110 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
large flocks, if not upon the strong and the vigorous. 
Hence, shepherd dogs, men, women and children have 
been, for ages, bred up to the business of watching and 
guarding this, the most peaceful and helpless domestic 
animal kept by man. One good shepherd, with three or 
four children to assist him, aided by dogs, will take care 
of 2000 sheep. In shearing time he will need the labor 
of men skilled in clipping wool from sheep in a neat and 
workman-like manner. 
Pains should be taken by sowing grass seed to increase 
the natural supply of herbage for the support of flocks 
wherever they are kept. Their manure, dropping con- 
stantly on these out pastures, vdll steadily enrich the soil 
from year to year, and thus augment any given power of 
support that a given area may originally possess. Land 
so barren of herbage in a state of nature, as barely to sup- 
port one sheep on ten acres, may, in time become ■ rich 
enough to keep, under wise management, ten sheep to 
the acre, or 100 on ten acres. A few years ago, before 
dairy husbandry become so profitable in the State of New 
York, it had one sheep to every two acres of improved 
land and more than one to every cultivated acre, in ad- 
dition to all the horses cattle and hogs, and all the people, 
supported on the comparatively few acres enclosed in the 
State. The more sheep one keeps, the more wheat, corn 
and cotton he can raise on his farm. If animals naturally 
impaired the fertility of land, it would soon cease to pro- 
duce either plants or animals. 
Animals as well as plants tend to enrich the soil that 
sustains them; and both are endowed with the function 
of multiplying their numbers to keep this advancing fruit- 
fulness of their parent earth in a self-supporting condition. 
Neither the v/heels of time, nor any of the movements of 
Nature, ever take a retrogressive course. To be in har- 
mony with her laws, we must maintain on the soil we 
cultivate a just equilibrium between -her two great living 
kingdoms. Planters are apt to forget this fundamental 
principle, in seeking to grow in perpetuity, commercial 
plants vvithout either sheep or other live stock, and with- 
out commercial manure to rejuvenate their tilled fields. 
Let them grow wool as well as cotton for export, and pro 
duce all the manure practicable from sheep husbandry, 
and then it will not be difficult to maintain the true bal- 
ance in organic nature as between plants and animals. No 
man can make the half of a thing equal to the whole; ,and 
no wise man will long try to do so. 
The same causes which are creating such an unusual 
demand for cotton fabrics throughout the world to meet 
the wants of a rapidly advancing civilization, create also 
an equally increased the demand for woolen fabrics. 
When a servant girl has eaten what food she needs, her hun- 
ger is satisfied ; but when does her desire for new dress and 
new patterns of gay cotton prints, rest satified, so long as 
she earns money to pay for morel And do not journey 
men tailors, and others in a similar condition in life, often 
wear finer woolen coats than the richest noblemen in Eng- 
land! The only limit to the consumption of woolen and 
cotton goods, is the productive power of the countless mil- 
lions, over and above what is needed to feed them. This 
power of production is augmented in each individual, 
every year, in a thousand ways, by new discoveries, new 
inventions, and new facilities of transportations ; so that 
Great Britain, with cotton and woolen mills and steam, 
equal to the labor fifty million persons, beats us ten fold 
in the creation of wealth. It is time that we studied the 
science of agricultural and mechanical production. We 
possess all the elements of national of wealth and posper- 
ity to a much greater extent than Great Britain, Why, 
then, may we not use these elements ! 
Morrell’s work, Randall’s, and others on this subject, 
may be obtained from A. 0, Moore & Co., 140 Fulton 
street. New York, L. 
CUI/TIVATION OF THE CHUFA OR EARTH 
Almond. 
We have received a communication from a valued East- 
ern correspondent, upon the merits and culture of this 
newly introduced tuber ; and though not intended for 
publication, we take the liberty of appropriating so much 
thereof as we believe will interest those who are desirous 
of experimenting with this new acquisition to our best 
swine feeding products. The almost universal acknowl- 
edgment of its excellent feeding and fattening qualities, 
and general productiveness in all soils adapted to potato 
culture, or indeed in soils so poor that a fair crop of pota- 
toes could not be, expected, has given to the Chufa a celebri- 
'ity never before obtained by any newly introduced veget- 
able in so short a time. 
So wonderfully prolific is it upon soils even of medium 
quality, no one need hesitate to attempt its cultivation 
who desires to grow at the least possible expense, the 
largest quantity of an excellent feed for swine and poultry. 
Here are the remarks of our correspondent : 
“Having cultivated the Earth Almond for three seasons 
with a view to the fattening of hogs at a cheaper rate than 
upon corn, the result of my experience is this : — I believe 
that many a farmer who now owns land so poor that he 
neither raises corn or peas equal to a fair average crop of 
the country, if he would plant but an acre with Chufa, 
would realize more of a truly fattening product for his 
herd of hogs, than he could possibly obtain from two 
acres of any other product at the same cost. 
“My second year’s crop on the same ground was more 
than double that of the first, and the last season’s crop 
quite equal to both of the proceeding, and this without 
any re-sowing of seed or cultivation of the land beyond 
what was given it by the noses of the hogs in rooting out 
the tubers. l am confident also that land is actually en- 
riched by their growth and mode of harvesting if perform- 
ed by swine, and they kept upon the land night and day; 
the decomposition of the tops and the manure from the hogs 
more than making good the loss to the soil, by the mere 
consumption of the tubers. The fear with many, is that 
in growing them upon an already fertile soil, they may 
prove difficult of eradication when once established. I 
have no fears of this; I find that to turn them in deep with 
the plow, at a season of the year when the bulk of the 
tubers have attained to half their grawth, will destroy the 
greater part of them ; another shallow plowing or severe 
harrowing two or three w^eeks afterward, will effectually 
subdue the remainder, 
“I would plant them at first in di'ills, two feet apart ; 
this enables the cultivator to be run between the drills till 
the Chufa gets a start, after which it will take care of it- 
self; I would give the tubers a distance of five or six 
inches in the drill ; but if the soil be rich, eight inches 
will answer, and plant at the proper season for planting 
Indian corn ; this, of course, applies to our country of 
