SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUIH. 



»o little experience in the premises, in our own country, let us turn to that 

 of the first agiicultural nation of the Old World. There is no foreign na« 

 tion where so high a degree of intelligence is brought to bear on farming 

 operations — where cause and effect are so carefully studied and accurately 

 noted — as in England. This care and accuracy are indispensal)ly neces* 

 iary in a country where high rent and heavy taxation render good farming 

 oi bankruptcy unavoidable counter-alternations to the agriculturist. Pre- 

 vailing conclusions among such a class of agriculturists — undiajmted con- 

 clusions, too — are assuredly entitled to great respect, and may almost be 

 regarded as settled facts. Now the farmers of England are perfectly fa 

 miliar with every kind of manure accessible to our Southern farmers, un- 

 less it be swamp mud and cotton seed. Lime, for example, is plentiful 

 and cheap, and is much used in Agriculture all over the kingdom. If 

 cither this, or any of the manures of commerce, were considered, of tliem- 

 selves, economical fertilizers of the poor, sandy or light upland soils of 

 England, there is no country in the world where they are more plentiful, 

 and, when the use of the soil and the price of products are taken into con- 

 sideration, more cheap. 



What the settled conclusions of the English farmers are, in relation to 

 the profitable amelioration of those soils, will be seen from the following 

 undisputed testimony of some of the most eminent and respectable of them, 

 taken before the Committee of the House of Lords, charged with the in- 

 quiry into the state of the wool trade, &c. in Great Britain, in 1S28, from 

 which 1 have so freely quoted in preceding Letters. 



Mr. William Pinkney, Salisbury Plain: Laiid such as I occupy could not be main 

 tained without the aid of sheep. . . . The sheep are our principal dependence for eup. 

 porting our crops ; indeed, I could not occupy my fami without my flock. 



Mr. John Ellman, .Jr., Sussex : I do not consider it possible for the Hght lands uj:«n 

 the Downs to be kept in cultivation without flocks. I could not keep the larm I now hold 

 without sheep. . . On the South Downs the wool must be giown, let the price be 



what it will. 



Ml . Francis Hale, Alrijigham, Suffolk : The description of land I occupy could not be 

 kept in cultivation without the aid of sheep. 



Mr. Henry King. Chilmark, Wiltshire : The size of my farm is about 4,000 acres. I 

 cUp annually about 6,500 South-Down sheep. • . . Such lands as I occupy cannot be 

 kept in cultivation wilhout the aid of sheep. 



Mr. loHN Woolledge, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk: An estate near the above 

 place contains 8,890 acres, let to tenants, and consists principally of poor sandy and gravelly 

 land, the produce of which in grain is very precarious, amounting in dry summers to little 

 or nothing. The occupiers, therefore, depend almost entirely on their flocks of sheep for the 

 payment of their rents and the employment and support of the population. ... I am 

 of opinion that two-thirds of the counties of Suff()lk and Norfolk may be comprehended in 

 the sheep districts, and that they produce two pounds and a half of wool, and three-lourtha 

 of a lamb, to the acre, upon an average. . . . The produce of the land depends materi- 

 ally upon the folding system; there is not suflScient straw ibr manure without the assistance 

 of sheep. 



Mr. William Ilott, Abbey Milton, Dorsetshire : I calculate the annual growth of wool 

 in Dorsetshire at 10.000 packs of 24C lbs. each. It is estimated . . . that 800,000 sheep, or 

 .one sheep and one-seventh per acre, . . . are Kept m this county. A considerable part of 

 the county of Dorset is composed of light lands, and can only be kept in tillage by the aid 

 of sheep. 



C. C. Western, Esq. : It is utterly impossible that the Down Districts can be cultivated 

 to advantage without sheep. We never fold our Merino or other sheep ; the land is too wet. 



Lord Napier : If we had not sheep upon our lands (the highlands of Scotland), it wimld 

 become the habitation of foxes and snipes, and return to waste; it would produce nothiug 

 but grouse and wild game of ditTerciit sorts. 



Is it asked, Why are sheep preferred to homed cattle ] Many of the 

 reasons arc given in my preceding Letter. Then, again, the scanly and 

 •hort pristurage of light lands, on which sheep will thrive, will not affonl 

 •ufficient " bite" <^s it is provincially termed in the Northeiii States) to 



