Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1852-06-10
From the Laurensvillc Herald.
PASTURES.

There is perhaps no country in the world
where it is so easy to have ample pasture
for stock, excepting the wild prairie lands of
the West and North. West, as in the old
cotton States; and in no improved country
is the great advantage that might be derived
from properly enclosing them, less under
stood or appreciated. Thousands Of acres
are to be seen everywhere in this State, Of
old fields and exhausted lands, so managed
as to be of little or no value to their owners.
Do our people know that everywhere through
out Europe and the Northern States, pas
ture is considered of the first Importance to
the farmer? With them clover and the
grasses are considered the foundation of all
good farming. 1t may be said the clover
and the rich grasses will not thrive with us
rs with them. This may be so-and it is
probable, indeed, almost certain, that their
mode of farming would not suit US. Our
customs should be such as experience proves
are best suited to our location. If we can
not have their luxuriant pastures, we can
have our short grass and broomsage much
longer than they do, which is Il great ad-
vantage. If we cannot NOW hay for win
tering our stock as they do, we have much
less need Of it, as our winters are short
With shucks and straw and some other little
helps we are generally able to winter our
cattle.
What we ought to do is, to have our waste
lands so enclosed as to afford an abundant
pasturage. With good pasturage we can
have fat cattle, more milk and more manure.
With plenty of milk, we need less meat, and
therefore less corn for feeding hogs; with
plenty of manure we can raise more cotton
and more corn, and more meat too. BY
having ample pasturage we can leave the
vegetable matter on our cultivated fields to
be turned in. Avoid the injury of much
treading, and at the same time be gathering
the manure to fertile them.
These are such plain truths, so obvious,
that one would think it hardly necessary to
urge them; yet, plain as they are, they are
not carried out in practice by our farmers in
one case out of ten. The system Of cross
fencing and close-grazing, and treading of
our cultivated fields, still continues. Would
it not be better, and generally cheaper, too,
that the cross fences should all be removed
and applied to enclosing permanent pas.
lures! But many of US have also branch
and creek bottoms that with proper attention
would produce the best kind of grasses. cit
is certain the herds-grass and white clover
succeed we'll in such places, and it is alto
gether likely that many of the grasses they
now produce spontaneously, would, with
proper attention, prove valuable.-In fact,
several Of my acquaintance cut considera-
BILE quantities Of hay on their wet bottoms
the last dry summer, which has helped them
materially in carrying their stock through
the winter. 1t is not slow business. A hand
can save more of it in day than he can of
fodder. The reader may think have taken
agood deal of pains in telling what every
body knows; be that as it may, it is not
what everybody practices, and it is even of
use sometimes to be reminded of what we
already know.
TO sum up what l have to say in a few
words, let me urge every farmer in Laurens
to enclose for himself a good pasture-one
that will keep fat all summer as many cattle
as he can carry in condition through the
winter. And let him avail himself to the
extent of these helps to increase his manure
pile; let him tend less land, better manured
and better tended, to be sure to putt in enough
corn and smaller grain before cotton, and |
will promise him happy independence.
FRANKLIN.