359 



(o purchase,) as is uow douo witli emiuent success in Euglaud and oilier countries, and 

 a check to our excessive taxation, would soon restore us. With this every suitable effort 

 should bo made aud inducement held out with a view to brinp; to our fertile lands and 

 genial climate, so rich in promise, the enterprising aud intelligent emigrant of every 

 nation. Then, as the future surely indicates, will como a division of our lands with tho 

 divisioa of our system of labor. The largo and costly sugar-houses will be employed as 

 central factories ; capital and labor will blend harmoniously together, aud, I trust, a 

 new era will dawn upon our now depressed aud struggling people. 



In justice to the eminent inventors and manufacturers of the double engine steam- 

 plowing tackle aud implements, John Fowler & Co., of Leeds, Euglaud, I can only say, 

 after tliree years' cxperienc*! with two complete sets of their tackle, that the ease and 

 facility with which they are handled, their simple and perfect application of power, and 

 the completeness in every way in which they^are worked, entitle them to the high appro 

 elation with which they are now regarded iu every part of the civilized world. And 

 I trust the genius of American inventoi's, which has been constantly but unfortunately 

 directed to the construction of a traction-engine, moving like horses over tho land, 

 with the ploAvs attached, which must continue to be a failure, will soon be convinced 

 that the cloiihlc-entjine system, iu which two engines upon opposite head-lands, carrj'ing 

 the winding-drum and alternately paying out by single line of wire rope, pull the im- 

 plemeiit between tlJem, is all that can be desired for the most perfect system of steam- 

 cuUivation. 



Necessity will-soon compel us to take a " new departure.'' Tho constant increase ot 

 emigration aud population in the grain-growing States of our country will soon de- 

 mand a better cultivation and increased production. In England steam plowing haa 

 increased the yield of wheat from 16 bushels to 28 bushels to the acre. 



I do not*believe the agricultural interest of our country can much longer tiu-n a deaf 

 car to this last and greatest achievement of steam — its successful application to the 

 eultivatiou of the soil. It has broken the yoke, and lifted the burden which, for ages, 

 held both man aud beast iu bondage, ameliorating their condition by making that 

 which was most onerous, easy and attractive ; it has elevated labor autl dignilied tho 

 l)low. 



E. LAWKENCE. 



NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN FARMING. 



Iu March last a communication was addressed to the Commissioner 

 of Agriculture by the secreta*y of the Beech Island Farmers' Club, in 

 South Carolina, making certain inquiries concerning the comparative 

 advantages of the different methods of farming at the North aud South, 

 with particular reference to the cost and the profits of culture. To this 

 communication the Commissioner resi:)onded as follows : 



Hakky Hammond, Esq., 



Secretary Beech Island Farmers' Chib, Aufjnsta, Georgia. 



Sir : In reply to your letter of the 2d instant, I feel sincerely inclined to give jou all 

 the information which I have upon the various points of inquiry which you make. 

 Let me premise, however, that the short experience which you have had does not jus- 

 tify the conclusion that tho work of the farm cannot be j)rofitably done by hired labor, 

 with the usual concomitants of a farmer's family. Experience in the Northern and 

 Middle States has taught us otherwise. Farmers there live comfortably, improve their 

 farms, and often grow rich ; and with your soil and superior climate there is no rea- 

 son why you may not do the same thing, especially as the product of your land has a 

 greater money value, acre for acre, than iu the Middle States. In auswer to your sev- 

 eral queries, lot mo instance an agricultural district iu the iutcrior of Pennsylvauia, 

 where land is worth about ^100 per acre, when improved with house, barn, aud neces- 

 sary out-houses. Such farms will average in size about 120 acres, most of the laud be- 

 ing cleared and fenced into fields of about 15 acres. The force that works the farm is 

 generally the farmer and his two sons ; or if he has but one, he must have one hired 

 hand, to whom he would have to pay about $20 a month, aud board him. It woirld 

 require six horses or mules to do the work ; it would sometimes be doue by four ; there 

 would be 8 cows aud as mauy youug cattle, and sometimes 12 sheep, and perhaps 10 

 to 15 hogs. Sometimes the farmer will require additional hands, for wliich he will pay 

 about $1 per day, and in harvest one half more, for raking and binding after a reaper 



