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* * * * *
THE
RURAL MAGAZINE,
AND
LITERARY EVENING FIRE-SIDE.
VOL. I. PHILADELPHIA, _Ninth Month_, 1820. _No. 9._
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
THE DESULTORY REMARKER. No. VIII.
Thou only know'st
That dark meandering maze
Where wayward Falsehood strays,
And, seizing swift the lurking sprite,
Forces her forth to shame and light[1]
[1] Ode to Truth, from Mason's Caractacus.
Man has been in all ages and countries, in a greater or less degree,
the victim of imposture and superstition. Their origin can every
where be traced to rude and uncultivated periods of society; but
subsequent stages of comparative elegance and refinement have also
ministered to the support of their dominion. Egypt, Greece and
Rome were successively the seats of learning and science; yet in
these celebrated regions, the human mind was enveloped in darkness
and loaded with chains. The Egyptians have this ancient proverb:
"It is easier to find a deity than a man."--Apotheosis must have
been carried to an extraordinary length indeed when this was the
case. Among these deities, Isis was prominently distinguished, and
universally worshipped. On her statues, these words were impudently
inscribed: "I am all that has been, that shall be, and none among
mortals has hitherto taken off my veil!" Who but would blush for
the credulity which listened with reverential awe to the oracular
responses at Delphi, a town situate in the neighbourhood of Mount
Parnassus, believed by every one at that time to be the centre of
the earth! And concerning this precious object, the wars denominated
the "_sacred_ wars," were so furiously and destructively waged. The
Grecians were compelled, under pain of death, rigidly to observe
the mysteries of Eleusis; and the wisest of the Romans were seen
consulting the flight of birds and the entrails of animals, for
infallible prognostics of future events. Where the footsteps of
_true_ philosophy can be traced, her triumphs have been signal;
and having found most of these and many other errors exploded, we
lay claim in this enlightened age and country, to an extraordinary
exemption from the influence of imposture and superstition. Although
the darkness and gloom of former ages have in a great degree fled
at the approach of the light of knowledge, still here and there
the skirts of a black cloud remain, to indicate the failure of an
absolute conquest. And the presence of these potent adversaries of
human happiness, should inculcate the duty on every friend of his
species of lending his aid in advancing the cause of TRUTH.
Among the reprehensible customs which now obtain in the United
States, none are more affrontful to the good sense of the community,
and few more pernicious in their effects on youth and inexperience,
than LOTTERIES, and the disgusting advertisements connected with
them, which daily appear in the public journals. The funds which
constitute a lottery, are principally derived from the pockets of
those whose straitened circumstances, prompt them to grasp at the
glittering phantoms, paraded before their eyes by professional
jugglers.--Their minds become unsettled; a love of idleness and
extravagance is excited; and their attention diverted from the true
sources of prosperity--industry, frugality and sound morals. This
cautionary advice may be deduced from the best and brightest of
books; "Make not haste to be rich."[2] Experience and observation
unite in confirming its wisdom. We need but contemplate the
consequences, which have almost universally resulted to those who
have been so _fortunate_ as to draw large prizes! Nine times perhaps
out of ten, bankruptcy and ruin have trodden close on the heels of
the dissipation and thoughtlessness they have occasioned. Lotteries
are made by legislation, (which ought to be much better employed,)
a species of legalized gambling, altogether destitute, in every
point of view, of the slightest recommendation, to the countenance
and patronage of the public. Being thus prejudicial to individual
and social happiness, is it not to be lamented, that respectable
editors instead of branding it as they ought, with its proper
characteristics; should, to augment the profits of their papers,
give to this system of deception, the widest circulation, among all
classes of readers. These gentlemen should remember, that pecuniary
sacrifices should sometimes be made at the shrine of virtue.
[2] Proverbs ch. xxviii. 22d verse.
Another source of imposture may be traced to the venders of QUACK
MEDICINES. Few persons are, perhaps, aware of the amount of this
tax, levied by unprincipled charlatans, on the afflicted and
credulous portion of the community. But it is not their money
only that is sacrificed, but frequently their constitutions and
their lives. He, whose constant companions have long been Pain and
Disease, is easily persuaded to listen to the confident promises of
impudent pretenders to medical science. He indulges the flattering
but false anticipation of returning health, until his symptoms
assume an incurable character, and nature gives him the "signal
for retreat." It is not to be expected, that for all the multiform
shapes which vice is constantly assuming, remedies can be furnished
by statutory provision. For many evils, and some of them of a
positively mischievous character, no other cure can be relied on
with certainty, than the virtue and intelligence of the public. In
proportion as these shall be cultivated, will be the augmentation
of social enjoyment, and the increasing splendour of the orb of
truth.
