1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



189 



adverting to the letter of your correspondent on 

 the husbandry of Rhode Island. lie says, "/ 

 should think that one Rhode Island laborer would 

 perform as much as two and a half southern slaves.'' 

 Now there is nothing peculiar in this remark, as 

 similar opinions with regard to the northern white 

 laborers and our slaves, have been advanced in 

 your Register, and so far as my memory serves 

 me, without much, if any thing, being said on the 

 opposite side of the question. I have often heard 

 such opinions advanced in conversation, by highly 

 respectable and intelligent persons. I think I 

 have had sufficient opportunities of comparing 

 Ihese two very different classes of laborers, and 

 right or wrong, though certainly meaning to be 

 right, have long been of opinion, that man to man, 

 our slaves perioral as much or more labor, and 

 perform it as well or better, than the laborers at 

 the north, or at least beyond Pennsylvania. With- 

 out going into long details, let us look at general 

 results. In the Blue Book (as it is called) for 1834, 

 App. p. 34, is an account of the domestic exports 

 of the United States, for the year 1832. 

 The agricultural exports are — 



Product of animals, $3,179,522 

 Vegetable food, 352,494 



$11,532,016 

 Tobacco, - - - 5,999,769 



Cotton, - - 31,724,682 



All other agricultural products, 159,716 



$49,416,183 



Thus we see that cotton, a product obtained 

 wholly by the labor of slaves, was in 1832 largely 

 over two-thirds of the whole agricultural exports 

 of the United States; since that time the ratio has 

 greatly increased. Add to this the tobacco, of 

 which I am persuaded more than nine-tenths are 

 produced by slave labor, and the vegetable food of 

 which I think you will agree more than one-half 

 consists of the wheat. Indian corn, and rice, raised 

 by the labor of slaves. After this simple state of 

 undoubted facts, can any judicious well informed 

 person doubt that slave labor in agriculture is more 

 efficient and productive in the southern states, than 

 free labor directed to the same object at the north? 

 Will it be said that the domestic consumption of 

 the produce of our lands is greater than the ex- 

 port? Without denying this as a fact, I would 

 ask what proportion of the bread stud's, the rice, 

 the sugar, and molasses consumed by the people 

 of the New England and other northern states, to 

 say nothing of tobacco, is the produce of slave 

 labor at the south? 



I may be mistaken, but it has long been my 

 settled opinion, founded on full, and 1 hope im- 

 partial consideration, that there are few countries 

 where agricultural labor, by the same number of 

 hands, obtains as large and valuable products as 

 the slave labor of the southern states. 



This is not written, I assure you, in the spirit of 

 controversy, but I hope from a better motive. It 

 is right and proper that we should be stimulated 

 to improvement in our agriculture, and there is 

 too much room for it: but why should we so often 

 be presented with so gloomy a picture of our hus- 

 bandry, as compared with that of the northern 

 elates? It would not perhaps be too strong to say,as 



Mr. Jefferson said on a different occasion, "in this I 

 neither recognise the portrait of ourselves, nor the 

 pencil of a friend." 



You willnot understand me, I hope, as meaning 

 to cast any censure on the northern husbandry. 

 The farmers of New England, and the other 

 northern states, whose management I have had 

 an opportunity of observing, appear to me to be a 

 class of men that would do honor to any country 

 — steady, active and intelligent, their farm build- 

 inns, their implements, their working cattle and 

 other stock, are generally in good order, and well 

 attended to, and among them there arc instances 

 of farms well cultivated throughout, especially in 

 the fertile valley of Connecticut River. But their 

 husbandry in general did not seem to me to de- 

 serve this character. This I was satisfied, on in- 

 quiry and consideration, was owing to a course 

 beyond their control. The scarcity, or in other 

 words, the clearness of labor — a large proportion 

 of their hands being employed in navigation and 

 manufactures at high wages, farm laborers would 

 of course require more for their services; and such 

 neat husbandry as is practised in fertile and well 

 cultivated lands in Europe, would cost more than 

 its worth. They seemed tome, in passing through 

 their country, to be. careful, rather than laborious. 

 The leisure of the shepherd and herdsman, and 

 (he toils of the plough and sickle, have always 

 been a subject of remark, and a fruitful theme of 

 poetry, ancient and modern. 



For the Farmers' Register. 

 MONTHLY COMMERCIAL RETORT. 



Agricultural produce generally continues to com- 

 mand high "prices. A state of peace throughout 

 the world has doubtless tended to increase the 

 consumption of nearly all commodities, whether 

 of luxury or necessity. The facility of intercourse 

 between all countries opens new markets, and fur- 

 nishes a greater variety of articles of commerce 

 adapted to our wants, improvements, or inventions. 

 For example, the increased use of iron for rail 

 roads and other purposes is beyond computation — 

 and to what various uses is ingenuity applying 

 the formerly insignificant article, caoutchouc or 

 India rubber! 



The amount of domestic exports from the United 

 States will be greater this year than in any former 

 one. The value of cotton alone, at the high prices 

 of this crop, will exhibit an amount nearly equal 

 to the usual aggregate of all domestic articles ex- 

 ported. Although the quantity of cotton produced 

 last year was full 50,000 bales more than in any 

 former one, the demand has increased in a greater 

 ratio, and the price it now commands (18 to 20 

 cents) is higher than at any period since the mem- 

 orable and disastrous speculations of 1825. There 

 appears to be no cause to apprehend a similar re- 

 sult during the current year; but as the extension 

 of culture in the United States is annually very 

 great, and the inducement of high prices must also 

 increase the growth in other countries, the supply 

 must ere long overtake the demand, and the price 

 recede to a rate which will reduce the profit of 

 cultivation to a level with that of other commodi- 

 ties. 



Meanwhile, the emigration to the south-western 



