32 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH 



paits of the Noithern States, I do not contend. Some of these soils are 

 doubtless, naturally too barren to be made to produce good yields of grass, 

 without an expenditure which would more than counterbalance the profits 

 accruing from them. Others have been sunk nearly to the same level by 

 wasting and improvident tillage ; and it is on lands of the latter class, 

 mainly, that the experiments in introducing the grasses and clover have 

 been made. As long as they would produce cotton or corn, these crops 

 were annually taken from them, with perhaps an occasional year of rest 

 (i. e. lying without any crop being sown on or taken from them) ; and, 

 when reduced to such a degree of barrenness that the crop fell short of re- 

 paying the cost of producing it, clover or grass was resorted to in the vain 

 hope of suddenly repairing, through their instrumentality, the ravage and 

 desolation of years. The following is from the report of a Committee of 

 the Fishing Creek Agricultural Society, Chester District, South Carolina, 

 made to the President of the State Society in 1843 ; and, though this dis- 

 rrict is not in the tide-water zone, the system of cropping described is more 

 or less the prevailing one* throughout much of the cotton growing region : 



" We generally plant cotton on fresh land four or five years in succession — then com — 

 then wheat or oats— again corn and cotton ; and, after it will produce litde else, we sow it 

 in rye, and let it rest two or three years. There are no fixed principles observed in the ro- 

 tation of crops. . . . We have no data whereby to lix the expense of cultivation accu- 

 rately. We know this, hewever, that at the price of produce for the last two or three years, 

 we are sinking money." 



I ask what would be expected, in the way of grass or clover, from some 

 of the best grazing lands of New- York, after being cropped with grain 

 crops from ten to twelve years consecutively, with little or no manure ] — 

 However carefully seeded with the best grasses, or with clover, they wctild 

 uot form meadows worth mowing, nor pastures where an acre would sum- 

 mer a sheep — though, as now managed, an acre is poorly grassed that will 

 not summer five or six sheep. Take the map of New-York, Sir, and draw 

 a right line from Buffalo to a point a little south of Albany — say Coxsackie 

 — and all the region, speaking in general terms, south of this line and west 

 of the Catskill Mountains, is mainly devoted to grazing. It is the best 

 graaing region of the State, and much of it is equal to any in the Northern 

 States. The best farmers in no part of it take off to exceed three grain oi 

 root crops before seeding down to gi ass ; and, unless the soil is unusually 

 rich, it is customary to give barn-yard manure to one of these crops. Thia 

 ■s almost invariably the case where the land was in meadow when broken 

 ap. AVhere no manure is given on meadow lands, or even on lightish pas- 

 ture lands, two grain crops are considered sufficient by the most provident 

 farmers — it being an axiom among such, that all ordinary or thinnish soik 

 should be nearly or quite as rich when seeded down as when broken up. 

 In other words, they draw from the soil only what is equivalent to the 

 strength or fertilizing properties of the sod, and of the manure given. — 

 When seeded down to grass, these lands are usually depastured by cattle 

 cr sheep several years before they are again broken up. If conveited into 

 meadow, they are top-dressed from time to time with gypsum, and some- 

 times with stable manures.^ The poorest soils, rocky hill-sides, declivities 

 much subject to washing and gullying, are rarely broken up after being 

 once properly seeded down, I repeat it. Sir — take aH the grazing lands 

 of New-York, and crop them as severely as it is reported abo'/e to be done 

 ui Chester District, South Carolina, and they would become so sterile tliat, 



* Id ett, so far afl constant cropping without rntuming anything to the soil is concerned. 



♦ See Ruffin's Acricultural .Survey of South Carolina, 1843— Appendix, p. fi. 



} It is not considered sood econonriy, however, to top-dress any meadov^s with stable raanuros wUak 

 tra dry aud amble, and can thus be subjected to the regular rotations of the farm. 



