Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-10-22
American Agriculture in l776.

Agriculture was their favorite pursui
Travellers from Europe were struc
with the skill with which they cultivs
ted the rich and abundant soil, the fin
farm-LoIl es that filled the Landscape
the barns overfiowing with harvest:
the cattle, the sheep. The norther
and middle colonies were famous fO
wheat and corn. pennsylvania wa
the granary of the nation. In Ne,
jersey the fine farms that spread fron
Trenton to ElizabethtOwn excited tn
admiration of the scientific Kslm
Long Island Was the garden of Ameri
ca, and all along the valleys openin.
upon the Hudson the Dutch an,
HuguenOt colonists had acquired eas
and opulence by careful agriculture
The farm-houses, usually built of stone
with tall roofs and narrow windows
were scenes of intelligent industry
While the young men labored in tn,
fields, the mothers and daughters spur
wool and flax, and prepared larg'
part of the clothing of the family. Tit
farmhouse was mandatory for al
the articles of daily use. Even nail:
were hammered out in the winter, anC
the farmer was his own mechanic. A
school and church were provided fo1
almost every village. Few children
were left untaught by the Dutch do
mimic, who was sometimes paid in
wampum, or the New England stu
dent, who lived among his patrons
and was not always fed upon the daint
lest fare. On Sunday labor ceased, the
church-bell tolled in the dis tance, q
happy calm settled upon the rural re.
sion, and the farmer and his family,
in their neatest dress, rode or walked
to the village church. The farming
class, usually intelligent and rational,
formed in the northern colonies the
sure reliance of freedom, and when the
invasion came the Hessians were
driven out of New Jersey by the gen.
eral rising of its laboring farmers, and
Burgoyne was captured by the resolu-
tion of the people rather than by the
timid generalship of Gates.
The progress of agriculture at the
South was even more rapid and re-
markable than at the North. The will
derness was swiftly converted into a
productive region. The coast, from
st. Mary's to the Delaware, with its
inland country, became within GEN.
tury the most valuable portion of the
earth. Its products were eagerly sought
for in all the capitals of Europe, and
one noxious plant of Virginia had sup
piled mankind with new vice and a
new pleasure. 1t would be useless to
relate again the story of the growth of
the tobacco trade. Its cultivation in
Virginia was an epoch in the history
of man. Tobacco was to Virginia the
life If trade and intercourse; prices
were estimated in it; the salaries of the
clergy were fixed at so many pounds
of tobacco. AL other products of the
soil were neglected in order to raise the
savage plant. Ships from England
came over annually to gather in the
great crops Of the large planters, and
Washington, one OF the most successful
of the Virginia landowners and agri-
culturists, was accustomed to watch
keenly over the vessels and their cap.
tains who sailed up the Potomac to his
very dock. The English traders seem
to have been often anxious to depreci-
ate his cargos and lower his prices.
Virginia grew enormously rich from
the sudden rise of an artificial taste,
from 1924, when the production of to-
bacco was first made royal monopoly,
until the close of the colonial period
the production and the consumption
rose with equal rapidity, and in 1775,
$1,000 hogsheads were exported annu-
ally, and the sale of tobacco brought in
nearly 81, ,0OO,O 900 to the southern colo
MES. This was equal to about one
third of the whole export of the colo
nies. Happily since that period the
proportion has rabidly decreased, and
more useful articles have formed the
larger part of the export from the New
World to the Old.
One of these was rice. A Governor
of South Carolina, ii is related, had
been in Madagascar, and seen the plant
cultivated in it's hot swamps. He lived
in Charleston, on the bay, and it struck
him that marshy spot in his garden
might we'll serve for a plantation of
rice. Just then (1694) vessel put in
from Madagascar in distress, whose
commander the Governor had former
ly known. Her wants were literally
relieved. In gratitude for the kind
ness he received. the master gave the
Governor bag of rice. 1t was sown,
and produced abundantly. The soil
proved singularly favorable for its cul-
ture. The marshes of Georgia and
South Carolina were soon covered with
rice plantations. A large part of the
crop was exported to England. In 1724,
100, 900 barrels were sent out from
South Carolina alone. In 1761, the
value of its rice crop was more than
81 100000. Its white population could
not then have been more than $4,000,
and it is easy to conceive the tide of
wealth that was distributed annually
among its small band of planters. They
built costly mansions on the coasts and
bays, lived iu fatal luxury, were noted
for their wild excesses, and often fell
speedy victims to the fevers of the ma
larious soil. Indigo, sugar, molasses,
tar, pitch, and great variety of valua-
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