OUR sketch of the agriculture of the United States must be brief and general; as the numerous subjects to be treated in the present volume do not allow space for very minute details. The vast extent of the country, and its various soil and climate, afford growth to a great variety of productions. As a science, agriculture was formerly much neglected, and it is only of late years that it has received any thing of the attention it deserves. ‘It is indeed a lamentable truth,’ says Mr.Watson, ‘that, for the most part, our knowledge and practice of agriculture, at the close of the revolutionary war, were in a state of demi-barbarism, with some solitary exceptions. The labors, Imay say, of only three agricultural societies in America, at that epoch, conducted by ardent patriots, by philosophers, and gentlemen, in New York state, Philadelphia, and Boston, kept alive a spirit of inquiry, often resulting in useful and practical operations; and yet these measures did not reach the doors of practical farmers, to any visible extent. Nor was their plan of organization calculated to infuse a spirit of emulation, which county, or state, should excel in the honorable strife of competition in discoveries and improvements, in drawing from the soil the greatest quantum of net profits within a given space; at the same time, keeping the land in an improving condition, in reference to its native vigor. These results, and the renovation of lands exhausted by means of a barbarous course of husbandry, for nearly two centuries, are the cardinal points now in progression in our old settled countries, stimulated by the influence of agricultural societies. Nor did their measures produce any essential or extensive effects in the improvement of the breeds of domestic animals; much less in exciting to rival efforts the female portion of the community, in calling forth the active energies of our native resources in relation to household manufactures. The scene is now happily reversed in all directions. Perhaps there is no instance, in any age or country, where a whole nation has emerged, in so short a period, from such general depression, into such a rapid change in the several branches to which Ihave already alluded; in some instances, it has been like the work of magic.’

The early neglect of agriculture may be traced to very obvious causes. The first settlements in the country were made along the shores of the sea, or on the banks of navigable rivers. Population was thin and scattered, and the ocean with its tributary waters offered by far the easiest means of subsistence. The fisheries and navigation naturally attracted their active attention, and the cultivation of the earth was limited to the supply of the necessaries of life, and a scanty surplus to answer the humble demands of colonial commerce. The circumstances of the country, down to the very era of the revolutionary struggle, were such as tended unavoidably to reduce agriculture below its just consequence in the scale of useful employments, and to elevate all the arts connected with navigation above their proper estimation. Capital was drawn off from the pursuits of agriculture and devoted to the more lucrative pursuits of commerce. When to this is added the unceasing drain upon the agricultural population, by the prospects which the extent of the interior, and the cheapness of lands, opened to their enterprise, and the consequent effect upon the demand for labor, there is more cause of surprise that the actual state of cultivation is so good, than of reproach that it did not receive higher improvement. The increase of population in the United States, and the long-continued peace in Europe, by limiting the sphere and diminishing the profits of commercial speculation, have operated to withdraw capital from the sea, and invest it in agriculture and manufactures.

The farms of the eastern, northern, and middle states consist, generally, of from fifty to two hundred acres, seldom rising to more than three hundred, and generally falling short of two hundred acres. These farms are inclosed, and divided either by stone walls, or rail fences made of timber, hedges not being common. The building first erected on a new lot, or on a tract of land not yet cleared from its native growth of timber, is what is called a log-house. This is a hut or cabin, made of round, straight logs, about a foot in diameter, lying on each other, and notched in at the corners. The intervals between the logs are filled with slips of wood, and the crevices generally stopped with mortar made of clay. The fire-place commonly consists of rough stones, so placed as to form a hearth, on which wood may be burned. Sometimes these stones are made to assume the form of a chimney, and are carried up through the roof; and sometimes a hole in the roof is the only substitute for a chimney. The roof is made of rafters, forming an acute angle at the summit of the erection, and is covered with shingles, commonly split from pine trees, or with bark, peeled from the hemlock.

When the occupant or first settler of this new land finds himself in comfortable circumstances, he builds what is styled a frame house, composed of timber, held together by tenons, mortises and pins, and boarded, shingled and clapboarded on the outside, and often painted white, sometimes red. Houses of this kind generally contain a dining-room and kitchen, and three or four bed-rooms on the same floor. They are rarely destitute of good cellars, which the nature of the climate renders almost indispensable. The farm-buildings consist of a barn, proportioned to the size of the farm, with stalls for horses and cows on each side, and a threshing-floor in the middle, and the more wealthy farmers add a cellar under the barn, a part of which receives the manure from the stalls, and another part serves as a store-room for roots,&c. for feeding stock. What is called a corn-barn is likewise very common, which is built exclusively for storing the ears of Indian corn. The sleepers of this building are generally set up four or five feet from the ground, on smooth stone posts or pillars, which rats, mice, or other vermin cannot ascend.

