No. 5. 



JVecessaries. 



147 



To the EUitor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Necessaries, 



THE BEST PRODUCT OF LAND. 



Sir, — Without being deemed censorious, I 

 must be permitted, (as an agriculturist, and 

 an enthusiast in the welfare of that part of 

 the community, whose chief province lies 

 amidst the productions of the earth, and who 

 are occupied in raising the necessaries of 

 life, leaving to foreign countries the cultiva- 

 tion of luxuries of doubtful good) to speak 

 my mind fully and unreservedly on a subject, 

 which seems again to be attempted to be 

 forced upon the notice of the sober and steady- 

 going part of the people — the business o*" 

 making silk. To this subject I am led, at 

 the present time, by the perusal of an article 

 in the Farmer's Register for June last, headed 

 "The second Humbug," and which, I am 

 free to confess, contains, in my opinion, mat- 

 ter of sufficient importance to render the se- 

 rious consideration of it imperative on those 

 who, like myself, have looked with jealousy 

 on the expediency of silk-growing in this 

 country, on more accounts than one. With 

 this view, therefore, I offer, for publication in 

 your valuable pages, the following extracts 

 from a work, the writer of which seems to 

 have made a most correct estimate of the 

 real utility of such employment, without ap- 

 pearing to advocate a wish to bias a single 

 individual in his view of the case, throughout 

 the country. M. R. 



Bordley says, (p. 244, "Essays on Rural 

 Affairs,") " In the winter of 1769, I wrote 

 under this title, ' Necessaries the best Pro- 

 duct of Land,'' on the scheme then agitated, 

 for introducing into general practice in the 

 then American colonies, the culture of silk 

 AND WINE. The philosophers, rather than 

 the politicians of America, with the best mo- 

 tives, endeavoured to induce the country- 

 people to apply their labour and attention to 

 the culture of wine and silk, as it seems, 

 without considering they might therein be 

 seconding the wishes of a jealous connexion, 

 that we should apply ourselves to cultivating 

 those articles of luxury, rather than continue 

 to depend on and cultivate the materials of' 

 bread, in which we then abounded, as the 

 first staple of our commerce, and the first 

 necessary of life, which was thought to inter- 

 fere with the British farmer — though ground- 

 lessly — as Britain buys more bread than she 

 sells. 



The tobacco colonies were already more 

 dependent than the bread colonies, and it 

 was observable that as the culture of wheat 

 and the manufacturing it into flour travelled 

 southward from county to county, through 

 Maryland, the tobacco culture declined, and 

 the people became more happy, and independ- 



ent of the British storekeepers, who had kept 

 them in debt and dependence. The persons 

 in America who promoted the design of in- 

 troducing the wine and silk culture, certainly 

 did not consider it as interfering with, or 

 tending to eat out the better staple bread, but 

 it so forcibly struck me with having this very 

 mischievous tendency, that I could not with- 

 hold my opinion of it, especially as it was 

 countenanced by a number of instances in 

 history, which I considered as being sup- 

 ported by the then actual state of the wretched 

 parts of Europe, compared with the more 

 happy — the southern with the northern — the 

 silk and wine countries with the bread and 

 beer countries. 



The first great essential of life is bread; 

 but if America had adopted the scheme, it 

 may be supposed that, with her silk and wine, 

 she also would have made some bread — and 

 so it is with the poor peasants of southern 

 Europe — but her labour and attention being 

 diverted more especially to raising the luxu- 

 ries, which could neither properly feed or 

 clothe her; she has, alas! only aimed at 

 growing a scanty stock of grain, barely for 

 family consumption; and, falling short of 

 that, becomes miserably dependent upon fo- 

 reign countries for a supply from them. Italy 

 formerly exported grain, but afterwards be- 

 came dependent on other countries for her 

 daily bread ; and this is ascribed by the Ro- 

 man authors to the neglect of tillage. The 

 country about Volisso, in the Island of Chic 

 or Sciros, in the Archipelago, is very plea- 

 sant, spacious and fruitful : the inhabitants 

 raise five thousand pounds weight of silk 

 yearly, with which they pay their tribute; 

 and there, it is thought, they lie under a curse 

 of being always destitute of bread ; but this 

 curse is but the natural consequence of their 

 neglecting to cultivate a fruitful country in 

 corn, for the sake of raising the gew-gaw 

 article silk. Had the tribute been reserved 

 in corn, their attention being thereby drawn 

 especially to the production of that article, 

 the curse of wanting bread would never have 

 fallen upon them. The Druses in Syria, do 

 not grow corn enough to support themselves 

 three months in the year — and they have 

 no manufactures — all their exportations are 

 confined to silk and cotton, the balance 

 whereof exceeds very little their importation 

 of grain. 



See the condition of the southern countries 

 of Europe ! all Italy, Spain, Portugal, and a 

 great part of France, and until lately, that 

 the cultivation of grain became the first ob- 

 ject of the attention of its government — the 

 whole of France, employing their chief la- 

 bour and care in cultivating wine and silk! 

 and, though they are fine countries for yield- 

 ing wheat, and some is there cultivated, yet 



