iiense of $10,000! The moicliant trader wul. 

 Ihp UUwhU of Ciil)a iiii.l Pork) Rico or with J5rii- 

 zil who carries the flour, Imiilxn- iinil otlier |iro- 

 .hiclioiis el" the ?>"nli lo ''e exchauaol lor the 

 Mi-ars of those Ibrci-ii eoiintrios, can no belter 

 i.fTord 10 pay a lii;;hor price for siisjar at ^ew 

 Orleans than at the forci^in port: to come in 

 competition with the Louisiana planter he_ must 

 purchase the foreign sugar at iialf price; for the 

 Ilulv added vill make the cost equal when it 

 coiiiesto ns. This statement « ill show liow niueh 

 tax the New En!,dand ennsnmer [kivs on every 

 j.onnd of sn^ar imported from heyond the liniiis 

 of the Uniteil States, and how nmch traile mif;lit 

 be facilitated with foreign sugar producing coun- 

 tries, if liie diitv on sugar was reiluced as it should 

 be, not to exceed a cent on a pound. \\ e re- 

 peat, there is just as much reason why a hnunly 

 should be jiaid to the cotton grower or to the 

 wheat grower or cattle raiser who jirodnccs arti- 

 cles lor exportation, as that the tariti should in- 

 crease the gains of the Lcwisiana sugar phmter 



More'splendiil and beautiful than the cotton 

 phunaliuus above, are the sugar plantations lor 

 ihe distance of some two hundred miles all along 

 the bank of the great river, aliove New Orleans. 

 The names of the owners of many ol these plan- 

 tations indicate that they remain in their original 

 Spanish and French Creole descent. They are 

 the most valuable farm possessions in the United 

 Plates, and iierhaps the most lu-odnctive lor the 

 amount of labor of any laud to the north of. the 

 Tropics. Men of iiieaus and wealth, m the Car- 

 olinas and Georgia, seem early to have under- 

 stood liow their condition and that of their slave 

 families was to be bettered either iiy disposing 

 of their plantations at home or dividing then- 

 slaves ami moving to the richer lands opening at 

 the West. We believe it was previous to the 

 last war, that Gen. Wade Hampton, who had a 

 conspicuous command in that war and known 

 as one of the most wealthy planters and hmd- 

 liolders in South Carolina, commenced a planta- 

 tion on the east bank of the Mississippi, some 

 hundred miles above New Orleans. The pos- 

 session and claims of the heirs to his great e.state 

 are said to cover eightv thousand acres ot some 

 of the best of the Lon'isiana lands. His planta- 

 tion in actual cultivation probably does not ex- 

 ceed tw^o thousand acres. It is distinguished 

 li-nm the other |dantalions on the river by its 

 greater width of ciihivation, by its firmer and 

 "more prominent eudiankmeiit, by its splendid 

 ancient fiiinily resilience of greater enlarged di- 

 mensions, by its two long lines of negro houses, 

 superior to most buildings of that kind, rnnnnig 

 diagonally from the river, as well as by the great 

 regularity and neatness with w hich the extended 

 fields are laid down, and the directness of its 

 leiices and of the rows of iilanted cane extend- 

 ing as far as the eye can reach. Tlie stigar 

 liolises, with the isolated chimnies, located at the 

 iriost convenient points for gathering the abun- 

 dant cane pro:!nctinn,are upon an enlarged scale. 

 A great store house projects over the bank ol_ 

 the river, from which, ami into which, eargoesof 

 produce are directly laden and unladen from slips 

 as they are moored' at the landing. In the eager- 

 ness of the first settlers to obtain an early jiro- 

 diiction fVoni their grounds, almost every thing 

 seems to be incomplete and uiitiuished. Tiiey 

 do not slop even to clear their lands before they 

 get a crop: the largest trees are not cut down, 

 but killed by girdling, and falling after a few years 

 are left to rof upon the ground, some of the best 

 being used for Cue] for the steam engines. Their 

 linihiings, mostly unfinished, soon begin to decay. 

 At the best their houses would sufler on a eom- 

 liarison with the houses which some careful New 

 England fiirmcrs furnish for their beasts. They 

 liave no cold weather there: of course it is not 

 strange that in the habitations of genteel people 

 yon can readily look out of doors through the 

 cracks of their sitting rooms and parlors. So that 

 the shingling of the roof shuts out the rain, the 

 " best o'chiels" are content to live on with plenty 

 for the stomach in houses which would cliill the 

 blood of the humblest New England man or wo- 

 man to look upon as their place of residence. 

 Tlie plantation of Gen. Hampton, in its buildings 

 from the mnnsion to the negro huts and stables 

 and in its better fences and cultivated fields, 

 seemed to b(' an exception to almost every otlier. 

