Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-03-18
Sheen Culture in the South.


A correspondent from the South to
the New York San recently wrote that
paper as follows:
what the white people of the South
need is little more sense. They ought
to quit raising cotton and raise what
they want to eat, and then eat it, and not
toll twelve months to make cotton to
buy the meat and bread which they
themselves can produce. The farmers
of the South have, for the last fifteen
years, made cotton to purchase all that
they use until it has brought them to
the verge Of ruin While it has enriched
the merchant and those who live in cities,
1t has made them poor indeed. To give
your readers an idea of how farming is
conducted down South, | will make
comparison of the profits of cotton and
corn raising, taking the river bottom Of
the Mississippi. The labor of first rate
working man who will put in all his time
in making cotton will be 1000 pounds
OF cotton (the average of the South is less
than 1000 pounds). worth now about
800. less ginning. shipping and selling,
say so. leaving him as his profits for his
cotton $3.50, and 200 bushels of corn,
yielding profit of 800, in all $3.50 for
the years work To do this will require
his whole time, leaving no time to pro-
duce what he eats. The same labor ap-
piled to raising corn with the improved
tools now in use will produce on an av-
erage z, 900 bushels of corn, worth here
now seventy-fve cents per bushel, and if
shipped to New Orleans will net to the
producer fifty cents per bushel or 81 900.
Beside the corn can be sown peas at the
last blowing, which will pay to fatten
hogs, S. per acre, or 81 $50 for the years
work. The same farmer can take care
of and feed 200 head of sheep, which
will pay 500 more. The trouble with
the South is disease called cotton on
the BRAIN if they will quit that, then all
will be lovely and quiet along the South.
While there is doubtless some exag
geration in the above statement, it cannot
be denied that it contains much that is
strictly true. Sheep husbandry especi-
ally offers fine field for the Southern
farmer, and wool ought to be formida-
bic rival to cotton, especially as it re-
quires 80 much less capital to raise sheep
than it does the great staple. This is
very clearly shown by the following
figures on the subject, which we take
from the Louisville Courier Journal.
Says that paper: "There are better
grasses for sheep in the South than in
the North, and IN many of the States
there is little or no winter feeding to be
done, as Bermuda grass furnishes pastu.
rage the entire year. Wiregrass also
furnishes pasturage throughout the year,
which fully sustains the sheep and keeps
them IN good condition. Inthe States OF
North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor
gia, Florida, Alabama. Louisiana, Ar.
kansas, Tennessee and Mississippi there
is an area of 262 ,269, 440 acres of land,
and the number Of sheep is reported to
be only about 5000, 600. or about one
sheep to every ninety acres In Ohio
there is a sheep for every seven acres Of
land. These figures show the vast field
for sheep husbandry in the South outside
the State of Texas, and, emitting Ken
lucky, recognized as first class sheep
husbandry State. Testimony received
at the Agricultural Bureau from sheep
men in the South shows that sheep hus-
bandry pays from 80 to 100 per cent and
more on the investment. Sheep hus-
bandry, united with cotton and corn
growing, will undoubtedly prove far
more remunerative than exclusive cotton
culture"
These facts, if properly known and
appreciated, would no doubt stimulate
the culture of sheep in the South, and
turn the serious attention of our farmers
to other matters than to cotton alone, of
which there is great danger Of an over
crop in the near future. Immigrants
also would be attracted thereby, for no
where in the country can they be offered
such inducements for acquiring wealth
and comfort as in this section. Our st.
Louis contemporary, in the same article
from which we make the above extract,
concludes, after a thorough review of
the subject, that Sin few years the at
fractions of the South, climatic and agri.
cultural and pastoral, will divert large
percentage of the immigration thither"