Year: 1859

sum up advantages and disadvantages to
strike balance by way of contrast. The
new States have some inducements am free
to admit and that there are many ineonVe'
niepces and grievances, none will be SO hardy
as to deny. But I am willing to take this
country on its own merits, and boldly assert
that most settlers here will find it to their
interests to stay; because they can do well
enough which might be we'll to let alone, lest
they should be brought to consider, at least,
the condition of that fellow who was we'll,
wished to be better, took physic and died
because they are in the land. of their nativi-
ty and choice, surrounded by their aoquain-
tanees and friends, and manners and GUS
toms to which they are used-just where
they should be; for it is hazardous to con-
tentment to change them; because they
have plenty, which receives relish from ev-
cry convenience and comfort that necessity
requires, or that may pander to luxury
houses built and lands cleared. Ah, yes,
some may, answer! But those lands you
mention-too many cleared, and some too
long.


Well then about that I admit the axe
has made wasteful ravages in our forest; but
there yet remains abundance for health, or
nament, and the purposes Of the farm
Then woodman spare the residue Of those
noble wood-lawns Farmers Keep up and
reclaim this and the other lands, and you
will soon need no fresher fields. Many startle
at the idea of reclaiming land but I am Of
the opinion that it is easier to bring such
land as ours back to its pristine fertility, than
bring those heavy timbered new lands into
ffull cultivation. The former may be the
work of women and children, the latter must
be the work of able bodied men. The old
land is easily worked while reclaiming, the
other, rooty, stuupy and difficult to man and
horse. No more such expense for public
buildings.


Our country is we'll adapted to saving, ly.
ing better than most farming lands, and we'll
suited to reclaimiug from an additional ad-
vantage of being based upon fine clay, hard
of washing and holding iu combination large
quantities of the recuperative principles,
which only need turning up to the action OF
the atmosphere awhile to become soil, rich
in the elements of plants. Biologists seem
to think our subsoil is possessed Of greater
abundance than many others. This added
to the unbounded resources every farmer has
in composing, and in the additional aid o'
peas and other green crops, together with
the still further assistance Of hiH ditching
and deep cultivation, makes the reclaiming
process sure and comparatively speedy: per.
hars as much so as clearing heavy tlmbered
land. When reclaimed, it is equally good,
and likely surerfor a crop of our great staple,
cotton; being less liable to those disasters
that ravage the rich virgin soils. know
some argue that it will do for small farmers
to attempt reclaiming their lands; but not
for the large ones. 1t Withhold equally good
with both. Large areas give large resources,
and the failure only proves that the man has
force he is incapable of welding. And
for general success of the policy, VIC need
only look to those old countries in which
their fields have been cultivated for oentu-
ry and more, and now command and are
worth one hundred dollars per acre.


In contributing to such result to cur
State, we should feel patriotic pride and
satisfaction. I recollect, when a boy, 10
have heard in the streets of York, one Of our
large planters asked why he did not take his
force West His reply was, he thought it
more creditable to stay here and improve our
country and to show to many his success
in doing it. Perhaps it would not be .amiss
to say, it was the eldest DR.. Bratton, in his
lifetime. admired the sentiment and the
impression has long fingered with me-
Northern custom seems founded on this, or
some kindred feeling, and although we might
object to some of their doings, we might do
we'll to initiate them in this; for although
they may populate other countries with their
enterprising young citizens, they keep their
older ones and wealth at home. cannot
call to mind, in all my acquaintance, one old
Yankee farmer, who has Aeeced his native
State and transported it here to enrich ours,
and I mention it to their praise.


have closely noticed, for my own satis-
faction. the difference between. this country
and the West; in the general accumulation
of the wealth of its citizens, the last fifteen
or twenty years, and taking the increase of
Young negroes, the contrast is favorable to
this, although drained of much of its wealth.
Some men stay here and make nothing
Some 90 there and do the same. Some get
broke here. Some go there and do the
same. Some 60 there and make fortunes,
others stay here and do the same. More de-
pends on the man than country, I have got
to think.


By staying here and pursuing course of
improvement, as other old countries have
done, we may present to the world the i'm.
posing spectacle of landscape of model
farms, possessing the fertility of which they
once could boast, and which, in years to
come, may surpass many sections for which
this is now exchanging. Many of which
then, shall have been swept to the deltas of
their rivers, or its fertility sunk beneath its
rotten, porous clay or sandy foundations
Then let this idea of wholesale emigration
be abandoned; and let us go to work in