It has been observed by an eminent writer, that although all
argument is against the existence of GHOSTS, all opinion is in its
favour.--The celebrated JOHN WESLEY, it is said, believed in them;
and EDWARD CAVE asserted confidently, though he avoided dwelling
on the subject, that he had himself seen an apparition.--The
story of Mrs. VEAL, prefixed to Drelincourt on Death, though not
conclusive, tended to strengthen such opinions. Few of those who
held them, were countenanced by stronger evidence than that detailed
in the following authentic narrative. In the earlier periods of
the settlement of Pennsylvania, public houses of entertainment
were few and distant from each other. A farmer, who resided in
Montgomery then Philadelphia county, was returning from market at
a late hour, of a cold winter night. As he was passing a meeting
house, he discovered through the interstices of the door, a light
which proceeded from a fire-place; there having been public worship
held there during the preceding day. Having dismounted and hitched
his horse, he proceeded to the door, and having opened it, beheld
a large fire burning, a man laying before it, and between this
mysterious personage and the door, a coffin! He instinctively shrunk
back, as the time, the place, and the circumstances he witnessed,
were well calculated to produce considerable excitement.--Summoning
his resolution, however, he advanced to the fire-place, where he
found a person asleep, and a new coffin along side of him. The man
informed him, that being a joiner, he was employed to make a coffin
for a relation who died a few miles above, and that he was taking
it up from Germantown where he resided. It appeared that they had
both turned in with the same object, to warm themselves; and the
honest farmer was pleased to find the spectral apparition subside
into a sober reality. How fortunate would it be if on all occasions,
investigation were equally honest and determined. Then, indeed,
would error and falsehood frequently be forced to "SHAME AND LIGHT."
☞
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
THE VILLAGE TEACHER.
My favourite occupation between school hours, during the Spring
and Summer, is GARDENING. The munificence of some village Lorenzo
has bequeathed, for the use of the schoolmaster, several acres of
ground, well situated for tillage or ornamental purposes. Since
I have been the incumbent, I have taken much pains to improve it
by surrounding the chief part with hedges of cedar and thorn, and
planting a good selection of fruit and forest trees. The lower part
of the field is in grass, and a winding gravel walk leads from one
group of trees to another. Here, according to their various tastes
and habits, may be seen the magnolias of our own and the southern
states, the walnut, the locust, the elm, the tulip tree, and the
different varieties of pine, and larch, and fir, which it has been
my study to arrange so as to diversify the view, and exhibit as
much as my slender means would allow, the great families into which
the vegetable kingdom is divided. A brook as clear as crystal
babbles along through an adjoining lot, and enters mine towards the
lower end. I have conducted it to a natural hollow in the ground,
and have thus, at a trifling expense, formed a fish-pond, which adds
greatly to the beauty of my little domain, and furnishes me not only
with wholesome food for my own and my friends' tables, but is well
suited, from the natural moisture of its banks, for the cultivation
of many of our beautiful ferns and aquatic plants. The middle of
the lot I have planted with the various fruit trees in which our
climate is so rich, if, indeed, it may not challenge a competition
in this respect with the world. The upper and smaller portion of the
lot, I have appropriated to what is called gardening in the stricter
sense of the word. In marking out the walks, I have endeavoured to
follow, as nearly as I could, what the painters, perhaps a little
fantastically, call the line of beauty, so as to have but few sharp
corners or square beds. At the prominent angles and the centres
of the beds, are planted the Rhododendron; the two Kalmias; the
scarlet, the tri-coloured and the flowering Azaleas; the Clethra
and the Philadelphus, mingling with the most beautiful of the
domesticated foreign shrubbery--the different Roses, Honeysuckles,
and Jessamines. Underneath, and among this shrubbery, are seen
the blue and scarlet Lobelias, the native Lily, the Gerardia, the
Arethusa, the Orchis, the Bartsia, the Epigea, and all those
beautiful flowers that spring up in our woods and meadows, and so
frequently bloom and die unseen or unappropriated. These native
flowers make a fine show and not an unfavourable comparison even
with those beauties of Europe and the East that I have been able to
collect and arrange by their side.
I have been thus particular and egotistical in describing my garden,
perhaps from vanity, but partly from a wish that the plan may be
followed. Our native shrubbery and flowers are not surpassed in
beauty and splendour by those of any region in the temperate zone,
and many of them in magnificence of foliage and colours are truly
tropical. They are sought for abroad with great eagerness, and form
an indispensable part of every gentleman's collection. I wish it
were more the custom for our farmers and cottagers to domesticate
them in their gardens and around their houses.--They improve
materially by cultivation, and new varieties are frequently formed.
What can be a more beautiful ornament to the front of a farm-house,
or a neat white-washed cottage, than a Sweet-briar, winding between
the windows and over the door? or the Carolina Passion flower, the
Alleghany Vine, the Clematis, or the scarlet Trumpet flower? These
rural decorations add more than one would imagine, who had not tried
them, to the innocent pleasures of a family; they have no small
influence in forming the taste of children; they form a favourite
retreat for the birds; and they fling over the whole country an air
of peace, and contentment, and innocent enjoyment, which no one,
who has not travelled in the more beautiful and retired parts of
England, can fully appreciate.
