1335.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



139 



become a grazing country. A grazing country 

 admits but a sparse population — tew laborers are 

 required to attend to the cattle. "When the stock 

 is purchased and put upon the pasture (says a 

 very able correspondent from the west.) — two or 

 three men can readily attend to several hundred, 

 if sold in November: but if reserved for market in 

 January or February, then a few laborers will be 

 required to raise corn (maize) to feed them during 

 the winter months, which is given in aid of good 

 hay. None can pursue this business with any 

 hope of success unless he has large possessions 

 in land." 



Now the effect of this system is two-fold. 1st. 

 to concentrate tbe property of western Virginia in 

 the hands of a few men — and 2ndly, to produce a 

 redundancy of population, wherever the numbers 

 increase very fast; for as it requires but few to at- 

 tend to the cattle, all beyond become supernu- 

 meraries, and are generally disposed to move off 

 to the great west. 



Now what is the remedy for this? Most un- 

 doubtedly such a change in the whole labor sys- 

 tem as will create a demand not only for all the la- 

 bor which they now have in western Virginia, but 

 all that they can raise there by the procreative en- 

 ergies ef society. The great central improve- 

 ment will produce this effect. By increasing the 

 facilities of transportation to market, farmers will 

 be encouraged to change the grazing into the 

 grain growing system, because the latter is more 

 lucrative than the former, wherever the produc- 

 tions can be carried to market. "Were a convey- 

 ance to market practicable (says the same very 

 intelligent correspondent, from, whom I have just 

 quoted) of the usual products of the soil, as 

 wheat, barley, potatoes, rice, &c, the grass farm 

 would soon be divided into several farms for the 

 growing of wheat, which is much more profitable. 

 The five acres of land allowed the ox, if cultiva- 

 ted in wheat, would certainly produce fifty bushels, 

 which would be fully sufficient to manufacture 

 ten barrels of flour, worth at least forty dollars ! 

 whereas the beef raised from the same ground 

 would only bring from ten to fifteen — at most, 

 twenty dollars."* It is evident then that the mo- 

 ment you convert the grazing system of the 

 west into the grain growing system, that mo- 

 ment will you produce a new demand for labor. 

 Every new plough which is stuck into the ground 

 will require a new laborer to manage it. This will 

 check at once the emigration from the western 

 portions of Virginia, and will produce, no doubt, 

 an additional demand for labor, which will be sup- 

 plied most readily from the slave population of 

 eastern Virginia. The effect of this will be most 

 happy. It will, by the diffusion of our slave 

 population over the tramontane regions, add to the 

 wealth and prosperity of that whole country, 

 whilst it will give a homogeneous character to our 

 population, and destroy that dangerous discrepancy 

 of interest, whose baneful operation was so deci- 

 dedly felt in the convention of Virginia, and 

 which, if it continue, will produce the most unhap- 

 py and even disastrous effects. 



But again: the influence of our central improve- 

 ment in checking emigration from eastern Vir- 

 ginia, will be almost as great as that which is ex- 

 erted on the emigration from the western portion. 



The immediate effects of the improvement will 

 be to pour the immense productions of the west 

 down upon our Atlantic borders, for exportation. 

 This will necessarily produce a great importing and 

 exporting business — a large town, with many 

 smaller ones, musl spring up somewhere within our 

 limits — capita! will flow into these towns and 

 spread itself over the adjacent country — the towns 

 themselves will create a new and great demand 

 for the productions of the lower country — the 

 whole system of tillage will be changed by the 

 beneficial operation of this state of things — the 

 garden cultivation will take the place of the grain 

 growingsystem in the neighborhood of the towns, 

 and diffuse an increased prosperity every where. 

 "The farms of Long Island," says Professor 

 McVickar, "are now turned into gardens, and this 

 not by being driven from their old employments, but 

 by the superior temptations of the new — fruit and 

 vegetables gradually taking the place of butter 

 and grain, and thus creating a new demand for 

 land of the next grade of contiguity. This position 

 may further be illustrated by the history of the 

 supply of fat cattle for the New York market. A 

 century ago they were raised on farms adjoining 

 the city; they are now principally raised three 

 hundred miles from it — driven step by step, 

 through the superior pro/itableness of the new 

 crops demanded by the increasing extent and 

 trade of the metropi : '-.' * So will il be with lower 

 Virginia. The Ii arms n info 



smalleronss — these smalle give an" in- 



creased employment to live labor, whi e the towns 

 themselves will increase the demand for the same 

 kind of labor much more than for slave. This 

 will check the tide of emigration among the 

 whites, and keep our population at home.f 



Thus this great improvement is eminently cal- 

 culated to check the emigration from both the eas- 

 tern and western extremities of our state, and keep 

 our increasing population with us. Now I have 

 no hesitation in affirming that this single effect will 

 be worth to Virginia more than the whole im- 

 provement will cost. It will raise the price of lands 

 throughout the state — it will increase and multi- 

 ply the occupations and trades of the community 

 — it will introduce manufactures, cause a rapid 

 improvement in our agriculture, and change the 

 whole aspect of our state. 



The immediate effect of the improvement will 

 be to raise the price of labor in another manner 

 likewise. It will cause in the next five or six years 

 the expenditure of millions of dollars along the 

 line of the improvement. This expenditure will 

 increase enormously the demand for labor, and 

 will raise the hire of negroes throughout the state, 

 besides attracting to it free laborers from all quar- 

 ters. I wish my limits and time would allow me 

 to show, by numerous examples furnished by the 

 history of canals, rail roads, &c. both in this coun- 

 try and Europe, the immense advantage which 



"This letter was written in 1832. 



*A gentleman from Missouri assures me that a large 

 portion of the cattle for the New York market is now 

 raised in that state, a thousand miles'oft". 



t As the slave is paid for when carried out of the 

 state by a slave dealer, this emigration does not injure 

 the state, because an equivalent value is left behind: 

 unless indeed where the ready sale of the slaves 

 stimulates the seller to sell his land likewise, and 

 take the whole capital with him to the west. 



