1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



349 



£r(ulfield-Hall, Jan. 15, 1793. 



Is it pnspihle, that the inhahitiinis of a ffreat 

 cniiiiiieat, not new settlers, who live only to hunt, 

 to cat, anil to ilrnik, can carry on iarmint"; and 

 planlintr, as a liusiness, and yet never calculate 

 the |)rotit they make hy per centage on their capi- 

 tal? And vet this seems to be the case. 



The liu-M"i of 200 acres in Jlucks county, is such 

 as au EiiiThshnian would not accept; lor it carries 

 on the face of liie account which I have drawn 

 out (A) a dead loss, and not an inconsiderable 

 one: yet the whole labor of a family of five per- 

 soiis is thrown away in order to arrive at that loss. 



The Pitlsburo; account (B) is so much more 

 profitable that I know not how to believe that I 

 understand it rightly; but 1 have calculated the 

 products named, as issuintr from the quantity of 

 land noted; consequently there is 115/. from 47 

 acres arable, which is more than the double of the 

 Bucks larm. 



The xMaryland account (C) seems to be very 

 good land, and to yield well; but no note being in- 

 .serted of expenses, it is impossible to calculate 

 the profits. 



M r. Jefierson's Virginia calculation comes much 

 nearer to the point; but I cannot admit it: he 

 reckons 60/. a year increasing value of negroes, and 

 156/. a year rise in value of land. These articles 

 may be" fact in certain circumstance, but they will 

 not do lor comparisons. In the first place, to 

 have a considerable value invested in slaves, is a 

 hazardous capital; and there is no man in the 

 world who would not give 60/ a year on 6000 acres, 

 to be able to change slaves to cows and sheep; he 

 cannot otherwise command labor, and therefore 

 must keep them; but the profit in any other light 

 than laborers, is inadmissible. As to the rise on 

 lands, it may be (air; but taking place equally, 

 perhaps, in Europe, it must not come into the ac- 

 count. During the last ten years, land in Eng 



(i'om wheat, would reduce the finest farm in the 

 world io n caput mortuum; that is to say to ten 

 bushels an acre, which must be nearly such. 



Here then opens the part of the subject of my 

 inquiries, where most darkness hanrrs — the de- 

 ;iu\nd for cattle and sheep products. It is the quan- 

 tity to be sold that makes the diOicuhy. The de- 

 mand must be boundless, or encouragement will 

 be wanting. 



Wolves are named as a motive for not keeping 

 sheep; surely they cannot be serious, who urge 

 it. They abound all over Europe: in France and 

 Spain, among the greatest Oocks in the world, and 

 no wolf could get into my sheep-houses, or at least 

 I may say, that nothing is so easy as to keep him 

 out, even of a yard. Dogs also are an enemy; 

 but America surely has laws, as well as we, that 

 make ever}^ man answerable lor the mischief 

 done by his dog. By night, if secure from wolves 

 they are secure from dogs; and by day, shep- 

 herds may have loaded fire-arms to kill all that 

 approach. While sheep are kept by scores; such 

 objections may hold good; but when by hundreds 

 and thousands, they must vanish. 



In the culture of grass for pasturage, as pre- 

 paratory to corn, the profit of well applying this 

 principle in America, must be very great; there is 

 every advantage of soil, and extent of farm and 

 no drawback but the rate of labor. Pasturage 

 demands scarcely any labor; so that if there is 

 one system that "squares more to the circumstan- 

 ces of America (not Ibrgetting the disposition of 

 the land to run to white clover) than another, it 

 is to adopt a course of crops that lakes grass in 

 very largely. 



Surely the enormous rise in the price of wool 

 in England and Holland, ibr two years past, must 

 affect America, and instigate to an increase to the 

 breed of sheep. The freight, when pressed into 

 a smaller compass, is a trifle; and the price is 

 now such, that a fleece alone from American lands, 



land has risen one third in value. Correcting without reckoning the carcass at any thing, must 



thus Mr. Jefierson's account, his capital pays 11 

 per cent, as in (D). There are, however, many 

 deductions to be made; as wear and tear of im- 

 plements, carriage, team, seed, repairs of build- 

 ings, white servants, overseers, &c. &c. These 

 ought, as I conjecture, to amount to near 200/. a 

 year, which, if so, would reduce to profit in the 

 gross to about eight per cent. 



But I have a heavier objection than this, and 

 which bears upon the pith of the subject. How 

 can Mr. Jefferson produce annually 5000 bushels 

 of wheat, worth 750/. by means of a cattle pro- 

 duct, of only 125/. % I do not want to come to 

 America, to know that this is simply impossible: 

 at the commencement of a term it may do, but 

 how long will it last? This is the management 

 that gives such products as eight and ten bushels 

 an acre. Arable land can yield wheat, only by 

 means of cattle and sheep; it is not dung that is 

 wanted so much as a change of products: repose 

 under grasses is the soul of management; and all 

 cleaning and tillage to be given in the year that 

 yields green winter food. By such a system, you 

 may produce, by means of forty oxen and five 

 hundred sheep, 5000 bushels of wheat; and if 

 you raise the oxen to fifty, and sheep to six hun- 

 dred, you may have so much more wheat; but it 

 is only by increasing cattle that you can increase 

 wheal permanently. 125/. from cattle, to 750/. 



be more valuable than the profit on a crop of 

 wheat of eight or Jen bushels an acre, on all lands 

 that will produce white clover spontaneously. 



Suppose on some of the mountain-lands (moun- 

 tains are no objection on account of wolves, for 

 the Pyrenees are iiill of both sheep and wolves,) 

 which are to be bought for 5s. to 20s. an acre; at 

 Pittsburgh, 16s. St/.; at Fluvanna, 20s. Supposing 

 20s. sterling an acre, it is Is. an acre rent— such 

 land, by carrying only one sheep per acre, produ- 

 cing wool only 51bs. at Is. or 5s. a head; and the 

 mutton to do no more than pay (or losses, shepherd, 

 &c. here is a profit such as corn cannot rival; five 

 rents paid by wool! The West Indies are, how- 

 ever, too near for salted mutton to want a mar- 

 ket; and if it sold for only Id. per lb. the object on 

 a large scale would be important. 



