SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 515 



80 little experience in the premises, in our own country, let us turn to that 

 of the first atriicultural nation of the Old World. There is no foreign na- 

 tion whcie so high a degree of intclligonco is brought to bear on farming 

 operations — where cause and elTect are so carcl'ully studied and accurately 

 noted — as in England. This care and accuracy are indispensably neces- 

 sary in a country where high rent and heavy taxation render good farming 

 or bankruptcy unavoidable counter-alternations to the agriculturist. Pre- 

 vailing conclusions ann)ng such a class of agriculturists — uruh.sjivicd con- 

 clusions, too — are assuredly entitled to great respect, and may almost be 

 regarded as settled facts. Now the farmers of England are perfectly fa- 

 miliar with every kind of manure accessible to our Southern farmers, un- 

 less it be swamp mud and cotton seed. Lime, for example, is plentiful 

 and cheap, and is much used in Agriculture all over the kingdom. If 

 either this, or any of the manures of commerce, were considered, of them- 

 selves, economical fertilizers of the poor, sandy or light ujjland soils of 

 England, there is no country in the world where they are more plentiful, 

 and, when the use of the soil and the price of products are taken into con- 

 sideration, more cheap. 



What the settled conclusions of the English farmers are, in relation to 

 the profitable amelioration of those soils, will be seen from the following 

 undisputed testimony of some of the most eminent and respectable of them, 

 taken before the Committee of the House of Lords, charged with the in- 

 quiry into the state of the wool trade, &c. in Great Britain, in 1828, from 

 which I have so freely quoted in preceding Letters, 



Mr. William Pinkney, Salishunj Plain: Land such as I occupy could not be main 

 tained without the aid of sheep. . . . The sheep are our principal dependence lor sup- 

 porting our crops ; indeed, I could not occupy my limii without my Hock. 



Mr. .loHN Ellman, Jr., i!?««se.r ; I do not consider it possible for the light Iruiils upon 

 the Downs to be kept in cultivation without flocks. I could not keep the lann I now hold 

 without sheep. . . On the South Downs the wool must be grown, let the piice bo 



what it will. 



Mr. Fkancis Hale, AJringham, Suffolk: The description of land I occupy could not be 

 kept in cultivation without the aid of sheep. 



Mr. Henry King, Chilmark, Wiltshire : The size of my farm is about 4,000 acres. I 

 clip annually aliout 6,.')00 South-Down sheep. . . . Such lands as I occupy cannot be 

 kept in cultivation without the aid of sheep. 



Mr. John WooLLEnoE, near Burt/ Sf. Edmunds, Suffolk: An estate near the above 

 place contains 8,890 acres, let to tenants, and consists principally of poor sandy and giavelly 

 liuid, the i)rodnce of which in grain is very precarious, amounting in dry suninjers to little 

 or nothing. The occupiers, therefore, dejiend almost entirely on their flocks of sheep for the 

 payment of their rents and the employment and support of the population. ... I am 

 of opinion that two-thirds of the comities of Sufl!()lk and Norfolk may be comprehended in 

 the sheep districts, and that they produce two pounds and a half of wool, and thi-ee-iburths 

 of a limib, to the acre, upon an average. . . . Tlie produce of the land depends materi- 

 ally upon the iblding system ; there is not sufficient straw for manure without the assistance 

 of sheep. 



Mr. William Ilott, Abbey Milton, Dorsetshire : I calculate the anmial giowth of wool 

 in Dorsetshire at 10.000 packs of 246 lbs. each. It is estimated . . . that 800.000 sheep, or 

 one sheep and one-seventh per acre, . . . are kept in this county. A considerable part of 

 the county of Dorset is composed of light lands, and can only be kept in tillage by the aid 

 of sheep. 



C. C. Western, Esq. : It is utterly impossible that the Down Distiicts can be cultivated 

 to advimtage without sheep. We never fold our Merino or other sheep ; the land is too wet. 



Lord Napier : If we had not sheep upon our lands (the highlands of Scotland), it would 

 become the habitation of foxes and snipes, and return to waste ; it would produce nothing 

 but grouse and wild game of diflerent sorts. 



Is it asked, Why are sheep preferred to homed cattle ? Many of the 

 reasons are given in my preceding Letter. Then, again, the scanty and 

 short pa;sturage of light lands, on which sheep will thrive, will not afford 

 sufficient " bite" (as it is provincially termed in the Northern States) to 



(1035) 



