SHEEP HUSIUNDRY IN THE SOUTH. 567 



bodies of anhnals, as it would be turned under green ; and then we have 

 all the profit made on or by the animals — meat, wool, &c. — without any 

 additional cost. Sheep, being the best mmurers, and otherwise the most 

 profitable animals, will (with enough other animals to suj)ply all the home 

 demand for the necessaries furnished by them) best sustain a profitable ro- 

 tation. 



Here, perhaps, the discussion of this topic in connection with the sub- 

 ject matter of these letters should terminate ; but I am unwilling to aban- 

 don it, without making a few practical suggestions as to the rotation wliich 

 would be found most i^rofitable at the South — more particularly on the 

 valuable cotton lands, which are sufiering most for the want of it. It is 

 manifestly impossible to lay down any rule or rules on this subject, which 

 can or should be rigidly acted upon, in all instances. Leading principles 

 can only be declared, and, if correct, the intelligent man can always vary 

 their application so as to meet the exigencies of his particular case. 



First, I should consider it indispensable on all cotton (or tobacco) lands,* 

 under all circumstances, to keep at least one-third of them in pa.sturage, to 

 insure the proper amount of manure, over and above cotton seed, and 

 such occasional supplies of swamp mud and marl as might be obtained at 

 spare intervals — and all other incidental manures. Another third, 1 be- 

 lieve, should be generally devoted to grain for bread stuffs, for fattening 

 the necessary amount of bacon, and for the winter forage of horses, mules, 

 swine, &c. Unless the horses and mules, and, perhaps I should add, the 

 cows, were wintered entirely, or in great part, on grain and the offal of 

 the grain crops, one-third of the cultivated land in grass, would not support 

 animals enough to produce the manure requisite for two-thirds in cotton 

 and grain. But in making the above division, I spoke only of the arable 

 lands fit for the gi-ovvth of cotton. Most plantations have poor, or swampy, 

 or rough lands, which would most profitalily be kept permanently in grass, 

 and these would supply the deficit. The remaining third of the arable 

 lands might be devoted to cotton, or, in the tobacco region, to tobacco. 



By the course above proposed, the cotton (or tobacco) and wool would 

 be made the salable products. The grain, gi'ass, dairy products, bacon, 

 &c., would be consumed on the plantation. This is as it should be. Eu- 

 ropean famine has given a stir to the latter products this year, (audit may 

 for a year more,) in the Southern markets ; but with the ordinary Euro- 

 pean demand, the old Southern Atlantic States cannot, as we have seen, 

 compete at a profit with these commodities, which debouch through the 

 Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, and the northern canals. With the two 

 wools, as they are sometimes called, the " vegetable and animal," these 

 States can undoubtedly sustain themselves against the pressure of any out- 

 ward competition. 



Such a division of crops as the one above proposed, could be effected 

 by a six-course system of rotation. Let us suppose the land of the planta- 

 tion fit to grow corn and cotton, divided into six equal fields. I then pro- 

 pose the following rotation : 



* I have not included the rice lands, because bcins; deep beds of alluvial deposits, composed in a great 

 ■measure of organic matter, and being susceptible of irrigation, they will not wear out like ordinary soils, 

 and stand le?s in need of rotation in their crops. 

 (1137) 