With regard to the best manner of clearing forest land from its natural growth of timber, the following observations may be of use to a first settler. In those parts of the country where wood is of but little value, the trees are felled in one of the summer months, the earlier in the season the better, as the stumps will be less apt to sprout, and the trees will have a longer time to dry. The trees lie till the following spring, when such limbs as are not very near the ground should be cut off, that they may burn the better. Fire must be put to them in the driest part of the month of May, or, if the whole of that month prove wet, it may be applied in the beginning of June. Only the bodies of the trees will remain after burning, and some of them will be burned into pieces. Those which require to be made shorter, are cut in pieces nearly of a length, drawn together by oxen, piled in close heaps, and burned, such trees and logs being reserved as may be needed for fencing the lot. The heating of the soil so destroys the green roots, and the ashes made by the burning are so beneficial as manure to the land, that it will produce a good crop of wheat or Indian corn, without ploughing, hoeing, or manuring. If new land lie in such a situation that its natural growth may turn to better account, whether for timber or fire-wood, it will be an unpardonable waste to burn the wood on the ground. But if the trees be taken off, the land must be ploughed after clearing, or it will not produce a crop of any kind.

The following remarks on this subject are extracted from some observations by Samuel Preston, of Stockport, Pennsylvania, a very observing cultivator. They were first published in the New England Farmer, issued at Boston, and may prove serviceable to settlers on uncleared lands. Previous to undertaking to clear land, Mr.Preston advises,—‘1st. Take a view of all large trees, and see which way they may be felled for the greatest number of small trees to be felled along-side or on them. After felling the large trees, only lop down their limbs; but all such as are felled near them should be cut in suitable lengths for two men to roll and pile about the large trees, by which means they may be nearly all burned up, without cutting into lengths, or the expense of a strong team, to draw them together. 2d. Fell all the other trees parallel, and cut them into suitable lengths, that they may be readily rolled together without a team, always cutting the largest trees first, that the smallest may be loose on the top, to feed the fires. 3d. On hill-sides, fell the timber in a level direction; then the logs will roll together; but if the trees are felled down hill, all the logs must be turned round before they can be rolled, and there will be stumps in the way. 4th. By following these directions, two men may readily heap and burn most of the timber, without requiring any team; and perhaps the brands and the remains of the log heaps may all be wanted to burn up the old, fallen trees. After proceeding as directed, the ground will be clear for a team and sled to draw the remains of the heaps where they may be wanted round the old logs. Never attempt either to chop or draw a large log, until the size and weight are reduced by fire. The more fire-heaps there are made on the clearing, the better, particularly about the old logs, where there is rotten wood.

‘The best time of the year to fell the timber, in a great measure, depends on the season’s being wet or dry. Most people prefer having it felled in the month of June, when the leaves are of full size. Then, by spreading the leaves and brush over the ground, (for they should not be heaped,) if there should be a very dry time the next May, fire may be turned through it, and will burn the leaves, limbs, and top of the ground, so that a very good crop of Indian corn and pumpkins may be raised among the logs by hoeing. After these crops come off, the land may be cleared and sowed late with rye and timothy grass, or with oats and timothy in the spring. If what is called a good burn cannot be had in May, keep the fire out until some very dry time in July or August; then clear off the land, and sow wheat or rye and timothy, harrowing several times, both before and after sowing; for, after the fire has been over the ground, the sod of timothy should be introduced as soon as the other crops will admit, to prevent briers, alders, fire-cherries,&c. from springing up from such seeds as were not consumed by the fire.

