93 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



"A gang of slaves on a farm, will often increase to 

 four times their original number in thirty or forty 

 years. If a farmer is only able to feed and maintain 

 his slaves, their increase in value may double the whole 

 of his capital originally vested in farming, before he 

 closes the term of an ordinary life. But few farms are 

 able to support this increasing expense, and also i'lir- 

 nish the necessary supplies to the I'amily of the owner 

 — whence, very many owners of large estates in lands 

 and negroes, are throughout their lives too poor to en- 

 joy t'le comforts of life, or to incurthe expenses neces- 

 sary to improve their unprofitable farming. A man so 

 situated may be said to be a slave to his ov.'n slaves. If 

 the owner is industrious and frugal, he may be able to 

 support the increasing number of his slaves, and to be- 

 queath them undiminished to his children. But the 

 income of few persons increases as fast as their slaves, 

 and if not, the consequence must be, that some of 

 them will be sold that the others may be supported; 

 and the sale of more is perhaps afterwards compelled, 

 to pay debts incurred in striving to put oif that dread- 

 ed alternative. The slave at tirst almost starves his 

 master, and at last is eaten by him — at least, he is ex- 

 changed for his value in food." 



The waste of productive capital due to the use 

 nf .«Iave labor, docs not appear in this statement. 

 By the estimate of Mr. Rutiin himself^, the annu- 

 al wages incurred by llic employment of a slave 

 amount to ,^33; the whole of the expenses to 

 !B86 50. By the account of one of his southern 

 correspondents, in the Farmers' Re^rister, an ag- 

 ricultural hired laborer in the state of Rhode 

 Island does the w^ork of 2^^ slav^es, and his wages 

 and food we presume will not cost his enijiloyer 

 more than ,S1~3. The northern farmer, there- 

 lore, saves one fiith; but it is, in addition, to be 

 recollected, that the southern planter must support 

 the children, the aged, and females who can do 

 110 work. We therelbre think we are salely war- 

 ranted in saying, that ever}^ piece of agricultural 

 labor performed by a slave in a soutljern state, 

 costs one-half more than if performed in an ea.?t- 

 ern state by a freeman. The difference, indeed, 

 would not be perceptible, if they labored side by 

 Bide, for the freed negro or white hireling would 

 disdain to work in such a case; but as the compar- 

 ative result between different portions of ourcoun- 

 try, it is unquestionable. The effect "Upon the ge- 

 ueral prosjierity is, however, far greater than 

 Avould appear fi-om the comparison, for every la- 

 borer in the eastern Btates saves a part of his 

 Avages, to add to the national wealth; the children, 

 the women, find profitable occupations, and thus a 

 barren county of New England, in which there 

 may not be a single wealthy individual, may not- 

 withstanding possess a liir greater collective wealth 

 than an equal surface of the richest cotton region 

 in the southern states. 



The settlers of Pennsylvania commenced the 

 cultivation of that state under ditfcrcnt circum- 

 stances, and with diflerent views from those either 

 of the east or of Virginia. Penn's plan made- 

 cities or borouglis, the scats of traffic and mar- 

 kets of i)roduce, the nuclei of his agricultural set- 

 tlements, and by a mutual dependence thus crea- 

 ted, lixed the agriculturist in the neigiiborliood of 

 the mercliant and maniificturer. The very state 

 of things which a slow course of events has 

 brought about in New England, was contemplated 

 by tiiut enlightened pro|)rietorli-om the first. The 

 dairy and the beeve were therelbre the staples, 

 and 'Jther products became the accessories; thus it 



has happened, that the farmers of the neighbor- 

 hood of Philadelphia, are the only settlers of 

 English blood, who have resisted the migratory 

 habits of other pans of the country. In that 

 neighborhood, the original feitility has been kept 

 up by the manure yielded by the stocks ol cattle 

 which fiirmed the basis of the system, and that 

 which is allbrded by the stables and streets of the 

 city. A .similar dread of change influenced the 

 Germans, who followed the Quakers, in the occu- 

 pation of the more remote districts of Pennsylva- 

 nia; and while bread stufis naturally became the 

 only profitable objects of culture, they avoided the 

 exhaustion which their growth produced in other 

 districts, by a most valuable secret they brought 

 with them from Europe. We call it a secret, Ibr 

 those of other blood, who see it used in their pre- 

 sence, do not discover its value. This is neither 

 more nor less than the use of lime. By this sim- 

 ple but efficient aid, the farms of Pennsylvania 

 have generally maintained their original charac- 

 ter for fertility, and in some places have increased 

 in products, beyond the early crops that are given 

 by the proverbial energy of a virgin soil. To show 

 how slowly an agricultural process, however val- 

 vable, passes from one race of settlers to another, 

 Vv^emay mention what we ourselves saw, during 

 the last summer, in Hunterdon count}'. New Jer- 

 sey. The southern part of this county is settled 

 by Germans, who have entered from iPeiinsylva- 

 nia; the northern, by those of various races who 

 have mounted the valley of the Raritan. The 

 soil, in many places, is to appearance identical, 

 being formed by the decomposition of the red 

 shale; the Germans, by the use of lime, raise 

 from thirty to forty bushels of wheat per acre, and 

 their other products are in proportion; the settlers 

 of Yankee and Dutch l>lood, are happy to get 

 li'om fifteen to twenty. We hope, for the sake of 

 our argument, that the same German race has 

 carried the same practice along with it, in its pro- 

 gress through the valley of Virginia to North Car- 

 olina; fbr in the last named state we noticed a 

 contrast even stronger than the one we have 

 stated. After travelling fbr many miles through 

 wastes of old fields, we entered the German set- 

 tlement of Salem, which, without any ];erceptible 

 change in the original character of the soil, pre- 

 sented the rich appearance of Pennsylvania. 



In the foregoing statement, we have not in- 

 cluded the settlers of the Dutch province of the 

 New Netherlands, not because they brought with 

 them little agricultural skill, but because their ex- 

 ample has been of little influence upon the present 

 agriculture of the United Slates. It is, however, 

 but justice to them to mention, that many of them 

 being Protestants, expelled from the southern Ne- 

 therlands by the persecutions of the Spanish 

 crown, the modes, implements, and practice of 

 husbandry which they introduced, were the very 

 best which then existed, and that although part of 

 these were necessarily abandoned under the new 

 circumstances in which they were placed, their 

 implements in particular were superior, if applied 

 to light soils, such as those of their native Bra- 

 bant, to any brought to America by other races. 

 Long Island, to which these were well fitted, 

 bore, in con.'jcquence, j)revious to the Revolution, 

 the well merited epithet of the garden of the col- 

 onies. But the Flemish, Walloon, and Frisian 

 blood was not excited by the same inventive spirit 