I recollect once in riding through the valley of Chester county with
some foreign gentlemen, that they were struck with the nakedness and
rudeness of the farm-houses. It appeared to them the most beautiful
region they had ever seen, and they exclaimed, with one voice, that
the inhabitants did not seem worthy of possessing it. On the side
of some sloping hill and in front of a lawn as smooth as velvet, or
laden with the riches of the harvest, would be seen a barn and a
house that looked as if the master and horse had changed lodgings,
both of rude unhewn stone, without a single tree, or shrub, or a
trailing vine, for shade or ornament. Such an insensibility to the
beauties of rural decoration, in a region where every thing seems
calculated to call out and quicken the taste, is unnatural, and can
only arise from sordid habits or ignorance.
If these hasty remarks should call the attention of our farmers to
the subject, and induce them to devote some of their leisure hours
to the ornamenting of their grounds, I shall be richly rewarded;
and I can promise to them also a rich reward.--Their houses will be
more cool and healthful, and they will find that by encouraging in
their children a taste for gardening, and for observing the native
beauties of our forests, their fondness for the innocent pleasures
of home and for reading will be increased, together with that
unambitious ease and industry which form the distinguishing traits
in the character of a virtuous peasantry.
I began this paper with a design to eulogise the art of gardening,
and investigate its effects on the mind. I have been diverted,
however, from my purpose, and must, in a future number, resume the
disquisition.
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
THE AFRICAN PEOPLE.
It does not appear that sufficient consideration is given to the
case of those black people, who have been rendered free by or under
the laws of the states and old provinces, from the earliest period.
We have established in the city and county of Philadelphia, in
Pennsylvania, _a system professing to be for the universal education
of the poor_, at the public expense, to which the black people, by
the taxes upon their real property, consumption taxes, and all the
taxes of the whites (except the little personal or occupation tax,)
actually contribute. It cannot be denied, that many of them are as
truly among the poor, as the most and least poor of the white heads
of families, whose children are admitted to this _constitutional_
and legal provision. The blacks also pay all the consumption duties
on imported foreign articles, so far as they consume them.
We ought to consider the very low state of the proper blacks in
Africa, where their uncivilized condition has long been most
unhappily made worse by the neighbourhood of the four Saracen or
Moorish piratical States of Barbary, devoted to military plunder,
the slavery of the whites and blacks, and the imposter superstitions
of Mahomet, sacrilegiously pretending to add himself to the Almighty
in the government of his church and his earth. Besides these, the
slave dealers of the world have resorted to the African ports and
islands, and have combined with powerful, avaricious, and inhuman
princes and dealers, in that country, to make out a course of slave
traffic with every nation, in whose system of industry African
slaves are more profitable and efficient than white labourers. From
the islands of Bourbon, Mauritius and Madagascar, round by the Cape
of Good Hope and up to the Saracen or Moorish kingdom of Morocco,
this system has long prevailed. It is unhappily true, that the
great collection of proper Negro districts of Africa, remain now
in the darkest state of irreligion, immorality and incivilization.
It is also true, that this is so rooted in their system, that the
actual transfer, since the year 1620, of a number of Africans
to this country now amounting, with their descendants, to about
one million and a half of the unmixed and mixed breeds, is to be
considered as _a great and complicated dispensation of Divine
Providence_, drawing that numerous people into the bosom and body of
an enlightened nation, averse to the traffic, from the date of the
_first_ act of Virginia of 1778, _abolishing the slave trade_, to
the present consummation of that prohibition, under the laws of the
Union. We have gone, _first_ in Pennsylvania, one step further by
our act of 1780, which, while it unhappily recognized _the slavery
of all the living_, instead of emancipating three or four thousand
at the public expense, or at the expense of the holders, confined
its operation to establishing the freedom of those who should be
_thereafter_ born of the slaves held and continuing to be held among
us.
In order, so far as in us lies, humbly to justify and bless the
dispensation of Providence, which has drawn these people out of the
gloomy abyss of the human family in the vast African black-peopled
district, stained as it unhappily partially is even by the awful
cannibal practice, and by human sacrifices, let us, of Pennsylvania,
who have been first to make their native American _posterity_
free, be the most distinguished, _in justice to their submissive
and patient early labours in forming our fair old province_, in
dispensing to them the benefits of that religious, moral, scholastic
and professional education, without which they cannot live in the
good hopes of this their earthly residence or of the world beyond
the grave.--It is well understood, that our city and county school
system is not practically and effectually extended to the poor black
people. An appeal is respectfully made to the friends of religion,
morals, useful knowledge, and general industry, whether we ought not
to dispense to them a more generous, just and civilized freedom.
