Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1847-07-07
THE. SOURCES OF NATIONAL
t<. WEALTH. ~
Ru Ren Mr. Rn1nnn ao~Rnliimnre

tts-J .As.'V'' - - ''-ffA~oJ 1'|s'I"'0'e'
What is wealth.? In what does it
consist?
Wealtbis everything that supplies the
human wants, natural or artificial.
Here is, of course, an end TO its multi!
plication. The artificial wants of man
kind have no limits, of course wealth
has no bounds, but the productiveness
of nature, and the capacities of human
industry. And whatare human wants.
The first is food. This can be procured
only from mthe soil. Hence, the first and
mos, universal of human pursuits is agri.
culture. The first item, in a nations
wealth is cultivated land. Before this
every other species ofproperty dwindles
into insignifcance, and strange as it may
seem, the greatest investment in this
country, the most costly production of
human industry, is The common fences
which divide the fields from the high
lands, and seperate them from each other.
No man dreams. that, when compared
to the outlay Of these unpretending
monuments of monuments of human art,
our cities and our towns, with all their
wealth are left far behind, You will
scarcely believe pc, when say that the
fences ofthis country cost more than
twenty times the specie is in it. In
many Of the counties in the Northern
States, the fences have cost more than
the farms and fences are worth. tits
this enormous burden, there can be no
doubt. which keeps down the agricultural
interest of,his country, and it is freedom
from it which enabled the North of Eu-
rope, with a worse climate, and an in
different system Of cultivation, to under.
sell US in the markets Of England.
There, travellers Tell US, fences are al
most unknown.--The herds and hocks
are under the care of herdsmen and
shepherds, and thus an untold expendi-
ture is saved, besides the loss Of the land
which the fences occupy, and the accu>
mutation of soil, that, with the most
careful management is apt TO be ,hlown
by around them by the plough.
The farmer contributes to the wealth
of a country by his perpetual toll. Ev-
cry thing begging with him. Every day
of the year has its various and its con-
tinuous operations, all directed, however,
TO this one point, to bring. the greatest
quantity ofproduce from given number
OF acres. Such is the nature OF his work,
that little can be done 10 every field
must be passed over by the plough.-lhe
rate Of twenly-miles an hour. The
ploughman, therefore, must rise early
and work late. His labors too, must be
generally confined to the hours when
the sun is above, the horizon. In an.
tumn and in winter these are few. He
must work the harder during that part Of
theyear when the days are long. Every
industrious farmer is continually adding
to the substantial and permanent wealth
ola nation. Heis continually adding
10 the productive power, which is the
bestspecies OF wealth.-His savings, if
any he makes, go back into the soil, to
increase its fertility, or they go into fix
lures, which add comfort or diminish the
labors of all coming years. The savings
ofthe farmer,-and he cannot make any
thing only by the most assiduous- labor,
the fund that is most wanting
especially in such country as this j.. e.
agricultural capital. The farmers ofthis
country con do nothing, they say, for
the want of money. flow are they ever
to get it, but by the improvement Of their
farms AS things have been managed
in this country hitherto, there has been
a tend dency to deterioration.
The radical mistake his been commit
ted of supposing that the best investment
for the farmer is the purchase Of more
land, whereas, in mist instances, the
better policy would have been, the better
cultivation OF that which ne already had.
The plan has been to exhaust the one
field and then turn to another Such
plan can result in nothing but ruin.
Nothing has been more neglected in this
country than agriculture. The soil Of
The United States is capable sustaining
two hundred millions of inhabitants bet
Ter than ifsustans seventeen.
Eighty years ago the population of
England and Wales was only six mill
lions, and most miserable living did
they get, black bread, barley cakes and
porridge, were the main food of
lhe rurak population has more than dou-
bled, and, In ordinary times, fare better
Ihan half the number did then. Their
annual agricultural productions have in>
creased more than two hundred millions
Of dollars, and yetthe productive powers
Of the whole island are scarcely as great
as those Of the single State Of Illinois.
But agriculture, to flourish, mus, have
a market for lis surplus productions.
And what's amarket? Does that magic