Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1859-09-14

AANNS,---'J
to it so long as negroes are brought to thi
country, no matter under what laws or regu
lations they come.
Dr.. Bradford spoke in reply to the tg'
gentlemen who preceded him. He called at
tention to the rude and limited agricultur
of the aborignes of this continent to the
planters who succeeded them, and felt tba
their mission was to belt the forest, clean on
the underground, and scratch the virgin sol
with the narrow bull tongue and scooter unit
its humus was consumed by continued crop
ping, and the land exhausted for planting pur
poses. This system Of tillage requires little
labor for the surface gone over, as it make
no restitution to araGed fields. After the
primitive and scoursing planter has emigratet
West in pursuit Of fresh lands there follows
class of cultivators who wisely unite plant
ing and farming Industry, and manure all tho
ground they cultivate.
Their system is more thoughtful and civil
lied, and by feeding the land and blowing
deep involves the necessity of having to the
one hundred acres two or three three times
more laborcrs than is needed in the wearing
out practice by planters who regard dung
heaps as nuisance. As the speaker did not
wish to see the soil of South Corolina wholly
exhausted, and the State deserted, and inas-
much as supply of farm laborers cannot be
had from any other source he was in favor OF
bringing them from Africa. There was an
underground rail road used for Transporting
stolen negroes from the South to Canada, and
it was but natural that there should be opened
a submarine rail road to make good the loss
by bringing slaves from Africa to the South.
Other gentlemen addressed the Club, but
nothing of interest was elected before ad-
journmcnt for dinner. Unlike many Military
and Fire Companies, Lodges and other As
sociations, this Agricultural Club treats its
members with nothing stronger than pure
spring water cooled with ice-a practice high
ly commendable.
The dinner was abundant and every way
satisfactory. After its discussion, the meet
ing was called to order, and Dr.. Lee invited
to express his views on the subject under
consideration. He commenced BY calling at
tention to the remarks of Mr.. Edmund Ruff
fin of Virginia in the Southern Planter, pub
Iished at Richmond. Mr.. Rufiia, he said, was
the author of an able work on Calcareous
Manures, published SOME thirty years ago !;
and became so distinguished for his study
and practice Of impoved agriculture, and for
his writings on the subject, that South Caro-
lima employed him to make an agricultural
survey Of the State. In the Planter for Au-
gust, 1859, Mr.. r. says: At the present
high prices of slaves, no one can afford to
make new and complete agricultural improve
mentS No such case has occurred, within
my knowledge, for the last two years. 1t Is
only in cases of already established and sue
cessfnl farmers who, needing more slaves than
they before owned, buy few more 10 supply
great deficiencies Of labor, and prevent great
losses.
"But even such men as these dn mt, and
cannot profitably buy half 81 many slaves as
they greatly need for their labor, and as the,
would buy if at much lower prices. C"rse
quently, the general home want lor labor is
greater than woui be supplied bt all tie nat
nral increase of our slaves. an the home de-
mand is almost nothing comi,ared w:ih .
southern demand for our slaves" tic say
that 6; the annual draft AMI deportation 'hl>
made on our stock in slaves greatly exceed III
number all the increase i'll Virginia by pro-
creation. This loss must continually increase
with the potency of the producing causes. and
with increasing rapidity and sooner or later
the operation must remove 80 many slaves as
necessarily to destroy the Institutional negro
slavery in Virginia"
Until quite recently, said DR.. L.. the annu-.
al increase of slaves, by births, in all the b0r-
der slaye States, was greater tn the number
sold into the cotton growing States added to
he loss by absconding to the North. Now,
however, the case is not SO. The loss in the
aggregate exceeds the gain; and rapidly
,lgmenting white laborlng population, &C
.,,mpanied by decrease Of slaves, will soon
transform Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Ken
lucky and Missouri into free States, unless
they can be permitted to retain their natural
Increase of servants for the cultivation and
j 1rovement Of their own soil. Dr.. Lee
called attention to the statements of Mr..
Harper, in his able essay against re-opening
the slave trade, where ne admits that the
natural course of events the States above
uanled, are destined to become, at no distant
lay, non-slave holding States. While gen.
Glemen OF the highest intelligence and unques-
toned fidelity to Southern interests are thus
carving out five free States in Southern Ter
ritory, and while they would prohibit forever
ue llupOTldllol vi luoiS liz eSioSo iioili -Ahi iot
Il have sought in vain," said DR.. Lee, for
nny other available source from which to draw
agricultural laborers for the South"
We have some seven hundred thousand
sluare miles of territory now wholly uuim-
proved in the planting States, for which we
Lave no earthly use, uuless we can procure
laborers from abroad to render it productive
of wealth and human enjoyment. Let gentle
men meet this great agricultural question
fairly and plainly, and tell us where the opera.
tives are to come from who are to rejuvenate
and make fertile all the old fields in the sunny
South Frem what country, near or remote,
are immigrants to arrive who will drain our
millions of acres of pestilent swanps, and
make grain ind cotton crops in our boundless
forests, both East and West the Mississippi
DR.. L. went into an historical and statistical
inquiry to prove that Africa is incapable of
supplying as man7 slaves as the agriculture
of the South will demand in the next quarter
of century. He quoted from Bancrof's
History to show that of The six hundred thou
sand and fraction in the country in l776,
only three hundred thousand had been i'm.
ported From other authors it was shown