‘The timothy should stand four or five years, either for mowing or pasture, until the small roots of the forest trees are rotten; then it may be ploughed; and the best mode which Ihave observed, is to plough it very shallow in the autumn; in the spring, cross-plough it deeper, harrow it well, and it will produce a first rate crop of Indian corn and potatoes, and, the next season, the largest and best crop of flax that Ihave ever seen, and be in order to cultivate with any kinds of grain, or to lay down again with grass. These directions are to be understood as applying to what are generally called beech lands, and the chopping may be done any time in the winter, when the snow is not too deep to cut low stumps, as the leaves are then on the ground. By leaving the brush spread abroad, Ihave known such winter choppings to burn as well in a dry time in August, as that which had been cut the summer before.’69

‘The various crops,’ says Mr.Stuart, ‘raised in that part of the state of New York which Ihave seen, are very much the same as in Britain, with the addition of maize, for which the climate of Britain is not well adapted. Wheat, however, is the most valuable crop. Aconsiderable quantity of buckwheat and rye is grown. The greater degree of heat is not favorable for oats and barley. Potatoes, turnips, and other green crops, are not at all generally cultivated in large fields. Rotation of crops is far too little attended to. Iobserve in the magazines and almanacs, that in the rotations, a crop of turnips, ruta-baga, or other green plants, is generally put down as one part of the course; but Ihave nowhere seen more than the margins or edges of the maize, or other grain, devoted to the green crop, properly so called. The attention of the farmers seems chiefly directed to the raising enough of maize for home consumption, and of wheat for sale; and when you talk to them of the necessity of manuring, with a view to preserve the fertility of the soil, they almost uniformly tell you that the expense of labor, about a dollar a day, for laborers during the summer, renders it far more expedient for them, as soon as their repeated cropping very much diminishes the quantity of the grain, to lay down their land in grass, and make a purchase of new land in the neighborhood, or even to sell their cleared land, and proceed in quest of a new settlement, than to adopt a system of rotation of crops, assisted by manure. There is great inconvenience, according to the notions of the British, in removing from one farm to another; but they make very light work of it here, and consider it to be merely a question of finance, whether they shall remain on their improved land, after they have considerably exhausted its fertilizing power, or acquire and remove to land of virgin soil. In a great part of the northern district of the state of New York, there is still a great deal of land to be cleared; and a farmer may, in many cases, acquire additions to his farm, so near his residence that his houses may suit the purpose of his new acquisition; but he is more frequently tempted to sell at a price from fifteen to thirty dollars an acre, supposing the land not to be contiguous to any village. If he obtains land near his first farm, after he has worn it out, he lays down the first farm in grass, allows it to be pastured for some years, and breaks it up again with oats.

‘Maize, or Indian corn, which, par excellence, is alone in this country called corn, is a most important addition to the crops which we are able to raise in Britain. It is used as food for man in a great variety of ways, as bread, as porridge, in which case it is called mush, and in puddings. When unripe, and in the green pod, it is not unlike green peas, and is in that state sold as a vegetable. One species, in particular, called green corn, is preferable for this purpose. Broom corn is another species, of the stalks of which a most excellent kind of clothes brush, in universal use at New York, is made, as well as brooms for sweeping house floors. Horses, cattle, and poultry, are all fond of this grain, and thrive well on it. The straw is very nutritive, and considerable in quantity. The usual period of sowing is from the fifteenth of May to the first of June, in drills from three and a half to four and a half feet apart, and the seed from four to six inches apart. It is harvested in October, sometimes later. The hoe weeding and cleaning of this crop is expensive, the whole work being performed by males,—females, as already noticed, never being allowed to work out of doors. Pumpkins are very generally sown between the rows of corn, and give the field quite a golden appearance, after the corn itself is harvested.

‘Thirty-five or forty bushels of corn per acre is considered a good average crop, on land suited to it, well prepared, and well managed; but one hundred and fifty bushels have been raised on an acre. Arthur Young remarks, “that a country whose soil and climate admit the course of maize, and then wheat, is under a cultivation that perhaps yields the most food for man and beast that is possible to be drawn from the land!” That course is frequently adopted here, and with success, where the soil, lately cleared, is of the best description, and might, without question, be continued for many years, if a sufficient quantity of manure was allowed; but where such a course is persisted in without manure, after the land has been severely cropped, the crops which follow are inferior in quantity to crops of the same description on similar soils in Britain. As a cleaning crop, maize is most valuable, but, being a culmiferous plant, it is, of course, far more exhausting than the green crops, which, in Britain, in most cases precede wheat.

‘Wheat is sown in the end of September, and some part of it in spring,—if after maize, it should be sown as soon as possible after that crop is harvested. It is reaped in July. It is excellent in quality; if the flour which we have seen in every place where we have been, and the bread we eat, are tests by which to judge of it. Thirty-five and forty bushels of wheat is considered a very abundant crop,—the average produce in that part of the United States in which wheat is grown, is said not to exceed thirteen bushels, while in England it is reckoned at twenty-five bushels.