If we mean to avoid arguments against the gradual and ultimate
abolition of slavery, let us endeavour to instruct them in all those
things, which will enable them to labour with advantage, to get
their own living in the progressive station on this continent, to
which it has pleased God to suffer them to be transferred. To the
black people themselves, it is proper to recommend a very modest and
good conduct in all things, without which _they_ cannot succeed, nor
can the endeavours of _their best friends_ be availing and effectual.
_A Friend of all the Poor._
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
ON GIMCRACKERY.
The invention of new instruments and machines is among the noblest
exertions of the human faculties. It is said to be considered by
some philosophers as the most striking distinguishing character
between our species and the brute creation, that man is a
_tool-making_ animal. He is certainly the only one who selects his
instruments with care and adapts them to his purposes, by altering
their shape and structure. At any rate, the temporal advantages
which we possess over the beasts, are universally, perhaps,
obtained through this medium. As this is the case, one might suppose
that they who invent and improve these engines of superiority,
would receive the homage of their fellow men to their talents and
thanks for their benefit to the human race. Why, then, what is
called Gimcrackery should fall into disrepute, is an inquiry of some
curiosity.
We cannot well deny the truth of the very common remark, that
inventors are very apt to fail of realizing, by their ingenuity, a
solid provision for life; nor can we well avoid concluding, that
of the many contrivances daily offered to the public, that the
probability of any one becoming permanently useful is very small
indeed. When we consider, however, that the great mass of these
inventions are designed for the attainment of wealth, and that such
an amount of skill and ingenuity are employed, the above conclusions
cannot fail to appear singular. One would think inventors could not,
with these acknowledged talents, well fail of at least securing
their own independence, although their schemes may not be profitable
to others. If, however, we analyse the motives by which such persons
are guided, we shall find, I think, some explanation.
There are few if any men who are not more or less influenced by a
desire of some species of fame or distinction, although, in many
of the common situations of life, this does not interfere with the
pursuit of wealth, and only shows itself in moments of relaxation
from the toils of necessity. For one who wishes to signalize himself
in his trade or profession, and who is swayed by that desire as a
ruling passion, there are probably many who seek to gratify their
pride, by the pursuit of eminence in other things. People aim at
distinction in conversational wit, in politics, philosophy or even
drinking or gaming; while the hours devoted to business are guided
by the wish for property alone, undisturbed by the love of fame.
In the persons of whom we are speaking, this feeling, inseparable
from the nature of man, has a powerful influence on their serious
business. They are not to get wealth only, but distinction, by their
talents; and I question much whether they are not more under the
influence of a wish for the latter than the former. Praise is most
generally, at least in this instance, gained by a single exertion,
and by the study of a short time. The invention once made, and its
applicability rendered plausible, all further contemplation of the
subject is accompanied by an exulting hope that fills and occupies
the mind. But applying either inventions or any other means to the
common business of life, is a more monotonous, common-place labour,
that affords no high and exhilarating excitement to persevere. The
consequence too often is that the inventor quits one hopeful scheme
before it is half reduced to practice, to fly to something still
more new; showing by this that he is fonder of the act of inventing
than of making money by the results. Of this preference of fame to
wealth, a striking instance is often afforded by those illiterate
persons who follow this pursuit. These often voluntarily abstain
from studying the scientific labours of their predecessors, of which
I have known instances, in order to preserve the originality of
their projects, though frequently at the expense of their perfection
and utility. If, then, the larger portion of the labour of these men
is devoted to the attainment of celebrity, they can hardly quarrel
with results of their own making, nor expect fortune to come to
their hands unsought.
Persons who wish to acquire wealth, or, in fact, to achieve any
permanent end, are generally obliged to use steady perseverance, and
to apply all the talents they are masters of for a length of time.
Precisely the same is the case with inventors. That inventor meets
with very extraordinary success indeed, who is not obliged, in the
application of his plans to a useful purpose, to employ prudence
and economy, and all those qualities which enable a man to conduct
business to advantage and to influence the minds of others. Hence it
is that inventions so often lie for a length of years, forgotten or
neglected, till some one of less originality, but more perseverence,
influence and mercantile calculation, carries them into effect with
advantage.
The want of being acquainted with the efforts and discoveries of
predecessors is the cause of prodigious waste of time and talent.
Hence the thousand schemes for perpetual motion, and a variety of
other attempts scarce less extravagant, because made with equal
ignorance. And, in fact, there is a strong tendency in having
acquired the knowledge of the labours of others, to clip the wings
of invention, and render men of learning much less apt to attempt
novelties than while they knew less.
Extravagance in pecuniary matters is another frequent cause of the
ruin of ingenious artists and of those who trust in them. This is
shown, both in imprudently investing considerable sums of money
without a reasonable probability of a return, and in the general
lavish style in which such men often live and experiment.
