AGRICULTURAL
-
JUST PUBLISHED;
ARATOR;
Being a series of
Agricultural essays; practical and political, in sixty-one numbers,
By a Citizen of
Virginia.
For sale in the
district [sic] of Columbia as follows:
In Georgetown: -- at J[oseph]. Milligan's bookstore, High-street,
at the Book-store and Lottery-office, Bridge street, and at the office of the
Spirit of'75.
In
Washington -- at the book-stores of R. C. Weigh[]man, W. Cooper, D Rapine and
A. & G. Way.
In
Alexandria - - at the bookstores of Robert Gray and James Kennedy.[1]
March 2 -- 1w[]e[]d3t[2]
extract:
ABATOR.
NUMBER 1.
THE PRESENT STATE OF AGRICULTURE.
I shall consider in a succession of
short essays, the present state of agriculture in the United States, its
oppressions and defects, and the remedies, political and domestic, which it
nceds. It is confessed however, that the chief knowledge of the author, as to
modes of agriculture is confined to the states of Maryland, Virginia and
North-Carolina. And therefore, whilst his remarks in relation to its political
state, will generally apply to the whole union* those in relation to these
modes, will particularly apply to all states using slaves, or to the thrce
enumerated states.
Mr. Strictland, an Englishman,
reputed to be sensible and honest, published at London in the year 1801, a
pamphlet upon the agriculture of the United States, being the result of his own
observation, during a considerable period spent in travelling through the
country, for the special purpose of investigating it.... The judgment of this
impartial stranger appears in the following quotations.—Page 26 : " Land-
in America affords little pleasure or profit, and appears in a progress of
continually affording less."—P. 31: " Virginia is in a rapid
decline."—P. 38 : " Land in New-York, formerly producing twenty
bushels to the acre, now produces only ten,"—P. 41: " Little profit
can be found in the present mode of agriculture of this country, and I apprehend
it to be a fact that it affords a bare subsistence." P. 45 : "
Virginia is the southern limit of my enquiries, because agriculture had there
already arrived to its lowest state of degradation."—P. 49 : "The
land owners in this state are, with a few exceptions, in low circumstances ;
the inferior rank of them wretched in the extreme."—P. 52 ; " Decline
has pervaded all the states."
These conclusions, if true, are
awfully threatening to the liberty and prosperity of a country, whose hostage
for both is agriculture. An order of men, earning
a bare subsistence, in low circumstances, and whose inferior rank is wretched
in the extreme, cannot possibly constitute a moral force, adequate to
either object. It is therefore highly important to the agricultural class, to ascertain
whether it is true, that agriculture is in a decline.—A decline terminates like
every other progress, at the end of its tendency.
Upon reading the opinion of this
disinterested foreigner, my impressions were, indignation, alarm, conviction;
inspired successively, by a love for my country, a fear for its welfare, and a
recollection of facts.
The terrible facts, that the
strongest chord which vibrates on the heart of man, cannot tie our people to the
natal spot, that they view it with horror, and flee from it to new climes with
joy, determine our agricultural progress, to be a progress of emigration, and
not of improvement; and lead to an ultimate recoil from this exhausted
resource, to an exhausted country.[3]
[1] Daily
National Intelligencer; Date: 03-18-1813; Volume: I; Issue: 66; Page: [1];
Location: Washington (DC), District of Columbia
[2]
characters blurred; difficult to transcribe
[3]
Taylor, John. Arator: being a series of
agricultural essays, practical & political: in sixty-one numbers. 2nd edition. New
York, New York: J. M. Carter, 1814.
No comments:
Post a Comment