‘Barley or oats very frequently succeed wheat before the land is laid down in grass, or again bears a crop of maize; but it is not to be understood that barley, and even oats, do not in many cases follow the crop of maize immediately, and precede the wheat crop.

‘Oats are sowed in the end of April and beginning of May, and are reaped in August or the beginning of September. We saw several fields not cut, but no very great crop in the northern part of this state in the beginning of September. The average crop is said to be twenty bushels per acre; but from forty to fifty bushels are often obtained by good management. The grain is not so plump as in Britain. In 1827, the premium of one of the agricultural societies was given for fifty-seven bushels on an acre. Barley is sown at about the same time as oats, and reaped two or three weeks earlier; the produce about one fifth less than oats.

‘Potatoes, turnips, ruta-baga, peas, lucern,&c. are all to be seen here in small quantities, but not so well managed as in well-cultivated districts of Britain. The high price of labor is the great obstacle to the management which those crops require. It is not because the farmer does not understand his business, that such crops are apparently not sufficiently attended to, but because he in all cases calculates whether it will not be more profitable for him to remove his establishment to a new and hitherto unimpoverished soil, than to commence and carry on an extensive system of cultivation, by manuring and fallow, or green crops. Such a system may be adopted in the neighborhood of great towns, where many green crops are easily disposed of, and where manure can be had in large quantity, and at a cheap rate; but it is in vain to look for its adoption at all generally, or to expect to see agricultural operations in their best style, until the land, even in the most distant states and territories, be occupied, so that the farmer may no longer find it more for his interest to begin his operations anew, on land previously uncultivated, than to manage his farm according to the method which will render it most productive.

‘Prices of grain vary much. Wheat is, of course, the grain which the farmer chiefly raises for market, and he considers himself remunerated, if the price is not below a dollar for a bushel. Flour, when wheat is at a dollar per bushel, is expected to bring somewhat more than five dollars per barrel of one hundred and ninety-six pounds. Indian corn, two shillings to two shillings and six pence per bushel; oats, one shilling and two pence to one shilling and four pence; barley, one shilling and six pence to one shilling and eight pence.

‘It is difficult to give any precise information as to the wages of labor. Ahired servant gets from ten to twelve dollars a month, besides his board, which he very frequently has at table with his master, consisting of animal food three times a day. Laborers hired by the day for those sorts of farm work in which women are employed in Britain, such as hoeing, assisting in cleaning grain, and even milking of cows, get about three quarters of a dollar per day,—in time of hay-making or harvest work, frequently a dollar besides their board. The workmen work, or are said to work, from daylight to sunset: but Idoubt, from any thing Ihave seen, whether the ordinary plan of keeping workmen employed for ten hours a day be not as profitable to the employer as to the workman. The days are never so long in summer, nor so short in winter, as in Britain. The sun rises on the twenty-first of June about half past four, and sets at half past seven; on the twenty-first of December, it rises at half past seven, and sets at half past four.

‘Manures are far too little attended to, as has been already noticed; but there are instances of individuals keeping their land in good heart with manure, especially where, as in many parts of the state of New York, gypsum and lime are in the neighborhood. Gypsum is more used than any other manure, and with great effect, generally in about the quantity of a ton to ten or fifteen acres. Manure for the villages is often sold at and under a shilling per ton. The question which the American settler always puts to himself is, whether it will be more expedient for him, in point of expense, to remove to a new soil covered with vegetable mould, or to remain on his cleared land, and to support its fertility by regularly manuring, and a systematic rotation of crops.

