154 MONTHLY JOURFs'AL OF AGRICULTURE. 



posed to think is true as a general rule and under all circumstances. I am sure it is the case 

 where slave labor is used. Permit me to illustrate my meaning by an example. Suppose 

 a man to invest five thousand dollars in land which can be made to yield three hundred 

 dollars without bestowing any labor on it — say he can rent it for that sum — so long as it con- 

 tinues to yield him tliat sum it will be a good investment, at all events as good as lending 

 the money at the usual rate of interest. But if, instead of investing all the capital in land, 

 lie only lays out four thousand in land and the remaining one thousand in two negro men 

 twenty years of age, for whom he pays five hundred dollars apiece, and sets about to work 

 the land ; he must now make more than three hundred dollars, or the investment will not 

 be equal to the usual profits of lending money. In the first place he must make, clear of all 

 tlte expenses of tillage, (excepting the labor,) enougli to pay two hundred and forty dollars, 

 the interest on the capital invested in the land, and sixt)' dollars to pay the interest on that 

 laid out in the slaves ; but besides this, he must feed and clothe the slaves, and also get a 

 farther per centage of profit on the one thousand invested in them, suflBcient to yield a sum 

 in the lifetime of the slaves equal to their first value, else he will lose a part of the capital 

 by their dealli. In other words, he must feed and clothe the slaves, make six per cent, on 

 the money paid for them, and enough besides to supply their places when they die. If, now, 

 we suppose the average life of slaves aged twenty to be fifty-two, he must in tliirty-two 

 years make, over and above the support of the slaves and the usual rate of interest on his 

 value, five hundred dollars from the product of his labor — this is about three per cent, per 

 annum for thii-ty-tv/o years on his supposed value. We may safely put the food, clothing, 

 taxes, medical bills, &c., of a slave at thirty dollars a year, which is six per cent, on his value. 

 Add the three together, the si.x ^^er cent. Interest on the cost, six jier cent, for clothing, &c., 

 and three per cent, additional to supply his place when he dies, and we have fifteen per 

 cent, on his value as the amount of profit which slave labor nnist yield to make it as profita- 

 hle as land without labor, or money at six per cent. Consequently the farmer who employs 

 in Agriculture a capital of ten thousand dollars, one-half of which is invested in slave labor, 

 must make annually, clear of all expenses of tillage, one thousand and fifty dollars — just ten 

 and a half per cent, on the whole capital, to make it as profitable as money at legal interest; 

 while he who has the same capital, but only one-fifth invested in slave labor, need make but 

 seven hundred and eighty dollars a year, or rather more than seven and a half per cent., to 

 make his capital equally profitable — a diftereuce of about three per cent., ovring entirely 

 to the j)roportiou of labor in the two cases. For the same reason lands cultivated in gi-ass, 

 wliich of all other crops requires the least labor, must yield a larger profit than lands culti- 

 vated in gram which require the most labor ; and this whether the grass be mown for hay or 

 used for gi'azing, and altogether independent, too, of the improvement of the land itself, 

 which must be greater ui grass crops than when cultivated in grain. Hence the high rents, 

 profits and prices of lauds in grazing couuti-ies." 



Every sign of Nature, and every consideration of policy, invite the agricultur- 

 ists, off at any considerable distance from tide-water in Virginia, to turn their at- 

 tention more and more from tillage crops and staples — such as wheat, corn, rye, 

 ■and tobacco — to grass, butter, cheese,* wool, hops, sheep, cattle and mules. In 

 proportion to the capacity of their land to produce grain, it is far belter adapted 

 to grass than lands of same yield of grain on the tide-waters. Clover, white and 

 red, timothy and orchard grass, seem here to be in their natural element, even 

 to the hill-tops ; every mountain side on being cleared seems to afford good 

 sheep pasturage, and wherever the growth of grass is too high and rich for sheep — 

 as was found to be the case in some of the western counties, by a large owner 

 of fine-wooled sheep from Pennsylvania, who lately settled in Bedford — Na- 

 ture invites to the raising of cattle and mules. The flock-master referred to. 

 from Washington County, found difficulty in selecting a site where the bite was 

 short enough for sheep. True, it may be said that if the West has raised up a 

 competitor in growing grain, so has it in rearing stock, owing to the cheapness 

 of rich land, and the grain to fatten hogs and catfle ; but the railroads and canals 

 do not offer to the western grazier the advantages they present to the grain-grow- 

 er to enable him to beat down rivalry on the Atlantic. 



For example, take the case which fell under my notice in May last — General 

 Thomas Shelby of Ky., sent four hundred cattle to the New-York market, wliich 

 took eighty days to travel there, being eight hundred miles at ten miles a day: 

 and at an expense of $6,000, or $15 a head on the road. He expected the gross 

 sales to be !$32,000,, or $80 per head. Thus, however striking after all may be 

 the advantages of the more western grazier, still they are not so irresistible to 



{* A Parliamentaiy Return shows that r!41,CS2 cwt. of foreign cheese was imported mto the 

 United Kingdom of Gicat Britain in 1S4C. Ed. Farm. Lib.} 



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