Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1852-1852, 1852-05-28
From the LaurenSrile Herald.
RUsTICUS.
Pastures.

There is perhaps no country in the world
where it is so easy to have ample pasture tor Stock
excepting the wild prairie lands of the west and
northwest, as in the old cotton States and in no
improved country is the great advantage that
might be derived from properly enclosing them,
less understood 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 theF owners
Do our people know that everywhere through
out Europe and the Northern States, pasture is
considered ofthe first Importance to the tarmeri
With them clover and the grasses are cons s'der-
ed the foundation of all good farming. 1t may
be said that clover and the rich grasses will not
thrive with us as 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 cannot have
their luxuriant pastures, we can have our short
grass and broolnsage much longer than they do,
which great advantage. Fw cannot NOW
hay for winterng our stock as they do, we have
much less need of it, rs our winters are short
With shucks ard 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 past
uragc With good pasturage we can have tat
cattle, more milk and more manure. With plen
ty 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 OIL our cultivated
fields to be turned in. Avoid the injury OF much
treading, and at the same time be gathering the
manure to fertllize them.
These arc such plain truths, so obvious, that
one would think it hardly necessary to urge them
yet plain as they are, they they are not carried
out in practice by our farmers in one case out OF
tcrl The system of cross-fencing and close -gra.
zing. and trcading of our cultivated fields, still
continues. Would it not be better, and gener-
ally cheaper, too, that the cross fences should all
be removed and applied to enclosing permanent
pastures? But many of us have also branch and
creek bottoms that with proper attention would
produce the best kind of grasses. 1t IS certain
the herds-orass and white clover succeed well in
such places, and it is altogether likely that many
of the grasses they now produce spontaneously,
would, with proper attention, prove valuable
In fact, several of my acquaintance cut consld-
cradle quantities of hay on their wet bottoms the
last dry summer, which has helped them mate
rally in carrying their stock through the winter.
Il is not slow business. A hand can save more
of it in day than he can of fodder The reader
NAV think have taken q good deal of pains in
telling what every body knows; be that as it
NAV, 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 have to say in few words,
let me urge every farmer in Laurens to enclose
for himself good pasture-onc 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 IN
crease his manure pile: let him tend less land, bet
tar manured and better tended, to be be sure to
nut in enough corn and smaller grain before
cotton, and viii promise him happy lnde'
pondencc. rRASAL'S'