348 



Economy. 



Vol. IX. 



Economy. 



The following lecture is copied from the Southern 

 Planter, and though it was intended, and may seem 

 more particularly adapted to the meridian of Rich- 

 mond, many a one of us on this side of "Mason and 

 Dixon's line," may draw, if we will, a good lesson 

 from it.— Ed. 



Perhaps the most marked trait in the 

 character of the Southern farmer is the 

 want of economy. Many reasons have been 

 assigned for the depressed state of agricul- 

 ture in the South. That our country en- 

 joys the most unrivalled advantages for the 

 prosecution of agricultural pursuits, is un- 

 denied, and undeniable: that the improve- 

 ments in this art havd* not kept even pace 

 with other departments of science, is uni- 

 versally admitted. The inquiring mind, 

 which seeks for reasons for every fact, has 

 been engaged in the explanation of this 

 phenomenon. Some have declared that the 

 light of science was wanting to the pursuit 

 of agriculture; some have attributed the 

 stationary character of this pursuit to the 

 existence of a slave population, &c., &c. 



That the science of agriculture is in its 

 nature one of the most complex and intri 

 cate, a little consideration must satisfy the 

 most careless observer ; and the fact that a 

 season is required to test an experiment, 

 proves, that experience, which is the founda- 

 tion of true knowledge, is more difficult of 

 attainment in this than in any other art. 

 But this is true of agriculture everywhere, 

 and only accounts for the retarded progress 

 of the art when considered in relation to 

 the world generally. It has been asserted, 

 hovyever, that in the Southern part of the 

 United States, the portion of the whole 

 globe perhaps best adapted to the pursuit of 

 agriculture, improvement languishes most. 

 Whilst we are not prepared to admit this 

 charge to its fullest extent, we will confess 

 that agricultural improvements encounter 

 peculiar difficulties in their progress through 

 'the Southern States ; not, as some imagine, 

 for want of knowledge of the scientific dis- 

 coveries in agriculture, for they, we believe, 

 in truth, are very few, and are as well known 

 to the enlightened farmers of the South as 

 to any other portion of this Union. But the 

 fact is, that amongst the highly favoured, 

 wealthy farmers of the South, a state of 

 financial embarrassment prevails, that offers 

 an insuperable bar to agricultural improve- 

 ment. It is not uncommon to find a South- 

 ern farmer with real estate and negroes 

 worth fifty thousand dollars, sadly embar- 

 rassed with a debt of twenty thousand. Our 

 Northern friends will wonder how a man 

 with fifty thousand dollars worth of property 



can be seriously embarrassed with a debt of 

 twenty thousand, but a Southern man will 

 readily understand the feelings and senti- 

 ments which make it so distasteful to part 

 with that peculiar kind of property in which 

 a large portion of his funds is vested. But 

 unless he sell his slaves, the farmer cannot 

 part with an acre of his ground, which is, 

 in his opinion, hardly sufficient to keep them 

 employed. Thus it is, that the debt is not 

 only retained, but perhaps from the same 

 cause from which it originated, it is in- 

 creased, and to provide for the interest 

 alone, absorbs all the funds and much of the 

 time of the improvident farmer. It were 

 bootless to look to the origin of this state of 

 things; it could perhaps be traced to the 

 fact of expensive habits derived from a 

 wealthy ancestry, whilst the enormous pro- 

 fits that justified them in former years, has 

 altogether ceased in later times ; for whilst 

 there is no difficulty in expanding your ex- 

 penses in prosperity, the contraction in ad- 

 versity is not quite so easy. Be that as it 

 may, the fact of a very general pecuniary 

 embarrassment amongst even the wealthy 

 portion of the agricultural community in 

 the South, is not to be denied ; and this cir- 

 cumstance alone, when fully considered, 

 will be found sufficient to account for the 

 retarded state of agricultural improvement 

 in the South. Money is the great lever 

 with which the world is both raised and 

 lowered. Suggest to a farmer a system of 

 cultivation by which his exhausted fields 

 may be rested and restored; he is fully 

 aware of it, but he tells you that the corn 

 from that field is devoted to the liquidation 

 of a debt already incurred ; prove to him 

 that if he is deprived of this resource for a 

 year or two, it will only be to double the 

 product in after time; he knows it; but even 

 with the yield of that field, he fears that his 

 income for the year will fall short of his ex- 

 penses. He hopes that it will be better 

 after a while, but this year, he must " make 

 every thing tell." Show him a valuable 

 labour-saving machine, an investment in 

 which would be equivalent to an interest 

 of fifty per cent, his answer is, " my dear 

 sir, I am a borrower, not an investor of 

 money;" and so he is, poor fellow. It is 

 not the want of scientific knowledge that 

 keeps that man's fields poor, and induces 

 the most skinning system of cultivation, but 

 it is the want of pecuniary means. 



What is the remedy for this state of things'? 

 We answer emphatically, retrenchment and 

 economy. Begin with yourself; curtail your 

 individual expenses, go through every mem 

 ber of your household, cut down and pare 

 off" everywhere; teach your children that 



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