Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1902-06-28

OLD Fields and Timber Lands May he
Probably Utilized.

Probably Utilized.
Every one of the southern states has
larger proportion of uncultivated land
than any northern or western state,
writes Henry Stewart. There are mil
lions of acres Of timber lands, not to
mention those old~ fields abandoned to
nature for a time, during which they
may gather fresh supply of food for
crops by gradual decomposition of the
soil thus exposed to the weather. The
southern farmer is making great mis-
take in this way. So much of his cap
ital is lying idle. and worse than idle,
for ir many instances the fields are
scored by the rains and cut into gullies,
the top soil being washed down on to
the lower lands or borne bodily away
10 the ocean by the streams
These old fields may be used for rails.
Ing millions of sheep if only the sim
plest kind of culture were given them.
There are many crops that might grow
on these old lands at such a small ex-
pense as would afford a much larger
profit per acre than the lands planted
with either corn or cotton. Deep plow-
ing will Immediately stop the washing
and outlying of the land by the rain,
and the remains of the crops grown and
the manure of the sheep will quickly
improve their fertility and bring it into
regular culture again. Thus the keep
ing of sheep will be the salvation of the
south from its admitted poverty. which
is due to overproduction of the chief
stable-cotton the neglect of any
means of restoring fertility by the or
binary methods of good farming
All through the south there is a vast
quantity Of valuable timber land on
which there is an underground that
even now feeds and fattens thousands
of cattle and millions of pigs Sheep
could be kept on these lands with great
profit, for they are held at very low
prices, and in some districts they will
afford ample feed for fiocks without any
help. But by thinning out the small
timber and sowing these lands with
grass the sheep would be easily carried
over the worst of the season in com
fort. The valuable timber would thus
sbe retained to come into use by and by
There are millions of the finest trees
that anywhere else would be worth ten,
twenty or more dollars, as they stand,
for each one. By and by. when rail
roads are made. this timber will afford
many hundred per cent profit on the
purchase, and in the meantime hand
some income may be made from the
sheep fed in these sheltered shady, cool
and we'll watered pastures. There is an
impression abroad that this part of the
south Is overrun by wandering dogs
This is far from being the case. Many
fiocks are now running at large on these
lands, and it is rare thing to hear Of
any damage done in this way. The
population, of course, is sparse. and
must be where tracts of thousands of
acres are lying unused, and SO far.
from several years personal experience
of the writer. not sheep has been lost
in this way. The people occupying the
sparse settled tracts mostly keep few
sheep, and the dogs are trained to know
the sheep, and will hunt rabbits
through the pastures without interfer.
ing with the sheep. All this is true of
what is known as the mountain region,
the backbone of the eastern pass Of the
United States.
Twenty-Five cents is an ample allow
ance for the years cost of feeding a
sheep in this extensive region. The
same estimate is quite sufficient for the
lowland country, from the foot of the
highlands to the Atlantic coast. Hand
feeding is needed only in some years
for two or three days at time. But
this is not required if some land is put
in grass which is moved for hay to meet
this occasional need, and grass is left
for change Of pasture, alternately
with the woodland feeding The most
Of these forests will quickly fatten the
hocks and put them in such good con.
ditlon that SEINE little hardship met
with IN unusual seasons may be suf-
fered with impunity. In fact, nowhere
else in the wide world has nature been
more prolific in furnishing the means
for the profitable raising OF sheep as in
our own south, but rowhere else has
generous natures liberal hand been SO