510 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



LETTER VI. 



PROFITS OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTHERN STATES— 2. AS THE 

 BASIS OF AMELIORATION IN NATURALLY STERILE AND WORN-OUT 



SOILS. 



Feasibility of rendering the naturally sterile and worn-out Soils of the South productive.. .Means must be 

 ample and cheap... Ordinary Animal Manures from Stables, &,c., not attainable in suiiicient quantity — too 

 expensive if transported far by land carriage. . .Animal Manures of Commerce still more out of the ques- 

 tion.. .Gypsum — not sufficient of itself. . .Wood Ashes — Leached Ashes — their great value, but limited 

 quantity.. .Lime (marl)... Swamp Mud— inexhaustible quantity of each.. .Valuable Etfects of Lime on 

 Soils.. .Otherwise when there is n deticiency of Organic Matter.. .Opinion of Johnston, Brown, Lord 

 Kaimes, Anderson, Morton, Thaer, Petzholdt, Chaptal.. .Southern Tertiary and Granitic Soils destitute of 

 Organic Matter.. .Expensiveness of Marl— not very permanent in itscft'ecls.. .The best Swamp Mud worth 

 more per load.. .This, too, an expensive manure. ..Koth too costly for extensive ameliorations.. .Is there, 

 then, any resort V— There is — it is to be found in a Mixed System of Green and Animal Manuring, the lat- 

 ter made attainable by .Sheep Husbandry.. .Experience and Testimony of various English Fanners under 

 analogous circumstances... Reasons why Sheep are preferred to Horned Cattle for this pui-pose. ..Con- 

 sidered more profitable in England, and by some in the United States, independent of Fleece.. .Singular 

 Hallucination of Col Taylor an this subject.. -Sheep preferred as Improvers of Poor Lands in the North- 

 ern and Eastern States, but the end sought by different means from those employed in England.. -The 

 English System — Reasons wliy it is inapplicable in the United States ... System in the Northern and East- 

 ern American States. . . Proper System in the .Southern States, on Lands now partly Grassed, and on Naked 

 Soils.. .Green Manuring — how accomplished — Proper Plants for the purpose — Practical Rules — Expensive- 

 ness.. .Should the Pasture Lands of the South be exclusively devoted to Sheep Grazing ( — Should not.. - 

 Home Demand should be supplied by Home Production, in the Staples furnished by all the Domestic 

 Animals — Reasons therefor. -.As a surplus or exporting Animal Staple, Sheep furnish the one in which 

 the South can best compete with other Producers. 



Dear Sir : Let us now pa.ss to the second point in reference to which 

 we are to consider the profits of sheep husbandry in the Southern States, 

 viz. : the pi'acticability and comparative economy of making it the basis 

 of an effectual amelioration in soils naturally sterile, or those which have 

 been rendered so by excessive and injudicious cultivation. 



The first of these classes of soils is confined, mainly, to the tide-water 

 zone. The second is found both in this and the hilly zone, and, I need 

 not say, in immense quantities. 



How can these soils be profitably ameliorated ] It is certain that this 

 can only be done by the introduction into them of substances fitted to be- 

 come the food of plants — or which, by chemical combinations or changes, 

 prepare other substances to become such food. On soils naturally too 

 sterile to sustain useful vegetation, the quantity of fertilizing matter intro- 

 duced must be comparatively large. Hence it must be cheap, or its cost 

 will more tlian overbalance its advantages. There are various manures 

 Avhich separately, or in conjunction, would convert the worst acre of bar- 

 ren sand between Richmond and llaleigh, or, if you please, on the Desert 

 of Sahara, into a fertile garden, provided it could have timely rains and 

 be protected from the burying sands. But it is utterly useless to argue 

 the feasib'dittj of this means or tliat, without at the same time examining 

 its economy. 



The direct and profuse application of animal manures, for example, 

 ■would probably effectually ameliorate any of these suils. But where are 

 these manures to be obtained, in a region where the first necessary condi- 

 tion for their production, ?'. c. the vegc^tation necessary to support domes- 

 tic animals, is wanting \ The quantity accumulating in the cities and vil- 

 lages of a comparatively sparsely populated region — in a climate where 

 the preservation of putrefying substances would be incompatible with 



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