FARMERS' REGISTER 



141 



SKETCH OP THE CAUSES OF THE PRESENT 

 FINANCIAL PROSTRATION OF THIS COUNTRY. 



"Again: is ii not equally clear that it was the 

 magnitude of Uie surplus [revenue,] and not the 

 removal [ofthe deposites] ofitself, that caused the 

 after derangement and disorder? If the surplus 

 had been but two or three millions, the ordinary 

 sum in deposite, it would have been of little impor- 

 tance where it was kept ; whether in the vaults of 

 the bank of the Uniied States, or those of the 

 states ; but involving, as it did, fifty millions and 

 more, it became a question of the highest impor- 

 tance. I again ask, to what is this great surplus 

 to be attributed, but to the same cause 1 Yes, 

 sir, the tariff of 1828 caused the surplus, and the 

 surplus the removal and all the after disasters in 

 the currency, aggravated, it is true, by being 

 deposited in the state banks; but it may be doubt- 

 ed whether the disaster would have been much 

 less, had they not been removed. Be that, how- 

 ever, as it may, it is not material, as I have shown, 

 that surplus itself vvas the motive for the remo- 

 val. We all remember what occurred after the 

 removal 



currency was concerned, in vain. The explosion 

 ioliowcd, and the banks (ell in convuisionc, to be 

 resuscitated for a moment, but to lall again from a 

 more deadly stroke, under which they now lie pros- 

 trate." — Debate in Congress. 



MALARIA AND MILLPONDS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Washington County, JV. C. Jan. 6, 1840. 

 The ' Essay on Malaria' I read when it first 

 made its appearance, in the sixth volume of the 

 Register, with great interest. 1 thought I knew 

 every word of it to be true, from long observation 

 and suffering from the ignorance o/' those facts in 

 early time. But fo"- more than tvventy-five years 

 I have been fully convmced of the great cause of 

 most of our sickness in this country — stagnant 

 water, and mud exposed to a hot fall sun ; and 

 have spared no labor and cost in my power to 

 avoid them. One ofthe strong reasons (or moving 



my house at , (rom my father's location, vvas 



The surplus poured into the treasury I to get it farther from the river swamp, and 



by millions, in (he form of bank notes. The though it was but two hundred and fifty yards, 



withdrawal from circulation, and locking up in 

 the vaults of the deposite banks, so larjie an 

 amount, created an immense vacuum, to be re- 

 plenished by repeating the issues which gave to 

 the banks the means of unbounded accommoda- 

 tions. Speculation now commenced on a gigantic 

 scale ; prices rose rapidly, and one party, to make 

 the removal acceptable to the people, urged the 

 new depositories to discount freely, while the other 

 side produced the same effect, by censuring them 

 for not affording as extensive accommodations as 

 the Bank of the United States would have done, 

 had the revenue been left with it. Madness ruled 

 the hour. The whole comnmnity was intoxicated 

 with imaginary prospects of realizioff immense 

 fortunes. With the increased rise of prices began 

 the gigantic speculations in the public domain, the 

 price of which, being fixed by law, could not par- 

 take ofthe general rise. To enlarge the room for 

 their operations, I know not how many millions, 

 (fifty, I would suppose, at least, ofthe public reve- 

 nue) was sunk in purchasing Indian lands, at their 

 fee simple price nearly, and removing tribe 

 after tribe to the West, at enormous cost; thus 

 subjecting millions on millions of the choicest 

 public lands to be seized on by the keen and 

 greedy speculator. The tide now swelled with 

 irresistible force. From the banks the deposites 

 passed by discounts into the hands of the land 

 speculators ; from them into the hands of the re- 

 ceivers, and thence to the banks ; and again and 

 again repeating the same circle, and, at every 

 revolution, passing millions of acres of the public 

 domain from the people into the hands of specula- 

 tors, for worthless rags. Had this state of things 

 continued much longer, every acre of the public 

 lands, worth possessing, would have passed from 

 the government. At this stage the alarm took 

 place. The revenue was attempted to be squan- 

 dered by the wildest extravagance ; resolutions 

 passed this body, calling on the departments to 

 know how much they could spend, and much re- 

 sentment was felt because they could nor spend 

 fast enough. The deposite act was pas.^cd, and 

 the treasury circular issued ; but, as far as the 



I have no doubt of having long since been remu- 

 nerated for the cost in the health of my people, 

 though it has been but six years. It is a work 

 which ought to be in the hands of every man who 

 lives in the low country, or bilious fever region of 

 our country. I hold the right of property inviola- 

 ble, except in cases of life and death ; but were I 

 living in the neighborhood of a millpond, I should 

 consider the right of property in it no more than 

 that of a tame bear, that was devouring my child. 

 To calmly sit by and see all one's children and 

 dear companion as pale as corpses, in a short time 

 violent disease, and, after watching with the ut- 

 most anxiety, to follow to the grave those dear ob- 

 jects of your love, perhaps one after the other un- 

 til all are gone, and to know that all those heart- 

 rending sufferings arise from the malaria of the 

 various millponds in your neighborhood, must 

 evince a degree of forbearance beyond Christian, 

 and an obduracy of heart, in ihe owner of mills, 

 almost equal to that of cold-blooded murder, [fl 

 know any thing that would induce me to accept 

 the dictatorship of a country, it would be that of 

 having the power to constrain the inhabitants in 

 the bilious fever region to remove all stagnant wa- 

 ters from it, and to keep all arable land in the fall 

 covered with vegetation, and thereby sheltered 

 from the power and influence of the sun. * * 



For the Fa-'iners' Register, 

 BULLETING FOR SPAYING. 



Little Hock, jJrk. Dec. 27th, 1839. 



I have tried spaying pigs with shot. [Described 

 in an article in the Farmers' Register.] The ex- 

 periment has been tried by Mr. William Wilsan 

 also, and other careful farmers in this vicinity ; 

 and, so liir as I know, every experiment failed (o 

 produce the desired effect. " I am fully of the opi- 

 nion it is nol worth the attention of the farmer. 

 Allen Martin. 



