SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



07 



health, would be inconsiderable. And whether more or less, it would vi\ 

 pay the cost of transportation to any considerable distance by land car 

 ria<Te. Guano, poudrette, bone-dust, and all the expensive manures of 

 commerce, are still more out of the question. Gypsum, on account of the 

 Kmallness of the quantity requisite, is a cheap manure, and, reasoning from 

 analogy, should be a valuable one, under proper circumstances, ac least on 

 the granitic soils of the South.* Mr. Ruffin states that it produces little ef- 

 fect in the Tertiary sands.t It is considered by practical men to be, at 

 the best, rather an aider of organic manure than a snbsfi/uf.c for it, and 

 when repeatedly applied without any other fertilizing substance, it eeasee! 

 to produce any visible etTect. On an exhausted soil, the cht-iiical consti- 

 tution of gypsum shows that it could not replace a/l the substances ab- 

 stracted by the plants ; and on one natvirally sterile, there is small proba- 

 bility that it would happen to supply the only deficiency necessary to the 

 production of vegetation. Wood asiies constitute a most valuable manure 

 on probably every class of soils, and. unlike lime, gy])sum, soda, etc., which 

 afford only a limited number of those substances which constitute the 

 neccs&ary food of plants, they afford in a greater proportion than any 

 other manure the inorganic substances which are taken up and assimilated 

 by plants.| They are used with the most beneficial effect on the granitic 

 soils of New-England, the calcareous and aluminous ones of Middle New 

 York, the silicious ones of the soutliern or grazing region, and on the Ter 

 liary sands of Long Island. On the latter, of the same geological forma- 

 tion with your tide-water zone — in fact but a continuation of it — even the 

 leached or washed ashes bring a shilling per bushel (the same that is paid 

 for the unwashed ashes by the soaper and manufacturer of pearl or pot 

 ashes) for agi-icultural purposes. || But the supply cannril be made suffi- 

 ciently large lor extensive agricultural ameliorations, without "a destruc- 

 tion of the forests, which would inflict a grievous and utterly inexcusable 

 wrong on posterity. 



The Southern Atlantic and Gulf States possess two natural and inex- 

 iiauslible deposits of fertilizing matter, which, it is supposed by many, 

 would be fully adequate to the general " reclamation "§ of their barren and 

 exhausted evils. The first of these is the marl, which underlies large por- 

 tions of the low country of Virginia and South Carolina, and probably the 



the granitic 8oiIs of New-Kcf:Innd. I have partioii- 

 limited to ihcm iind to ihe Tertiniy. Gypsiiin 



I doubt, on your nioui; 



, silicious nnd all 

 lands, pai 



' I leli-r heie to the successful example of its use i 

 Rily ppccitied this class of soils because your barrtn ones i 

 is used at the North on nearly every class of soils with ad 

 intermediate varieties. It will be found very valuable. I imvi 

 larlv in localities where the clovers flourish. 



t'RuHin's Asrricnltural Sur^-ey of .South Carolina. 1843. 



I To show the value of ashes as the food of plants, and at the same time the difference between those. 

 made from dill'erent woods, I append the following analyses of those of two well-known southern trees. 

 That of oak ashes is by Sprengel, that of pitch-pine ashes by Berthier: 



i' This fact 1 con.^ider an important hint to the ))lanters of the tide-water zone, and it is to be hoped tn«^ 

 h i8 one which will not be thrown away. Leached ashes are valuable also on every other class of Undst 

 The southern portion of my farm (lying on Chemung rocksl is siliciou.o. The northern part is covered 

 wirh " northern drift," and is therefore calcaieous. I use from 3,500 to 4,000 bushels of leached ashes per 

 annum without any discrimination as regards the soil, and on almost every variety of crops, and invariablj^ 

 with marked advantage. Doct. Emmons, our State Geologist, having in charge the volumes on Agriculturei 

 •tated to me that he considered the-^e leached ashes far more valuable by bulk than a rich marl (accessible 

 to me) containing 90 jier cent of carbonate of lime. 



§ This word (" reclaim") has a provincial signification throughout the North, when ajiplied to land, ft 

 means "to render productive." Unlike the w-ords " fertilize,"'" enrich." etc., it implies degree, as well 8S 

 wutnner. To "reclMim "land, therefore, is to fertilize or enrich it to such a desriee that it will yield fair 

 crops. I shall use the word both as a verb and a noun, to avoid the circumlocution otherwise nccessan 

 to express this idea. 



