60 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



England Farmer brought the reply that we 

 "whipped" black women at the South. We fore- 

 bore the obvious answer, that it might be no worse 

 to whip a black slave than, by the protracted tor- 

 ture of over-work, to kill a white wife ; be- 

 cause we saw no good in such a retort, and 

 could not presume by that, or any other means, 

 to reform the perverted sympathies of Mr. 

 French. 



In the November number of The Planter, 

 we again used some facts, furnished. us by the 

 same authority, in regard to the wholesale 

 desertion of farms in some parts of New 

 Hampshire ; and we contrasted therewith the 

 improving condition of the whole of Virginia. 



The January number of the New England 

 Farmer comes back at us quite scornfully in 

 this wise : 



" It was not our intention in writing those 

 letters to convey any idea of lack of ability or 

 energy in our people, or that our institutions 

 do not foster all honest industry. On the con- 

 trary, none but men of unfaltering courage 

 would have felled the forest and subdued the 

 hard and unproductive lands which they have 

 finally forsaken. The forest, there, was all j 

 that could remunerate man for his labor, and 

 when that was exhausted, it would have been 

 wise to allow it to grow up again and cover the 

 nakedness of the land. But if the soil had 

 been like that on the Potomac or James River, 

 that deserted region would now be covered 

 with productive farms and teeming with an 

 industrious, intelligent and independent popu- 

 lation. It was folly to battle with gravel 

 banks, or with lands so thickly covered with 

 boulders, as utterly to forbid the introduction 

 of the plow. Cultivation was out of the ques- 

 tion. Where- the lands were cleared, they 

 were occupied as pasture, with here and there 

 a limited area for the indispensable corn or 

 potatoes. 



"But how does it happen that the Virginia 

 lands, deep and rich as they are, free from 

 stones, and once covered with a dense and 

 valuable forest, have ' been exhausted and 

 abandoned V It could not have been because 

 Nature had not supplied everything necessary 

 for success, for the original soils. was all that 

 could be desired, and the climate salubrious 

 and favorable to all the grasses and grains. 



" Can the cause be traced to a want of skill 

 in the occupants of the soil, .or the influence of 

 any institutions that may exist in that ancient 

 Commonwealth? We know that such 'ex- 

 haustion and abandonment" of fields has taken 

 place, and more than a dozen years ago gave 

 some of our personal observations of them in 

 the columns of the 'Planter' itself. It is pro- 

 bable that some of the families who left the 



barren hills of Massachusetts and New Hamp- 

 shire, may have entered upon the ' exhausted 

 and abandoned' lands of Fairfax county, or 

 those laved by the tides of Chesapeake Bay, or 

 watered by the beautiful James River. If such 

 be the fact, they will undoubtedly set a good 

 example of industry and thrift, and literally 

 make the 'exhausted and abandoned' fields 

 4 blossom as the rose.' " 



This, also, we should be satisfied to pass un- 

 noticed, but that circumstances have somewhat 

 changed : abolition is strong enough to threaten 

 destruction to the South or the Union ; and 

 conservatism at the North cares not, or dares 

 not to check the madness. • This makes it the 

 duty of every son of the South to take up the 

 glove whenever it is thrown down ; and there- 

 fore we think proper to enter a protest against 

 the facts and conclusions of Mr. French. 



In the first place, it is not true that the 

 lands upon the James River or Potomac ever 

 were rich, except the narrow strips of alluvion 

 which lie mostly above tide-water ; these lands, 

 as a rule, were poor, and generally are to this 

 day. The alluvions were cleared last because 

 the growth on them was so heavy, because they 

 were subject to water, and probably also be- 

 cause the quality of tobacco they made, — and 

 quality then ruled the market independent of 

 quantity, — was not such as to command the 

 highest price. These latter named lands have 

 never lost their fertility. 



But there were other lands in Virginia, 

 generally in small districts, of very superior 

 quality, which were "exhausted and aban- 

 doned." The reason was that the price of to- 

 bacco was so high, and labour was so cheap, 

 and the work of clearing, which merely gird- 

 led the larger trees and burnt the undergrowth, 

 was so slight, that it cost less to abandon one 

 field and clear another than to keep up the 

 condition of each clearing. We have, our- 

 selves, known an instance in which one crop of 

 tobacco was worth more money than the fee 

 simple of the farm. It is obvious how such a 

 state of things must have operated as a pre- 

 mium on exhaustion of land. The first two or 

 three crops, as a general rule, "was all that 

 could remunerate man for his labour; and 

 when that was exhausted, it would have been 

 wise to allow it to grow up again and cover the 

 nakedness of the land." It was a mere 

 question of profit and loss. 



Immediately succeeding this state of things 



