A Special Southern Feature. 29 



The "census of 1870 will, it is believed, show a still greater change in the 

 domestic economy of the South by the division of land. Not to take issue with 

 those who see a present tendency toward a rebunching of the small farms 

 speculators or in the hands of large owners, even by such massing of 

 ownership the process is not one of restoring the old plantations, but of man- 

 aging or rental of the small farms, which are in many instances being cut 

 into even smaller farms, and leased to small croppers with better results all 

 round. An instance of this kind is told where a resident of Oglethorpe, 

 Georgia, a corn raiser, bought a place of 370 acres for $1,700 ; he at once put 

 six tenants on it, and limited their cotton acreage to one-third of what they 

 had under cultivation. Each of the six made more clear money than the 

 former owner had made, and the rents for the first year were $1,126. The 

 same owner has fifteen farms all run on the same plan. 



This better cultivation is telling wonderfully on the increased production of 

 cotton on the worn out lands of the olden Southern States, where the produc- 

 tion of cotton has nearly doubled in the last decade, the increase far out- 

 stripping the increase of population ; the greatest specific increase being in the 

 Atlantic cotton states. 



The cotton belt of the Atlantic States runs through generally a healthy 

 country, with a salubrious climate, where an industrial population from any 

 part of the globe can live and enjoy as good health as is accorded to man in 

 other agricultural sections, and where they can raise, in addition to cotton, 

 the cereals, roots and fruits. 



What suggestion has ever been made of the utilities of the fenced posses- 

 sion of land, that does not most strongly apply to this very region, where the 

 land owner has the benefit of his acres all the year round, and to get the best 

 advantage of his soil needs to have at all seasons a PERFECT PROTECTION 



AGAINST ALL THE ENEMIES OF HIS CROPS. 



Wood is scarce, and its use for fencing costly and wasteful, though this 

 wastefulness has not yet come be appreciated by all farmers of the South and 

 Southwest. Thus it is told that, while economists and thoughtful men in the 

 older states are gravely discussing the problem of the coming timber famine, 

 the Missouri farmers are splitting magnificent walnut, butternut, cherry and 

 mulberry trees into common rails, for the inclosure of land. 



A SPECIAL SOUTHERN FEATURE. 



We come now to consider, with a purpose of deliberation and care, one special 

 adaptation of Barb Fencing to the South. And here we shall present facts 

 not our own, but derived from the study and experience of those who will be 

 accepted as well known and accredited authorities as to Southern needs, and 

 the possibilities of Southern industries and husbandry. Some of the best 

 talent and practical far reaching experience of the time has been devoted 

 to the question of Sheep Husbandry in the Southern States. Not a new ques- 

 tion, save in some of its newer phases that are justly coming into prominence. 

 Let us bring together from sources entitled to the highest respect, some of 

 the prominent facts of our wool industries from the Southern standpoint, tak- 

 ing as our authority the excellent work of Hon. John L. Hayes in his National 

 Bulletin of Woolen Manufacturers, and his admirable treatise Sheep Husbandry 

 at the South (Boston 1878), prepared at the request of representative South- 

 ern men ; also the sterling contribution to this branch of inquiry, by Com- 

 missioner Killibrew of Tennessee*, and other treatises and papers to be 

 mentioned in their place. 



It has become a common phrase that profitable sheep husbandry is synony- 

 mous with profitable farming, and that good sheep raising makes good farms, 

 and both the husbandman and his farm rich. The incentive to sheep raising 



*SHEEP HUSBANDRY. A Work prepared for the farmers of Tennessee, By J. B. Killibrew, 

 A. M., Ph. D. Commissioner of Agriculture, Statistics, and Mines for the State of Tennessee, 

 Nashville, 1880. 



