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him cm})loymcnt in inclcmont weather ; and during the long vaca- 

 tion iVojn agricultural labors, which winter brings with it. Two 

 great drawbacks upon the fanner's prosperity have hitherto been the 

 use of ardent spirit and the extravagant price of labor. The former 

 evil, is vastly diminished ; and we believe that more than one half of 

 the farms in this County will this year be managed without the use 

 of a drop of ardent spirit ; in truth, it is becoming quite disreputable 

 to use it, and no custom can stand long against public opinion, 

 when it is once thoroughly set against it. The price of labor is 

 stiil inordinate, but this must come down. The price of labor 

 ought to be regulated by the price of bread and clothing. Former- 

 ly wages were considered ample when a man could earn a bushel 

 of corn or grain in two days ; now he can often obtain two bushels 

 in one day ; formerly the laborer was well paid if he could earn the 

 cloth for a shirt in three days, and now he can obtain the cloth for 

 three shirts by the labor of one day. The price of all mechanical 

 labor, of which the farmer must sometimes avail himself, is most 

 exorbitant, such as that of the carpenter, the wheelwright, the black- 

 smith,' the mason. The blacksmith charges you a dollar and a 

 quarter or a dollar and a half for shoeing your horse, and two dol- 

 lars or more for shoeing your oxen. The materials of iron and coal 

 for the horse cost about thirty four cents, and for the oxen not twice 

 as much, and the time employed does not exceed two hours for 

 each animal. Other articles of the labor are equally dear. The 

 mason charges you two dollars and sometimes two dollars and a 

 quarter per day ; that is, in a trade in which their is no mystery, for 

 labor which is not harder than common farm labor, and where the 

 tools cost almost nothing, he must receive enough per day to pur- 

 chase more than four bushels of corn, or nine bushels of potatoes, 

 and more then twenty yards of good cotton cloth for sheeting or 

 shirting. Wo begrudge no man his honest gains ; but while every 

 effort is made to grind down the farmer to the lowest possible price 

 for his products, we can but hope that the time will come when the 

 price, which he himself is obliged to pay for labor, will bear a juster 

 relation to the compensation which the community is willing to 

 make him for his own. These, as we observed, are great draw-backs 

 upon the farmer's success ; they compel a prudent man to forego 

 many improvements which he would otherwise make, and to hus- 

 band his resources with an extreme frugality. 



We inquire in the last place to what sources may a farmer look 

 for a remuneration of his labor. The farms in the County, as we 