‘The horses and cattle are of mixed breeds, and are always, in consequence of the abundance of food in this country, and the easy circumstances of the people, in good order. Astarved-looking animal of any kind is never seen on the one hand, nor very fat pampered cattle, nor very fine coated, over-groomed horses, on the other. Both horses and cattle are generally of middling size; the horses of that description that answer for all sorts of work, the saddle, the wagon, or the plough. The heaviest are selected for the stages. All carriages are driven at a trot. Horses are broken with great gentleness, and are, Ithink, better and more thoroughly broken than in England. An American driver of a stage, awkward looking as he appears, manages his team, as he calls his horses, with the most perfect precision. The law of the road is to keep to the right side of the road, not to the left as in Britain. Great exertions are, Iobserve from the newspapers here, making to improve the breeds of cattle and horses, by importations of the Teeswater cattle, and of stud-horses from England. The British admiral, Sir Isaac Coffin, has displayed great public spirit in sending over fine cattle and superior horses, from Britain to New England. The price of beef varies from two pence to five pence per pound, according to the prices and quality, from which the value of the animal may be computed. Ihave nowhere seen any beef equal to the best beef of an English market, or to the kyloe of the West Highlands of Scotland well fed; but beef of bad quality is never brought to market, and a great deal of it is good. Ihave looked into the markets wherever we have been. Oxen are much used in ploughing, and are so well trained, that they are very useful in many operations of carting on farms. The price of ordinary horses is from sixteen to twenty-five pounds.

‘I observe at the agricultural shows of last year, premiums awarded for milch cows yielding ten or eleven pounds of butter per week, one of them yielding thirteen, and twenty-three to twenty-four quarts of milk per day. One of the breeds of cows is called very appropriately the “fill-pail.” Apremium was also awarded for a cow that calved on the 7th of January,—calf sold in March,—another calf put to her, and sold in June,—and a third at her side; the price of the three calves forty dollars.

‘Sheep are not so much attended to as they should be in this country, where the dryness of the weather preserves them from diseases to which they are subject in Britain. The merinos, and crosses with the merino, are those generally seen; but little care is paid to their being well fed before being killed and brought to market. The mutton is of course inferior in quality, and the people led to entertain prejudices against it. Even the slaves in the south are said to object to being fed on sheep’s meat. Ihave again and again seen good mutton, but far more rarely than good beef and pork. Hogs are universal in this country, and are well fed, frequently, first of all in the woods on chesnuts, hickory nuts, sometimes on fallen peaches and apples, but almost always, before being killed, they get a sufficient quantity of meal, either from Indian corn or barley. Steamed food is also supplied in some cases. The steam-boiler for food for cattle is well known here. General La Fayette saw one so well constructed somewhere in this country, that he had one of the same pattern made for himself and carried to France.

‘Poultry are excellent, well fed everywhere, and in great numbers about the farm-yards. Turkeys and guinea-fowls abound more than in Britain, which is not to be wondered at, as their relatively cheap price places them within the reach of all. The price of geese and turkeys, even at New York, is frequently not much above half a dollar; ducks and fowls, about one shilling. Eggs, a dollar for a hundred; cheese very good at four pence and five pence per pound.

‘Implements of husbandry are, on the whole, well suited to the country. The two-horse plough, driven by one man, is universally used, unless in bringing in rough stony land, when four oxen or horses are necessary. The cradle-scythe is in pretty universal use. Agood workman can cut down an acre of wheat per day. The harvest work being altogether performed by males, and the crops ripening, and of course reaped, at seasons differing from each other much more than in England, the cheerful appearance of the harvest-field all over Britain, filled with male and female reapers and gleaners, is nowhere seen in this country. The prices of implements are not higher than in England. The lower price of wood makes up for the higher price of labor, especially as carpenters are very expert. Ploughing is well executed, and premiums given by agricultural societies at their yearly meetings. Iobserved, at a late meeting in Massachusetts, sixteen ploughs, drawn by oxen, started for the competition,—that the ploughs were of the improved kind, with cast-iron mould-boards, the ploughing five inches deep, and the furrows not more than ten inches in width. Premiums were at this meeting awarded for various agricultural implements. Threshing-machines are not yet so general as in Britain.’70

The principal products of the southern states are tobacco, cotton, rice, and sugar. The first of these is grown largely in Virginia and other of the middle and southern states, and together with the other staples of that portion of the country, is chiefly the product of slave labor. There are at present but two sorts of tobacco raised in the western states: the one with a long and sharp-pointed leaf,—and the other with a round and hairy leaf, which is evidently the best tobacco. The seed is sown in beds well prepared for the purpose, so that in May it is fit to be transplanted. The plants are then put into another piece of ground, at intervals of from three to four feet; they are carefully freed from weeds, and the earth is drawn up to their stems. When they have obtained a certain growth, the tops are taken off, that the remaining leaves may acquire a proper size; worms are carefully removed, and no sucker is allowed to remain. In August, the plants become spotted, and appear of a brownish color; by these tokens they are discerned to be ripe, and are therefore immediately pulled. They lie one night to sweat; next day, they are hung up to dry; when the tobacco has become sufficiently dry to ensure its preservation, it is stripped from the stalks, and barrelled up for exportation; or manufactured into various shapes, for those whom a species of luxury has taught to look upon it as almost one of the necessaries of life. Along with six thousand plants, yielding generally one thousand pounds of tobacco, one person may manage four acres of Indian corn.

