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CENTRAL MILLS. 



it is in countries where it meets with its reward. Let the 

 law-givers and the capitalists remove all vexations obsta- 

 cles to the sale and partition of land, and to the culture of 

 such produce as the island itself has a constant demand for ; 

 let the labor of the negro be converted into capital by 

 furnishing him a home market, for the little surplus which 

 he can raise upon such tracts of land as he can hire and 

 cultivate himself, and labor would rise in price, it is true, 

 but it would rise more in value, for it would be more regular 

 and more productive. And then land would rise in value 

 also, pari passu, for it could be made productive also. The 

 planter would soon be indemnified either by an increase of 

 his rents or his crops, and the equilibrium of labor and 

 capital, the necessary antecedent to prosperity here as 

 everywhere else, would be restored. 



But it is objected by the planting interest, that if the 

 states are so minutely subdivided, the cultivation of the 

 great staples, sugar and coffee, and the manufacture of 

 rum, must cease, because the works upon sugar and coffee 

 estates are very expensive, and require large capital, and 

 the estates must be very large to compensate for the outlay 

 in that direction. For example, a good range of sugar 

 works could not be erected for less than $50,000. The 

 proprietor of twenty-five or fifty acres could not afford to 

 keep such costly buildings for the manufacture of his 

 limited stock, much less could the smaller proprietor of 

 three, five or ten acres. 



