321 HOW TO GET A FATCM, 



rnorials of the artless and exhausting culture of cotton. 

 Our small planters, after taking the cream off their lands, 

 unable to restore them by rest, manures, or otherwise, are 

 going further West and South, in search of other virgin 

 lands, which they may and will despoil and impoverish in 

 like manner. Our wealthier planters, with greater means 

 and no more skill, are buying out their poorer neighbors, 

 extending their plantations, and adding to their slave force. 

 The wealthy few, who are able to live on smaller profits, 

 and to give their blasted fields some rest, are thus pushing 

 off the many who are merely independent. Of the 

 $20,000,000 annually realized from the sales of the cotton 

 crop of Alabama, nearly all not expended in supporting the 

 producers is re-invested in land and negroes. Thus the 

 white population has decreased, and the slave increased al 

 most pari passu in several counties of our State. In 1825, 

 Madison County cast about 3,000 votes; now, she cannot 

 cast exceeding 2,300. In traversing that county one will 

 discover numerous farm houses, once the abode of intelli 

 gent and industrious freemen, now occupied by slaves, or 

 tenantless, deserted, and dilapidated ; he will observe 

 fields once fertile, now unfenced, abandoned, and covered 

 with those evil harbingers, foxtail and broomsedge ; he will 

 see the moss growing on the mouldering walls, of once 

 thrifty villages, and will find one only master grasps the 

 whole domain that once furnished happy homes for a dozen 

 white families. Indeed, a country in its infancy, where fifty 

 years ago scarce a forest tree had been felled by the axe of 

 the pioneer, is already exhibiting the painful signs of senil 

 ity and decay apparent in Virginia and the Carolina*.&quot; 



Among English owners &quot; are many men of the 

 highest intellectual powers and attainments, of the 

 highest social position, and of the most refined cul- 