There are four kinds of tobacco reared in Virginia, namely, the sweet-scented, which is the best; the big and little, which follow next; then the Frederick; and lastly, the one and all, the largest of all, and producing most in point of quantity. The Virginian tobacco is reckoned superior to any raised in the southern states; and great care is taken by the regulations of the state, that no frauds be practised upon the merchants, and that no inferior tobacco be palmed upon the purchaser. For this purpose, houses of inspection are established in every district where tobacco is cultivated, whose regulations are rigorously enforced; this contributes, as much as the real superiority of the article itself, to keep up its price in the market. Every person who intends his tobacco for exportation, packs it up in hogsheads, and thus sends it to one of the inspecting houses. Here the tobacco is taken from the cask, which is opened for the purpose; it is examined in every direction, and in every part, in order to ascertain its quality and its purity; if any defect is perceived, it is rejected and declared to be unfit for exportation. If no defect appear, it is pronounced to be exportable. It is then repacked in the hogshead, which is branded with a hot iron, marking the place of inspection, and the quality of the contents; and then lodged in the inspecting storehouses, there to await the disposal of the planter, who receives a certificate of the particulars, serving at the same time as an acknowledgment of the deposit. It is by selling this tobacco note to the merchant that the planter sells his tobacco. The purchaser, on viewing this note, is as well acquainted with the article, as if he had inspected it himself; and he has only to send the note and transfer to the store where the tobacco lies, and it is immediately delivered out, agreeably to his orders. This measure has insured a preference in the foreign market to the Virginian tobacco, and prevents the deterioration of the article.

The soil most proper for the cultivation of cotton is found in the islands lying on the coast. Those belonging to the state of Georgia produce the best, known in France by the name of Georgia cotton, and in Great Britain by the name of Sea Island cotton. This variety of cotton has a deep black seed, and very fine, long wool, which is easily separated from the seed by the roller gins, which do not injure the staple. In the middle and upper country, the green seed or inferior cotton is produced; this kind is less silky, and adheres so tenaciously to the seed, that it cannot be separated without the action of a saw-gin. Though the wool of the green seed, or bowed Georgia cotton, be cheaper than the other, yet its produce is more luxuriant. An acre, which will produce one hundred and fifty pounds of black seed cotton, will generally yield two hundred pounds of the green seed kind. The packing of the cotton is done in large canvass bags, which must be wetted as the cotton is put in, that it may not hang to the cloth, and may slide better down. The bag is suspended between two trees, posts, or beams; and a negro, with his feet, stamps it down. These bags are generally made to contain from three hundred and fifty pounds, to four hundred pounds each.

‘I have been lately favored,’ says Mr.Everett, in his valuable address before the New York Institute, in October, 1831, ‘with a minute statement of the average product of five or six cotton plantations in two of the south-western states, ascertained by putting together the income of a good and bad year. The result of this statement is, that the capital invested in these plantations yields from fifteen to twenty per cent. clear; and the net profit accruing to the proprietor, for the labor of each efficient hand, is two hundred and thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents per annum; being a clear gain of four dollars and fifty cents per week. It further appears that on one of these plantations, (and the same, though not stated, is believed to hold of the others in due proportion,) worth altogether, for land, labor, and stock, ninety-two thousand dollars, the entire amount of articles paying duty annually consumed, is two thousand three hundred dollars. The average crop of this plantation, taking a good and bad year, is fourteen thousand five hundred dollars. Suppose the duties to be thirty-three and one third per cent. and the whole amount of the duty to be actually assessed, in the shape of an enhanced price of the article, (the contrary of which is known to be true, for in several articles the entire price is little more than the duty,) it would amount to less than seven hundred and thirty dollars per annum on a clear profit of fourteen thousand five hundred dollars.’