In fact, to turn inventions to advantage, requires the singling
out of one good, feasible plan, mercantile prudence in calculating
probabilities, and mercantile economy in the conduct of the
business, together with perseverence enough to prevent marring one
scheme by prematurely beginning another. These qualities are so
rarely found in combination with mechanical originality, or, indeed
with that restless versatility which keeps men on the search for its
productions, that it will perhaps always continue to be generally
the case; that one man shall invent and persuade another to make
experimental trials, but a third, and one totally unconnected with
either, if any one, shall reap the increase.
S. C.
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
THE PRODUCTIONS OF THE EARTH.
No subject can more deeply interest the planters and farmers of
this country. Our merchants can export every American production
without duty, tax or impediment. We have all the benefits of a
foreign, coasting, and interior trade, free as to our own laws, and
the national government are constantly engaged in negotiations and
regulations calculated to soften or remove the inconveniences of
foreign monopolies in commerce and navigation. Such measures are
pending now with Britain and France.
When trade has exhausted its power to find a profitable market,
abroad or at home, the conversion of our unsaleable surplus produce
into new forms, commonly denominated _domestic manufactures_,
becomes an object of reasonable consideration. It is well known,
that the cultivated soil and the bowels of the earth give us the
following principal objects as the fruits of the culture of the
land, or as its spontaneous productions. 1, Hemp; 2, Flax; 3, Wool;
4, Iron; 5, Silk; 6, Hides and Skins; 7, Sugar; 8, Indigo, Woad,
Madder; 9, Grass; 10, Grain; 11, Wood; 12, Tobacco, and 13, Cotton.
Such has long been the unforced state of our manufacturing industry,
that in 1797, in 1810, and in 1819, we did not export any surplus
or quantity, however small, of the first eight of those valuable
productions. Our manufacturers, without the war or double, or
present duties, bought at home and worked up the whole. The returns
of exports prove, that we did not ship any part of several of
those articles, and if we shipped a little of some, we imported a
greater weight and value of the same kinds of foreign produce or raw
materials.
Of the 9th article, Grass or Hay, we shipped very little, screwed
into compact bundles for the West Indies.
Of the 10th, Grain, with some Fruit and Molasses, we have a brewery
and distillery, a cider and general liquor manufacture, equal to
forty millions of gallons, and requiring a quantity of produce equal
to the value of sixteen millions of bushels of grain, of which above
seven-eighth parts are drawn from our own lands. This is equal to
the value of seven millions of barrels of flour, and we did not
ship to foreign countries, in 1819, more than 750,000 barrels. It
is plain, that the liquor manufactories of the United States (to
which we are adding wine, worth to France 100,000,000 dollars,)
are a very principal support of our agriculture.--We also make of
grain, quantities of starch, hair-powder, sizing, paste, ship bread,
wafers and vermicelli, hominy, firmity, soft bread, pastry and
other preparations of grain. It is converted into fatted cattle,
hogs and poultry. Ingenuity is and should be on the stretch to
employ and profitably consume grain. Pork and beef maintain better
prices abroad than the grain (or meal thereof,) with which we feed
cattle and hogs. The prohibition of spirits, and the distillation of
molasses, in St. Domingo, will cut off our supply of molasses.
Of the 11th article, Wood, we have now one manufacture (our sea
vessels, coasters, river and other boats,) worth 40 or 50 millions
of dollars. We manufacture, for exportation, from 120 to 180
millions of staves, heading, hoops, boards, scantling, plank, and
we have an immense cooperage for foreign and domestic sale and
use. Besides buildings, fences, cabinet ware, carriages, ploughs,
harrows, handspikes, turnery, boxes, cases, faggots, cord-wood, &c.
&c., to a vast amount, profiting the owners and clearers of wood
lands.
12. Tobacco, of which we manufacture nearly all we consume, and
fabricate as much for exportation, probably, as we import in a
manufactured state for our consumption. We could manufacture a
quantity of tobacco equal to the supply shipped by all Europe.
Of Cotton, we are supposed to manufacture 30,000,000 of pounds,
shipping above three times that weight to foreign countries. We
yearly increase in the goodness, fineness, utility, variety and
value of our cotton manufactures. The looms of the United States
were, in A. D. 1810, 325,000, of which North Carolina and Virginia,
cotton and wool states, had the most, being each nearly 41,000
looms. The water and steam are well established, and work lower than
the cheapest hand looms of Europe or Asia.
The plain instruction, of these genuine facts, to our planters
and farmers, is, to encourage household manufactures, and all
other manufactures on the estates, at the doors, in the townships,
villages, and counties in which they live, consuming raw materials,
building materials, food for man and beast, fuel, drinks, and other
productions of the earth. This system of adjacent manufactures saves
all the cost of transportation of our productions to the sea-ports,
and the expense of carrying foreign goods from the sea-ports to the
interior, more profitable than canals and turnpike roads.
