193 
To the mass of the northern people—by which I mean of the free States be- 
fore the rebellion—but little is known of the agricultural resources of the South. 
In Europe the people fail to comprehend in the slightest degree the vast field 
which is there opened up for the future home of the emigrant. While slavery 
existed the South was as a sealed book to the industry and enterprise of the 
North. Free labor could not penetrate, and hence the great current of northern 
and European emigration would not seek an entrance into a country where it 
was not wanted or tolerated. 
But slavery having been abolished, there is a vacuum created for labor so 
large that a million of laboring people would now find profitable employment ; 
and when the southern people have once mustered a supply of provisions for 
their own use and to feed the emigrant, meaus should be taken by the general 
government or by the States to inaugurate a broad system of emigration. 
The effective labor of the South has been reduced to such an extent that 
careful and experienced men estimate it at one-fourth what it was before the 
war. My own observation satisfies me that it is less than one-third. There are, 
therefore, large quantities of land already opened up or cleared and fenced which 
cannot be cultivated, and is fast growing. up with brush and briers for the want 
of labor. 
Few understand the variety of climate, soil, and production of the South. 
Its production includes those of the temperate and torid zones. All the cereals 
can be grown there as well as at the North, while oranges, bananas, figs, in ad- 
dition to most of the fruits of the North, abound. In addition to the cereals, 
cotton is grown everywhere. I have seen on the same farm cotton, corn, 
wheat, oats, rye, and red clover, all looking well; the clover was nearly past 
bloom, and the wheat almost ready for the harvest. 
When these facts are understood, and that it is a mistake to suppose a north- 
ern man or a European cannot enjoy health at the South, as a general rule, 
immigration must flow that way; and as the country becomes better understood 
and appreciated it will teem with a thrifty and industrious population. ‘There 
are portions of the, South where a northern man ought not to settle at present. 
Around the swamps and rivers and near the coast there are seasons when it 
would be necessary to adopt great precautions, but it is only a small belt of 
country—say some fifty or sixty miles wide from the James river, in Virginia, 
to the Mississippi. To this again are many exceptions, as along the coast as 
healthy points are found as any in the Union. But however interesting these 
subjects may be, it is not the place to discuss them in this report. 
I found everywhere a want of means and a scarcity of labor to adequately 
cultivate the land which was already open for tillage.. Comparatively few had 
been able to borrow the means to purchase mules and to féed and pay a few 
laborers. The difficulty of procuring the means of living for man or beast over 
the whole South can scarcely be conceivedgby other than an eye-witness. The 
war had absorbed or destroyed nearly all the domestic animals, as well as every 
species of breadstuffs. A bad season had followed the war. . There had been 
no money left, and nothing to get it with. The people, therefore, commenced 
the year with empty granaries and larders; still, they were trying every means 
to prepare for making a crop. Few through the Carolinas and a part of Geor- 
gia, Alabama, and Mississippi could get teams for any amount of work. Some 
could get a cow or a steer, which was harnessed to the plough ; and it was not 
uncommon among the poorer families to find the cow doing double duty—fur- 
nishing milk to keep the family from starving, and ploughing the land for a crop. 
Many planters who had teams and the means to put in a good breadth of land 
to corn or cotton, but not enough to work it beyond a certain point, went for- 
ward manfully, trusting to some future supply, though they knew not from 
what source it would come. Many of these people have been compelled to dis- 
charge their laborers, turn their mules into the woods, and abandon promising 
