MORRIS BIRKBECK, ESQ. 



if it be not cheaper here than with you, men would do well not to 

 go so far in search of high wages ! 



1000. Let no simple Englishman imagine that here, at and near 

 New York, in this dear place, we have to pay for the boards and 

 timber brought from a distance : and that you, the happy people 

 of the land of daisies and cowslips, can cut down your own good 

 and noble oak trees upon the spot, on your own estates, and turn 

 them into houses without any carting. Let no simple Englishman 

 believe such idle stories as this. To dissipate all such notions, 

 I have only to tell him /that the American farmers on this island, 

 when they have buildings to make or repair, go and purchase 

 the pine timber and boards, at the very same time that they cut 

 down their own oak trees and cleave up and burn them as fire-wood ! 

 This is the universal practice in all the parts of America that I 

 have ever seen. What is the cause ? Pine wood is cheaper, 

 though bought, than the oak is without buying. This fact, which 

 nobody can deny, is a complete proof that you gain no advantage 

 from being in woods, as far as building is concerned. And the 

 truth is, that the boards and plank, which have been used in the 

 Prairie, have actually been brought from the Wabash, charged with 

 ten miles rough land carriage ; how far they may have come down 

 the Wabash I cannot tell. 



i ooi. Thus, then, the question is settled that building must be 

 cheaper here than in the Illinois. If, therefore, a house, 36 by 34 

 feet, cost here 6000 dollars, what can a man get there for 1500 

 dollars ? A miserable hole, and no more. But, here are to be 

 farm-buildings and all, in the 1500 dollars worth ! A barn, 40 

 feet by 30, with floor, and with stables in the sides, cannot be 

 built for 1500 dollars, leaving out waggon-house, corn-crib, cattle- 

 hovels, yard fences, pig-sties, smoke house, and a great deal more ! 

 And yet, you say, that all these, and a farm-house into the bargain, 

 all &quot; exceedingly comfortable and convenient,&quot; may be had for 1500 

 dollars ! 



1 002. Now, you know, my dear Sir, that this is said in the face 

 of all America. Farmers are my readers. They all understand 

 these matters. They are not only good, but impartial judges 

 and I call upon you to contradict, or even question, my statements, 

 if you can. 



1003 Do my eyes deceive me ? Or do I really see one hundred 

 and fifty dollars put down as the expence of &quot; planting one thousand 

 &quot; eight hundred rod of live fence ? &quot; That is to say, nine cents, 

 or four pence half -penny sterling, a rod ! What plants ? Whence 

 to come ? Drawn out of the woods, or first sown in a nursery ? 

 Is it seed to be sown ? Where are the seeds to come from ? No 

 levelling of the top of the bank ; no drill ; no sowing ; no keeping 

 clean for a year or two : or, all these for nine cents a rod, when the 

 same works cost half a dollar a rod in England ! 



1004. Manure too ! And do you really want manure then ? 

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