ITS 



FARMKRS' REGISTER. 



[No. 10 



ploymerit, yet visited almost as much for pleasure, 

 88 did the others as a matter of business, would suf- 

 fice to eat up a good e&tate before it had passed 

 through the hands of two generations, if it was not 

 husbanded with more than common care. With 



B , owing to his numerous acquaintances of 



this kind, contracted befiire his lather's death, the 

 work of waste went on with such unusual rapidity. 

 that he soon saw, that, without a change, his es- 

 tate would scarcely last through his own life. To 

 a man of firmness and moral courage, the proper 

 change and remedy would have been obvious and 



eeisy. But not so "to B . Retrench Aere he 



could not bear to do — though convinced that it 

 would have saved his property, without causing 

 scarcely any privation of comlbrt to his family. 

 But he could do this in the western wilderness, 

 where economy was held as meritorious, and pri- 

 vations were universal; and, accordingly, to the 

 west he fled — and, (as most other emigrants from 

 Virginia do,) not so much to get possession of rich 

 land, and to reap great profiis, as to escape frorn 

 the presence of his " troops of friends" here, and 

 and the so much lauded exercise of '' old Virginia 

 hospitality." From living here not only in the en- 

 joyment of every comlbrt, but of luxury and splen- 

 dor, he changed to a residence in a log-hut, 

 ecarcely securing its inmates from the violence of 

 the wind and rain, and without the conveniences 

 and comforts wliich the houses of his own slaves 

 had possessed in Virginia. Every article of furni- 

 ture, the Iodizing and the food, for his previously ten- 

 derly nurtured family, were coarse and mean — even 

 to the loss of ordinary necessaries and comf()rts, 

 moral as well as physical. There, on the outer 

 borders ol civilization, and far beyond the limits ol' 

 refinement, and of well organized society and good 

 government. — destitute of almost every social plea- 

 sure — but li-eed from Iriends and vi^iilers, and every 



temptation to idleness and expenr=e — B 



je again becoming rich ; and with half the amount 

 of the sacrifices he has there submitted to, he might 

 have accumulated Avealth here, if not as liist as in 

 the western coutitry, at least fast enough for hap- 

 piness, and to satisfy any reasonable man. He, 

 however, is one of the fortunate class of emigrants ; 

 ■and the extent of his cood fortune will be to leave 

 great wealth to his children, afier haviuij debarred 

 them from all the best means of ohtaiuiiKj educa- 

 tion and instruction ; not literary instruction only, 

 but fecial, moral, and religious. The\' vvdl he 

 trained very dilierently, it is true, but scarcely bet- 

 ter, than was done in regard to himself and 

 the other children of his father. 



" Some legal difficulties, and other circum- 



istances, at fi.rst prevented B 's selling this 



farm ; and it was, therefore, rented out, to tenants 

 for a single year. Each occupier, of course, 

 aimed to make as much as possible for himselfdur- 

 in'g his short term, and to expend as little as possi- 

 ble in repairs, and nothing lor improvement or pre- 

 servation of ft-riility. Of course, it did not require 

 many years for the farm to reach the present state 

 of dilapidation ; and which, indeed, was well ad- 

 vanced before B left it," 



« Those who, like B — ,'' said M , 



" thu3 waste the products of the earth, and destroy 

 its fitness to [jfodiice in fiiture time, 1 hold to be 

 guilty of hii/h crimen against society : and if I was 

 jv lav>--fTiver, like Solon or Lycurgiis, these ofifences 

 slwuld certainly have their.place in my penal code." 



" I am afraid then that your code would be 

 mure bloody than that of Draco's ; and that, 

 in lower Virginia, there vi'ould scarcely be found so 

 many persons clear of all such ofiences, as would 

 serve to judge the cases, and to inflict the penal- 

 ties on the gmlty. For, injurious and destructive 



as may be the course pursued by B , it is 



but one of many operations, by which our habits, 

 and sometimes our laws, are continually acting to 

 destroy the fruitfijhiess of the earth, and to lessen 

 the ed'ect of the blessirigs offered by our Creator 

 to man's acceptance and use. Some examples, of 

 a diflt?rent character, will be ottered to our notice 

 during the day's excursion." 



" Yonder house," said Mr. M , " was 



formerly the residence of an industrious farmer, 

 doing well, and rearing his children to habits of 

 industry. They, at least, ought to have been 

 prosperous, though the houses and the farm cer- 

 tainly do not appear to be the abode of the pros- 

 perous." 



" Neither are they so. Old S died with- 

 out a will, leaving a widow and six children, of 

 aiies from twenty-five to less than five years. 

 His farm, when in his own hands, and well man- 

 aged, as it was, had served to maintain his family 

 in comfort, and to enable the owner every year to 

 increase his store. But as soon as it was divided 

 into seven shares among the widow and the six 

 children — or rather, thirteen shtu'es. in the end — as 

 the widow's dower of one-third, will, at her death, 

 have to be divitled into six other shares — the land 

 lost half its productive value, and the fannily sunk 

 fi'jm a state of comfort and independence, to 

 want. The farm was well arranged for a single 

 property, but, for that very reason, was (|uile unfit 

 to be cut up into seven, or into tliirteen separate pro- 

 perties. Two of the children only were over 

 twenty-one years, and theiefi)re cafiable of selling 

 their shares. They drew detached pieces, both of 

 laud entirely cleared fur cultivation, and wiiltout a 

 house, or a tree fiir fencing or fuel, on either share, 

 or any means ofprocurinir what was wanting,close 

 by. Both were oblined to sell their shares : but of 

 course they could iret no more [irice tfian the land 

 was worth under the then existinirdisadvantagcs ; 

 and each received about half the price that the 

 land would have been worth to the owner of the 

 whole farm. Nor did the new purchasers make 

 any thing by their bargains, on account of reduced 

 price, as the price was really high enough for the 

 new value, as reduced by division. The like 

 course will have to be taken by each other child, 

 as they successively come of age ; and thus it 

 will take more than fifteen years to have the farm 

 finally a<jain arranged, and then as biully as it well 

 can be, parts being attached to perhaps three or 

 four other adjacent farms. The loss of' value, to- 

 tal and uncompensated to any one, cannot be less 

 than one-ftjurth of the whole estate. And before 

 the new arrangement will be finished, perhaps si- 

 milar new cuttings up, for division of the same 

 Ian', will be yoing on, in consequence of the death 

 of some one of the purchasers of the shares, and 

 the division of their estates. Hall" the number of 

 all such impoverished heirs are also seekers of 

 wealth in the west." 



" You observe the delapidated condition and 

 1 cheerless appearance of the extensive and form- 

 1 eriy excellent farm buildings. It is sufficiently ex- 

 I plained by its being in possession in right of dower. 