Every judicious member of the agricultural body must be a friend
to the freedom and encouragement of our foreign commerce, as
affording a constant and sure market for a considerable portion of
the productions of the earth. But, that manufactures afford also
a very great and sure market for a larger variety, quantity and
value of our landed productions, is no less manifest and certain.
The nail mill, the paper mill, the screw mill, the brewery, the
spinning and weaving mills, the calico printing mill, the pottery,
and many other works and arts to fabricate useful necessary supplies
out of our raw materials, will (including all our manufactures) be
worth, in the whole of 1820, more than five times the value of our
exported goods for sale in foreign countries. Let every farmer,
planter, iron-master, &c., therefore, encourage manufactures in his
household, on his estate, and in his neighbourhood, as the surest
method of making a profitable home demand, without the expense
of transportation, for the fruits of his labour, and the natural
productions of his forests, mines and quarries. We purposely avoid
to urge forcing and protecting duties, referring only to those
existing, which have been ordained principally for the purpose
of raising the requisite public revenue. We do not interfere in
the agitation of the question about protecting duties. We believe
the cheapness of produce and labour and improved machinery and
labour-saving processes, will occasion manufactures to prosper and
increase, and thus to support the growers of produce and the owners
of the land, beyond even our free and valuable trade. To this, the
duties laid for revenue, for defence, and for the encouragement of
agriculture, will materially contribute; such as the impost upon
East India cotton goods, of 27½ to 62½ and even 80 and 90 per
cent., as made entirely of foreign cotton, rival to our cotton,
flax, hemp, wool and silk.
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
EXTRACTED FROM THE MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS OF C. E.
_On the increase of the Domestic Sugar of the United States._
It would seem to be a great acquisition to our country, if we could
produce from our own soil whatever sugar might be necessary for
our own consumption, without having recourse to foreign Islands
or nations; it will therefore be satisfactory, I apprehend, to all
lovers of their country to find that we are already making rapid
advances, as will appear to any person who attentively weighs the
following items of information, collected at different times from
our public newspapers; from whence it may be inferred, that before
many years have expired a supply sufficient for our own use will be
furnished within our own territories.
1812, January 10--Albert Gallatin, Esq. then Secretary of the
Treasury, informed the Committee of Ways and Means, in a letter,
that the Western States were then entirely supplied with salt of
domestic produce; and that they consumed annually seven millions of
pounds of sugar, made from the Sugar Maple tree, which, says he, is
nearly all they use. Now, if in 1812 the _Western_ States produced
7,000,000 pounds of sugar from such trees, it is probable that in
1820, _they_ would produce not less than 10,000,000 in a year. If to
this we add what is yielded in the states of Vermont, New York, and
Pennsylvania, it seems likely that the whole amount of such sugar,
now made annually in the United States, is not less than 15 millions
of pounds.
By a publication in a late newspaper, it appears that there were
exported from New Orleans, in six months preceding 1st May, 1820,
15,652 hogsheads of sugar; all this no doubt was of their own growth
and produced from the Sugar Cane. I am informed by a dealer in
sugar, that the sugar hogsheads of New Orleans do not average less
than 1000 pounds to each hogshead, making, in six months, 15,652,000
pounds, and in the whole year probably 20,000,000 pounds; total of
sugar from the Sugar tree and Cane, 35,000,000 pounds annually.
This exhibits a very rapid increase in the amount of sugar made,
as I think Secretary Gallatin, in an older communication, not 20
years ago, stated that New Orleans at that time exported only about
2,000,000 of pounds of sugar.
The supply now furnished as above will probably be greatly augmented
in future years, from the same sources.
Add to these the prospect of sugar to be raised or produced from the
Cane in Carolina and Georgia, as may be collected from the following
items, selected from the newspapers also, viz.
In 1814, Thomas Spalding made on Sapelo Island, in lat. 31½, as
much as 95 hogsheads of excellent sugar, equal to Jamaica, from
Canes he had planted there.
In 1815, Major Butler, on his plantation in South Carolina, produced
by the labour of seventeen hands, off of 85 acres of land, 140,000
pounds of sugar, and 75 hogsheads of molasses.
Also, John M'Queen, off of 18 acres, had 20,000 Canes per acre,
worked by five or six hands; 5,000 Canes, the produce of one quarter
of an acre, yielded 600 gallons of juice, which boiled down made
672 pounds sugar, and may lose 50 pounds in draining, leaving 622
pounds; or per acre, of sugar, 2,488 pounds.
Again, as to the Sugar Maple tree, or as some say it is more
properly styled, "The Sugar Tree;" in 1815, 64,000 pounds of sugar
were made in the town of Plattsburgh, Clinton county, New York. In
1818, 22,000 pounds were made by 80 families, in one township in
Bradford county, Pennsylvania, which is on an average 275 pounds to
each family.
