F A R M E R S' REGISTER. 



[No, 1.2 



the end of the year, ever apply as much as a sin- 

 gle cent to the improvement of the lands already 

 in their possession ; but lay out the whole overplus 

 beyond necessary expenses, in buying more land 

 or negroes, without ever making the least compar- 

 ative estimate of the profits arising, or likely to 

 arise from the two modes of investment. The 

 great majority, however, ofourikrmers and plant- 

 ers — a majoritity probably amounting to three- 

 fourths of the vvhole, are such wretched econo- 

 mists — such slaves to the fashionable and ostenta- 

 tious prodigaliiy of the time, that, although truh' 

 desirous to improve their farms, they h;ive nothing 

 left, at the year's end, wherewith to improve them. 

 The entire income is consumed in supporting a 

 style of living to which, generally speakinir, it is 

 liir from being adequate — a style which each son, 

 should there be a dozen among whom the patri- 

 monial estate was divided, feels a silly family 

 pride in attempting to maintain, out of his single 

 portion, as his lather did before him when in pos- 

 session of the whole property. The habits of 

 profuse hospitalify, contracted under the paternal 

 roof, are still indulged, until no escape from ruin 

 seems to be left but the abandonment of their na- 

 tive homes. Could the danger of this painful 

 event be foreseen in time, it might often be guard- 

 ed against by a prudent retrenchment, and in- 

 creased attention to their farms ; but having been 

 in the constant practice of " burning their candle 

 at both e;!(/s" as it were, without appearing to 

 think or to care much how the flame is to be fed 

 and kfept alive at either end, they never become 

 aware of this double exhaustion until they are 

 forced to see the last fhckerinff indications of its 

 rapidly approaching death. The next thing, of 

 iate years, has been to sell out the little property 

 ^hich is left, and to flee from their homes, their 

 country and their friends, never to return. 



Another prolific cause of our depression, but of 

 quite an opposite character to the former, is, that 

 many of our most wealthy agriculturists with- 

 draw large portions of their tijnds from the culture 

 and improvement of their lands, for very different 

 purposes. Among these, numerous instances oc- 

 cur of gentlemen who, not content with what 

 the surface of our good mother Earth will yield 

 them, when properly manage4, have gone to dig- 

 ging deep into her bowels after hidden precious 

 treasures. Many much poorer men are thus 

 tempted to quit a certain business, that they under- 

 stand, and by which they have lived in comfort, 

 lor one of which they are utterly ignorant; and 

 one moreover that has so much guess-work in it, 

 as to mar many more fortunes than it makes. 



A still more numerous class of our agricultural 

 fraternity, although busily employed above ground, 

 instead of cultivating and improving it for income, 

 waste most of their time and money in the gener- 

 ally abortive attempt to amass riches by raising 

 what are technically called " blooded horses,'''' as 

 if other horses had no blood in their veins ! I use 

 the term loaste, because the calculation I have 

 heard, is, that not more than one in twenty of 

 these patricians, or noblemen of the equine genus, 

 ever turns out to be a tolerable racer. This cal- 

 culation, i(" correct, at once presents a lottery with 

 at least twenty blanks to a prize, even where the 

 horse is good, to say nothing of the greatly in- 

 creased chances of loss from want of skill in the 

 owners, and fi'om the mal-practices often resorted 



to against them : a lottery moreover, wherein 



hundreds upon hundreds of our infatuated brethren 

 are constantly gambling; at an expense too, that 

 even to the winners, is very rarely, if ever, fully 

 reimbursed! 



Take notice, my friends, that I am now consi- 

 dering racing merely as a matter oi' finance, atiect- 

 ing our own interests ; but on that account, if on 

 no other, well entitled to the most mature consi- 

 deration of all agriculturists who either are or 

 probably may be infected with the passion for it. 

 Not a word shall I say of its effects upon the ag- 

 ricultural industry and morals of the country; but 

 will simply ask that a full and foir estimate be 

 made, (I care not by v/hom,) of the number of 

 winners compared with that of the losers — then 

 of the nett profits made by t!ie former — and if it 

 does not justify n)y assertions, I will submit to any 

 punishment, to which a jury of honest racers 

 would condemn me. 



Let the possessors of what they consider redun- 

 dant wealh — of money that burns to get out of their 

 pockets — of which they preftjr to spend in this 

 way above all other modes ; let them rely for its 

 alternate translisr, upon the " fieels^'' or "bottom'''' 

 of their horses, combined with their own tact in 

 the racing art. I neither have nor ever had any 

 lot or part in such pursuits ; but having witnessed, 

 with the deepest regret, much of its baneful effects 

 upon agriculture, I deem it an imperative duty, on 

 the present occasion, to warn all n)y brethren 

 against its fascinating influence. It resem.bles all 

 other fascinations in its pov/er to nullify the 

 plainest suggestions of common sense — to silence 

 and defeat the most impressive warnings of that 

 conservative principle, conscience; while it unfits 

 a man from pursuing agricultural occupations with 

 either pleasure or profit, quite as certainly as the 

 constant habit of drunkenness would do. 



Now suppose that, of the enormous sums liter- 

 ally thrown away by all who draw blanks in these 

 gold-searching, copper-searching, and racing lot- 

 teries, only a moity were laid out in clearing, 

 ditching, draining, cultivating and fertilizing their 

 farms, and m purchasing the best machines and 

 implements of husbandry — can any man in his 

 senses for a moment doubt the great and certain 

 improvement which would raj)idly succeed such a 

 change in the application of agricultural income? 

 Surely no such person can be found. This how- 

 ever, is far from being the only misapplication or 

 waste of revenue on the part of wealthy Virginia 

 fiirmers and planters, exhausting their means for 

 agricultural improvement, and at the same time 

 augmenting the necessit)^ for it, as well as a dis- 

 taste for an occupation tiiat su[)plics income far 

 too slowly and nioderalely to keep pace with the 

 rapid increase, among us, of luxury and prodigal- 

 ity. Their revenue, like Squire Acres' courage, 

 " oozes out at the palms of our hands," for such 

 a variety of other purposes than the good of our 

 profession, asccrlainly to produce, very soon, that 

 excess of expenditure over income, which no pro 

 lession, trade, nor calling, however lucrative, can 

 long sustain without ruin. Yet with this fact star- 

 ing them in the fiice, thousands of them continue 

 to act like those thoughtless, silly children who al- 

 ways appear to expect that " they can cat their 

 cake and have it too.'''' To give you all the proofs, 

 vvithin my own knowledge, of the truth of this as- . 

 sertion, would require a pamphlet instead of a let- 