 The eminent and enterprising owner of this 



splendid prnpertv several years ago paid the great 

 debt of nature, 'llis descendants, one or more 

 .■^ons and liusbaudsof married daughters, (among 

 them a brother of Senator I'reslun of South Car- 

 olina,) are the present owners of tin: great Louisi- 

 ana estates. 'J'lie siigarand molasses of their last 

 erop is stated to have been sold for the sum ol 

 $140,000. If the great maunfaclurersof the North 

 have been reaping any undue advantage Iroin the 

 ineseiit tarilV, e.jnallv have the great sugar growl- 

 ers of tli(^ Souih had the advantage of other agri- 

 eiiltural produeer.s. In the end it must be belter 

 to nivu both sugar growers and mantiliicturors 

 such a mure eiiiial tarilf as will prevent other 

 producers from abaudoiiing their own to rush into 

 a better business until reaction shall prostrate all 

 together. 



The Worcester Hospital iiiid its Agricultural 

 Improvcraeuts. 



Of all the noble charities of our native State 

 wo consider the Hospital for the Insane at Wor- 

 cester the most useful and the most magnidceiit. 

 Tenanted by some four hundred liiimaii beings 

 of all the dilTerent modulations of the "mind 

 diseased" where the condition of all is improved 

 —of whom many are restored and returned to 

 their friends, who might otherwise settle down 

 into incurable insanity — we had for years inter- 

 ested ourselves in the progress of the Worcester 

 institution, which has been lint commensurate 

 with the growth of the glorious old town at the 

 heart of the Conimonweallh. The other day ap- 

 proaching our home from the Sontli by one of 

 those great avenues, which by facilitating the 

 means of cunimunication, are expanding the 

 svealth of New England in every direction^ we 

 were struck with the grand appearance of the 

 Hospital extendingi^everal hundred ket upotUhe 

 eastern eminence overlooking the city part of the 

 town. The Hosi)ital was begun some fifteen 

 years ago of the size and pattern nearly of that 

 recently erected in New Hampshire, capable of 

 accommodating the superintendent and keepers 

 loirether with some hnndreil patients: at several 

 times it has received additions, which make it 

 nearly four times the original size. 



The Wol■ce^ter Hospilal lias grown gradually 

 into its present size and usefulness. We notice 

 it here exclusively lijr the purpose connected pe- 

 culiarly with the ohject of our ptiblication— that 

 of aivakenin^ lite atlenlion of the people of ^feiv 

 England to the importance of improving the cultiva- 

 tion of our soil. The lot mi which the Hospilal 

 was oriainally erected at first consisted of only 

 some four or five acres; and contained that )iart 

 which is now mainly covered with the yard and 

 buildings. It was soon found this was insnfii- 

 cieiit to give employment to voluntary laborers 

 among the iiatients. The adjacent land could 

 not re'adily be iionglit : it was lint an indifferent 

 field, and some half a dozen acres were hired from 

 year to year to be added to the garden and arable 

 land. The lirodiict of this hired land had con- 

 tinued to increase, with the price of its annual 

 rent, so that at last it became a matter of pru- 

 dence that the land should be purchased at the 

 high price of live hnndreil dollars the acre. This 

 piucliasc, we had the assurance of the superin- 

 tendent, it had become a matter of interest to 

 the institution to make — belter that it should ex- 

 pend a capital whose use for eaidi acre should 

 cost thirty dollars, than that the Hospital should 

 not iiavctlie ground for cultivation. Let it be 

 considered, that an acre of land by artificial means 

 can in the interior of New England be made 

 worth in its use for one season the sum of thirty 

 dollars by the improvement of the hand of man 

 in a course of successful cultiv.-iiion ; and what 

 may we not conceive New England to become 

 in the annual |irodnction springing from the 

 ground ? 



But this is not all the agricultural improvement 

 made at the Worcester Hospital. In the rapid 

 oTowtl) of that town covering much of the open 

 fields near the institution, it was impossible to 

 pmrliase in the near vicinity, as much easy, fea- 

 sible land as was wanted, near enough for its pur- 

 poses. In the rear of the Hospital at jio very 

 ■M-eat distance there was an elevation of land of 

 die very roughest aspect— so hard and rocky as 

 almost to ha" abandoned to its fate in a natural 

 growth of briars and bushes, by several owners. 

 Some thirty or forty acres of this side hill in its 

 southerly and westerly aspect have been |iiir- 



chased for the use of the Hospital, as the owners i 

 conhl be prevailed on to sell it at a reasonable f"^ 

 price. The first purchase was made about eigh^j 

 years auo on that part of the hill farthest disl^uitj j 

 i-muing down to a bog mi'adow at the level of the 

 railroad vallej' rniiniiig into Worcester from ihe 

 east. Ill two or more purchases all that part ofS 

 the hill nearer to the institution lias been puiM(] 

 chased. "* 



III the fall of the year 1839, in company with:? 

