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

have devoted themselves to cattle and
Sheep raising. Some OF their establish
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 educution. But in Georgia, and
probably elsewhere under similar cir
cumstances, they have made money,
receiving only gold, which is pnt IN 9
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 an
example to the southern people, simply
because it is attended with pecuniary
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 more or less live
stock. Formerly 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 considerable gang of
cattle. But the sheep he rarely saw
unless they were brought up to- be
salted, or the remnant OF the flock ran
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,
to counterbalance the annoyance.
Cattle were turned out in the spring
generally very poor. gaining flesh slow
iy, ms 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 G,is 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
a 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
lind their own food, plant roots being
able to travel and find their own vict-
uals, plants having enemies as well, and
then IN the autumn return to pick the
one and gather the other, would he be
called planter? Just as we'll as 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
well as stock-raising. Stock.raising is
business and must be followed rs q
business. Not sole and separate bust
ness, but as much SO as the cotton, corn,
and 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, rs
grown, both must be prepared for mar
ket, if we expect to derive profit from
them. Corn in the shnck, or cotton in
the seed, would be as little likely to find
sale IN distant market ns 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 n
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 he 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 consequences
of their poverty in the winter, is ma
terlal cause of the failure to make live
stock remunerative atthe south. There
is nothing in the soil, climate, products.
and at certain seasons of the yeitr,
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 trne that animals re-
quiring corn to fatten them can be
raised cheaper at the west than at the
south. But it is also true that
animals which do not require corn to
fatten them, as cattle and sheep, can be
raised with increased economy and
rr;ff111G as we go southwark.
Every really thrifty farmer will raise
his own colts, substituting oats for corn.
While pork cannot be raised for sale ut
the south, it can be raised in sufficient
qnantity for home consumption.
Wherever clover will grow, it requires,
with the aid of peas, but little corn to
fatten hogs. On this farm there a
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 m
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
suff1clently rich, where the same thino