The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1841-01-27
AGRICULTURAL.

From the Carolina Planter.
EXTRACTS FROM THE ANNIVER-
SARY GRAFTON,
of the State Agricultural Society Of South
Carolina, By Gen. Geo. McDuFc; read
before the Society, on the 26th NoOcm-
bcr, 1910, at their annual meeting, in
the Hall of the House Of Representa-
tiucs.
aTho greatest, most prevailing, and
most perr:cious of all the practices which
distinguish and deform the agriculture of
this and the other cotton planting States,
is the almost exclusive direction of the
whole available labor of the plantation, to
the production of our greatest market
staple, and the consequent neg ect of all
the other commodities which the soil is
capable Of producing or sustaining, and
which are essential to supply the wants of
the establishment. No scheme of reform
or improvement caA produce any great
and salutary results, which does not lay
the axe to the root of this radical vice in
our husbandry.
1t should be, therefore, an inviolable
rule in the economy of every plantation,
to produce an abundant supply of every
species of grain, and of every species of
live stock, required for its own consump-
ton. am aware, that in peculiar locali-
ties, when the price of cotton has been
high, examples may be found of success
full planting where this rule has been dis
regarded.
But this serves only to prove, that even
a bad system prosecuted with great encr-
gy and under favorable circumstances,
may be crowned with considerable share
of the success which would more certain
ly have rewarded good one. Such ex-
amples, if they constitute an exception to
the rule have laid down, by no means
impair its force or dsprove its general ex-
pediency. The economy of a plantation
should be founded, not upon the tempo
rary and mutable expedients, but upon
general and permanent rules, adapted to
all the probable vicissitudes of trade and
of the seasons, and all the probable fuc-
tuations of prices and of the currency
We have surely seen enough of these
fluctuations, and sufficiently witnessed, if
not experienced, their disastrous influence,
TO warn US against the fatal policy of
yielding up the lessons of experience to
the temptations of high prices and pros
porous seasons. 1t is, indeed, one of the
greatest evils which these fluctuations ha-
5itually produce among us, that we are
but too successfully tempted, by the tenn
porary allurement Of high prices, to aban-
don all the maxims of wisdom and all the
rules of sound economy, which have been
imposed upon us by painful experience,
in periods of depression and adversty.-
Let us, then, each one for the sake of his
own interest, and all for the common well
fare of South Carolina, solemnly and de-
liberately resolve, that we will never a
gain, under any temptation, incur the Just
reproach which must attach to our char
acter as planters, if VIC should be induced
to rely upon distant communities for those
essential supplies, which our own planta-
tions are so capable of producing. And
to the end, that this high resolve may be
more firmly adopted and pcrseveringly
maintained, | shall endeavor to show, that
it is the dictate not less of an enlightened
self:interest, than of an enlarged public
spirit.
We are then to consider and decide
upon the comparative cheapness and econ-
omy of producing ourselves on the one
hand, and of purchasing from abroad on
the other, the hogs, horses, mules, and other
live stock, required for the use and con-
sumption of our plantations during an
average series of years. A stranger to
our wretched habits of economy, would
be startled at the mere propounding of
such an inquiry. He could not compre-
hend the economy Of importing from Ken
lucky, what our own soil and climate are
so eminently adapted to produce. How
ever plausible, it is most assuredly false