166 [ASSEMBLV 



earlli is still onward. And why should it not be so ? We possess a 

 country of rich soil, and a clinnate reaching from the line of tropical 

 plants to that of a region so cold that man must resort to other means 

 for support beside cultivating the earth. 



But with all our advantages of soil and climate, there appears to be 

 a conceded opinion among all the cultivators of the earth, that they do 

 not enjoy the advantages and comforts enjoyed by other classes of so- 

 ciety, who never knew what it was to earn their bread by the sweat of 

 the brow. The cotton planter of Mississippi tells us that he cannot 

 support his laborers upon the product of iiis plantation, because the 

 price of cotton is too low. But would not a more careful manage- 

 ment, and a more diversified culture obviate this difficulty ? He is 

 not required to raise cotton alone — his soil and climate is equally 

 adapted to raising wool — tobacco, also, of the finest quality, will 

 grow where cotton will, and no part of the country can excel this sec- 

 tion of the Union for raising fruit. The remedy for over-production 

 and low prices of cotton must be, a more diversified culture and 

 greater amount of home productions of all the things for which the 

 cotton region is now tributary to the North. We are gratified to learn 

 that the cultivators of sugar do not complain of their present pros- 

 pects in all the cane-growmg region. We do not hear of any extend- 

 ed operation in the manufacture of sugar from corn-stalks. 



We regret to learn that throughout several of the Southern corn- 

 growing States there is a great failure in the crop, owing to excessive 

 drought which has prevailed in nearly all parts of the United States 

 during the last summer. For this we cannot suggest any remedy, 

 except that, in all our cultivation we aim to guard against a state of 

 drouth which prevails through all our country, to a far greater extent 

 than the contrary during the crop growing season. We hear of the 

 same drouth prevailing in Ohio to so great a degree that there is not 

 foliage enough to carry the stock through the winter, in the northern 

 part of the State. The soil here is a stiff clay, and from the personal 

 observation of one of the committee during the last summer, he is- 

 convinced that the use of the subsoil plow upon this soil would greatly 

 lend to lessen the tendency to loss of crops from drouth. 



From Maine we hear of an almost total loss of the staple crop oi 

 our friends in that cold region of the Union, from that mysterious and 

 very serious disease among the potatoes, that has not very inaptly 



