The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-01 00:00:00

U. S. HOMESTEAD LAND.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
Among the essays on the system of land tenure in
various countries, which have lately been published
by the Cobden Club to diffuse intelligence and to
form public opinion on the subject of land tenure
in Ireland, is one by an American barrister, Mr. C.
, M. Fisher, collating and comparing the land laws
of the various States. Land will be found to in-
crease in value in direct proportion with popula-
tion, a law which holds equally in a new as in au
old country. For instance, in America there is
land as valuable as any in England, though in
the Union there may be three acres and more
of arable land still unoccupied for every two
inclosed. In the great centres of population,
where families are as closely congregated as in
Europe, land in America assumes equal value,
though the primeval forest may still be un-
disturbed twenty miles from the spot. With a
simple, clear title to start with, and a good system
of registration, complications may perhaps be
avoided, but at any rate titles can never be mixed
up in the parchment confusion which has been the
fate of English soil. Fundamentally the land laws
throughout the Union are the same, every facility
being given fora quick and easy purchase and sale,
the transfer being a simple assignment conveying a
right as absolute as if the article were a carriage or
a trinket. The parental farm usually goes to the
eldest son, the others seeking their fortune West,
)r i❑ the great cities, receiving from the brother
who takes the homestead the value of their share.
Ile fauns, therefore, are not as a general rule cut
up, and one element of complication is thus avoided.
Although this subject as regards' the United States
is one of deep interest in Europe, as the domain
dealt with is among the finest in the world, and is
now open for the settlement of Europeans, yet it
is of little use in relation to the question of land
tenure in Ireland; which indeed is one that must
be worked out on its own merits. As Mr. Fisher says,
he great fascination to the tenant farmer and agri-
cultural labourer of Europe is to become a landed
proprietor, a destiny so far beyond his hopes that
he fails to re disc the advantages America offers.
Touching the Irish question, Mr. Fisher says :
" Of the emigrant settlers, those from Ireland, in
many instances, make good and thrifty farmers,
and acquire considerable property ; and though a
large proportion of the Irish are always to be found
among the labouring population, their qualifica-
ions for making good settlers are not so rare as
'night be generally supposed by an eye-witness of
the agricultural performances of many small Irish
tenant farmers in their native land. I could point
to many instances in the State of Vermont, and in
others, where a comparatively ignorant and penni-
less Irish emigrant had almost immediately after
arrival arranged for the purchase, on time, of a
lot of land ; then worked as a labourer until he
had got together a few dollars to purchase imple-
ments, seed, and a little food—the latter in the
shape of a barrel of flour, some salt, pork, tea, &c.,
forming sufficient for one season—and who had,
without any other aid, managed to struggle on
until a succession of harvests found him a rich man
in comparison with his former condition." For the
most part the men who really cultivate in distant
localities, working the soil they take into a produc-
tive farm, are the small tenant farmers and emi-
grants from the rural districts of European coun-
tries. They go West and settle on the land, while
Americans go West and speculate on it. The
reason is that the highest ambition of the former
class is to own the acres on which they live. With
them social rank and prestige is associated with
such possession. From it the noble not only de-
rives his revenue, his title, but his importance.
With it goes all it supports ; on it ancestors were
born, and were buried; and for it a reverence has
been implanted in the mind which the emigrant
carries with him to the new country, where, though
shaken, it is never wholly removed. But " dirt,"
as Americans ve►y often call old mother earth, the
chief cleanser and purifier of everything, is massed
in too great quantities in the land of their birth to
excite veneration. When unknown rivers flow in
every direction and through fertile valleye,containing
millions of acres, no one knows where ; when the
nvitation is from all sides, " Come and help your-
self," when farms are sold, as any other property,
without endless deeds and parchment?, and 'the
transfer is constantly in al:3; when the roll of po-
pulation has been westward, imparting a migratory
character to the inhabitants, veneration cannot have
a place, for it is a root of long and deep growth in
an undisturbed locality. 'The American buys and
sells land as be would railway shares, and prefers
dealing in town lots, in which, if his judgment is
good, his profit will be greatest ; while the Eu-
ropean agricultural emigrant thinks only of be-
coming the possessor of a farm, giving himself and
his family a local habitation and a name. The
English exodus—the full volume of which will flow
this summer—must rapidly increase farm building
in the United States. In the year 1850 there were
293,000,000 acres of farm lands in the United
States; of which 113,000,000 were improved, half
that amount being thoroughly cultivated. Ten
years later there were 407,000,000 acres of farm
lands, of which 160,000,000 were improved. The
estimate for last year was 500,000,000 acres ; about
200,000,000 being improved, and half that quan-
tity cultivated. The acreage in crops has not yet

been taken in the Union, but the produce has
been carefully calculated. The year 1839 yielded
84,823,272 bushels of wheat, or 4.76 to each per-
son ; 1849, 100,485,944, or 4.33 per head. In 1868 the
estimate was 230,000,000, and last year 245,000,000,
or over six bushels to each inhabitant. Of these
six, one bushel was exported ; another has gone in
seed ; and the rest is consumed. Wheat is more
readily exported than corn meal, of which but one
per cent. goes abroad. It does not pay the western
farmer to export Indian corn, and in the Phrenolo-
gical Journal for January wheat farming is asserted
to be the curse of the soil in the North, as was tobacco
culture in the South, deteriorating theland, diminish-
ing production, and yearly despoiling new ground.
Indian corn is grown in this disposition to wheat :

iu 1868, 906,527,000 bushels of the former to
230,000,000 of the latter. The effect of the war is
shown in the decrease of certain staples ; for in-
stance, tobacco fell from 434,209,4011b5. in 1860
to 320,000,0001b5. in 1868 ; sugar from 230,982
hogsheads in 1860 to 84,256 in 1868 ; cotton from
5,387,052 bales in 1860 to 2,450,000 in 1868. The
production of sugar was almost destroyed in 1863,
the produce of the following year being only 6,658
hogsheads ; but so rapidly has it recovered that as
large a yield as ever may soon be anticipated. It is
of interest to glance at the acreage estimated to be
in cultivation and the crops they produce :

1860. 1868.
Indian Corn (bushels) 838,792,740 ... 906,527,000
Wheat „ 173,104,924 ... 230,000,000
Rye „ ... 21,101,380 ... 22,500,000
Oats „ 172,643,185 255,000,000
Barley „ ... 15,825,898 23,000,000
Buckwheat ... 17,571,818 ... 20,000,060
Potatoes „ ... 111,148,867 106,000,000
Hay (tons) ... ... 19,083,896 ... 26,000,000
Tobacco (lbs.) ... 434,209,461 ... 320,000,000
Cotton (bales) ... 5,387,052 ... 2,450,000
Sugar (Wads.) 230,982 84,256
Nor is it of less interest to note the live stock kept,
which, it is to be regretted, has not maintained its
due ratio of increase with the population, a result
attributable to the war :-
1860.
6,249,174
1,151,118 ...

Horses ...
M ules

Jan., 1869.
6,332,793
921,662

Cattle 25,116,019 21,433,109
Sheep 22,471,275 37,724,279
Swine ... 33,512,867 27,316,476
On the other hand, it is gratifying to note the en-
terprise now in course of development in the South,
as well as the rapid and unprecedented rise of such
States as Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota. The
cotton plantations, generally small, are giving good
returns. In North Carolina 400 acres have been

_ _............_----
PlantPd with various kinds of grapes. An orchard
of I,soolluchcFse d'Angouleme pear trees, another
orchard of 250,000 of peach trees, while whole
farms are being laid out in small fruits, pea-nuts,
castor beans, and other special crops.

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