SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOL TH. 77 



in producing beef (or pork*) for exportation to foreign countries. Its m 

 tnense natural pastures — the profusion and cheapness with which Indian 

 corn can be produced on its virgin soils — give it an advantage which in- 

 ci eased transportation by no means counterbalances. The question tlien 

 anses — Why, for the same reasons, cannot the vast North-westeni plains 

 produce wool more cheaply than the South, and undersell her in our own 

 and the foreign markets ? In the first place, the western pastures — that 

 is to say, the wild or natural ones — which produce beef so cheaply, arc, 

 by reason of the coarseness and rankness of their verdure, Ttot adapted ti 

 t^/f groicivg of slu'vp. Sefondly, the shortness and mildness of the south- 

 ern winter give a decided advantage in wool giowing, by affordinp- green 

 winter feed — an advantacje not profitably available probably, on an extend- 

 ed scale, with large grass-feeding animals. Again, in the North-west, 

 though there is less snow, the winter is about as long, for all the practical 

 purposes of husbandry, as in New-York.t Killing frosts come as early in 

 autumn ; the naked ground is frozen as solidly, and far nifne deeply ; and 

 veidure puts forth but little if any earlier in the spring. The South then 

 possesses the same great advantage with the North-west in the production 

 of wool — cheap lands ; and, superadded to this, she has the short, mild 

 winters, which give her a decided advantage over both the Noith and 

 North-west. She has a marked advantage over the Northern and Eastern 

 States in hotli 2»irticuJars, and, instead of importing manufactured wool-n 

 from them, she ought to supply them, by export, with at least the raw ma- 

 terial. And she will do this at no distant day, uidess her sons are content, 

 in the great struggle and battle of industrial interests, to saoifice thei/ 

 own i)y ajiathy or irresolution. 



•1 have not alluded to the rearing of swine any more fully, as they are but partially a grrazin? ■ 

 —But if the position assumed in the text be correct, it is another argument in favor of d ?TOting your luicLi 

 feb tho production of surplus wool, instead of surplus corn. 



fTbe winter feedini; of sheep in Now York bits already been stated to average about one hocdred m<< 



