THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Vol.. IV. 



MAY, 1836. 



No. 1. 



EDMUNB RUFFIjV, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF FARMERS GIVIJVO 

 PERSONAL ATTENTION AND LABOR TO THEIR 

 FARMS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



I have been a subscriber to j'our a<iricultural 

 work from its conimencenient, and 3'et never at- 

 tempted to aid you in your labors, notwithstand- 

 in<^ the o-cntle rebuke you gave me, and ihe invita- 

 tion to contribute my mite to the inforination which 

 is due from every man of experience, who is en- 

 gaged in the cultivation of the earth. Tlie truti) 

 is, that [ entered the field of agriculture nearly 45 

 j-ears ago, with small means, and necessity drove 

 me to hard labor, with the very i'ew slaves f posses- 

 sed, and leftme no timelo keep a journal of'my little 

 operations; and ray family increased faster than 

 mv profits, so that when the scale of my opera- 

 tions extended, so as to take me away fmm manual 

 labor, I found even less time to commit to paper 

 the results of such experiments as grew out of my 

 pursuits; and I have no recourse now to any thing 

 but a defective memory, to enable me to present 

 any thing useful to the present generation. In- 

 deed, Mr. Editor, the course of husineRS is very 

 much chanced since 1 began mv orora'inrs. At 

 that day, there was a great deal of land to open, 

 and it was not thought disgraceful iotake hold of 

 an axe and set a good example to the negroes — 

 and that save a hafrt of labor which led on tlio 

 young to follow it up lltronfi:h the year at anv sort 

 of work that came in the way. I pursued !hi,9 

 course myself for seven years, till the investments 

 of my profits put it out of my power to do anv 

 thing more than lay out the plan of operation, aiid 

 see that others did their duty in the execution. 

 And here let me remark upon another very im-| 

 portant change that has been brought about:! 

 That very useful class of men called overseers, in' 

 a slave-holding country, were employed unon a 

 share of the crop; and it was upon the f>"i,(\vii^- 

 principle: — A young man expected to mn'ce ih^ 

 living in this way, and had neither land nor lalior 

 except that of hiscvv-n body and mind. — Tlie mnv 

 \vho had land and negroes from which he vUi - i 

 to derive profit, entered into a sort of pariiir ;■-;;• 

 with the young man, that he would fL!rnish tii'- 

 land and a certain number of laborers — we wii! 

 suppose seven. It was understood that the vounr 

 man was to work regularly with these nefrro^s, 

 and at the end of the vear was to have the profits 

 of his ov/n labor, which was tlie eighth part, lp;r,r-| 

 ing the profit of the labor of the negroes to thej 

 master. Thus the young man received his full! 

 share for his labour, and p;ud nothing for the land 

 he cultivated; besideswhich, he had his hous-^, rro-| 

 vision and fuel for himself, and his wife and ( hil-; 

 dren, if he had any; wdiile he was earning n repu- 

 tation, (if he was good for any thing,) whic'i, in 

 the end, would be a fortune to him." And let me 

 tell you, sir, that this training gave him a know- 

 ledge of what could be done; it gave him strenrrth 

 of body and mind, and habits of industry, which 

 >vould generally stick by him through life.' W heti 

 Vol. IV— 1 



after beginning with a small number of hands 



three, four, five or more, he became qualified to 

 manage too many to justify his laboring in person, 

 his profits increased to a share and a half, two 

 shares, or even more, fill at length he wasenabled 

 to establish himself; and in process of time, per- 

 haps emfiloyed young men to begin as he had 

 done ; and his experience qualified him to be a 

 judge of others. 



I reckon, sir, you begin to think j'ou had better 

 have let me ofi; than have your ivegister filled with 

 what I have no doubt will appear to many of your 

 readers useless siuff. But when I tell you I as- 

 cribe the little success I have had in providing the 

 means of raising a large family, to the seven years 

 of hard labor I endured, I trust 1 shall be excused 

 for endeavoring, in this way, to encourage the 

 young men of the present day to conf^'m, in some 

 deirree, at least, to tlie p.lan ol' lii'c here laid down. 



1 come now to the chance adverted to in the 

 former part of this letter.— After I liad added to 

 my business, by thepurcliaseof another farn), and 

 had had several valuable agents, !)fii!<r in v^/ant of 

 an overseer, a young man was recommended to 



conuug more ofa firminfj country than it had been, 



!!i eor::"---'--- - ^f the inrree^e of aiabie surface 



by ei' ■ - ■'!! as tlr' e.\ij:ujs!ioi) of some of 



tlic fi: L'.. . ,, : 1 :: enused the owners of the soil to 

 turn their an Milii.):: more to improvement-, which 

 conflicted witii tiic iiumediate interest of the over- 

 seer, by its t:;T,snecfive character. This brought 

 about tlip h;;!)ir of (jiving standing wages — broke 

 up the co-partncrs!iip, and took away the interest 

 of the overseer, in the fruits of his year's work. 

 You know, sir, witiiout my telling you, thai the 

 way to insure a man's fidelity to his trust, is to 

 make it his int'-'rest to be Ihithful. Do not under- 

 ■*and me as joining in the genera! denunciation of 

 '-■verseers, as the most faithless men in the world. 

 Far from it. I have been fortunate in finding 

 among them, as much, or more fidelity, than in 

 other classes of society. But they are men, and 

 consequently, are liable to the frailties of men; and 

 when we employ one that cantiot overcome selfish 

 motives, 'and attend to ih.e interest ol'liis employer, 

 the mischief is inealenlaliie. pailici lii: I , e,,-- the 

 "ime approaches v/hen he is to leave li- • ii;:i~ii:;gs 

 he is engao-ed in, and receive the same wages as 

 if h'^ had done his duty. 



The intention of the foregoing remarks, is to 

 sli.nw the great iuiporrancc — indeed, the absolute 

 necessity of snore personal attention from the own- 

 ers of the lend, ai:d labor. And this necessity is 

 rendered more imperious by the great and sudden 

 rise in the price of labor. We have interposed 

 between the soil cultivated; ;u;d the labor employed 



