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Show 182 EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. and presses are now brought to great per[! ction. The neatness ami facility with 1Vhich the various operations are now performed, compared with the .slow, cl~msy, and laborious process us~d fifteen Y.ears ago, is a compliment paid to the progress of the afts most essentially Decessary to mankind. Another veO'etable, the okra, of the same class and order with cot. ton, i cultivated in Louisiana as an article of food. The flower and stalk of this plant have great resemblance to the holly hock, but ~rows l1igher. The seed ve~sel is a ]ong poin.ted '. many s~e.de~ capsule, which, when y~ung, IS. tender and muctlagt~ous: .'I h1s ~s the part used as food: rn1xed WJtu soup and otherwtse, 1t JS cous1dered ex-· tremely wholesome. . . . . . Sugar, in places where 1t can be cult1vate.d, will always, 111 the Unt· ted States, be considered the most important st41ple. The extent of country upon which •his vegetable can be reared, is so 1 imited a5 to much abrid~e its general value. The surface upon which it can be produced, and the quantity a-nd price of sugar, have already been fully exhibited in this treatise. Rice can be cultivated much more extensively than sugar cane; its net proceeds, however, when reared as a staple, is much less than from the latter plant. When produced ~s an article of food for home consur.nption, rice differs very little, if any, from Rlaize. The quantity of sustenance that can be produced from the same sum of human labour, wben exerted upon either of these U.vo plants, is very nearly equaL One peculiarity of rice will confer upon i an increasing value ; as lands become scarce, and consequently dear, it can be successfu!Jy and profitably produced on lands unfit for cultivation of most other useful vegetables. Low land, if the soil is naturally fertile, can often be brought into use by planting rice, upon which neither sugar cane nor maize would vegetate. Tobacco can be cultivated commensurate with maize, and far more extensively than cotton. Many very serieus o~jections exist against tobacco as a staple. Its culture injures the soil more than any other known vegetable, and when produced, it is utterly useless for any purpose of subsistence, or other application to the real wants of man· kind. The ordinary interruptions in commerce must fall much more :!lleverely upon a people who cultivate tobacco, than upon those who cultivate grain, or even cotton or sugar. The same objections will apply to indigo as to tobacco, and lTith almost as much force. Indigo admits of at least one real application, however, to the ornament, if not to the real necessities of mankind; ~nd therefore possesses, what tobacco docs not, one quality to redeem 1ts culture from the reproach of being a pernicious encroachment upon the beneficial applicatiem of human labour. The cereal gramina~ are now particularly and may be all produced *Literally, bread"gl'ass, or grasses from whose seed uread is made Tbe mo~t valuable of these plants cultivated in the United States are wheat, rye, nuuze1 oats1 barley, and rice. Buckwheat (poJygonum fagopyrum) though a EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. 183 . · h limits we have been reviewing, to afly assignable e:d~nt. wtthm t e . e oats barley and rice, are by far the most 1mWheat maiZe ry ' ' ' . f ' 1 t ,' et brought into use by mankmd. One or mo~e o port:n:eYe~:b~e~ have n~urished the human race in all ages and I? .all thes £::'> • t \Vhen a comparison is drawn between the pos1hve stages o socte y. . . d th value, or th e· rea 1b enefits to rnankmd of wheat, or m1a 1· zke, an 1 e st ame · f n su.-ar cane or cotton, the latter s nm to a mos no-species o eve b • h 1 b"t f th m. g. c us t om 1·n duccs us to undervalue what we are m t e 1a 1 o using daily. h k" d f Next to the cerealia in the United States are t e .two m ~ o po-t T tuberous rooted vecretables of very d rfferent bot am cal ta oes. wo o 'I,h t t characters, have received the name of potato. ~se wo v~ge a-bies very seldom acquire the full developemen.t of their grovrt? m the same p I ace. 'l'l1ey present one of the many mstances, s1b· o·w mg that where one useful vegetable Jeclines, another, whose qua 1hes .answer the same purposes., offerfl itself. · The grape and apple, mmze and h t tton and flax and the two kinds of potatoe!5, are remarkable w€X aema p' licso of this fact. ' The turnip ~houlu.1 b. e cons1" d ere d amongs t th e most useful vegetables in America. 'rhere are none th~t .can be reared with so Jittle expense. The turnip, though l~ss nutnh.?us, can .be much more ca:.ily preserved than the potato. The turnip ~nd Insh potato flouri5h and uecl"ne in nearly the same. pl~ces ; nettl:~er are ever seen in any considerable degree of perfcctwn m the same place with the sweet potato. . . . . Of fruits cultivated in the southern part of the Mt~SIS SJpp• valley, the peach is the greatest in quantity, and perhaps m val~e. ~he apple below 35° N. lat. may be said .to cease as a be~efictal obJe~t of culture· the inhabitants are supplied, however, with that frmt from the 'settlements more northwardly. N~ city. in the United States is more cheaply and plentifully supphed with apples than New Orleans. 0 The fig ~rows abundantly and luxuriantly i? all regio.ns below 3.3 N. lat. The large yellow fig from the south ot France IS the species most common. There are seTeral other kinds, however, some of whom are too t~nder to sustain the rigours of the frosts above 30° N. ]at. · The pear tree south of 33° N. 1at: becomes not worth the roo~ it occupies. The same remark apphes to the cherry. Th~ qumce bears abundantly, a3 does the pomegran:Ate, and many spectes of excellent plums. Of wild fruit the O'featest in quantily is that of the black and dew uerry. The quantity of the former upon. the high, rich lands, a!td of the latter in many plaees along the margm of the streams of Loms-iana, is really a matter of asto 1ishme 1t. . The states of Louisiana and Mississippi mny be emphatically called fhe favourite soil of the persit aon, diospyros virginiana. The persimon tree crrows on all lands, fr m the highest hills to th~ lowest swamis ; if attains the !ize of a c0n ·ideraule forest tree, bemg ofl en cet·~al plant, ii not a ~rass; in the Linurean system it i:s ranked " octandritX tryyma." |
