68 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



theless, the pattern may remain of the highest 

 value." 



Still, Mr. French has thrown the gauntlet at 

 our feet, and we cannot do less than take it up, 

 though no "battel" shall result. If, then, slavery 

 be the cause of the desolation that excites, not, 

 we are sorry to say, his regret, but his spleen ; 

 if, — as is asserted by the Germantown Tele- 

 graph, extracted at p. 15 of the New England 

 Farmer, — if " not more in a general sense than 

 one-half, or one-fourth of the ordinary labour 

 of a man is obtained from the slave that he is 

 capable of performing ;" if the wives of New 

 England farmers work about four times as hard 

 as the women of the slave driver ; if we have 

 " our young barbarians all at play" whilst 

 New England children are toiling on the farm 

 or moiling in the factory, how does it happen 

 that the farmers of Virginia are richer than 

 the farmers of Massachusetts and New Hamp- 

 shire ? But let us push this question a step 

 further. -The five old slave States have the 

 same population, in round numbers, with the 

 six New England States ; our benighted people 

 are sparsely settled, in a deserted region, on 

 " exhausted and abandoned lands ;" our busi- 

 ness is low in the scale of profits ; our labour 

 yields " three-eights" its just amount ; we con- 

 tribute far the largest share of the Federal 

 revenue ; we pay Massachusetts for catching 

 cod-fish and mackerel ; we pay New Hampshire 

 for growing wool ; we protect nearly every 

 fabric New England makes, and buy, at pro- 

 tected rates, a large proportion of them ; we 

 transport nearly all our products in her bot- 

 toms ; we disburse nearly all the common reve- 

 nue in the free cities of the North. Now how 

 happens it that with all these advantages on 

 her side, with a dense, population of the most 

 enlightened, " most enterprising freemen on 

 earth," reaping the heavy profit of a com- 

 mercial and manufacturing investment, how 

 happens it, we ask, that the Puritan has less 

 wealth than the Cavalier? On the above data, 

 which abolition and the census furnish, how 

 can it happen but by a degree of intelligence, 

 energy, ability and industry in the master, 

 which we have never had the arrogance to 

 claim for him ? 



It is no pleasure to us to institute such com- 

 parisons. We do it now in no spirit of 

 vain depreciation ; we should be false to our 



own intelligence were we to detract aught from 

 the merits of New England. Equally at home 

 in the counting-room, in the workshop, or on 

 the deck ; the impersonation of enterprize and 

 energy ; a model of public spirit, and a para, 

 gon of local patriotism ; with intellect adequate 

 to her economical emergencies, and courage to 

 explore alike the practical and the abstract ; 

 we cannot withhold our admiration from New 

 England. But when we see her also rash in 

 speculation ; headlong in progress ; eager in 

 traffic ; grasping in acquisition ; despotic in 

 temper; arrogant in bearing; worldly in spirit 

 and careless of the character or talents of her 

 leaders, we would qualify our high regard, but 

 that we lack the heart to do it. For already 

 the good ship refuses to obey the helm, and is 

 drifting hopelessly with the tide upon the 

 reakers of anarchy. 



SUCCESSIVE CROPS OF OATS — THEIR 



EFFECT TO DESTROY WILD ONION. 



It is a very common opinion that oats is one 

 of the most exhausting of all grain crops. One 

 of the best farmers of Western New-York, in- 

 formed us that he never permitted this crop on 

 any portion of his farm devoted to wheat or 

 other grain, but only on land otherwise exclu- 

 sively used for meadow and pasture. Another 

 skilful farmer never raised the crop at all, pre- 

 fering to buy all that he might need. 



We have just conversed on this subject with 

 T. A. Slocum, an enterprising and successful 

 farmer of Perrinton, Monroe Co. N. Y., who 

 entertains quite a different opinion. He has 

 cultivated the crop for many years past on a 

 large scale, and regards it as one of the least 

 exhausting. For the past six years, he has 

 raised from forty to seventy acres. During this 

 period a part of his land has been cropped with 

 it every year, and with a single exception, with- 

 out any diminution in the amount. This annu- 

 ally-cropped ground has averaged for these six 

 years, sixty bushels per acre, including last 

 year, when, by the unpredentecl drought, it was 

 reduced to fifty bushels per acre. The land, 

 throughout this period, has netted him (above 

 all expenses) twelve dollars per acre, as an an- 

 nual average. 



Our readers will doubtless feel interested to 

 learn his mode of management. After the 

 crop is harvested, he passes a spring-tooth 

 horse-rake both ways across the field, for se- 

 curing all the gleanings ; but, as he observed, 

 this kind of rake -having a sort of "baby jump- 

 er motion" over the field, a considerable por- 

 tion of the grain is shelled out from the glean- 

 ings, and partly harrowed in by the points of 

 the rake. A thorough harrowing afterwards, 

 insures a good growth of oats, which is about 



