106 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



traction in adversity is not quite so easy. Be 

 that as it may, the fact of a very general pecu- 

 niary embarrassment amongst even the wealthy 

 portion of the agricultural community in the 

 South, is not to be denied ; and this circumstance 

 alone, when fully considered,.will be found suffi- 

 cient to account for the retarded state of agri- 

 cultural improvement in the South. Money is 

 the great lever with which the world is both 

 raised and lowered, and we know of no improve- 

 ment that can be effected without it. Suggest 

 to a farmer a system of cultivation by which 

 his exhausted fields may be rested and restored ; 

 he is fully aware of it, but he tells you that the 

 corn from that field is devoted to the liquidation 

 of a debt already incurred ; prove to him that 

 if he is deprived of this resource for a year or 

 two, it will only be to double the product in after 

 time; he knows it; but even with the 3 T ield of 

 that field, he fears that his income for the year 

 will fall short of his expenses. He hopes that 

 it will be better after a while, but this year, he 

 must "make everything tell." Show him a 

 valuable labor-saving machine, an investment 

 in which would be equivalent to an interest of 

 fifty per cent., his answer is, t£ my dear sir, 1 

 am a borrower, not an invester of money ;" and 

 bo he is, poor fellow. It is not the want of sci- 

 entific knowledge ihat keeps that man's fields 

 poor, and induces the most skinning system of 

 cultivation, but it is the want of pecuniary 

 means. 



What is the remedy for this state of things % 

 We answer emphatically, retrenchment and eco- 

 nomy. Begin with yourself ; curtail your indi- 

 vidual expenses, go through every member of 

 your household, cut down and pare off every 

 where; teach 3'our children that the conveniences 

 and elegances purchased of the milliner and the 

 mercer, may be substituted, in a great measure, 

 by their own handicraft. Your own part is 

 nothing, but to deprive those you love of that 

 to which they have been accustomed, is, we 

 know, a bitter pill ; but it must be taken. In the 

 great fall of agricultural products,, there is no 

 help for it. 



Do not tell us that you already practise eco- 

 nomy to its fullest extent. My dear sir, you 

 don't begin to know the meaning of the word. 

 What is your income ? About $1,500 — well, 

 go to the North and see how a farmer with an 

 income of $2,000 lives, compare your expendi- 

 tures with his, and then see if you know any 



thing about economy. And whilst you are 

 there, observe the difference between his case 

 and yours — he probably has at the end of the 

 year eight hundred or a thousand dollars to de- 

 vote to the improvement of his land, which im- 

 provement probably secures him a surplus of 

 twelve or fifteen hundred dollars at the end of 

 the next, year, and so he goes on, getting richer 

 and richer, whilst you are getting poorer and 

 poorer. Suppose your situations to be nearly 

 the same in 1845, work this thing out, and see 

 where you will both be in 1855. 



There is one point upon which we will lake 

 the liberty of giving you the gentlest hint in the 

 world. Be not afraid in this propose I system 

 of reform of any opposition from your wife. — 

 Come out like a man and explain to her the ne- 

 cessity for it ; women are always more frugal 

 and self-denying than men 5 we will answer for 

 her. 



It is astonishing how not only the price, but 

 the real value of land, is effected by the econo- 

 mical habits of a neighborhood. We were sen- 

 sibly struck with this fact in a conversation last 

 summer with an intelligent gentleman from 

 Rockingham. We were both at the time in 

 the county of Albemarle, and something was 

 said about the high price for which land was 

 sold in that county. The Rockingham gentle- 

 man remarked, that similar land in his own 

 county, not at all more productive, farther from 

 market, would sell for one-third more money. — 

 He was then asked, why he did not sell in 

 Rockingham and purchase in Albemarle. He 

 replied because he found, upon a fair calcula- 

 tion, that the land w r as cheaper in Rockingham 

 than in Albemarle ; that is, that owing to the 

 different habits and customs of the people, he 

 could lay up more money from an investment in 

 the one than the other. This is sound reason- 

 ing, and it is the reasoning upon which men act. 

 This is the reasoning by which men are induced 

 to give a hundred dollars an acre for lands in 

 New York or Pensylvania, whilst lands equally 

 productive can be purchased in Virginia for half 

 the money. 



Those who know us will hardly suspect us, 

 in making these remarks, of a base or niggardly 

 spirit. No one can despise more than we do 

 the miserly disposition, which induces some 

 men to deprive themselves of the comforts and 

 elegancies of life for the mere sake of hoarding 

 money. We recommend them the practice of 



