| OCR Text |
Show 128 DESPOTlfl.!\1 in fertility. In fact, within the last twenty years so great has been the improvement in agriculture in the older portions of the northern states, that the face of the country has assumed a new aspect, and large tracts which were formerly considered as naturally barren, and worthless, have been transformed into fertile and productive farms. Improvements in culture keep pace with increase of population, and the soil, instead of being constantly deteriorated, is constantly increasing in productiveness and value. Some patriotic citizens of Virginia have from time to time made great exertions to promote in their own state, an emulation of these northern improvements. But their well-intended efforts have utterly failed. Indeed they arc opposed by irresistible obstacles. In tile free states the land is portioned out into small farms, tilled by the hands of the owners, whose attention is exclusively bestowed upon the business of agriculture. 'l'here is a certain portion of intellect devoted to the improvement of every hundred acres. In Virginia the land is held for the most part in portions ten or twenty times larger, and even were the owners zealous for im~ provement, on farms so large that same careful oversight and attention could not be bestowed on every part. But then the owners of the land will not give their attention to the matter. lt is contrary to the whole tenor of their habits, taste and education. They have slaves, and can hire an overseer. Why should they plague themselves with the details of a business which they do not like, and do not understand 1 From the overseer and the slaves, as they have no interest in improvement, of course nothing is to be expected. In fact it is the obvious interest of the overseer to scourge as much out of the plantation as possible, without the slightest regard to future consequences, especially if he is paid, as overseers oflen are, by a portion of the crop. · But there are obstacles, to be encountered .still more serious than these. Improvements cannot IJe mad.e except by the expenditure of a certain portiou of cupl· lN AMERICA. 129 tal upon the land. Either additional slaves must be purchased, or else a certain portion of the labor now employed in producing a small crop, must be diverted from immediate production, and employed in operations undertaken with a view to distant retnrns. Bnt this is an expenditure which the greater number of planters cannot afJ'ord. As it is, with all their 8laves employed in scourging out of the land the greatest immediate prodnce, their expenses exceed their inearnest and they are running into debt every year. They are in no condition to risk the loss or curtailment of a single crop by changing the established method of cultivation, and attempting the introduction of improvements. More yet, it is positively bad economy for a Virginia planter to undertake the improvement of his estate. Labor is the only means of resuscitating the exhausted lands of Virginia. Slave labor is the only kind of labor which in the present condition of things can be employed for that purpose. But in the slave market, the Virginia planter, even though he has money at command-which is a case sufficiently unusnal,--eannot afford to compete with the slave traders from the South west. 'l'he profits which he can possibly derive from slave labor will not warrant him in paying so high a price. Of course he docs not purchase; the slaves are driven off to be employed upon cotton plantatwns, while the lands of Virginia are left unimproved, and still declining in value. Even as regards the labor of slaves already in the planter's possession, it is a much more profitable operation to emigrate with these slaves to J\iississippi or Louisiana, and there to employ their labor in raising cotton, and killi11g land, than to attempt the improvement of the worn out lands at home. 1 'I'hat high price of slaves in the south western mar· k.et, whic~ the Virginians regard as a fortunate addi~ IOr~ to thea diminishing resources, is likely to prove m Its nltimatc results, the greatest curse with which the state could be visited. If it were not for the do- |
