AND 



AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



"The Productions of the Earth will always be in proportion to the culture bestowed upon it." 



Vol. V — IKo. 8.] 



3d mo. (March,) 15th, 1811. 



[Whole No. 74. 



KIMBER & SHARPLESS, 



PROPniETORS AND PUBLISHERS, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 

 Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Cheap Land and Loav Wages. 



Mr, Editor, — Those who emijrrate to this 

 country for the sole purpose of obtaining 

 cheap land will be surprised to find that, in 

 countries much nearer home, land of the first 

 quality is to be had at a price which would 

 place all others hig-h in the scale of rental: 

 neither is it a fact that cheap land will alone 

 — as they fondly imagine — give the means of 

 abundance, or even of comfortable mainte- 

 nance. The agricultural view of Prussian 

 Poland, that granary of the continent of Eu- 

 rope, and from whence the greatest portion 

 of the grain is procured for the supply of 

 England and France in time of scarcity, af- 

 fords a lesson on this subject which is worth 

 learning, and will not, it is believed, be soon 

 forgotten by those who study it. 



In Jacob's report " on the Agriculture of 

 the Nortli of Europe" — a book of infinite in- 

 terest to the grain-growers of this and every 

 other country — there is contained a mass of 

 information which ought to be spread amongst 

 us, for no one could contemplate a state of 

 society so truly pitiable as is there depicted, 

 in the midst of advantages arising from lore 

 rents and cheap lands — which, to many, have 

 charms to allure even to a wilderness — show- 

 ing very convincingly that 



The worth of a thin? 

 Is just what 't will bring, 



and no more. 



During a perusal of the above work, I feel 

 inclined to make a few extracts, and if, at its 

 conclusion, I should find them as interesting 

 as I expect, I shall forward them for your pe- 

 rusal and publication, should you deem them 

 of sufficient importance for your pages. 



Mr. Jacob was sent to the north of Europe 

 by the English government, to obtain the 

 most correct information on every subject 

 connected with the supply of foreign grain ; 

 of course the state of the agricultural com- 

 munity enters largely into his inquiries, and 



Cab.— Vol. V No. 8. 



his descriptions are minute and full of inter- 

 est. He says, " The national domains are 

 of various qualities of land, and let, some of 

 thorn for 28 cents per acre, but a larger 

 quantity as low as 18, and even 12 cents ; yet 

 the tenants are not, in many cases, able to 

 pay more than the taxes, being ten years in 

 arrear of rent, and having been offered for- 

 giveness of the whole, on promise of making 

 more regular payment in future — a promise 

 they are in general unable to perform, the 

 produce of many of the best farms falling 

 short of the cost of production, even though 

 the rents be given up." He remarks, " from 

 the time I left the Netherlands, through 

 Saxony, Poland, Prussia, Austria, Bavaria 

 and Wirtemberg, I never saw, either in the 

 hotels, the bakers' shop.«, or private houses, a 

 loaf of wheaten bread ! small rolls of wheaten 

 flour might be bought in the large towns, 

 and these, travellers take in their carriages, 

 as a supply from one town to another." This, 

 let it be remembered, in a country from 

 whence England and France look for a sup- 

 ply of wheat in a time of scarcity at home. 

 A landlord informed him that the whole be- 

 nefit he derived from his estate of 6300 acres, 

 in his joint capacity of landlord and tenant, 

 was no more than the sum which he received 

 for the clip of his wool annually. The ten- 

 ants of estates, although they cannot be said 

 to want the bare necessaries of life, have 

 very little indeed beyond them ; they obtain 

 potatoes, and some little bread-corn, as well 

 as provision for their two oxen ; they also 

 grow a patch of flax, and some contrive to 

 keep five or si.x sheep ; meat of any kind 

 they rarely indulge in, and only a few, who 

 are more prosperous than their neighbours, 

 can keep a cow to supply them with milk ; 

 they consume nearly all their produce, and 

 are considered happy if they have a sufficient 

 surplus to meet the demands annually for the 

 payment of their taxes and local assessments. 

 The rate of wages is very low, not averaging 

 more than ten cents per day ; but those la- 

 bourers who are boarded in the houses of 

 their employers have a sufficiency of food, 

 rye bread, potatoes, buckwheat-soup, and, in 

 some instances, are feasted with meat — com- 

 monly bacon — twice a week ! The soil is 

 light; the plough, guided by the farmer, and 

 drawn by a single cow, led by the farmer's 



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