36 SHEEP hOSUANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



tries. Bhouid be tried— not because they are from the North, (which in itself is a stiong ob- 

 jection,) hilt nierL-ly because the-ir good qualities are known, and possibly some siicli grawea 

 may as well suit a'niore soulhcni dime. And such. I trust, is red clover, the l-est of al2 

 green and niauuring crojis. For although this was long hold to belong to the North only. 1 

 have fully experienced that it« locality and the perfection of its growth are Jlced much more 

 hy peculiarity of soil than by latitude. Not more than twenty years ago it wiis as general 

 a belief in Lower Virginia, as now in South Carolina, that there the soil was too scanty f nil 

 the sun too hot to raise red clover. But since marling and liming have made many of ti eae 

 •oils calcareous, it is found that neither the s<mdy soil nor hot and dry climate forbid the 

 raisiig excellent and profitable crops of clover. And so hereafter it will be found in South 

 Carolina."* 



In a Repcjtt by a Committee of the Milton Agricultural Society, (em- 

 braciii,<T adjacent parts of Laurens and Newbeiiy Districts, S. C.) made to 

 the State Saciety in 1843, they state : 



" Our native gi-asses, except the crab grass, are of the poorest kiud, principally Bed^e. Of 

 ihe artificial grasses, some tfials have been made with red clorer mid herds-grass.t On rich 

 lots the first apjiears to succeed veiy well. P'or alternating with tallage crops we do not 

 know of its having been tried ; but our impression is, that without manuring more highly 

 than is customary here, it will not answer, AVe are not aware that it has ever been sowed 

 with "ypstmi. The herds-gi-ass, as far as it has been tried, appears to succeed very well on 

 the bottoms that border our branches and creeks."t 



Lawrence and Newbeny are not in the tide-water region, but so far as 

 the effect of climate alone is concerned, their testimony has an equal 

 bearing. 



I have little doubt that red clover may be cultivated on good, rich soils 

 even in the States south of North Carolina, and may possibly become, un- 

 der some circumstances, a profitable crop in their rotations ; but, as has 

 been already remarked, it will not do as 3 Jirst crop on very meager soils, 

 in any climate — and still less so, I apprehend, on such soils south of lati- 

 tude 34°. It is not, therefore, the crop which you need, to cheaply ame- 

 liorate your poor and exhausted soils, to fit them either fin- grazing or for 

 tillage. Grant that such soils can be fitted to produce it, as Mr. RufRn 

 sucrgests, by the application of lime or marl,|| these manures will be found 

 expensive, can be but slowly obtained in quantities sufficient to apply to 

 laro-e tracts, and, besides, when the soil is sufficiently ameliorated to carry 

 clover, it will carry most if not all of your ordinary tillage crops. Though 

 cloYer would aid materially in the rotation, in stistainin^ or even improv- 

 .ng the fertility superinduced by lime or any other fertilizer, it is not, and 

 cannot be triads the orighial fertilizer on the sterile sands of warm climates. 

 When we talk, therefore, of the initiatory steps by which such soils shall 

 be brought from a state of barrenness to a state of production, clover does 

 not come within the category of appropriate agents. 



Though red clover ranks in the first class, if not the first in that class, 

 on appropriate soils, as a grazing and manuring crop, I have never regard- 

 ed it as indispensable — as what the lamyera would style a sine qua non — 

 even in sfistaining fertility auywhere except on rich calcareous wheat 

 lands, where a severe and exhausting rotation is resorted to. Where 

 wheat is taken from the soil at hast every alternate year, for ten, fifteen, 

 oi twenty years, without any manure, excepting the intervening crop, and 

 the droppings of animals depastured on it, clover Avill hettcr sustain the 

 land in tlie ultimately fatal struggle, than perhaps any other green ma- 



* Ruffin'g Affripulturnl Survey of R. C. 1843, p. 81 . 



t This should be the Agrostis stricta or vulgaris— \\\c Red Top of the North. Some writers di'signote B 

 tR the one specie^ isnine aa the other, 

 t lluffin's .^ciiciiltural Survey of .^. C, 1843: Appendix, p. 9. 



II Unlegp, however, the soil contains more organic matter than I suppose to he the case with many CH 

 yimr aandy soils, theory and prai-tice both show that lime wil not prove the proper manure. Though ex- 

 seedintrly valuable in it's piace. experience shows that it is no agricultural paiuuxa. I shall allude to this Eub 

 ^ct more fuUv it; a subseruent letter 



