SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 521 



in producing beef (or pork||) for exportation to foreign countries. Its im- 

 mense natural pastures — the profusion and cheapness with which Indian 

 corn can be produced on its virgin soils — give it an advantage which in- 

 creased transportation by no means counterbalances. The question then 

 arises — Why, lor the same i-easons, cannot the vast North-western plains 

 produce wool more cheaply than the South, and undersell her in our own 

 and the foreign markets ? In the first place, the western pastures — that 

 is to say, the wild or natural ones — which produce beef so cheaply, are, 

 by reason of the coarseness and rankness of their verdure, not adapted to 

 tlic growing of sheep. Secondly, the shortness and mildness of the south- 

 ern winter give a decided advantage in wool growing, by affording green 

 winter feed — an advantage not profitably available ])robably, on an extend- 

 ed scale, with large grass-feeding animals. Agaiii, in the North-west, 

 though there is less snow, the winter is about as long, for all the practical 

 purposes of husbandry, as in New-York.* Killing frosts come as early in 

 autumn ; the naked ground is frozen as solidly, and far more deeply ; and 

 verdure puts forth but little if any earlier in the spring. The South then 

 possesses the same great advantage with the North-west in the production 

 of wool — cheap lands ; and, superadded to this, she has the short, mild 

 winters, which give her a decided advantage over both the North and 

 North-west. She has a marked advantage over the Northern and Eastern 

 States in botJi particulars, and, instead of importing inanufactured wools 

 from them, she ought to supply them, by export, with at least the raw ma- 

 terial. And she will do this at no distant day, unless her sons ai-e content, 

 in the great struggle and battle of industrial interests, to sacrifice their 

 own by apathy or inesolution. 



* The winter feeding of sheep in New-York has already been stated to average about one hundred and 

 fifty days. 



NEW-ENGLAND ECONOMY OF MANURES. 



It is well known that in all Now-England, to have a supply of peat at hand is considered 

 a very valualjlc appendage to a fiirm. There they say one-third stable manure and two- 

 thirds peat well combined, is equal to the same quantity of stable manure. Why is it that 

 the same material is, in the Middle and Southern States, so little valued, comparatively ? Is 

 it from an essential difference in the qualitj' of what is called peat in the two localities ? or 

 in the no less essential difference in the habits of the people ? — the one poking their noses 

 here and there and everywhere in seaixh of everything that can be converted to manure, 

 just as they would look for money, if they were as sure of finding il, while the others over- 

 look a thousand things that are just as much worthy of being gathered up and saved, as 

 would be the money that only represents their value ? We would ask any one who reads thra 

 following paper, (whether he concur m all, or differ with the writer as to some of his posi- 

 tions,) if anything short of absolute mental blindness can justify farmers in not rising up in a 

 body and demanding the cstal)lishment of institutions for preparing men to give instruction, 

 all over the country, i?i the principles of Agricntture, and in seeing that such instructors, 

 being well qualified, be also well paid and duly honored, and placed at least on an equal 

 footing with professors of the military or any other art ? For, after all, is not Agriculture a 

 complicated maiuifacture, requiring great art in the combination and use of the materials to 

 be employed ? What will a bushel of wheat do, itself, toward reproduction ? Or were it in 

 the hands of a man, were it possible to suppose a man, who knew absolutely nothing about 



cultivation ? Clear it is that not only could he make nothing of the wheat itself, but neither 

 (1041) 



