34 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



1200 lbs., which at 6 cts. is worth $12. The whole in a gross income of the 

 hand then, is only $113. And if we allow that in ihe 280 days, he puts his cotton 

 in market, thereby advancing its price j ct., or $3 on the whole: the gross annual 

 income will be $116, or $24 less than fair wages and rent of land. 



It is true that sonie planters in South Carolina and Georgia make more to the 

 acre and to the hand than I have stated. Some make wages and rent ; a few 

 perhaps more. But if on the whole they lose at present prices, the condition 

 of the country must be growing worse, while those who make less than the 

 average, which is not underrated, I am sure, must be rapidly approaching bank- 

 ruptcy. 



Perhaps I should, before concluding this article, state what are our hopes, and 

 why we do not all in a body fly from our homes and the ruin apparently awaiting 

 us here, to seek the richer soils of the south-west. Our first hope is,' that by a 

 chance in the policy of our Government, our expenses will be reduced and the price 

 of our staple enhanced so as to enable us to obtain fair wages for our labor. But 

 as yours is not a political journal I will not enlarge on that exciting topic. Our 

 next hope is that all the planters living near markets, or on navigable streams, 

 and railroads, will grow for market, corn which pays wages now, at least to such 

 an extent as to exclude all corn grown abroad, and corn-fed pork and beef from 

 consumption here. This will increase their profits, and to the extent it may 

 diminish the cotton crop tend to raise the price of it. We hope also that much 

 labor now devoted to cotton in all sections will be diverted to turpentine, tobacco, 

 sugar, rice, timber cutting, manufactures, &:c., &c. ; so as to reduce the aggregate 

 cotton crop still more. Our last, and perhaps most reliable hope is, that we will 

 cease to clear more land, and by turning our attention seriously to manuring, 

 marling, &c., so increase the production of our acres, that we shall in spite of all 

 competition realize fair rents and wages. This last means of arresting our down- 

 ward progress each individual can resort to for himself, and by himself, without 

 looking to the action of Government or the community at large for aid : and few, 

 I trust, will fail to do it eft'eclually and speedily. S. B. 



The preceding suggests that it ought to be univei-sally regarded as a most essential part of 

 the education of every fanner's and planter's son in the Union ; that he should be taught at 

 Bchool, and his father should enforce it by illustration at home — that keeping exact accounts 

 of outlay and income, is as indispensable to avoid ruin and bankniptcy in the practice of Agri- 

 ture as it is in the pursuits oi commerce, or any other branch of business. An arithmetic is 

 ■wanting with its rules applicable to, and its examples drawn from agricultural operations. Is 

 there, in short, anything in which so much refonii is needed, as in our systems of instiiictioa 

 of American youth d(!stined to rural pursuits ? Half their time is spent in learning Latin and 

 Greek, wliich they forget in fewer years than were required to learn tliem ; and in studying 

 how to " s])eak the speech " " My name is Norval, on the (irimipian liills," &c., and such other 

 recitals of warlike deeds and ftn-ensic displays, extaicts from which make up our school " Re ad- 

 ERs," and which serve to pervert and coiTupt their youthful imaginations : leading them to 

 dwell on topics and to contemplate ways to advancement and forhme which are utterly in- 

 compatible with the real welfare of society in diis countiy ! Instead of thus heating then- imagi- 

 nation with haibiudu.s thoughts of " bended bow and ipiiver iidl of aiTOws," how much better 

 would it be to teach them the tnie princii)les to be sought in the fonn of domestic animals 

 and in the stnicture of agricultural implements, and how so to keep accounts of all their opera- 

 rations, and outlays, in labor and money, thus to be enabled at once to detect any one of those 

 Bmall leaks that often sink great ships. How much better to teach them how to analyze the 

 properties and to understand the force and value of eveiy thing connecteil with the purauit 

 which is to be the support and the busuiess of their lives ! 



Alas ! to get for their sons life commissions, mid liigh aiul sure pay m the militaiy ; and to 

 qualify them for those parasitical professions that in our llepublican land leiul, with the least 

 labor, to distinction and fortune, seems to be the universal aim ; and hence the general tetuiency 

 t<) flatter power, and the ready submission to being ridden by demagogues. It is not to be 

 doubted, that many thousjuid American agiiculturistsare now on the rojul, almost in a giillop 

 lo ruin, who do not dream of the precipice they are approaching ; and all for the wtuit of that 

 (82) 



