as the Irish potato is in the 

 North. Its average yield is about two-thirds that of the latter. The Irish 

 potato is universally regarded as one of the cheapest feeds that can be 

 given to all kinds of stock, to which it is adapted in the North. It is tnie 

 that it is not fed so much as it would otherwise be, with us, in the winter, 

 by reason of the cold. It is difficult to protect this root from freezing, and 

 at the same time leave it accessible for daily feeding, without putting it in 

 dwelling-house cellars, which are usually at some distance from the feed- 

 ing barns and yards ; and besides, the conversion of this citadel of a north- 

 ern matron's culinary stores, into a great, dirty root pit, would be a most 

 grievous infringement on all the canons of good housewifery ! 



The foregoing facts show that the Southern States have already all that 

 is necessary to feed stock and fertilize their fields. Their pea, take it all 

 in all, is a full equivalent for the clover of the North.| By means of it — 

 of Bermuda and some other grasses — aided by the droppings of sheep, and 

 other cheap and convenient manures, a large proportion of the tide-water 

 aone, now so unproductive, can be converted into grazing lands, which will 

 yield as good a per centage on present capital and investment as the best 

 cotton uplands, and produce wool at a less expense per pound than any re- 

 gion of the United States north of the Pofomac.\\ 



FISH-PONDS. 



THEIR CONDUCTION AND USEFULNESS. 



The utter indifference displayed by a vast majority of our farmers and planters 

 to those means which tend to embellish and render attractive their homes, and 

 add to the innocent enjoyment of their families, is inconceivable. How few are 

 there supplied with an abundance of the finest fruit ! And yet, what is the cost ? 

 A few hours in budding (as simple a process as any in Agriculture), and a little 

 labor. They are all willing enousrh to rob a " bee tree," and that at the cost of 

 five times the labor it would require to make a few boxes to hive and domesti- 

 cate the bees in. They have all heard of, and know, or ought to know, the sim- 



* A friend of mine wintered a few Merino sheep on not only the blades, but the stalks, of our northern 

 com, chopping the whole up together, and adding a little bran or shorts. He found it cheap feed, and the 

 sheep got fat enough to slaughter before spring. 



t After the crop is harvested, swine are turned in, and they root the ground over so deeply and thor- 

 oughly that it is in a better state of tillage than could be produced by mere spring plowing. 



i Mr. Ruffm. the great advocate for clover, admits thni in the South it is not fitted to precede Indian com, 

 on account of the destructive cut worms it harbors, unless the land be plowed " early in winter," or other 

 precautionary steps are taken. The pea is not liable to this objection. See Ruffin"s Ag. Survey of 8. C 

 1843, p. 78. 



II See .\ppendix, C. 

 (753) 84 