 Dr. Woodward of liie Hospilal and the late Wil-j^' 

 li;iin Lincoln, llien oneol its directors — an excel-], 

 lent friend of theagrieultur.il cause, as geiierouS|j 

 and amiable as he was intelligent and talenled — j, 

 the editor of the Visitor went upon the first pur-jj 

 chase of this seemingly impracticable ground of | 

 the si.le hill. Farmers living in an easy eountryjg 

 without rocks, as is much of the cultivated por-;|; 



.: ... ^1' .1 ^..i.l /ill lint l.'ii^.t,/ lini.r t.i i.!.-!!- 



Xllliuoi .w^... , - , --^ ||. 



tion of the country, will not know how to esti-:,j 

 mate the idiaracler of this siile hill : it was lho.)J 

 most rocky part of the hill comiiig down in a^j, 

 basin or valley liirough which the cold water,.; 

 oozed, making the lower part in the midst of g' 

 rocks miry and unlit for all kinds of vegetation.,. 

 The work of improvement was begun at the high- a 

 est point below the sleep side hill by digging ouij| 

 the rocks for a walleil enclosure. These takeiij.' 

 out and the ground ploughed, exposed iimuiner-,. 

 able rocks of larger and smaller dinieiisions,|, 

 which after the gronuil had been |jlanted one yearj_ 

 were disposed of in ditches under cover l.iid iiig 

 the lower or miry part of the land, and conduct-e 

 iiig the water off the ground. The first plough'.' 

 ed lot cleared of its rocks upon the surface aiid,^ 

 stimulated with the proper quantity of manuretj 

 was laid down to grass. In tiie lower or apron,f 

 part of the side hill new ditches were made as. 

 fast as the rocks made their appearance in other 

 portions of the land ploughed. The bushes werefj 

 cleared from the steeper side hill above the eii-t 

 closures, and the rocks brought down to be dis-.. 

 posed of in ditches draining both the swampjy 

 basin and the level morass below it, till some tei. 

 or twelve acres have been converted into the. 

 most jirodiictive grass land. The result ofal, 

 this improvement has been, that the upper parlj 

 of the side-hill to the top has been converted iutie , 

 early and excellent pasture, and that from fifteei., 

 acres of mowing meadow, the most of it givinj. 

 two crops of grass in a season, fifty tons of liajj 

 are annually produced. 3 ,| 



Passing Worcester without stopping on thV'-j 

 15lli of May of the present year, from our [irei 1 

 vious knowledge of the location of the Hospiti). ] 

 lands we were able to mark particularly the valii.^ : 

 of its superior cultivation. The season in Ma^ 

 sachusetts as in New Hampshire has been back ■. 

 ward liom the cold weather of the jiresent spriuj) 

 The mowing grounds and pastures upon thj 

 Worcester hills had then hardly begun to b, 

 green. But the Hosjiilal lands were an excefj^ 

 tion to almost every thing about them: like ,; 

 lively raised figure in some beauiiful work if 

 eiobroidery, the fine mowing plat which had hey.;, 

 reclaimed from a rocky cold morass, stood ont^j 

 contrast with other fields. Upon the pastu|,i, 

 above, the sixteen noble cows which from goo. , 

 keeping furnish nearly sufficient milk fortliet;i,l 

 of the four hundred inhabitants of the Hospit!. • 

 were feeding. Busily in an adjacent field vvel j 

 the hands eiii|)loyeil spreading the manure fir 

 ■orn-planting. A part of the side hill view is' i 

 ^'rove principally of young white oaks, in vvlii« 

 pathed walks of various windings have been col ; 

 slructed by the labor of .some ol' the inmates f. . | 

 the benefit of such others as may be entrusted , 

 amuse thetriselves abroad— a most beautiful shni , 

 in the warmer season of the year where the dl ' [ 

 heartened and disconsolate may become reco 

 ciled and contented while viewing tlie beaiiti 

 of natural scenery. Another ]iart of the hill 

 a young orchard "in wdiicli the trees have be^ 

 tl■an^|llallted some four or five years. From I 

 abundant bloom upon the trees snrroundiiig t'\ 

 Hospital, we should judge that its orchard fri< ' J 

 in a very few years will become abundant. ; '] 

 We look to "the success of the Worcester Hi '", 

 ])ital in its agriculture as a (latlern worthy 1 

 attention of the farmers of New England. C 

 tainly, improvements such as have beeii h( ' ■ 

 made, are worth more than the price of their c(.,- 

 'I'he best investment of capital in land.s, as Ij 

 been jiroved in the case of the Hospilal groiiri 1 

 is that wliich will make them yield twice, th 

 i times and four times their natural amount. 



