SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 569 



The nurnlicr of years depastured to depend upon fertility — the poorer the 

 land, the longer it should be kept in pasture. 



The following is the rotation which was introduced by Col. Taylor, 

 north of the cotton-growing region : 



iBt year, Com. 3d year, Clover (and weeds) not mown nor 



2d .. Wheat and clover sown — if too grazed, 



poor for wheat, left at rest and not grazed. 4th . . Clover not movra nor grazed. 



Of this, Mr. John J. Thomas, one of the Editors of the Albany Culti- 

 vator, very justly remarks : 



" It was materially opposed t»i the principles of gooil hiisbandrs- in several respects. It 

 furnished vegetable ni^mure only to th«? Ijuid. A large portion of the value of this vegetable 

 growth was Io.-<t, by dissipation into the air, during its decay. The returns from the land 

 were necessarily small, as only two years out of four produced crojjs for harvesting. And it 

 greatly increased the labors of tillage, by the increase of noxious weeds." 



Had this clover been fed ofl' by sheep, a portion of the above objections 

 would be inapplicable, and there would be no danger of the corn 

 leaving the soil too impoverished for wheat, particularly if peas were 

 sown with the former, to be plowed under. A crop of tvccd'i is, of all 

 others, the most to be avoided, as the seeds deposited by it will continue 

 to sprout for years with the subsequent tillage crops, rendering them foul 

 and difficult of cultivation. 



I may be in a profound eiTor, but I cannot but believe, after carefully 

 studying Southern Agriculture, and the circumstances which invest it, 

 that by adopting the six-shift system of I'otation above recommended, or 

 something analogous to it, on the cotton lands, the desideratum expressed 

 in Judge Seabrook's Report will be attained. More cotton will ulti- 

 mately, if not even now, be produced from less land : the other necessa- 

 ries of life will become mainly the product of the jilantation ; a new staple 

 will be introduced to employ the surplus capital, as profitable at least in 

 its acreable products as cotton, and tending to the constant reparation, as 

 cotton tends to the constant waste of the fertility of the land. 



I will not tire you. Sir, with a comparison between the relative profits 

 of wool and cotton growing. On looking over the answers of Southern 

 gentlemen to Mr. Walker's Treasury Circular, (1815,) I find that the 

 stated profits on cotton in the Atlantic and Gulf States, west of Louisiana, 

 range from 1 to 8 per cent, on capital invested — the average of all the 

 statements being about 4^ per cent. ! 



I may remark incidentally that in your own able replies to that Circular, 

 you set downi the profits office growing between 1842 and 1845, at 7^ per 

 cent. ; for the ten preceding years, at " about 8 per cent." 



A reference to Letter V. will show you how these profits compare with 

 those of wool-growing. Admitting the accuracy of the data therein given, 

 there is no vcri/ great difference in the cost of growing a pound of wool 

 and a potmd of cotton ! 



We come now to the fonrtJi. point of view in which we are to regard the 

 profits of sheep husbandry in the Southern States — "whether independent 

 of preceding considerations, and even if the staples furnished by sheep hus- 

 bandry proved no more profitable, in direct returns on capital invested, 

 than some of the present staples, it would not be better economy, on the 

 whole, for the South to produce the raw material and manufacture do- 

 mestic woolens, particularly for the apparel and bedding of slaves, than to 

 be dependetit for them on England and Massachusetts ? " 



The woolen apparel and bedding of slaves, when no part of it is manu- 

 factured on the plantation, costs about S6 per head per aimum. The 

 blankets imported from England weigh about 4^ lbs. and cost a little over 

 (1139) 



