20 



The problem of sheep and cotton alternated on the same field may 

 therefore be considered with reference to an area of 8,000,000 acres 

 of upland, or 12,500 square miles, on which the proposition is to 

 double the crop of cotton, and to add the wool clip without cost for 

 the wool except for shearing. 



For this purpose of alternation we shall need four times this area 

 of land, or 50,000 square miles ; in all 32,000,000 acres. 



We ma}- as well omit Texas from the consideration, because most 

 of her cotton land is too rich for sheep. Her sheep-range is also too 

 big to begin to consider fencing and folding at present. 



We will also omit Louisiana and Arkansas, because there is more 

 reason to expect bottom-land cotton from these States. We will 

 assume that this work is to be done in the States of Mississippi, 

 Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee ; 

 and that it is also all to be done in such parts of these States as are 

 subject to the conditions of climate that I have named, in the coun- 

 try lying on the flanks of the mountains and midway between them 

 and the low sandy coast-lands on 'the ocean or gulf sides of the States 

 named (except Tennessee) ; that is to sa % y, in that portion of these 

 States where it is now claimed that most of the cotton is raised by 

 white labor. It will require but seventeen per cent of the area of 

 these respective States to give the 50,000 square miles now being con- 

 sidered. We will add three per cent for house and garden spots, and 

 five per cent for roads and the like. We shall then treat twenty-five 

 per cent only, or one-fourth of the respective areas of these six States. 

 This will include the " thermal belt." 



Now let us see what may be done with this section on the basis of 

 ascertained facts. 



Each 400 acres can be surrounded by a five-row, barbed-wire, dog- 

 proof fence, and divided into four fields by cross fences at a cost, 

 including posts and setting, of less than a thousand dollars. 



In each 400 acres let one field be devoted to corn, one to cow- 

 pease, one to cotton, and one to sheep. The seed from a first pro- 

 duct of 200 pounds of cotton per acre with the grass which follows the 

 cotton would carry two and a half sheep per acre on the next field 

 for six months ; and the cow-pease and corn-fodder would serve for the 

 rest of the 3*ear. The pea-vines and sheep-clung would increase the 

 crop, and more sheep would be added each }'ear until in the third or 

 fourth year the average would be 400 pounds cotton per acre on 100 

 acres, five sheep per acre on 100 acres, a corn crop increased in the same 

 proportion as the cotton, say from 10 to 15 bushels to an acre to 20 

 or 30 bushels on the third 100 acres, and the cow-pease to be ploughed 

 in or Bermuda grass to be cropped by sheep on the fourth 100 acres. 



On the 50,000 square miles, or 32,000,000 acres, we should there- 

 fore have the following results : 



LOT No. 1. On 8,000,000 acres (being the same area now in 

 cotton in the States named from which this year only 3,000,000 bales 

 cotton were gathered), we should have 6,666,000 bales of 480 pounds 

 each. 



