1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER/ 



69 



man farmers were mere serfs ; public schools were 

 then not to be thought of in Germany ; such a 

 thing as a German literature hardly existed ; and 

 even Fredericic the Great spoke French, because 

 the German language appeared to him a language 

 only fit for barbarians. As that time there was 

 no Lessing, Schiller, Goethe ; no Kant, Ficthe, 

 Hegel. The influence of political revolutions, of 

 the great modern inventions — the steam engine 

 and the telegraph — even of the jDrinting-press, was 

 not then felt. 



The immigrants came over here with their priests, 

 a fragment of the middle ages — uneducated, uncul- 

 tivated. What is the consequence ? We see be- 

 fore us the ])etrification of a social and mental con- 

 dition which has long since disappeared from 

 Germany. We behold a picture of the dark and 

 gloomy middle ages. It is, however, gratifying to 

 know that this State of things is fast disappearing. 

 Free schools are extending their influence more and 

 more every year, and the rapid development of the 

 immense mineral resources of the State is giving a 

 marked impulse to the spirit of enlightened enter- 

 prise. The various branches of the Evangelical 

 Church are also diligently engaged in planting the 

 institutions of the gospel in every nook and corner 

 of the territory, and all experience shows that the 

 influence of the gospel in favoring the intellectual 

 elevation of a community is second only to its ef- 

 ficacy in securing the salvation of the soul. — Intelli- 

 gencer. 



For the New England Farmer. 



AGEICULTURE AT THE SOUTH. 



While residing recently in one of the Southern 

 States, I could not help thinking of the superior 

 independence of a farmer on New England soil, 

 even with a small farm and with small means, com- 

 pared with many a planter, his broad plantation and 

 scores of negroes. I verily believe the proprietor 

 of a cottage and ten acres of land in Vermont, with 

 a willingness and a disposition to work, can have 

 more of the "comforts of life" and advantages of 

 education for his children than a majority of Geor- 

 gian planters, who own land and slaves to the 

 amount of thirty or forty thousand dollars. Why 

 is this ? 



It is partly owing to the inefficiency of slave 

 labor ; partly to the fact that the white persons 

 comprising a planters family, from their indolent 

 habits, are mere consumers ; in some degree to 

 the high prices which must be paid for all manufac- 

 tured articles, but most of all, to the very imperfect 

 system of farming which prevails almost univer- 

 sally. 



Most of Georgian and Carolina farmers, as far 

 as my observation extended, never make, save, nor 

 apply any kind of manure. Land is cultivated, or 

 rather cropped, as long as it is capable of producing 

 anything, without regard to rotation, and then left 

 common, making what is termed "old fields." 



The area of this worn-out land is rapidly extend- 

 ing itself, planters seeking some new spot, again to 

 practice the same exhausting process of tillage. 



Farming tools, that belong as far back as the 

 seventeeth century ; plowing, that merely scratches 

 the surface ; overseers, who have no intelligent no- 

 tions of agriculture ; slaves, who care not how their 

 work is performed ; absence of home markets for 

 fruit and o';Iier perishable products j the frequent 



and entire loss of crops upon land shallowly plowed 

 in seasons of droughts, — are a few of the disadvan- 

 tages and features common to Southern farming. 



I could mention the names of many planters, 

 who, though called wealthy, would be unable to 

 meet their current expenses, if they were not able, 

 occasionally, to sell a negro so as to replenish their 

 empty purses. Such are generally the occupants 

 of worn-out soil. 



Who would be willing to exchange his New Eng- 

 land home for a life of indolence and ease in the 

 sunny South ? Who would barter social, religious 

 and educational privileges, for the sake of being au 

 isolated occupant of leagues of soil, and an absolute 

 monarch to a drove of slaves ? Operarius. 



Barre, Vermont. 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



The President's Message discloses the enormous 

 extent to which speculation in the public lands has 

 been carried for a year past. In round numbers 

 the quantity sold is stated at 9,200,060 acres, and 

 the land warrants issued have been for 30,300,000 

 acres, making in the whole 39,500,000 acres. Most 

 of the warrants find their way into the hands of 

 speculators, and are finally sold at more than dou- 

 ble the price of those sold by the government. 



The largest amount ever disposed of in any for- 

 mer year, was in the great paper money expansion 

 of 1836. The sales that year reached nearly 21,- 

 000,000 acres, while this year they have gone up 

 to nearly double that amount. It is much to be 

 regretted that a more healthful and prudent system 

 of selling the public lands is not adopted, so that 

 they might be kept open for many years to come 

 for the exclusive benefit of actual settlers. From 

 the manner in which the disposal of them has been 

 pushed forward by politicians, this has, however, 

 become impossible, and in a few years all the good 

 lands owned by the government will be in the hands 

 of the speculators, and held at speculators' prices. 

 This will be likely to check the growth of the new 

 Western States, and operate injuriously upon the 

 welfare of the whole country. The exhaustion of 

 the cheap government lands, and a restoration of 

 good crops of breadstufi^s in Europe, would make 

 excessively hard times in our western grain-grow- 

 ing States, especially as emigration is likely to be 

 checked, in consequence of Ireland having been ful- 

 ly relieved of her surplus population, and the dis- 

 content among the German nations having in a 

 great measure passed away. The inducement to 

 emigration from the other States will also be great- 

 ly lessened, after the price of lands in the new 

 States have been put up to speculating prices, and 

 it will be much more profitable to buy and cultivate 

 a farm in many of the old States, at say 830 an 

 acre, rather than to buy wild land in Kansas or Io- 

 wa at $5 to $10 an acre. 



It is believed that but few persons in the north- 

 ern and middle States have purchased lands in the 

 new States, for speculative purposes, but that they 

 have mostly been taken by capitalists in the West- 

 ern States. Those who have accumulated large 

 fortunes by the rise in the price of lands in States 

 where the government lands have been nearly or 

 quite sold out, have invested their gains in lands in 

 the new States. One capitalist in Ohio holds eighty 

 thousand acres of the most valuable land in Illinois; 

 and in the State ol" Ohio there is not a countv where 



