SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 35 



'' The greater part of the land in Flanders is naturally poor ; and in extensive districts, 

 wrhich now have the appearance of the greatest richness at harvest time, the original soil wai 

 once little better than the blowing sands which are met with in the neighborhood of the sea. 

 Neither is it a genial climate wliich brings forward the fruits of the earth in abundance; lor 

 the climate is inferior to that ol' France or the southern parts of Germany. The soil may be 

 divided into two classes. The first consists of the alluvial clay loams near the coast ; tne 

 ■econd, of various sands and light loams which are Ibund in the interior. The most fertile u 

 that oi the low lands which have been leclaiined iiom the sea by embankments ; it is chiefly 

 compcsed of a muddy deposit mixed with fragments of marine shells and tine sea sand . . 

 In the interior of East and West Flanders the soil varies considerably ; but the principal 

 part is i/f a sandy nature. The sand, and a heavier loam which scarcely deserves the name 

 of cl-iy; are found much iiitei-mixed, which is owing to an alternation of layers of sand and 

 loatn, whic;h are found by digging to a considerable depth. These layers are not of great 

 thickness, and the accidental ciicumstance of the washuig away of the sand in some places 

 and the depositions from rivers in others easily account for this variety. Some uf the eleva- 

 tions, which are nowhere considerable, consist of a very poor sand, and suggest the idea of 

 their having once been the sands of the sea blown into hills, as is observable on the coa-st. 

 These hills, if they may be so called, are naturally so barren that they were, not very long since, 

 covered with heath, or at best planted with tir trees ; but they have gradually been culti- 

 vated and improved, and only a few remain in their original state of heath and wood. The 

 poorer sands have been brought mto cultivation chiefly by the persevering industiy of small 

 proprietors and occupiers." 



Have we not here a good general description of much of our southern 

 Atlantic coast — the tide swamp and sandy plain — and even a graphically 

 minute account of the " Sand Hill " region of South Carolina ] 



Instances of the reclamation of such lands might be indefinitely mul« 

 tiplied. 



I do not offer the above facts to prove that it is either profitable or ex- 

 pedient to reclaim all the sterile lands of the southern sea-board by the same 

 means that have been resorted to about Albany, or in Flanders. Except 

 in the vicinity of cities, where manures are plentiful and cheap, and un- 

 common market facilities are offered, it would not be profitable, unless i\ 

 can be accomplished by less expensive means. 



But it proves one and an important position : that it is the sterility of 

 such soils — or perhaps their loose and "blowing" character in some places, 

 their sun-baked hardness in others — which prevents them from spontane- 

 ously producing esculent herbage : and nothing in them, as has been 

 frequently fancied, positively deleterious to vegetation. And it follows, 

 hence, that whenever it is profitable to convert them into grass lands, it is 

 'pract'icalAe so to do by the proper application of manures. But do I hear 

 some of your South Carolina neighbors, of the anti-improvement school, 

 (if you have any such,) say, '• If our soils are, or can be made, generally, 

 suitable for the production of the grasses, our climate cannot ? " Tliis 

 position is obviously incorrect, as warmer climates, as, for example, Aus- 

 tralia, the Cape of Good Hope, and various others, produce, where the 

 soils are favorable, a luxuriant growth of grasses ; and South Carolina 

 herself, as has been already shown, produces them bountifully in situations 

 where neither the latitude nor the elevation abates one jot of the heat of 

 your fervid climate. 



It is not impossible that the climate of the States farthest south — south; 

 say, of North Carolina — may be unfavorable to certain grasses and cloveiu ; 

 and perhaps so to the favorite ones of the Northern States. In relation 

 to led clover, nowever, the acclimation of which is regarded by many as 

 80 important to those States, it seems Mr. Ruffin thought otherwise. Me 

 •ays: 



"Perennial, or other permanent grasses, of which, doubtless, there may be found some 

 peculiarly suited to the warm climate, (South Carolina,) would still more serve to give the 

 great benefits of changed condition to the fields, independent of the much needed bonefita 

 of grass hu.sbandry for feeding of live-stock and giving rest and manure to the land. The 

 vaases whose value has bee^ fully established by long experience in more northern coun 



