82 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



April 



Editorial Correspondence of the Farmer. 

 WOOL -GROWING AND STOCK-RAISING IN THE 

 MOUNTAINS. 



The article which was published in the December 

 number of this journal under the above heading has 

 excited a good deal of inquiry, and induced the 

 writing of not a few letters both to the office of the 

 Farmer and the writer in Augusta, Georgia. The 

 subject is one of national importance; and will be 

 generally acknowledged as such, when maturely 

 considered. From the Highlands on the Hudson to 

 the Tenessee Bluffs, on the Mississippi, there extends 

 a range of mountains, hills and elevated plains, 

 whose agricultural capabilities are little known, and 

 less appreciated -by the great mass of American far- 

 mers. This remark applies with peculiar apposite- 

 ness to the high dividing ridges, plains and valleys 

 southwest of Pennsylvania, which divide the waters 

 that flew into the Ohio on the north, from those that 

 fall into the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico on the 

 south. The tobacco, corn, cotton, rice and sugar 

 planter from Maryland and Louisiana have had little 

 occasion to work far up-stream and settle on the 

 table lands, and in the gorges of the Alleghany and 

 Cumberland Mountains. The emigration of planters 

 has set steadily in a south-westerly direction, and 

 spread itself over the the rich bottoms and diluvions 

 of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and 

 Texas. A large portion of Virginia, and parts of 

 North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Ten- 

 nessee and Kentucky present the most inviting field 

 for rural industry and enterprise to be found on the 

 continent. 



The writer has now spent two winters and one 

 summer at the South: and has travelled over and 

 studied the country with all the attention to its natu- 

 ral advantages and disadvantages, which he could 

 command. So soon as one rises above the exclusive 

 planting region on the Atlantic slope, he comes at 

 once into a district where pure air and pure water 

 with a mild and most agreeable climate, promise him 

 good health and every physical enjoyment. As a 

 general thing the soil is not rich, for if it was, the 

 excessive growth of vegetation and its rotting on the 

 surface of the ground would cause much sickness. 

 If any one is so foolish as to desire a very rich soil, 

 and is willing to pay the imminent hazard of his life, 

 and jeopard the lives of his family to cultivate the 

 same, it can be found anywhere along the coast from 

 Chesapeake Bay to the Rio Grande. By going back 

 into the highlands, you find a region perfectly 

 healthy, where all useful grasses flourish in great 

 luxuriance; where crystal springs and noisy brooks 

 abound on every side; and where the husbandman 

 can raise grapes and all other northern fruits, and at 

 the same time escape at least two-thirds of the 

 winter of Massachusetts and New York. 



Wheat, rye, barley and oats grow in the coldest 

 weather. Wheat sown in December here, is har- 

 vested in May; so are oats and barley. We have 

 in our office a stalk of corn that has six good sized 

 ears that grew upon it; and round turneps that weigh 

 over 16 pounds each. That a high degree of solar 

 light and heat is favorable to the rapid organization 

 of all plants, when properly fed, either by nature or 

 art, few readers have occasion now to learn. The 

 skilful farmer can turn this increased power to organ- 

 ize grass, grain, roots and tubers, to a most profitable 

 account. The northern man should have nothing to 



do with legitimate planting. Leave that to the 

 worthy citizens who understand the business; but 

 know nothing about wool-growing, making butter 

 and cheese, nor any mixed agriculture. We are 

 now paying two dollars a bushel for northern Irish 

 potatoes. They are also brought from Tennessee. 

 We have fine apples from Knoxville. 



Northern hay sells here at $20 a ton, when it can 

 be raised at one fourth of the money. One can buy 

 fair farming land within forty or fifty miles of this 

 city on the railroad toward Nashville at from $2 to 

 $5 an acre. These lands have some buildings and 

 fences upon them. They belong to planters who 

 want to emigrate with their "force" to the richer 

 virgin soils of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 

 Texas and Arkansas. This tide of planting emigra- 

 tion, setting so constantly westward, creates, a va- 

 cancy for a new race of legitimate farmers. The 

 latter uniformly do well; for they get their land for 

 a song; they have an excellent market at their doors, 

 and purchase all their groceries, dry-goods and hard- 

 ware as cheap as the farmers of Western N. York do. 

 Sweet potatoes and peaches are raised here by free 

 white labor at a cost not to exceed six cents a bushel. 

 Three crops of figs grow on the same tree in a sea- 

 son. Although Augusta is too far north to make a 

 business of growing oranges, yet we never saw 

 finer ones than grew in the open air in this city the 

 past year. 



The man that makes pork and beef in the Cherokee 

 country for European consumption has about 2,000 

 miles freight advantage over the pork and beef at 

 Cincinnati, which has to be sent 1500 to N. Orleans, 

 and 1000 more round Cape Florida, before it reaches 

 Savannah or Charleston. In 24 hours the Georgia 

 farmer can have his on ship board hi either seaport. 

 Count up the difference in time, interest on capital, 

 freight, insurance, danger of spoiling in the hot 

 Gulf; and you will see the advantage of being near the 

 sea-coast. Wool growing can be made profitable 

 on the table lands of Tennessee; as it can be in this 

 state. Tanning and currying leather, and getting 

 out timber and boards in our pine forests, are truly 

 profitable in the hands of men that understand the 

 business. One that understood the trade of making 

 plows and all agricultural implements, might realize 

 a fortune in this city. It has a water power nearly 

 equal to that at Rochester. 



These things are named in answer to private let- 

 ters. Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits are 

 regarded with favor — all seek to encourage them. 

 As a general rule money is made easily and spent 

 freely. There is a large number of northern men 

 here, and especially in mercantile business. Very 

 few of them are planters. A few days ago a slave 

 paid $2000 down for himself, wife and two children, 

 in this city. There are scores that own good houses 

 and lots, who are yet slaves. One in the city of 

 Macon owns two slaves. On being asked why he 

 did not buy himself, he said his master asked $1,700 

 for him; and he had purchased two men as good as 

 himself for $1,300. All this class of negroes hire 

 their time by the year; usually at about $75 or $80; 

 and have all they"can make by keeping horses and 

 drays, snd doing job work, which often amounts to 

 $1000 per annum. Every change made is for the 

 better. Both races are working upward, and will, 

 we hope, come out right at last. 

 Augusta, Ga., 1849. 



