New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-08-28

count for the requisiton which this country makes
upon its inventive talent 1t is because we have an
immense demand for manufactured cotton, that We
have brought the machinery necessary for its pro-
ductiOn to perfection; and il is because we have
great crops deying the profitable use Of the scythe
or sickle that we have the beautiful machines
which now so wonderfully facilitate the operations
Of agriculture. It is safe to Say that an inventive
people will also be found to be prosperous people
and that people not inventive will hardly DO dis
tingui,hed for prosperity, industry and wealth.
glance at the contents of the last Patent Office
Report will reveal some useful and interesting facts
In the Free States only one patent has been taken
out BY native of Minnesota, which may be placed
against 627 patents taken out BY natives OF New
York. The next lowest number taken out BY q
Jingle Free State s that Of Iowa, 8; and the next
highest that of Massachusetts, $40. Pennsylvania
shows &c., Ohio 146, Illinois 60, Maine %, Yer
mont Al, Michigan "a, California H. OF the Slave
States, Arkansas !, and Florida !, are the lowest
upon the list Texas follows with 5, North Carolina
with 7, South Carolina with g. Alabama with ii,
Kentucky with 90, Louisiana with a. OF Slave
States and Territories, Virginia takes the lead, with
40 inventions, followed by Maryland with "A, and
the District of Columbia with AZ. striking fact
IT, that while the Free States have taken out ,9S2
patents, the Slave States show but es9l issued
to them. The plumber Of patents issued to Eu.
ropeans was 30. OF the classes Of patents Is.
sued, the Slave States show only instances
of inventions in wearing apparel, against IL in
the Free States only 6 in medicine and surgery,
against Is in the Free States only - in firearms,
against GO in the Free States; only in the arts,
printing, &C., against ia in the Free States; only
in grinding mills against % in the Free States;
only 81 in agriculture against IS from New.York
alone 35 from Pennsy lvana alone, and 237 from
all the Free States together. But it is unnecessary
to 90 further with the statistics. The relative pro.
portion in all the classes is the same.
1t is impossible to account for many of these
signal differences upon any other grOuud than that
of the two systems of labor at the North and the
South and their influence upon intellectual activity.
1t may be said that the South is not devoted to
manufactures, and thus lacks stimulus to manu-.
featuring improvements. That is very true, in a
certain sense but it strikes us az rather circular
reasoning. With an almost entire monopoly Of the
great manufacturing staple, why is not the South
engaged in manufactures : And, if disposed to
enter upon such enterprises, Of which disposition
there is here and there an indication especially in
Georgia it seems to US that the absence Of ntelli
gent labor ought to excite the ingenuity of Southern
inventors. flour manufacturers at the North with
the brightest and best paid laborers in the world,
laxa hann 81 oaI - d. hun
much more necessary must machinery be to the
South, which has the worst paid and stupidest
laborers in the world Then in agriculture the
South is certainly quite as directly and decidedly
interested as the North, and yet it contributes
hardly anything to improvements in that
science, and even exhibits great reluctance
to employ them when made by others.
There are hundreds of plantations which
have gone to ruin for want of machines which
no Northern farmer wouldbe without, and on which
the mode of cultivation is almost as primitive it
is in the Basque provinces. There is the same light
grubbpg with old fashioned hoes, and the same
skiamiDg of the surface with old fashioned poxs
And yet the more thoroughly and eificaciOusly the
Southern farmer can make steam and steel take the
place of human sinews, the better for him. He has
indeed ten times greater need Of these substitutes
than the Northern agrculturist Why are they
not employed
The answe- to this question can only be found,
we apprehend, in that system Of labor which de-
stroys all habits of exeriOn and selfreliance, and
which disqualifes the employer as well as the em-
ployed for muscular and continuous exertion 1t is
not the habit of the stakeholder to create He has
taken position falsely and blindy conservative,
and from that he will not bulge one inch. All CEN
turies are alike to him, and the nineteenth is no
better than the twelfth. No wonder he makes such
poor figure in the Patent Office.
The Herald Of yesterday lets the cat completely