693 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



household, and a large surplus to supply the wants 

 of their fellow-men. 



I consider slavery an evil of great mairnitndej 

 yet I am not in favor of abolition — very far from 

 it. No remedy for the evil has presented itself 10 

 my mind, but would produce a greater evil to so- 

 ciety, than a continuance of servitude in the mild 

 and humane Ibrm in which it at present exists. 

 The philanthropist, fiinatics, and those who really 

 entertain religious scruples, who have a know- 

 ledge of the relative duties of master'and servant, 

 as pr;ictised in Virginia, must all admit that the 

 situation of our servants is greatly preferable, as 

 to all ecsential comfort-^ of life, compared with the 

 situation and condition of. the poorer order of 

 white people, in the non-slaveholding states, and 

 certainly much better than the condition of the 

 free people ol' color residing among us, or their 

 savage ancestors, naked and starved, roaming 

 through the wilds of Africa like the wild beasts of 

 the forest, deprived of the light of revelation, and 

 all the social and endearing relations of civilized 

 hfe. Slavery was introduced in this country, by 

 the sordid policy ol' the British government, fiir 

 which we of the present generation cannot be 

 held accountable; but we are accountable for a 

 just discharge of our duty as masters, in extend- 

 ing to them mild humane treatment, with a due 

 regard to their morals. Abolition can never be 

 forced by the clamor of fanatics, whieh can only- 

 make the situation of slaves less tolerable, and de- 

 lay the process of public opinion, in devising some 

 plan for commencing a system of abolition, which, 

 commence when it may, must take its origin in 

 some of the slave-holdiufr states. 



I consider one ijreat objection to slavery to be, 

 that by fashion, pride, and folly, the fathers of the 

 land have relied mainly upon the reluctant lahor 

 of slaves lor the support of their Jamilios, to the 

 neglect of the important duty of rearing their 

 sons to labor, either in the mechanic arts, or on 

 the liirm ; to train them up to industry and econo- 

 my, thereby lessening the inducements of vice and 

 immoral practices — the bane of society, to which 

 youth unemployed in some regular daily avoca- 

 tion, is peculiarly liable, indolence is the mother 

 of vice and dissipation, destructive of health, mo- 

 rals, and all the social relations of life, and the 

 certain forerunner of poverty and want. Besides, 

 slavery is an evil in this point of view ; by means 

 of slave labor, the most valuable region of coun- 

 try under the sun, has been worn down and ex- 

 hausted by the culture of tobacco — a plant that 

 yields nothing for the support of man or beast, 

 a great exhauster, its culture very laborious, and 

 cei;tainly under no circumstances will it ever be 

 cultivated by while labor. Furthermore, these 

 people under humane treatment, the strength and 

 vigor of the females acquired by moderate labor, 

 multiply and increase upon us, faster than our 

 means of nrocurino; additional lands to work them 

 upon. With a redundancy of labor tor the extent 

 of our firms, no plan of improvement can be ad- 

 vantageously adopted. The inquiry naturally 

 presenting itself is, what is the remedy? I an- 

 swer, lessen your force. There never was, and 

 probably never will again, be a more propitious 

 time than the present, to dispose of your slaves; 

 and forthwith resolve to commence upon the im- 

 provement of your exhausted fields, by making 

 and applying all the manure in your power, of ani- 



mal and vegetable matter, such as corn stalks, 

 wheat straw, and leaves taken from the poorest 

 part of your woodland, desigried for limber and 

 not for cultivation. Much can be done in this 

 way to increase your quantity of manure, and 

 then rely upon clover and plaster, as the great 

 auxiliary of the whole vegetable kingdom by 

 which you can renovate your exhausted lands, 

 and bring them up into good tilth again. Now 

 gentlemen, let mo intreat and beseech you to 

 commence the clover husbandry as the only 

 known process by which you can render your 

 lands'fiirtile ; you must not mind the expense; the 

 money expended will return to you with usurious 

 interest, in auirmented crops, and renewed fertility 

 of your exhaijsted lands, and amply reward vou 

 for all expenses, time and labor employed. One 

 of two things must of necessity be done, either to 

 improve your lands, or sell the bones of your fa- 

 thers, as too many have done, and exile your- 

 selves and families from the attachments of nati- 

 vity, friends, and relations, and make an immanly 

 retreat, to the fat lands of the south-west, where 

 you will risk the diseases incident to la hot sun, 

 and, perchance, to n>anv members of your family 

 an untimely grave. Now gentlemen, let me 

 ao-ain conjure and entreat you, being sincerely de- 

 sirous to promote your interest, and can, from many 

 year's experience, recommend the clover system, 

 as the best mode of improvement — to prevail on 

 you, one and all, to adopt it the next season — to 

 sow upon your wheat and oat land a gallon of seed 

 to the acre, bearing in mind, that poor land re- 

 quires more seed, as many will fiiil to ve<retate. 

 Poor exhausted places in your fields should have a 

 dreosinsr of some kind of manure, and be freely 

 plastered ; oats should be seeded thin, as they in- 

 cline to branch much, of moist springs, when they 

 will injure (he young clover. My preference as to 

 time of sef'ding upon wheat land is the last ten 

 days of February; afid when the land is much 

 heaved up by tVost, when rajns will settle it down, 

 and give a cover to the.seed and insure vegeta- 

 tion." If the ground be dry, hard and compact, I 

 recommend a light single horse harrow with while 

 oak teeth, to pass over the field, which will greatly 

 assist the seed in vegetating, and instead of injur- 

 insr, as many would suppose, greatly benefit your 

 wheat, especially if the roller is made to tbllow 

 the harrow. 



Young clover seldom dies for want of moisture 

 till the grain crop is cut. If the season then be 

 dry, having been sheltered and protected from the 

 heat of the sun sufficiently, when an application 

 of plaster, of from three to four pecks to the acre, 

 will be' very timely, and greatly tend to preserve the 

 young clover. For the second application of plas- 

 ter the next season, I prefer the time when vege- 

 tation is lidly abroad, and the clover nenr heading; 

 there is then more vegetable matter lor the plaster 

 to act upon. Clover and [ilastei should be like 

 man and wile, never separated ; for without plas- 

 ter, the crop will be feeble and sickly. Every 

 fi\rmer must feed his land either with manure, or 

 clover and plaster, or it will not fet^d him, and will 

 withhold from him that increase which would re- 

 ward him for his care and labor. 



Hoof nor tooth, should be put upon clover he- 

 lore it is in full bloom— at any earlier siage is very 

 destructive : and never at any time graze clover 

 in tlie first year of its growth. I mean, when in 



