SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH 31 



the Transition order.* Its soil varies from thin and light to that of exu« 

 berant fertility. West of the mountains, the hilly zone rests on Transition 

 rocks and coal measures, and is succeeded west and south of Virginia by 

 the vast rolling or level plains which extend to the Ohio and Mississippi; 

 and which, instead of the silicious sands of the eastern coast, exhibit ricia 

 and varying soils resting on limestone and other Transition and Cretaceous 

 rocks. In Virginia, the hilly region, which is one vast coal measure, extends 

 to the bottom lands of the Ohio ; and its soils, taken as a whole, range from 

 ordinary to meager.t 



We will now proceed to examine the capabilities and adaptation of each 

 jione, separately, lor the purposes of sheep husbandry. It has already been 

 Bhown that sheep are herlthy. and produce as heavy, and may he made to 

 produce as fine fleeces as elsewhere, in the tide-water zone. They are 

 easily kept — finding, in a climate so mild, considerable succulent food even 

 ill the wi'nter; and, south of North Carolina, large numbers would subsist 

 during the entire winter on the hardier wild herbage which continues green 

 in the forests and swamps. If this region was stocked with sheep, to the 

 extent alone to which they could find subsistence, summer and winter, on 

 wild herbage — or, in other words, get a living without costing their own- 

 ers anything — the present number would be largely increased, and their 

 wool and mutton would add materially to the annual income of the own- 

 ers of the soil. But a better system would undoubtedly bo not to depend 

 up<m wild herbage alone, but to have pastures or sheep-walks seeded with 

 the best grasses which will flourish on them, and provision made for a quan- 

 tity of dry fodder, or some substitute for it, for winter use. 



Can this summer and winter feed be produced, in the region under ex- 

 amination, to any considerable extent, at ^n expense which would render 

 its conversion into wool and mutton profitable t There are patches of 

 good natural pasture in many parts of the tide-water zone, apart from the 

 salt or fresh water marshes. But artificial pastures and meadows have 

 rarely been attempted. The planters in this portion of South Carolina, for 

 example, actually import hay ! " Many of the cotton and rice planters . 

 . . in some cases buy hay from New-England. . . , Northern and 

 fin some cases) European hay is even canied up to supply Augusta and 

 Columbia, along rivers which flow through swamps covered with natural 

 gfrass, so rank and luxuriant as to be almost impenetrable."! 



This neglect of grass culture springs from several causes. Little farm- 

 Btock, comparatively speaking, is reared or kept by the rice and cotton- 

 planters, from the fact that most of the labor on such plantations is per- 

 formed by men ; and the few animals kept are fed on wild herbage, or the 

 offal of crops which are raised for other purposes. The carnage and 

 draught horses and mules are fed in the winter on the leaves or " blades " 

 of corn ; and the neat stock get their living in the swamps, and in the 

 com fields, where the greatest portion of the stalks are usually left stand- 

 ing. 



Nor is it to be denied that various unsuccessful experiments have been 

 made in the cultivation of the grasses and clover, which have discouraged 

 farther efforts, and led many to infer that the soil or climate, or both, are 

 decidedly uncongenial to them. That the soil or climate is as favorable to 

 the production of rich, thick swarded pastures or meadows, as in many 



* So termed by Werner 7hough little used now by geoloaists, I resort to it as the shortest descriptive 

 epithet which will include all thjse'rocks, unless it be the Hemilisyan of Brongniart, the Submedial of C*' 

 ■ybeari". or the Gray wacke of De In Beche — neither of which is so familiar, nor, it appears to me, any bet 

 tor. The Transition rocks are equivalent to both the Cambrian of Prof. Sedgwick, and the Silurian of Kr 

 Murchison — whose nomenclature is adopted by Lyell. Phillips, Mantell, A;c. 



t Dr. Morse Mitche". Ac. \ Ruffln's Agricultural Survey of South Carolina, 1847 p. 73 



