Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1865-06-14
Correspondence of the \. Y. Herald.
The Deprecated Value OF Southern
Farms. s .
WlLMINc ron. n. o., May is, 1865.

WHINING TON, n. c., May Is, 1865.
Persons here seem to take O gloomy, viey
of the future. They regard The losses en-
tailed by this war as too, great to admit o
the possibility of revival from the interna
resources of the South within the next thirt,
years. They argue in this way, Ihe aggre
gate value OF the whole propertyof the Soutl
was about six billions. Of this, the negroes
Of the South represented one-fourth intrinsic
cally. The destruction of that amount o
labor, depreciates, it is estimated, the value
of Southern property to a still greater extent
both combined producing depreciation ia
its value of four ffths. 1t is stated, moreover
that the efficiency of white labor in the South
has beeu materially impaired by the war
thus diminishing still further the actual re-
sources Of the South, and its availability as
q producing region.
Ihave heard instances cited.by way of ar.
gument to sustain these views. Lends hove
been mentioned to me which before the war
would have brought, one hundred and fifty
dollars per acre, that now would not'bring
two dollars and fifty cents. an informed
that magnificent farm, owned by James G.
Bruce of Halifax county, Virginia, brother
in-law of James A. Seddon, late Secretary of
War in the rebel government, estimated to be
worth over one hundred dollars an acre Gvo
years ago, is now held to be worth not more
than five dollars per acre. The celebrated
Elk Island farm, on the James river, valued
before the war at two hundred and sixty
thousand dollars, is now estimated 10 be worth
not much over ten thousand. The deprecia-
tion, it will be remembered, is attributed to
the destruction of slave labor, which, in the
estimation of Southern planters, impaired its
chief value to Southern land. In the South
ern States, especially in,the cotton growing
States, nihe tenths Of the labor was perform
ed by slaves, and, measuring even approxi-
mately, The depreciation of Southern proper
ty by the destruction of this large amount
of productive labor, the standard of deprecia-
ton reached, according to this Southern view,
is not unreasonable.
In short, the estimate would seem to be
based upon the idea that there can be no
substitute found for slave labor, and that
white or free labor cannot be made available,
which is perfectly fallacious. The Southern
planters-those espe cially in the cotton States
believe slave labor to be the only system Of
abor applicable to Southern lands, inasmuch
IS Southern products require an unremitting
care and attention in their culture that is not
consistent With free labor. They calculate
upon the contingencies Of laborors leaving at
the most important crisis in the sowing of
their crops, sickness. from climatic influences,
and many other causes not incident tosthe
peculiar class of labor to which they have
been heretofore accustomed. All these OBJ
ections, however, will be found erroneous.
They proceed more from a prejudice to white
abor than any real disadvantage likely to be
found in the system itself. Northern capital
ISIS aeouzd find it to their interest to avGtl
these ideas, and to inrest largely
IN rich Southern plantations, from ,rhich they
'ciN lie certain to dericc ralua6lc returns.