There can be little doubt but that arrangements might be made by
some of the merchants of Philadelphia, to procure a regular supply
of the best Sugar Tree sugar, for the accommodation of such persons
as are religiously scrupulous of using sugar made from the Cane,
which is produced by the labour of slaves.
I have seen Maple sugar with which sufficient pains had been taken
in the making and draining, that was as handsome in its appearance
and as well tasted and good in every respect, I thought, as any West
India sugar I had ever seen, and when refined equal to any loaf
sugar. Of which, I remember H. D. of this city, merchant, since
deceased, about the year 1789, sent some boxes as a present to
general Washington, then president of the United States, residing in
New York.
Near twenty years ago, when little domestic sugar was made in the
United States, I computed from the duties paid, that the whole
consumption of sugar annually in our country, then, was about
ten pounds for every individual, on an average. There are now, I
suppose, ten millions of inhabitants in the United States, who, at
the above ratio, would consume annually 100,000,000 pounds sugar, of
which we now make 35,000,000 lbs. per annum, as above calculated.
Last winter there was an account in some of the newspapers, that
a person in Virginia had obtained a patent for making sugar from
wheat, rye or Indian corn; that it was good sugar, and that each
bushel yielded fifteen pounds. I have heard no more of it, but
if well founded, this would be the greatest acquisition of all,
because, in every part of our country, sugar, without the use
of slaves, could be made in the greatest abundance, and might
beneficially supplant the practice of making so much pernicious
whiskey, in places remote from sea-ports.
From what has been now stated, there seems to be scarce room for a
doubt, but that in a few years, we can be supplied from domestic
sources with all the sugar we shall want for our own consumption.
By an account of Joseph Cooper's native Grape Vine, published in
your Rural Magazine, No. 7, page 247 as little doubt can exist but
that with proper care by the farmers, our country may also be
supplied with good wine, sufficient for our own use, and probably
with more profit to the growers, than they can find by pursuing the
old beaten track of adhering almost entirely to grain which is now
so low in price.
The southern and western parts of our territories would, probably,
with proper encouragement, yield all the coffee and silk we might be
able to consume.
All these, and many other objects of culture, are proper for the
attention, recommendation and encouragement of state legislatures,
of agricultural societies, and of all patriotic members of society.
Thus we may become, in time, really independent; and from the extent
of our country, and the variety of its climates, come to consider
our own dominions as a world of our own, producing nearly all that
is necessary for the use of man, as Sir George Staunton, in his
Embassy, says the Chinese consider their vast extensive empire. This
consideration, probably, makes them in a great measure, regardless
of foreign trade.
C. E.
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR FARMERS ON POOR LAND.
It is believed, that many productions possess a delicacy in their
qualities, when raised on light soils, which they have not, when
grown on rich and fat soils. The wool produced on the poor South
Down soils of Great Britain is far superior to the wool raised on
the rich alluvion lands of Lincolnshire in that country. The wines
produced among the gravels and pebbles of the _Medoc_ district near
Bordeaux are much superior to the wines produced on the _palus_ or
alluvion lands between the two rivers Lot and Garonne in the same
vicinity. The Tesamum produces the most delicate oil from light
soils. This suggestion is worthy of consideration and experiment
in respect to animals, fruits, grains, and gardeners and farmers'
vegetables.
From the July No. of the North American Review.
_Letters écrites d'Italie en 1812 et 13, à M. Charles Pictet,
l'un des Rédacteurs de la Bibliothéque Britannique par Fréderic
Sullin de Chateauvieux. A Paris et à Genéve._ 1816, 2 vols.
12mo. pp. 576.
Perhaps there are none of our natural advantages which it still
remains for us fully to appreciate and avail ourselves of, so much
as those which respect the agriculture of our country.
Without running into all the errors of the economists or adopting
their entire theory, we trust that we may assert the paramount
importance of this pursuit, particularly to the United States. To
every country it affords at least a partial, and often a complete
subsistence for its population; it gives a constant and healthful
employment to sometimes more than half and never less than a fifth
of the community; its profits though not so large, are more certain
than those in other employments of captal; and while it replaces the
annual advance invested, a surplus profit has accrued, which can be
employed as private interest and the public good may require.[3]
But in the United States the cultivation of the soil has these
and many more advantages; nay, it is intimately connected with our
national character, because it powerfully acts upon the morals
and constitution of our citizens. If it be true, that the torch
of liberty has always burned with a purer and brighter lustre on
the mountains than on the plains, it is still more true, that the
sentiments of honour and integrity more generally animate the rough
but manly form of the farmer, than the debilitated body of the
artisan. There is in that primitive and honourable occupation, the
culture of the earth, something which, while it pours into the lap
of the state an increase beyond every other employment, gives us
more than the fabled stone, not only a subsistence, but a placid
feeling of contentment; not only creates the appetite to enjoy, but
guarantees its continuance by a robust constitution, fortified with
the safeguards of temperance and virtue.
