354 



THE SOUTHE 



RN PLANTER. 



there been geological surveys or scientific ex- 

 aminations of the soil sufficiently general and 

 accurate in their character to afford informa- 

 tion upon which we can rely. 



Whilst we regret the want of such know- 

 ledge, and whilst we confidently hope it will 

 be supplied under the influences of this and 

 similar associations, still we have, within our 

 reach, sources of information, and means of 

 practical improvement sufficient to secure re- 

 sults highly beneficial and gratifying. 



From the extent of our territory, the variety 

 of our soil, climate and productions, the dif- 

 ference of our pursuits and occupations, from 

 peculiarities in the situations of various sec- 

 tions of our State, it is incumbent upon us 

 carefully to examine the condition of every 

 portion thereof, and with the means and re- 

 sources at our command to improve the agri- 

 cultural condition of the whole. The impor- 

 tant questions, with our Eastern friends, are, 

 how shall we increase the fertility and produc- 

 tiveness of our soil, render our labor more 

 profitable, and thus arrest permanently the 

 emigration of our people ? while, with the West, 

 the important questions are, how shall we pro- 

 cure the labor necessary to develop our re- 

 sources, and how the facilities for transporting 

 them to market? 



Their solution rests almost exclusively with 

 the agricultural classes in our State. They 

 have the intelligence, wealth, numbers and in- 

 fluence that enable them to decide and control 

 all these questions according to their will and 

 pleasure — to remedy the defects, to apply the 

 corrective, to remove the difficulties, and secure 

 the benefits all desire. 



The voluntary associations which our people 

 are effecting, of all these classes, inspires the 

 firmest confidence, and affords the strongest 

 assurance, that all these interests will be wisely 

 and patriotically advanced and promoted. 



To what are we to attribute the exhaustion 

 of the soil, and the diminution of its produc- 

 tiveness in Eastern Virginia? Is it the result 

 of climate or soil? or is it the peculiarity of 

 our labor, and its influence on our agriculture ? 



In the United States two different and rival 

 systems of labor exist; in the North what they 

 are pleased to term free labor, and in the South 

 a mixed system of free and slave labor. The 

 comparative merits of these systems have been 

 the fruitful topic of excited and violent debate, 

 and the source of dangerous legislation. I 

 shall touch the subject, not for the purpose of 

 exciting feelings of hostility, but as an indus- 

 trial question bearing upon our agricultural 

 prospects. 



The adaptation of the Southern States to 



the production of tobacco, rice and indigo, con- 

 tributed most to the introduction of the Afri- 

 can slave among us. The profits derived from 

 his labor, the adaptation of his constitution to 

 our climate, rendered the slave more profitable 

 when employed in the cultivation of the sta- 

 ples on the fertile land, and in the warm cli- 

 mates of the South, than in agricultural pur- 

 suits in Northern climates. The North found 

 its profits in the traffic and transportation of 

 the slave — the South in his labor. Nor was 

 the superior value of the slave in the South 

 manifest alone in the cultivation of the southern 

 staples. Experience discloses that slave labor, 

 whether directed to those staples, or the pro- 

 ducts necessary for food and subsistence, was 

 more profitable in the South than in the North 

 from the natural superiority of the former over 

 the latter in climate and soil. 



The result is apparent in the concentration 

 of the slave population in the Southern States, 

 and in a general and almost exclusive devotion 

 of their attention and labor to agricultural em- 

 ployments ; while the North has devoted much 

 of its labor to other pursuits, more profitable, 

 and better suited to its circumstances and con- 

 ditions. 



Under the system we have pursued, we have 

 impaired our soil, and diminished its original 

 productiveness. We have failed to improve 

 and develop the superior advantages, and greater 

 resources we possess. Still, under wise councils 

 and with proper exertions we have it in our 

 power to establish permanently the superiority 

 of our section. 



Those uninformed or hostile to our interests 

 as a people, attribute the defects in our system 

 of agriculture, the exhaustion of our soil, and 

 particularly the slowness of our increase in 

 population, to the institution of slavery alone. 

 Increase in the population of a State when 

 properly examined, with due consideration of 

 the circumstances and facts which affect the 

 conclusion, may be relied on as affording a just 

 and fair criterion by which to estimate its gen- 

 eral prosperity. When considered alone and 

 without such qualification, it is eminently cal- 

 culated to mislead and bewilder. 



Is it true, then, when tried by this standard, 

 that the prosperity of the North is greater than 

 that of the South? and is the inference a just 

 one, that the difference in their respective in- 

 crease is the result of the causes to which they 

 attribute it? 



The six New England States have increased 

 in the last decade in the ratio of 22 per cent; 

 the central slave States, with Yirginia, 26 per 

 cent.; the middle States, with New York and 

 Pennsylvania, 29 per cent.; while the Southern 



