Year: 1868

How to make our Lands Valuable.
g As the most of the property of the State
consists in land, this is a subject of para
mount importance to us as citizens.


= We can confidently look to no other
source for wealth but the value of our lands
being enhanced. and an increase of the pro-
ductions of the soil. The only hope we
have of wealth is to make our soil produce
more, and sell for more In order to have
it produce more, we must have more labor
performed, consequently it is good policy for
the government to encourage emigration OF
labOrers and capitalists. If there was SUI
ficient amount of labor done In North Car
olina to make her soil produce what 1t is Ca
pable of producing, to convert all our for
ests of fine timber into lumber and furni-
ture; the vast amount of gold hid in its
deposits dug out and coined the iron,
copper, and other minerals developed; our
immense water power all converted to draw
ing of mills and machinery with all this
done, might we not say that this would be
land of plenty. and hunger and wretchedness
would be unknown in North -Carolinas The
soil of this State, if properly cultivated and
improved, would support and give useful
employment to twenty times as many lnhab-
itants as it now has. and the State would be
twenty times as wealthy as it now Is. The
taxable property of the State now amounts
to 25O.O0O,000 of dollars it would then
amount to 5,0O0,000000. The expenses OF
the State would not be any more than they
now are, consequently man that now owns
$500 worth of property, and pays ~ tax,
Al aplu otc thp
amount, and it would then be as easy for
him to make $40, as it now is to make 10
cents.


If we would have our farms to be valua-
BILE, we must cut them up into small ones,
"must have more farms and smaller ones"
The andholders of Nortli-Carolina would
make more by dividing their lands into 80
acre farms, and giving every other trac
away, to encourage laborers, reserying the
1st and Sd lots, and so on. Those laborcrs
would soon improve those lands, so that the
remnant would bring more than all OF it
would have brought. But slight knowl-
edge of political economy would teach that
it Is the number of inhabitants that increas-
es the demand for land, and everybody
knows that demand and supply always gov



these things, should not the Legislature do
something to bring about those much dcsir-
ed ends Should they not exercise those
pure Republican principles of the age, and
invite the homeless of the world to come
and cultivate our fields that are now only
producing briers and thorns for want OF cul-
tivation? Ought we not, with benevolent
feelings, invite all around to cOme-say


"Comc from every nation,


And don't be alarmed;


For We have land enough


To sell you all farm"


But political demagogues tell us we must
not start any new plan that will incur any
additional expense to the State, tnr the peo-
pie are unable to pay the taxes. In reply to
them 1 would say that the people will al
ways he poor unless they invest their money
in some way that will make them more
Those men that cry taxation taxation !.
so loudly and thus virtually go against the
Improvement of the country should remem-
Der that the servant that had his one tai
ent only had one when his master came to
reckon with him, while others who had used
theirs had doubled their estate" In a
word we may, in the language of the late
H. Winter Davis, of these sensation
canvassers and modern prophets: They
are cocks that crow at midnight, not to her.
aid forth the dawn, but to disturb peaceful
rest by untimcly clamor." They cry danger
at every pace, and say they are afraid to ac-
cept the terms offered, for fear ansalganaation
will ruin US forever; or, shodld we escape
that by the colored people uniting and
keeping separate from the whites, we will,
they say, have negro supremacy. They put
me in mind ofa baby boy, who one Sunday,
hired by his mother to go bring some
brush to kindle the fire: I" Oh said he,
Mamma, l am afraid there might be a
whopping big wolf out there in the bush
es." Well, said she, run Billy then bring
in basket of chips: "Oh said he. 1 am
afraid there is whopping big snake in
them" The point was, Billy did not want
to go through the snow. These political
demagogues don't want to yield to loyal
rule and Republican principles, and they
pretend to find these frivulous objections.
There is always wolf or big snake
along the road that leads to the old mansion
The circumstances around US, the history OF
the past, and the prospect of bright flu
ture, all bid US go forward.


J. R. AMMONS.