1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



83 



make money more plentiful for prices of produce. 

 Now, in this case, produce of every kind is grown 

 in a country abounding in capital, ami sent, to ano- 

 ther, where it is scarce, and finds inghor prices. 

 An ox is fed on a depreciated currency, say lor 

 £15; he is sent to London, and letches £20 l!)r 

 expenses and profits, and in gold, and more than 

 tan be got in one-pound notes at home. II" ca|)i- 

 tal be wanting to raise the ox, whence conies the 

 capital 10 buy him? Would not the price raise 

 him at home? Gold has reared the ox, and gold 

 has bought him. When one-pound notes were 

 in circulation till 1S19, cultivation was no better, 

 and complaints were as loud. The truth is, il Mr. 

 Cayley and others will hear the truth, it is merely 

 an application of capital and labor to the increase 

 of produce under a different system. How one- 

 pound notes can make a good ploughman or me- 

 chanic, is certainly difficult to conceive. Manu- 

 facturers reckon profits by the quantity of goods 

 they can produce, and commercial dealers by the 

 amount of their transactions, and every corner of 

 the world is explored to find an opening lor the 

 increase of trade in farming; prejudice and mo- 

 nopoly restrict the quantity, to a certain amount, 

 arising from an established system that must not 

 be disturbed, and then prohibitions and restric- 

 tions are enacted to impose a lactitious value on 

 that quantity. 



On the niucli-disputed point of preference be- 

 twixt wagons, and single horse-carts, the writer 

 of 'British Husbandry' prefers Mr. Parkinson's 

 single opinion to the practice of half the kingdom. 

 Where the drdi system prevails, these carts must 

 be used to suit the drills, and wagons are useless. 

 Abroad, the carts will carry more than wagons; 

 and, judging by a majority of similar results, the 

 usual criterion in such cases, the superiority is in- 

 contestable. I remember seeing a farmer, in Sur- 

 rey, ploughing a sandy loam with a turnwrist 

 plough, (bur horses, a man and boy, at 15s. a day, 

 and ploughed three roods. Two horses, with an 

 iron plough, would surely have ploughed an acre 

 in nine hours: here are lOs. against 20s.; or, if the 

 four horses had ploughed an acre, there are 10s. 

 against 15s. The answer would be, that labor is 

 diminished by dispensing with the boy; this is 

 just what is wanted, the value of his labor not be- 

 ing required to produce the result of ploughing an 

 acre in a day, remains to be applied to another 

 point. We have lately had a description of a 

 grass yieJding 30 tons an acre, by the Central So- 

 ciety of Agriculture; of a newly invented machine 

 to do away with the malt tax; and with a univer- 

 sal remedy for agricultural distress, in the shape of 

 manure, to be gathered in tanks from the water 

 of the common sewers in London. Laying prime 

 cost aside, the expense of carriage to a distance 

 must be considerable; and how it is to be got in 

 quantity and conveyed at a rate to remedy the 

 whole complaints, is a question not so easily an- 

 swered. The circumstance of proprietors and cul- 

 tivators forming a society to advance the state of 

 agriculture, and at the same time neglecting all 

 improvements, leaving lands undrained and total- 

 ly neglected, and actually forbidding any altera- 

 tion, is certainly an anomaly not ofien surpassed 

 in the anomalous history of mankind. It might 

 be curious to inquire, if there be shown by the So- 

 ciety as an improvement, a piece of old turf", cover- 

 ed with weeds, whh the veto attached — "This 



must not be ploughed or *, but re- 

 main as it is." J)rilling is reckoned unnecessary 

 labor — thrashing by machinery is not customary 

 — breeding and feedmg young slock is fancy ("arm- 

 ing — and ploughing old turf is complete madness; 

 --^draining is too expensive, and perennial grasses, 

 though constituting the best pastures growing 

 naturally, become an absurdity, and little better 

 than weeds, when sown to make a sward. All 

 known improvements being rejected and hunted 

 down, it is difficult to see by what means the art ia 

 now to be benefited. Many improvements have 

 been long known, and lie dormant from want of 

 execution: the proficiency of any art, and the su- 

 periority attained in it, must depend on the skill 

 and assiduity of the practitioners; a good article 

 always brings a higher price, and consequently 

 its ovvn reward; and, provided each (branch of bu- 

 siness have fair sco|)e, and be not unduly fettered, 

 the different methods of practice must sink or swim 

 by their own merit. 



GOVERXBIENT BOUNTIES TO AGRICULTURE, 

 AND TO PRINTERS. 



We have just received from Washington a pamph- 

 let of 99 closely printed octavo pages, consisting of a 

 report of the Committee of Agriculture, and various 

 accompanying documents, all serving to detail, and to 

 recommend to the favorable notice and patronage of 

 congress, the plans and labors of Dr. H. Perrine, for 

 introducing the cultivation of valuable tropical plants 

 into the southern part of Florida. It may well be 

 doubted whether any profit will accrue to any person 

 from this publication, except to the public printer, for 

 printing the usual number, and also 5000 extra copies 

 of this large pamphlet. But we wish it may be other- 

 wise Dr. Perrine has no doubt made great efforts to 

 introduce tropical plants into Florida, and not less, 

 nor long, to induce congress to assist and reward his 

 labors; and, as yet, his efforts in both respects seem to 

 have been nearly fruitless. His scheme, if carried in- 

 to effect, may or may not be productive of great im- 

 provement to southern agriculture. But, doubtful as 

 inay be the direct benefit, we should rejoice to see 

 some portion of the enormous squanderings of public 

 treasure by the government of the United States, di- 

 rected, even though but in design, or but nominally, 

 to the object of agricidtural improvement; as merely 

 the principle being adopted, and its application com- 

 menced, might lead, finally, to a beneficial system. Dr. 

 Perrine asks for a township, 23,000 acres, of public 

 land, on the southern extremity of Florida, to repay 

 his expenditures, and enable him to effect his objects 

 of introducing and acclimating tropical plants. For 

 this, or for any object likely to forward national im- 

 provement, congress would make a good bargain to 

 give away not only the 23,000 acres/bui: the whole of 

 southern Florida; provided the receiver would take its 

 troublesome inhabitants, the Seminole Indians, as part 

 of the grant. The present market value of a tract of 



* The original being written with a lead pencil, and 

 having been rubbed at this place, we are unable to 

 make out the word. — Ed. 



