New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-01-21
SOUTHERN lands.

The high price OF nearly every product OF
the soil, but especially Of nearly every staple
of Food, with the low rates at which nearly
every Ware, .Fabric for other manufact ure, must
he sold if sold at all, points uneringly to this
conclusi0n-TOO many of our people are trying
TO live otherwise than by cultivating the earth.
Were foreign manufactures more completely
or generally excluded from our markets, there
would of course be employment IN our work
shops. mills, f0underies, and factories for many
more than find work there ut present; yet the
tendency to desert the fields for the crowded
hives of population is so strong and general
among our people that the equilibrium thus pro-
duccd would very soon be overbOrne again, and
the pavements be daily pressed by the feet OF
men and women in painful superabundance, IN
despairing quest of something to do and
suffering for lack thereof.
Now, we counsel no one To abandon satisfac-
tory, remunerative employment in city or vii
lage in order to betake himself to farming
That would be rash and unwise. But we do
hold that every one so employed should care
fully save n considerable share of his earnings
with an eye to the notorious instability OF such
employment, and with intent TO make himself
his own landlord employer and Oyerseer, or
foreman, at an early day. Let him get ready
for the periodical "panic' or "revulsion" which
seems an essential feature Of modern industry,
and promptly transfer his family to patch Of
earth which the law calls his, whenever work
fails or wages fall to zero in his present vOca-
ton and locality.
Our mechanics and artisans who have full
work man save if they will We do not say
that one who has half dozen young children
and a bed-ridden parent to support can always
do so but the great majority, who are earning
Sl2 to $25 per week, might save from sixth
to third of it, and are culpable if they do
not. Let each mechanic or artisan save $1,000
or over, and he never thereafter need be idle
when he would prefer to work. If the time
shall come when no one else wants to employ
him, he may be ready to employ himself.
We say to every man, Buy land or lay up
the means of buying it. Land is to-day the
cheapest of all things in this country, because
it superabounds while most of its products are
scarce. Where fair days work will buy-as
in many States of the Union it ril buy-an
acre of good SOIL he is grossly improvident
who fails to secure n patch while he may.
There are millions of acres in the Union which
VIII, WITHOUT having uOllHr spent OH lnclT lll-
provement, sell within ten years for twenty
times the price at which they go begging for
purchasers to-day. Thirty years hence, there
will not be an acre of arabic soil lying idle and
useless this side Of the Mississippi where there
are now a dozen. Why not resolve to own
home while homes are still within the reach of
every one who combines energy with capacity
and frugalityf ...,.
A South Carolinian writes us letter seeking
a purchaser for magnificent old plantation of
six thousand iacres, near the northeast corner
of that State, and describes it as follows:
"The entire tract with the exception Of few hundred
acres cleared for agricultural purposes is heavily tim
bered the swamp land with Cypress and Oak Of every de-
scrption the upland with Pine and Black Oak the for
mer very valuable for Slaves Shingles ShipTmber DC.
the latter for Timber Tar Turpentne &c none Of the
trees having been boxed.D The timber alone In the
hands OF any able to cut and market IT, would net far
than Is asked for the whole estate The plantation
includes SHOWS Island celebrated history the
treat Of Gen Francis Marion aud bis uen The fertility