Rice is extensively cultivated in the southern states. The grains of this plant grow on little fruit stalks springing from the main stalk. It is sown in rows, in the bottom of trenches, made entirely by slave labor. These ridges lie about seventeen inches apart, from centre to centre. The rice is put in by the hand, generally by women, and is cast so as to fall in a line. This is done about the seventeenth of March. By means of floodgates, the water is then permitted to flow over the fields, and to remain on the ground five days, at the depth of several inches. The object of this is to sprout the seeds, as it is technically called. The water is next drawn off, and the ground allowed to dry, till the rice is between three and four inches in height. This requires about a month. The fields are then again overflowed, and are allowed to remain in that state about a fortnight, to destroy the weeds. It is now about the middle of May, and for two months afterwards the ground is permitted to continue dry; during this interval it is repeatedly hoed, and the soil is kept loose and free. The fields are then once more submerged, in order that the crops may be ripened, and they actually do ripen while standing in the water. The harvest commences in August, and extends into October. The plants are then cut by the male slaves, and tied into bundles by the females. The grains are threshed out by means of hand flails. The outer husk is detached by passing the rice between a pair of mill-stones. The film which still envelopes the grain is removed by trituration under heavy pestles, consisting of upright bars, shod with iron, which are raised several feet by machinery, and then allowed to fall upon the rice, the particles of which are thus rubbed against each other, till the film is removed. When thus thoroughly winnowed, it is packed in casks holding about six hundred pounds each, and is ready for exportation.

The sugar cane is cultivated to a great extent in Louisiana, Georgia, and West Florida. In the first of these states, five kinds of the cane have been raised. The first is the Creole cane, which is supposed to have come originally from Africa. The second is the Bourbon cane, from Otaheite. Besides these, are the riband cane, green and red; the riband cane, green and yellow; and the violet cane of Brazil. The latter species was abandoned soon after its introduction, as it proved less productive in our climate than any of the others. The other species are the best suited to the nature of the soil. They are all more or less affected by the variations of the atmosphere, are very sensible to cold, and are killed in part by the frost every year. Experience has demonstrated that the cane may be cultivated in a latitude much colder than was generally supposed; for fine crops are now made in Louisiana, in places where a few years ago the cane froze before it was ripe enough to make sugar.

In the process of cultivation, the ground is ploughed as deep as possible, and harrowed; after it has been thus broken up, parallel drills or furrows are ploughed at the distance of two feet and a half to four feet from one another; in these the cane is laid lengthwise, and covered about an inch with a hoe. Small canals to drain off the water are commonly dug, more or less distant from each other, and these are crossed by smaller drains, so as to form squares like a chess board. These ditches are necessary to drain off the water from rains, as well as that which filters from the rivers, which would otherwise remain upon the plantations. The average quantity of sugar that may be produced upon an acre of land of the proper quality, well cultivated, is from eight hundred to one thousand pounds, provided that the cane has not been damaged, either by storms of wind, inundations, or frost. The strong soil is easiest of cultivation, and most productive, in rainy seasons. The light soils require less labor, and yield more revenue, in dry seasons. To these variations, others are to be added, resulting from the different exposure of the lands, the greater or less facility of draining, and also from the greater or less quantity of a weed known by the name of coco or grass nut. Sixty working hands are necessary to cultivate two hundred and forty acres of cane, planted in well-prepared land, and to do all the work necessary until the sugar is made and delivered. The sugar, up to the moment it is delivered to the merchant, costs the sugar planter about three and a half cents per pound, for expense incurred, without reckoning the interest on his capital.

The cultivation of the mulberry tree, and the raising of silk-worms, have occupied considerable attention in different parts of the United States. Before the revolution, the production of silk was attempted in Georgia, but without ultimate success. In Connecticut, and in some other places, for the last seventy years, an inferior kind of sewing silk has been manufactured; but its use has been chiefly confined to the neighborhood in which it has been produced. Of late years, however, efforts have been made to introduce the important branch of agriculture that affords the necessary materials for the manufacture of silk. Societies have been formed in different states for its promotion, and the national government have thought the subject worthy their particular attention.

During the year 1829, a series of essays were written by M.D’Homergue, the son of an eminent silk manufacturer, at Nismes, who had arrived in Philadelphia at the instance of an association for the promotion of the culture of silk; they have since been published in a separate form, and will repay the perusal of those who may feel peculiarly interested in the subject. The report of the committee of agriculture, who were instructed to inquire into the expediency of adopting measures to extend the cultivation of the mulberry tree, and to promote the cultivation of silk, by introducing the necessary machinery, made to the house of representatives, March12, 1830, represents these essays and the facts contained in them as entitled to high confidence.

