174 PROPERTY GIVES NO INFLUENCE. 



present of the more western States, which I have not 

 myself visited. A comfortable livehhood and adequate 

 support for a family may be obtained by ordinary 

 industry, but money is accumulated with difficulty ; and 

 this is the test of prosperity which all classes apply to 

 their pursuits. Hence those who wish to add to their 

 capital more readily, or more speedily, betake them- 

 selves to traffic, or to some other more promising 

 employment. Hence, also, one reason why so many 

 farms are in the market. The price of land rises as a 

 district becomes settled; so that, when a man's sons 

 grow up, and are ready for farms of their own, he is 

 unable to provide for them by purchasing land in his 

 own neighbourhood ; but by selling his own clearing at 

 the increased value it has acquired, he can proceed 

 further west, and, with the price he receives, provide 

 farms in the wilderness for them all. 



The renting or hiring of land, especially for a money 

 rent, is not more popular in this district than elsewhere, 

 even on a lease. Farmers do not like to be tenants ; 

 and when land falls into the hands of mortgagees, and 

 must be let, it is usually let on shares, sometimes on 

 halves, as it is called ; sometimes at two-thirds of the 

 produce, as the agreement may be, which is special 

 for almost every case. 



The usual size of farms is from 100 to 150 acres. 

 Some farms are as large as 1000 acres ; and a family of 

 Monroes was mentioned to me in this neighbourhood 

 who have farms of this size which they cultivate and 

 manage themselves. A large landholder, unless he 

 farms all his land himself, is looked upon with dislike 

 as an aristocrat. Property, according to the con- 

 stitution, confers no political rights, except upon 

 coloured men ;* and there is a jealousy lest a man, hy 



* A free coloured man, in the State of New York, must possess a 

 freehold of 250 dollars before he is allowed to vote as a citizen. 



