SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH 37 



Buring crop. But on the silicious grazing soils of Southern New-York, it 

 ia rarely used exclusively as a manuring crop, and is but little used, ex- 

 ceptiug slightly admixed with timothy, for pasture or meadows.* 1 think 

 it should be used more ; but the fact stated shows that clover is not re 

 jjarded by practical men, who are perfectly familiar with it, as that indls- 

 pensab'e crop, in all situations, which some of its more extravagant pano- 

 jfyrists wazld lead us to suppose. The conclusions which I would have 

 you deduce from the above facts and statenie^its are, simply, that if clover 

 is found to flourish with you without extra trouble and expense, you will 

 do well to make use of it in your rotation ; if not, it is chimerical, in my 

 judgment, to engage in an expensive struggle with natural disadvantages 

 to force its cultivation. 



The herds-grass (red top) spoken of by the Milton Society, is a good 

 gi-ass on moist (but not boggy) soils, and having been found to succeed 

 with you, is worthy of trial in such situations, but on dry soils, especially 

 on arid sands, it would entirely fail. Nor have I much confidence in 

 either timothy or spear (blue) grass, in such situations, in your latitude — 

 Jione at all in the former. 



It would be well, j^rfjbably, to try limited experiments with ail grasses, 

 domestic and foreign, which have succeeded well on soils similar to your 

 own ; as among these, some maybe found which disregard climate, or ai'e 

 even better fitted to your climate than their indigenous one, as was tno 

 vjase with timothy at the North. The same remark is also true in rela- 

 tion to certain other esculents which are used as substitutes for the grasses, 

 and for green manuring crops. 



Notwithstanding the evident propriety of such experiments, I am 

 filrongly inclined to the opinion that it is to your own iiative grasses and 

 esculents, or those of some kindred climate, you must look*mainly for the 

 basis of your grazing husbandry — and through this, the amelioration of 

 your poor and exhausted soils, 



I regret that I can find no list of those native grasses which sward over 

 the deserted lands of the tide-water zone, and flourish with a tropical lux« 

 uriance in its swamps. You allude to them as * native " grasses, so does 

 Mr. Ruffin. Mr. Seabrook, in his Report on Cotton Culture,^ speaks of 

 "crop grass," by which I suppose he means Crab grass, (Panicum san- 

 gvhialcj coming up spontaneously after spring-sown peas ; but farthei 

 than this, neither of you specify varieties. || Among these indigenous ones, 

 paiticularly those which spontaneously make their appearance on dry 

 lands, it would be exceedingly singular if there are not several veiy valua 

 ble grasses for your soils and climate — grasses the seeds of which should 

 form a part, if not suitable for the whole sowing, on the same kinds of 

 Boils on which they are found flourishing. 



Crab grass gi'owsin all parts of the southern States, and is a fair, though 

 not a very su]}erior pasture and meadow grass. 



Golden millet (Panicum 7nilliaceumJ is a great pioducer and withstanda 



I Know of but veiy ffiw farmers excepting myself, in this, (Cortland,) on« c/ the beet of the grazing 

 counties, who sow unmixed clover seed. I confess myself decidedly partial i,o the crop. ^ ou may ride 

 ten miles or n:ore in -many directions from my house, where half and frequently more than throe-tburth* 

 of the fields are in pasture or meadow, without observing five acres of unmixed clover. 



X Kor this elaboiate and exceedingly able Report or Memoir, see Farmers' Library, 1345, October, No- 

 »einber and December Nos. 



II Si:ice writing the above, I have received from a South Carolina correspondent the following list of 

 pTisses and other esculents which flourish in the lower part of that Slate. Crab grass (Digitaria sangui- 

 talis), earlier— the " Crowfoot" (Eknsine Indica), a little later are, he says, the best grasses for hay, and 

 thrive ;n cultivated grounds from the month of June till frost, 'i'he "Wild Okra" (Viola palmtUa), th« 

 ■'Partiidge Bcrrj'" (Mitchella repens), the Wild Pea Vine, and several other esculenls, obsuure and UB- 

 hy name, flourish in most natural pastures from early spring till November. 



