SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
165 
duction from a smaller area of land by high manuring 
and skillful cultivation ; we wish to see our now useless 
forests paying the owner, as the park does the English- 
man, feeding his flocks and giving fertility to his arable 
lands. We wish to see the arable land, when made rich 
and generously repaying its liberal owner in the process, 
afterward allowed that repose from its toils, which God 
has ordained that all organised nature must be allovved, 
in order that it may properly perform its functions. 
The views presented are not novelties, They are the 
result of observation upon the practice of others, where 
landed estate gives fortune, and a contrast with our own 
practice where landed estate is sometimes an encumbrance 
rather than a source of wealth. 
Will the farmer allow something of the following train 
of thoughts to pass through his mind'l “I own 500 acres 
of land— 1 can hardly support my family upon it. I might 
sell it for S2,500. If it was in some places, I could sell 
it for S50,000 or rent it for !$500 a year. What is the 
reason of this difference? Can I remedy it V’ A thought- 
ful mind turned to these inquiries will ascertain facts to 
the befit of the thinker and the public. The improved 
practice of no one man, can indeed, materially affect the 
price of landed estate in a great extent of country. But 
it can add to his income. It will affect favorably the in- 
terest of his children, and, as others follow the example, 
the influence extends, and greatly increased products, 
and greatly enhanced value of land is the result of that 
influence. When an agricultural practice which has 
given a large price to land elsewhere becomes general at 
the South, there is no reason why land at tho South may 
not be as valuable as in any other portion of the globe. — 
Sout/i Countryman. 
GRASS GROWING-COTTON PGANTING-RE- 
Opening of the Slave Trade, &c. 
Editor Southern Cultivator— Very valuable articles 
have appeared in the Southern Cultivator on the culture 
of grasses, and on raising sheep, cattle and hogs. These 
hints are useful and appropriate for the Northern section 
of the Carolines, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisi- 
ana and Texas, although south-western Texas embraces 
a considerable portion of prairie land well adapted for 
grazing ; but in Middle Georgia, and throughout the cot- 
ton-growing States in the same parallel, where the culti- 
vation of cotton is the chief product, no time can be de- 
voted for any other purpose. To talk of growing grasses 
to cotton planters, except as a matter of experiment, is 
altogether useless— their business is to kill grass. We 
wear out land and go further West in search of virgin 
soil at a low price, and grow cotton. The cultivation of 
cotton requires the entire force of the planter year in and 
year out, allowing scarcely time to collect manure and 
prepare the land for cultivation by deep plowing, &c. 
To grow cotton is a separate and distinct occupation 
from growing grass, hay, raising sheep and other stock. 
The two systems cannot be conducted to advantage at 
the same time and on the same place. As long as fresh 
cotton land can be had, the process of clearing and 
wearing out the soil will be continued, because this 
is the most ready way to accumulate money in this 
country at present — cotton planters will pursue this 
course as long as it is possible; ready,, present profit is 
what they go for, and, until the land is all brought under 
cultivation and exhausted, no permanent improvement 
can be expected ! As long as the virgin soil is plenty 
and cheap, the worn-out lands (except in particular lo- 
calities) will probably remain at a very low figure, say 
five dollars per acre. The exceptions are these : Sea 
Island cotton lands are comparatively high, because they 
are confined within very narrow limits, extending only 
from the vicinity of Charleston to Cumberland Island in 
Georgia. Advancing southerly into Florida, the staple 
of the cotton becomes more wooly ; hence the necessary 
improvement and extra value of the Sea Island cotton 
lands. Again, the rice lands are chiefly located on tide- 
water swamps; and these, too, are very limited, besides 
they do not require the application of manure, as the 
periodical flooding of the fields produces an annual re- 
novation of the soil— hence these lands are also more 
valuable than any others in the Southern States, while the 
million acres of up-country, worn out lands are compara- 
tively valueless. 
In reference to the re opening of the slave trade, it is 
much easier said than accomplished. It may be per- 
formed by smuggling in, just as the Abolitionists smuggle 
the fugitives 024^. All the arguments of the South may 
not prevail with the North, to repeal the law prohibiting 
the importation of slaves ; and when the question is 
brought before Congress, if it ever is, it will be the most 
exciting question ever debated before that body, and it 
will shake the very foundations of the Union. But if we 
actually need more slaves, and if it is profitable to have 
more of them, which is very questionable, we can import 
apprentices just as Great Britain and France are doing — 
in this there will be no infraction of the common law, nor 
of any statute law. Good and salutary laws could be en- 
acted by the several States, in allowing apprentices to be 
imported, under indentures for seven years ; conditioned, 
that at the end of the first term of apprenticeship, the 
apprentice should be hired out for another term of seven 
years, the price of hire being paid into the hands of the 
Judges of the Court of Ordinary or Inferior Court, to be 
kept for the future use of the apprentice, and so continue 
to hire out for seven years, until the apprentice arrives to 
the age ol sixty ; or, previous to that time, should the ap- 
prentice become permanently diseased, or otherwise un- 
able to work, then the money collected should be paid out 
monthly for the sustenance of such apprentice. But with 
all these precautions, there would be a large number of 
paupers thrown on the country. 
Let us now take into consideration whether the planter 
would be benefitted or not by the importation or intro- 
duction of one million more African laborers. 
There are now in the Southern States, in round nunibers, 
three million five hundred thousand slaves, valued at an 
average of $500 each, gives $1,750,000,000 
Producing, in cotton alone, more than 3,500,000 bales, at 
$50 each, gives $175,000,000 
or ten per cent, on the capital employed, exclusive of the 
land — the annual increase of the negroes may be set off 
against the land and expenses of cultivation. 
Then, if we import one million more slaves, this addi- 
tional force, in less than twenty years, would increase 
the crop of cotton to probably more than . . 4,500,000 bales 
This increase of production would certainly reduce the 
price to $30 per bale, giving only $1,350,000,000 
So that with a larger amount of cotton grown, and more 
slaves on hand, the planter would find himself with less 
money, his income considerably reduced, and his fine 
virgin soil worn out. This is no imaginary theory — it 
has been proven in former times, and will be proved 
again, whenever the production of cotton exceeds the de- 
mands of consumption. By this state of things, however, 
the manufacturer, ship-owner, merchant and mechanic 
would be benefitted, at the expense of the planter. 
Mercator. 
, ■, I o • 
l^^ln whatever shape evil comes, we are apt to ex- 
claim, with Hamlet, “take any shape but that.” 
|^°If a man fails to the amount of a million, it is all 
right; but let him fail to the amount of his board bill, and 
he is a scoundrel. 