[3] 'Farmers and country labourers, on the contrary, may enjoy
completely the whole funds destined for their own subsistence,
and yet augment at the same time the revenue and wealth of their
society. Over and above what is destined for their own subsistence,
their industry annually affords a neat produce, of which the
augmentation necessarily augments the revenue and wealth of their
society.' _Smith's Wealth of Nations,_ Vol. 111. p. 178.
'Farmers and country labourers, indeed, over and above the stock
which maintains and employs them, reproduce annually a neat produce,
a free rent to the landlord.' _Ibid_, p. 186.
The anxiety of our countrymen to possess in fee a spot of ground
however small, and the consequent paucity of leases, is a fact no
less curious than it is solitary. This is not the case, or at least
in any considerable degree, in any other country. Such indeed in
Britain were formerly those small proprietors called franklins, who
possessed a keen spirit of independence and a determined opposition
to oppression; feelings which, with the alienation of their farms,
have gradually departed from the breasts of their descendants.
Notwithstanding, however, the ease with which the pride of
independent possession may be gratified, it is not the less true
that agriculture, instead of being a favoured, has been a degraded
and unpopular pursuit; that instead of cherishing every motive
which might lead to its honourable extension, we have endeavoured
gradually to weaken its legitimate efforts. It is indeed a singular
inquiry, why the cultivation of the soil among us should have been
so little encouraged, when every state in Europe, since the peace
of Aix-la-Chapelle, has turned its most assiduous attention to
this most important department of domestic economy, and ultimately
borrowed from it the resources which have carried them through the
prodigious conflicts of the last generation.
There have been many causes, certainly not all of equal efficacy,
which have co-operated against the interests of agriculture. But
there is a prominent one to which we can but just allude. During
a very considerable period, since the peace of '83, the peculiar
situation of Europe has afforded opportunities for commercial
enterprise too tempting to be resisted.--American merchants
received, in the lapse of a very few years, the most astonishing
accessions of wealth; and fortunes, ordinarily the fruit of a
laborious life, and never the portion of many, were amassed with
unparalleled rapidity, and by large numbers. Our domestic prosperity
more than equalled the extension of our trade. It was then that the
compting-houses of our merchants were filled with youth from the
country, who forsook the slower but surer emoluments of agriculture,
for the mushroom but unsubstantial fortunes of commerce; nay, who
preferred the meanest drudgery behind the counter of a retail
dealer, to the manly and invigorating toil of the cultivator of
his paternal acres. Unfortunately this spirit of migration was
encouraged by too great a success in trade. Feelings of vulgar
pride contracted in town caused the manual labour of the farmer
to be regarded as degrading; this unworthy sentiment spread with
baleful influence, and when the compting-houses became overstocked
and afforded no longer a resource, it was no uncommon thing to see
a young man with no qualifications but a little bad Latin picked up
at a miserable village school, forsake a large and fertile farm and
apprentice himself to a poor country attorney.
Another cause of the depressed state of agriculture, mentioned in
late publication,[4] is the constant emigration to the west. There
must necessarily be a tendency to a most empoverishing system of
cultivation, where people feel that after having extracted all
the richness of the soil, they may throw it up and remove to a
country, which offers them an untouched surface, and needs no
artificial aid of composts or manure. The land, besides suffering
from negligence consequent on the prospect of departure, will be
worn out by successive crops, and long be rendered unfit for the
most valuable dispositions of the agriculturist. Indeed we have been
informed, that in many instances, when the land is almost ruined
by the continued culture of tobacco, it is sold by the planter to
some enterprizing and laborious individual, who may restore it by
his patience and attention, while he himself removes to another
spot, where the same wretched system of exhaustion may again be
renewed.--There are other causes we might mention, such as the
unwieldy size of our farms, and particularly the want of a regular
enlightened farming system. But we cannot now stop to enter on these
topics, but may notice them hereafter.
[4] Letters on the Eastern States.
If then agriculture be so important an item in a nation's resources,
affording such subsistence to its population, and a surplus
capital to be employed in the various objects of national industry
and enterprise, it would seem to follow, that nothing but very
imperious circumstances should induce any government to repress its
vigour, or palsy the exertions of those devoted to it. Immediately
connected with such an attempt was the late bill before Congress,
establishing a new tariff of duties. But why go back to a bill
which was rejected? We answer, that it is not to be forgotten that
private interest is one of the most powerful incentives to action,
that the manufacturing interest is large and increasing, that one
defeat will not discourage its partisans, and lastly, extraordinary
as the fact may seem, that the bill in question, fraught with such
varied evil, was thrown out by a majority of only _one_ vote in the
senate. The tendency of this project was not only to introduce an
unequal system of taxation, but first, by the destruction of a large
part of our foreign commerce, to diminish very materially the market
for our home products, and secondly, to divert a large portion of
agricultural industry into the service of the loom and spinning
jenny.