THE ILLII^OIB F^IlUMER. 



41 



give employment to our people would se- 

 cure an amount of good that -would be 

 felt in the increase of emigration to our 

 State, in the employment of our people, 

 in the rise of property, that can scarcely 

 noAT be rcalix:d. 



We have a luxuriant soil, but it is not 

 the best soil for wheat. "Winters affect 

 it, and drouth and insects injure it, and 

 sometimes the crop fails. Our soil pro- 

 duces immense cropi of corn, and expe 

 ricnce has shoim, that ercn -flrhon, as in 

 the late season, there was injury from its 

 shortness, the Chineio Sugar Cane yield- 

 ed a heavy crop, and became perfectly 

 matured, as is evident by the perfection 

 of its seed. If this cane perfected itself 

 the last unfavorable season, which was 

 at least three weeks shorter than usual, 

 what may wc not expect of it m favor- 

 able seasons? 



We believe that Providence has given 

 us this new staple at the very moment it 

 was required. The experience of the last 

 season has tested and proved its ralue. 

 What we want i.ow is skill, experience, 

 and proper means to bring cut its value, 

 just as Whitney's invention brought out 

 the value of cotton, and gave to that sta- 

 ple the soubriquet, "Cotton King." 



Let our enterprising men take this mat- 

 ter into consideration. Sphixgfield is 

 just as good a point to erect a sugar es- 

 tablishment as can be found in the State. 

 Here, within five miles of the city, if ;. 

 market can be secured, hundreds of acres 

 » of Su:-:"ar Cane can be grown; and here 

 we have a population within striking dis- 

 tance that would consume all the syrup, 

 molasses and sugar that such an estab- 

 lishment could furnish them. 



We again invite the attention of our 

 readers to two communications, on the 

 subject of manufacturing sugar and mo- 

 lasses from the Chinese Sugar Cane, in 

 this paper, addressed to the Correspond- 

 ing Secretary of the State Agricultural 



Society. 



-••»- 



,.--"- Credit. 



We have thought sn~.e remarks in a 

 plain way on the credit system mi^ht 

 not be amiss at this time. Wo exist as 

 a nation more largely on credit than any 

 other under the sun. In our cady his^o- 

 ry it was natural that the pioneers to a 

 new country should not be men of wenlth, 

 that they should depend upon assistance 



from each other to a greater extent than 

 older communities; but the case is now 

 altered", and, perhaps, fewer countries in 

 the ncrld are richer than the United States 

 of America. Yet we borrow to the most 

 unlimited extent. From those in afflu- 

 ent circumstances to the poorest kind, 

 all run in debt, and frequently, not on- 

 ly without cause, but against the plainest 

 dictates of prudence and common sense. 

 That we must borrow, and that we must 

 lend, is clear enough. Humanity is 

 wrapped up in tliesc mutual assistances; 

 the sympathies are brought out; the best 

 parts of the character developed; but 

 where we run hazards for mere acquisition 

 where we buv that which we can do with- 

 out, when we enter into new schemes and 

 engagements before pa,st claims are liqui- 

 dated, we lose our rcsponsibleness, and 

 are the authors, to the extent of our ca- 

 pacity, of that wide spread ruin which 

 occasionally visits the business world. 



Nothing more undermines the character 

 we imagine, then this looseness with re- 

 gard to our pecuniary obligations. Send 

 a child, for the first time, on an errand 

 to buy an article, and it will not do it, — 

 the whole nature is ruptured, unless 

 something wherewithal be sent to pay 

 for it; and this sensibility to truth and 

 justice should be shared to a larger ex- 

 tent by the adult community. None of 

 us can well cast a stone, for we are all in 

 the same disgrace; but we may neverthe- 

 less suggest the propriety of thinking 

 over and planning some means by which 

 our consciences should be reached on 

 this subject. We think som.e mark of 

 reprobation should be visited upon those 

 who enter upon new schemes, and the 

 outlay of money, before existing debts 

 are provided for. One builds a mill, 

 buvs a house, extends a farm, when a 

 dependent fellow-man may be distressed 

 for the want of monev due him bv this 

 same heartless operator. To ask one of 

 these worthies to pay you an obligation, 

 that may have already lengthened itself 

 into two or three years, is little less than 

 an insult. "Howcan.I,"hewill say, "go 

 on with this project, (whatever it may 

 be,) if I pay you, or am without this 

 monev," — thus makinc: himself the in- 

 jured and assailed, instead of his victim. 



The friendly relations of society are 

 very much disturbed by disordered debt 

 and credit. It is the cause of much of 



the litigation in our courts, and the dark- 

 er criminal records show the stain it 

 makes on human life. The celebrated 

 Webster murder, in Boston, some years 

 since, was caused by debt and dunning. 

 The whole community, we may add the 

 world, stand aghast that anything could 

 thus disturb so cultivated a condition 

 of society; but no cultivation can stand 

 the reproaches that extravagance will 

 bring upon it. Of late years there has 

 grown up in our country an insensibility 

 to crimes. There may be some virtue in 

 it, and we think there is; but it exhibits 

 itself in acting more humanely, as it 

 thinks, towards crime, and the conse- 

 quence is vigilance committees, and 

 lynching, which have so much disgraced 

 our annals. In our Western country, 

 growing rapidly, there are many new 

 comers, many of them very desirable 

 persons, as good, it may be better, than 

 the old settlers; but all laboring under 

 the disadvantage of being unknown, of 

 meeting no eye that they feel in any de- 

 gree amenable to; thus offering to all 

 temptations, to which the worst avail 

 themselves, and the consequence is, more 

 mistrust and confusion than should ex- 

 ist in a well ordered society. 



The loss sustained by bad debts must 

 be made good, is made good, by en- 

 hanced prices, borne by the more honest 

 and frugal portion of society; thus a deep 

 injustice is spread broadcast everywhere, 

 and in its accumulated power, does its 

 part, and a large part, in sapping the 

 foundation of national credit. There 

 can be no objection to looking to the 

 fall of the year, to the movement of 

 wheat and produce, to settle existing 

 accounts; but be the time or circum- 

 stance what it may, we think a much 

 greater responsibility should be felt to 

 pay our just debts when due. We do 

 not know that coercive laws do much to 

 compel us, that the pulpit does much, 

 under the present state of feeling, or ad- 

 dressed to any particular phase of social 

 delinquency; but we do know that man 

 holds relations of a distinctly moral type 

 to another than an earthly tribunal, to 

 which he should address himself when 

 he enters into obligations with his fellow- 

 man. The observance of these, will, in 

 the long run, redound to his advantage 

 in a worldly as well as a christian sense, 

 according to Divine authority. 



