Cotton and Wool Culture. 35 



COTTON AND WOOL IN THE SAME FIELD. 



We do not attempt to present his elaborate argument in full, but our selec- 

 tion will show his view of comparative results : 



" Assuming good cultivation and an average product of 400 pounds lint, there will be from 

 1,050 to 1,250 pounds of seed to each acre on the average. After setting aside enough selected 

 seed for planting, there will be 1,000 pounds left for feeding. 



It is the production of seed that exhausts the soil, and not of fibre. In the four hundred 

 pounds lint there are but tour pounds of chemical elements drawn from the soil ; but in the 

 thousand pounds of seed there are forty pounds of phosphate of lime and potash. 



If this seed is used for a fertilizer as it comes from the gin, it works slowly and unevenly. The 

 oil injures it as a fertilizer. It should all be fed to stock in order to give the best results. 



It seems to suit sheep well if fed whole ; but, for hogs and cattle, the more the oil is removed, 

 the better it is. 



Now let us sdte what may be done on the basis of ascertained facts. 



Each 400 acres can be surrounded by a FIVE-ROW, BARBED-WIRE, DOG-PROOF FENCE, and 

 divided into four fields by cross fences at a cost, including posts and setting, of less than a 

 thousand dollars. 



In each 400 acres let one field be devoted to corn, one to cow-pease, one to cotton, and one to 

 sheep. The seed from a first product of 200 pounds of cotton per acre with the grass which fol- 

 lows the cotton, would carry two and a half sheep per acre on the next field for six months ; and 

 the cow-pease and the corn-fodder would serve for the rest of the year. The pea-vines and 

 sheep dung would increase the crop, and more sheep would be added eacL year, until, in the third 

 or fourth year the average would be 400 pounds cotton per acre on 100 acres, five sheep per acre 

 on one hundred acres, a corn crop increased in the same proportion as the cotton, say from ten 

 to 15 bushels to an acre to 20 or 30 bushels on the third 100 acres, and the cow-pease to be 

 ploughed in , or Bermuda grass to be cropped by sheep, on the fourth 1 00 acres. 



Let us assume the conditions and cost on a moderate scale, so that the undertaking may not 

 seem so visionary as the large figures given in the preceding. 



A farm to be purchased consisting of rather poor sandy soil. This I assume can be had at less 

 than five dollars per acre. 



Say 500 acres at $2,500 



Fencing and dividing 400 acres with barbed wire fence 1,000 



Barn and sheds in center of the quadrangle, including gin-stand and other appliances 1,000 



Tools and implements 500 



Total $5,000 



Houses according to circumstances, and five hundred sheep at a price conditioned on their 

 quality. 



It may be assumed that ten thousand dollars would be an ample capital for such a beginning ; 

 but these figures are based on theory, and not on practice. Perhaps a much less sum would 

 serve the purpose. 



One thing more may be considered in this connection. "While it is doubtless true that sheep 

 thrive on the whole cotton seed with the oil in it, yet it appears that there is too much oil. It 

 affects the milk of the breeding ewes, and also deposits a great excess of grease in the fleece. 



It would be truer economy to extract all the oil that can be removed by pressure, and then the 

 ground cake and hulls would be in true condition to feed to sheep, cattle, or hogs. 



Machines for hulling the seed can now be purchased at moderate cost ; and we may be very 

 sure that, as soon as a demand for small presses for farm use is made, the supply will come. 

 The Dederick hay-press is now being used for packing cotton fibre to a compression equal to the 

 density of elm wood, or forty pounds to a cubic foot, and the inventor of that press seems equal 

 to any emergency. 



The removal of the oil, like the removal of the fibre, takes almost nothing from the land devoted 

 to cotton, the mineral element being about three-fourths in the kernel and one-fourth in the hull. 



This suggestion is one of a class inviting attention to the special features 

 and great promise of a mode of sheep raising suited to the South, and needed 

 for her people and their lands. It is not a new proposition. In North Car- 

 olina the farmers have practised grazing their sheep upon their fields of small 

 grain during the winter " which," says a careful writer: "when judiciously 

 done, rather contributes to than deteriorates from their yield at harvest." 



This, then, is the statement from some of the leading industrial writers of the 

 day, of the best possibilities of Southern husbandry, sufficiently attractive when 

 thus given, and still more so when carefully compared with abundant testimony, 

 to awaken the enthusiasm of every one who is interested in the development 

 of the South. 



Sheep husbandry is a rich mine of wealth, best developed alongside the cot- 

 ton crop, giving a larger yield of best wool, advancing continually the fertility 



