520 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



Even in the case of either of the two classes of soils before treated of 

 (those now producing thinnish pasturage, or which can be converted into 

 pastures simply by plowing and seeding), one or more green manuring 

 crops would form a most excellent and accelerating initiatory step, and, 

 where sufficient capital is possessed, I have no doubt, a inost economical 

 one, towaid their fertilization. 



In view of all my preceding statements, do you ask me if I advocate 

 sheep husbandry exclusively, on all the lands at the South which already 

 are, or should be devoted to grazing 1 Most assuredly not. I have al- 

 ready laid it down as a maxim that " agricultural production should be 

 controlled by the demand or want, and the adaptation of the country to 

 such piYjduction." By this rule, the South should, at least, never import a 

 horse,* a mule, a pound of beef, pork, butter, cheese or wool. She icants 

 them all, and she can j^roduce them all mere economically than she can 

 import them. That declared impossibility in politics, an imperium in im- 

 perio, should be in Agriculture, so far as it may be consistently with the 

 above maxim, the attitude of every farm and plantation. Each should Ije 

 independent to the greatest economical extent, so far as the production of 

 the necessaries, comforts and luxuries of life are concerned, of every other 

 farm or plantation in the world ! This mixed and multifarious farming is 

 objected to by theorists, inasmuch as it trenches on the division of labor 

 principle. But it favors rotation, and thereby prevents the exhaustion of 

 soils — leads to a more bountiful use of the every-day comforts of lifet — 

 and, finally, it is less hazardous. The one-crop farmer, if crop and market 

 are both in their most favorable state, realises great profits. But if the 

 market is poor, or the crop small, the loss is proportionately large. The 

 farmer pursuing mixed husbandry will not generally fall greatly behind 

 the hest profits of the other, and his losses are rarely considerable. It is 

 better to play for a hit than a gammon, where, as in the case of the small 

 capitalist, affluence or penury "stand the hazard of the die !" 



If the above positions are true, the South is called upon to increase the 

 breeding of other domestic animals as well as^heep. To an extent suffi- 

 cient to supply her own wants, I consider her imperiously called upon so 

 to do. I advocate the breeding of sheep specially — on a vastly more ex- 

 tended scale — because, as has been already shown, they are the best (if 

 not the only) reclaimers of your unproductive lands ; and because in that 

 surplus of the products of grazing, which these extensive reclamations will 

 bring about, they furnish you the export i)/^^ article ficoolj for icluch you 

 can find the largest extra-limital market, and in growing ichich you can best 

 compete loith other producers. 



Let us suppose, for the sake of the argument, that these newly reclaimed 

 pasture lands would carry heavy beasts as well as sheep, and with equal 

 benefit to the land. After supplying the home demand, what would be 

 done with the surplus horses, mules and beeves % To what markets in the 

 world could you export horses and mules, with the exception of some of 

 the West India islands — the markets of which a few thousand head of 

 these animals would annually glut ] Do you ask me what would prevent 

 your sending your surplus beef to England ? Nothing. But neither the 

 South, nor the North, nor the East, can compete with the great North-west 



* Unless for the improvement of breeds. 



t I menn by this that the planter who raises all the necessaries of life will be more liberal of them than 

 the one who purcltanca them. 



J 1 do not use the word here in its technical sense. I mean carried beyond mere local limits for sale — 

 whether that sale be effected in the same Slate, in some other [lart of the U. fl., or abroad. 



If 1 have not alluded to the rearing of swine any more fully, as they are but partially a prazina animal. — 

 But if the pnsiiion assumed in the text is correct, it i.s another argument in favor of devoting your landfi to 

 the production ol' surpltis wool, instead of s«rp/«scorn. 

 (\OiOj 



