The free citizen. (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-07-24
LIVE STOCK.
STOCK RAISING IN THE SOUTH.


have devoted themselves to cattle and
ments are large, including one to three
Thousand cattle, and more sheep. The
habits of these men are almost nomadic :;
of consequence they live without com.
forts, and their children grow up with
little education. But in Georgia, and
probably elsewhere under similar CIR
cumstances, they have made money,
receiving only gold, which is put in
stocking or in trunk, and is really of
no more use to the owner than so much
gravel. It is by no means proposed to
set this mode of agricultural life as mn
example to the southern people, simply
because it is attended with peouniary
profit. The instance is cited to show
that under all the disadvantages of the
case, the only class which has devoted
itself to stock raising has made money.
Every planter has moro or less live
stock. Formerly n serious attention
was given to hog raising. 1t was the
ambition of the planter to provide his
own bacon, but rarely any for sale. He
had few sheep, and, under favorable
circumstances a considerable gang OF
cattle. But the sheep he rarely saw
unless they were brought up to- be
home for protection against an incursion
of the dogs. The sheep were sufficient
in number to make him lose his temper
when the dogs killed them, but not suf-
ficient either in yield of mutton or wool,
70 counterbalance the annoyance.
Cattle were turned out in the spring
generally very poor. gaining flesh slow
~, as the season advanced, saleable Mt
low prices, as grass beef in the fall. If
not sold the hope was to carry them
through the winter, without shelter,
their only feed being straw and shucks,
tho supply of both being limited. No
one can say that Gais is an exaggerated
picture of the average cattle and sheep
raising in the cotton states. There are,
OF course, exceptions. But how many Of
the planters who read these lines adopt
better system with regard to their
sheep and cattle than the one described?
Can this be called stock raising
If land-holder should put his cotton
or corn in the ground, let them alone to
find their own food, plant roots being
able to travel and find their own vict-
uais, plants having enemies as we'll, and
then in the autumn return to pick the
one and gather the other, would he be
called planter? Just as we'll aR the
man should be called stock-raiser who
leaves his stock TO shift for Themselves,
Under this treatment of crop we might
well say that farming was failure, MS
we'll as stock-r Using. Stock. raising is
a business and must be followed rs
business. Not sole and separate busi-
ness, but as much so as the cotton, corn,
anu wheat, etc., on plantation, requir.
ing care as regularly, though not of SO
long daily continuance as the crops,
Growing stock must be attended to, MS
we'll as growing plants. And, when
grown, both must be prepared for mar
ket, If we expect to derive profit from
them. Corn in the shuck, or cotton in
the seed, would be as little likely to find
sale In distant market as half fat
cattle or sheep. Instead of preparing
our stock for market in the winter, they
lose in the winter what they have gained
IN the summer and autumn-it is a
Penelope's web, lasting very often the
natural life of the poor animal. When
he is in fair order in the summer, he
cannot be sold, for fresh meat is drug.
When ne would bring good price in
market, he is too poor to eat or Sell.
Besides the want of habitual attention,
this Offering OF live stock for sale at the
wrong season of the year, in consequence
of their poverty in the winter, is a ma
terial canse Of the failure 10 make live
stock remunerative 1.-THE south. There
is nothing in the soil, climate, products,
and at certain seasons of the year,
markets of the south, to render live
stock improbable. The difficulty is in
their treatment by us and our having
them partially ready for market at the
wrong time.
Every winter car loads, almost with
out number, of cattle, sheep, and hogs.
are brought by rail from Kentucky and
Tennessee. These animals are fed upon
land often reaching two hundred dollars
per acre. It is true that animals re-
quiring corn to fatten them can be
raised cheaper at the west than at the
south. But it ie also true that
ANIMALS =, which do not require corn to
fatten them, as cattls and sheep, can be
ralsed with increased ecnnomy and
rrEEoHr as we go southwark.
Every really thrifty tnrmer will raise
his own colts, substituting oats for corn.
While pork cannot be raised for sale at
the south, it can be raised in sufficient
quantity for home consumption.
Wherever clover will grow, it requires,
with the aid of peas, but little corn to
fatten hogs. On this farm there q
feven Berkshire shoats, weighing about
one hundred pounds each, all Of them
fat enough for the knife, that have had
no other food than that which they get
in clover lot of three quarters of an
acre. since the middle of April, and will
receive no other food until October.
when the pea field is open. There is
scarcely farm in the south where the
soil has clay foundetion and is made
sufficiently rich, where the same thing
cannot be done. One acre of rich land