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Show 126 DESPOTISJ\'1 rich by it. Most unfortuna tely they invested these profits in the purchase of slaves from Afnca. The introduction of slave labor presently proved fatal to the industry of the free. But this cHcnmstance was little thought of or regarded, so long as the tobacco cultivation continued to mcreasc, and to brmg m nch returns. The wealthier planters rose to the condition of nabobs. 'rhey extended their plantations, increased the number of their slaves, and spent freely the large incomes which their estates produced. rrhe apparent wealth and prosperity of the country was very great. By degrees, the entire snrface in the older portions of the state had been cleared, planted and exhausted. rrobacco requires a rich soil , and the impoverished land would no longer produce it. It became necessary to abandon this species of cultivation, first in the tide-water districts, and afterwards in all that portion of the state north of the James River. The culture of tobacco in Virginia is now confined, for the most part, to a few of the sonthern conn ties, in the vicinity of the Blue Ridge, in which some virgin land is still to be found. The cultivation of grain succeeded to that of tobacco. These crops were far less profitable; but even these, when taken in constant succession from the same soil, are scarcely less exhausting. The lands have continued to deteriorate till large tracts have been abandoned as absolutely worthless. Meantime, a constant stream of emigration has been pouring out of Virginia. It was first directed to Kentucky, and the states north-west of the Ohio. It then consisted of the poorer portions of the white popul~tion, ~~h? wer_c the first to suffer from the general declme. 1 h1s em1· gration is now directed towards the cotton growmg states of the south-west. It is greater than ever, and embraces the wealthiest men and the largest slave-holders, who find that slave property, which i_s valueless in Virginia, except as an artie)~ of _exportanon, can be put to profit&ble use in the cult1vat10n of cotton. The IN AMEr.JCA. 127 domestic slave-trade produces another eq'ually serious drain upon the population of Eastern Virginia. In default of crops, the planters have no other means to meet their expenses, except selling their slaves. This affords a momentary relief, but it is fatal to the permanent prosperity of the country, which in losing its laboring men, in los ing its cultivatGrs, loses the only means whereby it can recover from its present decline. That part of Virginia which lies upon tide waters, presents an aspect of universal decay. Its population diminishes, and it sinks day by day, into a lower depth of_ exhaustion and poverty. 'The country bet ween tide waters and the Blue Ridge is fast passing into the same condition. Mount Vernon is a desert waste; Monticello is little betlcr ; and the same circumstances which have desolated the lands of Washington and Jefferson, have impoverished every planter in the state. Hardly any have escaped save the owners of the rich bottom lands along James River, the fertility of which it seems difficult utterly to destroy. ']1his thriftless system of cultivation, which consists in exhausting a field and then abandoning i t, prevailed originally in the more northern states as well as in Virginia. So long as the quantity of new land appeared inexhaustible, this method of culture was a natural and profitable operation, and it was continued by habit long after its bad policy became apparent. Soon after the close of the revolutionary war the same symptoms of exhausted fertility which begun to show themselves in Virginia, made their appearance also in the more northern stales. The farmers presently became fully sensible of the ruinous course they were pursuing, and the more intelligent began to turn their attentwn towards an improved method of cultivation. 'l'he custom of manuring, introduced by degrees, is now considered in all the older parts of the country, an essential part of husbandry. A proper rotation of crops is very generally attended to, and at present it IS well understood, that lands under a proper system of cultivation ought to increase rather than decline |