The southern press., 1850-11-04

food and says we might as well infer that the
cotton planters fatten on cotton seed, that mer-
chants starve or that a man ate horse because
a saddle and bride were found under his bed.
This is logic run mad or jugglery grown bold
the delirum of dying theory, or an imitation
of the tricks of Monsieur Adrian or the Faquir
of Ava, without their dexterity. New York
adapts her agricultural production to the wants
and means OF her own population; for produce
more than anything else prefers near to a re-
mote market. New York therefore instead OF
cultivating wheat chiefly, cultivates potatoes.
.Justice" shows she cultiyates enough wheat
barely for her own consumption. Yes, but as
she produces of both together much more than
enough for her own supply, which does he sup
pose she sends abroad, wheat that will bear trans
portation and delays OF sale, potatoes that will
do neither. Ii then she must export wheat
rather than potatoes whence is her food but
from the latter of which her product is so much
greater.
But Virginia produces annually not only ample
supplies of wheat for her own consumption, but
for expectation also. And them with less of agri-
cultural population white and black than New
York, produces more corn, better article of food
than the potatoes Oft the latter {" Justice is eyi-
IDENTITY annoyed by the official sridence adduced
of the rapid decline of Massachusetts agricul-
ture from 1910 to I845. 1t evidently operated
like a shower bath on the distempered declaimers
about Virginia's worn out and deserted lands.'
!" Justice" therefore very ingcnously proposes
that shall take the estimate of the commissioners
of patents as to what Massachusetts produced or
mas going 10 produce some years since l845.
"Justiee" must excuse me; that is not in my line.
am engaged in overthrowing the estimates and
theories of Northern men by official epidence.
1t is quite consistent in "Justice" to take their
conjectures and superadd his own, instead Of the
facts. But "Justice" finally arrives at the anti
climax of his apology for the decline in the quality
of Northern agricultural products, from wheat to
rye, corn and potatoes, by assuring us with a
solemn air that the latter are cultivated in the
North, for the inhabitants Of cities, mol as nee
essary substitutes for better food 6ut as ARTICLES of
lHrury." Justice" has mistaken the locality as
well as the object of his mission. He ought to
60 to lreland-let him teach to the starving Irish
the wealth of dense population and the luxury
Of potato food He says there has been no
compensating increase in the rye, corn and potato
crops of Massachusetts for the wheat they no
longer raise. For that am sorry. am glad,
however, that in the general decline of her agri-
culture rye and corn hare not fallen short so much
as aoheai, and Potaioes not so much as rye and
corn. a.ME
'Justice" remarks "We think that it scarcely
requires IN argument to satisfy any Kentuckian
or Vrginian that his State would be in better
condition if it had at least four times its amount
of present white population" think it will re-
quire good deal OF argument. | think that
some proof will be required that the eriis hitherto
incariably attending population SO dense can be
aCerted in their case, and it will be "A long time
before they will accept the theories (supported
ings) of "Justice," Mussey & Co. in place Of
undertaking experience. r.
"Justice," not satisfied with contradcting and
sophisticating the evidence that exists on this
great question, and that runs in one direction
with momentum as resstless as the march of
destiny, must mutate one of the most philoso-
phical as well as poetical passages Of English
verse: ...... .s....sr. a.t.".@ sis... .t,. e
"Ill fares the land to Fastening ills prey
Where ,ceatih accunulates ard men decay
Princes and lords may flourish or may fade,
A breath can make them as breath has made !;
But bold peasant,y, their countrys pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied"
This is the lament and warning OF Goldsmith
at the encroachment of manufacturers and COM
merce in England on agriculture. i" Justice" has
sacrileg gously mutilated the lines to pervert them
to suit the cause the author abhorred. Alas for
the writer of 60 Justice" after undertaking to ex-
plore the region of fact to find some evidence to
support his theory, and toiling in vain, he turns
to refresh himself in those OF Imagination. But
there also he finds no sympathy. The muse re-
pes him, and the inspirations Of genius are as
the hostile az the historic records OF experience.
"Justice thinks that the greater natural increase
of population in the South over the North has
not been shown in the lecture but if it were, it
would establish nothing g Of any ralue in this con-
kouersy." | thought something had been said
oho {be off No
now magnanlmously admits that the population
of the South is increasing, but he says, 8" 1t in
creases III the South ,rhole section only because
IL can yet find and rich lands 10 6perTun aud
desoiate." Now thought that euery State in the
South was increasing and had increased in every
decade of the ecensus-and so that document shows.
And to all that, "Justice" opposes the fact, that,
in ten of the central counties OF Kentucky, there
was in ten years, from 1880 to 1910, decrease of
Ii, 402 whites and this is the evidence of the ten
dency Of Southern people to ouerrun and desolate
the land. Well, if g Justice" calls the ten central
counties Of Kentucky, the garden Of the State,
the finest farming -egion, perhaps, in the world,
if he ca Is that " overrun and desolate, why then
think that instead Of persuading Kentucky to
adopt Massachusetts institutions, he had better
reverse the proposition, for Massachusetts would
like to have her land overrun and desoated in that
very manner. -r.l....' 3. ..,,.s p .......
"Justce" had purposed, had time permitted,
to have given detailed exhibit Of the gross { lun-
lers and hideous exaggerations" of the lecture
Northern pauperism and crime; but it
has been "done in satisfactory and able style by
MIR. Mussey," who closes his examination in the
following style, which T" Justice" endorses. "Such
wherever and however they origi- |
mated, are disgraceful in work purporting to give
Authentic Statistics or even pretending to general
The first statement conradcted is, that
g about one person out Of fpe in the city of New
York, was dependent more loss on public |
,harity," which this writer says I" is not true"
After aIluding to the food'' in Cincinnati which
irove many families from their dwellings, and |
made them temporarily dependent on public
;harity," he asks, "who has there ever been so
oolish as to think of proportioning these casual
'ecpents of the public generosity to the resident
population of the city, and including these as oc
,asiona paupers," all which, after saying he does
lot apply, for it would be rather gross to pre-
end there was any analogy between such case
md that of New York in l847. But he then tells |
Is without any qualification that the paupers on
he records of New York city are foreign mmi- |
grants just landed--an assertion without proof
md untrue. He then goes on: 'A''
But what are the facts, shown by the re-