SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH- 41 



Blades of corn, well cured, are relished by sheep, and they thrive oi 

 Aena* 



The sweet potato is also readily eaten by them, and it fattens them per 

 haps as rapidly as any other root crop. Although it might be regarded as 

 too valuable for sheep feed, in regions where the whole force is given tc 

 he culture of cotton, there are others where, I cannot but believe, it might 

 DC occasionally if not regularly resorted to with profit, unless rye, oats 

 oarley, &c can be provided so much mDre cheaply that it is no object so 

 U) do. It is so cheaply planted by slips, and tilled with so httle trouble, 

 and it so admirably prepares land for sul)sequent crops, t that, on rich and 

 otherwise favorable soils, my impression is strong it is, at all events, as 

 cheap a winter feed for stock in the South as the Irish potato is in the 

 North. Its average yield is about two-thirds that of the latter. The Irish 

 potato is universally regarded as one of the cheapest fceas iliat can be 

 given to all kinds of stock, to which it is adapted in the Worth. It is true 

 that it is not fed so much as it would otherwise be, with us. in the winter 

 by reason of the cold. It is difficult to protect this root from freezing, and 

 at the same time leave it accessible for daily feeding, without putting it in 

 dwelling-house cellars, which are usually at some discance from the feed- 

 ing barns and yards ; and besides, the conversion of this citadel of a north- 

 ern matron's culinary stores, into a great, dirty root pit, would be a most 

 giierous infringement on all the canons of good housewifely ! 



The foregoing facts show that the Southern States have already all that 

 is necessary to feed stock and fertilize their fields. Their pea, take it all 

 in all, is a full equivalent for the clover of the North.| By means of it — 

 of Bermuda and some other grasses — aided by the drop])ings of sheep, and 

 other cheap and convenient manures, a large proportion of the tide-watei 

 aone, m.v so unproductive, can be converted into grazing lands, which will 

 yield as good a per centage on present capital and investment as the best 

 cotton uplands, and produce wool at a less exjumse fcr pound tlian any te- 

 flon of the United States north of the Potomac. 



* A friend of mine wintered a few Merino sheep on not only the blades, but the stalks, of our northern 

 corn, chopping the whole up together, and adding a little bran or shorts. He found it cheap feed, and the 

 sheep got fat enough to slaughter before spring. 



t After the crop is harvested, swine are turned in. and they root the ground over so deeply and thor- 

 oughly that it is in a better state of tillage than could be produced by mere spring plowing. 



X Mr. Ruffin. the great advocate fijr clover, admits that in the South it is not fitted to precede Indian com, 

 on account of the destnictive cut leormt it harbors, unless the land be plowed " early in winter," or othw 

 prer«atlnnar>' steps are u.ken The pea is not liable to this objection. See Ruffiii'B Ag. Survey cf S. C, 

 i«43.p.'»8. 



