so SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



ritor}', of lA 000.000 of acres, to be appropriated ? Are we forever to be •iip{ilied ■with atock 

 from the West, bread-stiitfti from the Middle Stiites, and manufactures Irom the North 7 Is 

 all that we can realize from oiu- labor to be expended abroad ? Nothing to be left for ooi 

 own improvements or our luxury ? As one means of con-ecting this evil, your Committee 

 propose an Agri(;ultural Survey of the SUite, to determine our natural advantages, develop 

 our facilities of improvement, exhibit our profits and expenditures, and awaken our citizeni 

 to the importance of vying "Mth the rest of the human family in all the improvements of 

 which our location is susceptible 



" The exposition which your Committee has given, showing the great competition of for- 

 «gn rice with our own, and that South Caiolina cannot compete with the West in the cheap 

 production of cotton, aiid that she must, ere long, be driven from the market, demonstratea 

 the necessity of looking abroad and around us for other sources of advancement and profitt 

 than those we possess. . . . 



•' We cannot expect that accident is continually to supply new staples suited to our soil 

 and clinrdte, and place us beyond the reach of contingent circumstances. We must resort 

 to science to improve our Agriculture, and to machinery to enlarge and prepare present arti- 

 cles of culture, or transplant and acclimate new products, which will again, like those we 

 have lost and will lose, lead oft' for a period in the employment of capital, amassing of wealth 

 and difl'usiou of human happiness." 



The House and Senate agreed with the Report, the same day, and its 

 principal recommendation, an Agricultural Survey of the State, was 

 adopted. 



The Committee appointed by the South Carolina State Agricultural So- 

 ciety to consider the scheme of Col. Davie to reduce the quantity of cotton 

 grown, made a Report, through their Chairman, Judge Seabrook, at the 

 vvintei- meeting of the Society, 1845-6, from which the following are ex- 

 tracts :* 



' ■ Another cause of our distress ia that, in a large portion of the southern country, cotton is 

 cnltivated, when its production does not now, and never can, at all compensate the planter 

 for the labor bestowed. There it is desirable for every one that other branches of industry 

 Fbould be pursued. . . . We do not mtend to encourage the cultivation of cotton to the 

 aeglect of the other products necessary to support or comfort. Ever)' planter should prompt- 

 ly render himself independent iti reference to those articles which could be produced on hi$ 

 plantation. In this way he would profitably curtail the quantity of land devoted to the cot- 

 tcu crop. An abandonment of the present extremely defective mode of culture, and the sub- 

 stitution of a better, would insure a larger quantity of cotton than would be lost by diversify- 

 ing the products of industry. In other words, his cotton crop would be larger ; his corn, 

 wheat, rice, oats, barley, horses, mules, hogs, cattle, sheep, butter and vegetables, would be 

 the produce of his farm. 



" If, however, the cotton crop is to be given up one-half, after all the reductions of it which 

 *ve have sanctioned, to what else can the planter of the South so profitably turn his attention ? 

 To grain ? He already, in ordinary years, produces twice as much as the Middle States, and 

 about one-eighth more than the West. In Indian corn alone, the produce of the South, by 

 her last census, was 300 million bushels. If the planter of cotton is eiK^jaged in an unprofit 

 able business, much more is the grain raised. . . . Millions of acres in South Carolinti, 

 including the lower country, are admirably adapted to the raising of rich grasses. This 

 might be added as another branch of industry, from which reasonable profits might l>e real 

 ize j, and might vei-y well be added to the cotton planter's income. The business of tanning 

 and the manufactures of leather might be aud ought to be enlarged. In this State, all the 

 means of a successtul pursuit of this branch of industry are at hand and within the reach of 

 every one. Hides, lime, bark and mechanics (slaves) are abundant." 



The remarks in both of the above extracts, though made exclusively in 

 reference to South Carolina, will apply equally well, in many obvious par- 

 ticulars, to all the old cotton and tobacco growing States. 



To a Northern man, accustomed from his childhood to see sheep hus- 

 bandry blended, to a greater or less extent, in the operations of nearly 

 every farm, and to live among farmers who regard it just as indispensable, 

 and as much a matter of course, as the production of bread-stuffs, it siserag 

 singular enough that neither of the above able Comn ittees, in looking for 



* As has been before stated, the other membera of the Committee were Judge ONeall and W. J. Allston, 

 Eaq. Mr. A. did not concur with his colleagues in the proposition that there was not already an absoluU 

 over-production of cotton. He believed there was. In all other particulars, and consequently in all en 

 braced in the ext -acu given, he concurred in the Report. 



