SYSTEM AND ROTATION. 83 



run, whether naturally rich or made so by art, furnishes a 

 wilderness of grazing, when turned to pasturage, which not 

 only greatly improves the condition of the stock, but retains 

 a sufficiency of refuse vegetable matter, which, after the 

 plough, keeps up the loose and friable condition of the land. 

 It is in this view of the subject, that we see this self-sustaining 

 system of plantation economy. Under this system, or any one 

 like it, furnishing the amount and value of pasturage that it 

 does, the raising and keeping of stock, mules, hogs, and cattle, 

 necessary to supply the wants of the plantation, become a 

 source of absolute profit the land is made rich, and continues 

 improving in the production of the elements of fertility the 

 compost manure is made valuable, because it is trod up and 

 mixed with the excrements of stock kept fat on rich pastur- 

 age. This rich compost manure, applied to the land once 

 every four years, in quantities sufficient to make a bale of 

 cotton per acre, continues to improve the land and thus in- 

 crease annually the grain crops and pasturage. All this is 

 simple, plain, and practical. 



It is objected to this country by planters and others taking 

 their cue from them on account of its " short bite" and sterile 

 pasturage, as they are pleased to call it. Nor has there been 

 a designed misrepresentation in this : it is the result of ob- 

 servation derived from the working of this universally drain- 

 ing system of growing cotton. Now the facts which my prac- 

 tice and observation under this system have demonstrated, 

 are these : that no country is equal to this for good and 

 " long-nip" pasturage ! Our climate is remarkably favorable 

 to rich and luxuriant pasturage. The red man of the forest 

 and the pioneer white man, that came here in advance of our 

 " scratching ploughs/ 7 tell us they found the wild oat and na- 

 tive grasses waving thick, as high as a man's head, and so en- 

 twined with the wild pea vine, as to make it difficult to ride 