‘It appears from them,’ states the report, ‘that American silk is superior in quality to that produced in any other country;—in France and Italy, twelve pounds of cocoons are required to produce one pound of raw silk, whilst eight pounds of American cocoons will produce one pound of raw silk:—that cocoons cannot be exported to a foreign market, from several causes,—their bulk, their liability to spoil by moulding on ship board, and because they cannot be compressed without rendering them incapable of being afterwards reeled. It is further demonstrated in these essays, and in a memorial lately presented by the manufacturers of silk stuffs of Lyons, in France, to the minister of commerce and manufactures, that the art of filature can only be acquired by practical instruction, by some one intimately acquainted with, and accustomed to, that process: that no human skill or ingenuity, unaided by practical instruction, is capable of acquiring that art to any profitable extent. It is made manifest that, although the culture of silk has been carried on for many years in some parts of the United States, and more particularly in Connecticut, it has been conducted very unprofitably, compared with what the results might have been, if the art of filature had been understood. The sewing silk made in Connecticut is from the best of the silk, and is, after all, quite inferior to that of France and Italy: in these latter countries, sewing silk is manufactured from imperfect cocoons, or from refuse silk.

‘It appears also, that unless the silk is properly reeled from the cocoons, it is never afterwards susceptible of use in the finer fabrics. It is a gratifying consideration that the benefits from the culture of silk and the acquisition of the art of reeling the same, will be common to every part of the United States. The climate of every state in the union is adapted to the culture of silk: hatching the eggs of the silk-worms may be accelerated or retarded, to suit the putting forth the leaves of the mulberry. That tree is easily propagated from the seed of the fruit, and is adapted to almost any soil. The committee regard the general culture of silk as a vast national advantage in many points of view. If seriously undertaken and prosecuted, it will, in a few years, furnish an article of export of great value: and thus the millions paid by the people of the United States for silk stuffs will be compensated for by the sale of our raw silk. The importation of silk, during the year which ended on the 30th of September, 1828, amounted to eight million, four hundred and sixty-three thousand, five hundred and sixty-three dollars, of which, one million, two hundred and seventy-four thousand, four hundred and sixty-one were exported: but in the same year, the exportation of bread stuffs from this country amounted only to five million, four hundred and eleven thousand, six hundred and sixty-five dollars, leaving the balance against us of nearly two millions. The committee anticipate that at a period not remote, when we shall be in possession of the finest material produced in any country, the manufacture of silk stuffs will necessarily be introduced into the United States. The culture of silk promises highly moral benefits, in the employment of poor women and children in a profitable business, while it will detract nothing from agricultural or manufacturing labor. The culture of silk will greatly benefit those states which have abandoned slave labor, the value of whose principal productions, particularly in the article of cotton, has been depressed by overproduction.’

The vine grows in most parts of the United States, and yields a plentiful return for the labor of cultivation. We have already alluded to the vineyards in the vicinity of Vevay. Alarge grant of land, in the territory of Alabama, was made by the general government to a French association under M.Villar, for the purpose of encouraging the cultivation of the vine and the olive. About two hundred and seventy acres had been occupied with vines in 1827, and nearly four hundred olive trees had been planted. The latter, however, do not thrive, and it is apprehended that they will not attain an available degree of perfection in that climate.

Horticulture has not been entirely overlooked in the United States, though it has not yet received the attention that is paid to it in other countries. Some idea of the varieties of fruits and of flowers which the climate will admit of, may be formed from the following statement of the contents of a garden in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, which may be relied on as authentic, being extracted from the report of the committee, appointed by the Pennsylvania Horticultural society for visiting the nurseries and gardens in the vicinity of that city: ‘Here are to be found,’ say the committee, ‘one hundred and thirteen varieties of apples, seventy-two of pears, twenty-two of cherries, seventeen of apricots, forty-five of plums, thirty-nine of peaches, five of nectarines, three of almonds, six of quinces, five of mulberries, six of raspberries, six of currants, five of filberts, eight of walnuts, six of strawberries, and two of medlars. The stock, considered according to its growth, has in the first class of ornamental trees esteemed for their foliage, flowers, or fruit, seventy-six sorts; of the second class, fifty-six sorts; of the third class, one hundred and twenty sorts; of ornamental evergreens, fifty-two sorts; of vines and creepers for covering walls and arbors, thirty-five sorts; of honey-suckle, thirty-sorts; and of roses, eighty varieties.’