THE FARMERS' BEGISTER. 



287 



am iil'raid will keep ua fur ever poor. No one will 

 plant corn when coitun oilers such spleiuliii pros- 

 pects ; and when the price becomes depressed, we 

 lancy ourselves obliifed to plant more cotton in or- 

 der that we may make up lor the loss in price by 

 an increased quantity. Thus cotton is our irrand 

 staple, before which every thing bends. We plant 

 ol' our poorest lands just as much as we think 

 will tiirnisii barely corn enough to supply our 

 wants; if that fails we have recourse to Charlos- 

 lon. Of course we never have a surplus. This, 

 the vice of the larire planters, seems contairious — 

 it is a universal error. A few years since I know 

 that poor men, who should have sold corn, were 

 obliired to buy it at two and two and a half dollars 

 the barrel [bushel 7] Is it wonderful then thai our 

 splendid enterprises so frequently fail? 



I have made several small experiments with 

 lime, with a favorable result, but have not had 

 the pleasure of seeing any marl in the neighbor- 

 hood. 1 regret this as much op. my own account, 

 as on account of the indication it gives of the low 

 state of agricultural enterprise among us. I have 

 no skill in managing, and the digging of lime is 

 with me a prodigious labor. If anv of my practi- 

 cal neighbors would undertake the work, they 

 would doubtless devise schemes for facilitating the 

 labor. If you will tell us occasionally of increased 

 productiveness of cotton from its use, you might 

 stimulate us into using it. You cannot influence 

 us so long as you speak only of its results on corn, 

 wheat and clover. . 



In attempting to reply to the inquiries of our 

 correspondeni, we must premise that we know 

 (Irom personal observation) scarcely more of his 

 region of country than he does of ours — to which 

 he is evidently a total stranger. We have seen 

 nothing of the lands of lower South Carolina, ex- 

 cept in the mere glance afforded by the rapid 

 passage upon a railway. But judging from 

 that very insufficient view, and still more from 

 what we have heard of that regfon, we were 

 etrongly impressed with what seemed to be ruin- 

 ous errors in management, and astonishing ne- 

 glebt of means and natural facilities for agricultural 

 improvement, and consequent profit. It would be 

 presumptuous in the extreme for us, with such 

 limited obtervation and means for information, to 

 attempt more particularly to point out errors, or to 

 prescribe suitable remedies. For the former we 

 shall rely for fads entirely on our correspondent 

 and other South Carolinians, who have heretofore 

 published statements and just denunciations of their 

 bread-buying system. 



The lands of lower Virginia, which furnish a 

 large surplus of the corn which is exported, (after 

 furnishing a plenty for man and beast through this 

 region, where the corn crop supplies the almost 

 universal food,) is generally quite as poor and un- 

 productive as our correspondent describes the 

 lands to be in lower South Carolina. Excepting 

 the marled laads, (which, as yet, form but a small 



part of the great body,) the average product of all 

 the lands of the tide-water region of Viri^inia can- 

 not exceed 12 bushels of corn to the acre ; and on 

 numerous farms, of which corn is the great and 

 almost only market crop, the pwduct does not ex- 

 ceed 10 bushels. Many persons throughout their 

 lives cultivate considerable proportions of their 

 lands yielding not more than 7 or8 bushels of corn, 

 and making no other field crop for market, who 

 yet have continued to live, and some of them to 

 grow richer, upon such returns, and to furnish 

 something of their surplus corn to supply the 

 planters of South Carolina. Now these, and even 

 the best of them, are miserable products, and indi- 

 cate a wretched and unprofitable condition of agri- 

 culture in lower Virginia. But the useful infer- 

 ence which may be drawn from the fact is, that if 

 our cultivators here live, and thrive, by raising 

 corn for sale on such poor lands, it is certain that 

 the planters of South Carolina could do much 

 better by raising corn for their own consumption, 

 even on lands which are no better. So great is 

 the difference between a planter's being his own 

 provider of what he is obliged to have and to con- 

 sume, and being the purchaser of it from abroad, 

 that he could better afford to raise his own corn, 

 than' to buy it at a regular discount of 10 cents 

 the bushel below the market price. For there ia 

 generally at least that much increase of cost in- 

 curred in the charges of transportation and sale — 

 and which, though paid by the consumer, and 

 earned by the merchant, is entirely lost to the 

 producer. 



Except in Princess Anne and Norfolk counties, 

 which are the nearest of our mainland to the sea- 

 shore, there is no part of Virginia so low, and sub- 

 ject to water, as our correspondent supposes, and 

 as is the case in the Charleston district. The 

 lands of those counties require draining, and are 

 therein as much neglected as any in South Caro- 

 lina. But it is not because of being swampy, so 

 much as the firm lands being almost uniformly 

 level, and therefore, though dry in summer, they 

 are saturated, and often covered, with rain water, 

 during winter and spring. The higher tide-water 

 counties, though having numerous swamps, are 

 mostly of dry land, and the surface enough undu- 

 lating to prevent too much wetness. Very little 

 has been done to reclaim our swamps ; and there- 

 fore it is not such land, except to a small extent, 

 but the poor high-lands that furnish corn for ex- 

 portation, as well as lor home consumption. And 

 very low prices serve to compensate corn-raising, 

 for this great region, which furnishes but little else 

 for market. At this time ive cannot sell corn for 

 more than $2.25 the barrel (45 cents the bushel) 



