‘The horses and cattle are of mixed breeds, and are always, in consequence of the abundance of food in this country, and the easy circumstances of the people, in good order. A starved-looking animal of any kind is never seen on the one hand, nor very fat pampered cattle, nor very fine coated, over-groomed horses, on the other. Both horses and cattle are generally of middling size; the horses of that description that answer for all sorts of work, the saddle, the wagon, or the plough. The heaviest are selected for the stages. All carriages are driven at a trot. Horses are broken with great gentleness, and are, I think, better and more thoroughly broken than in England. An American driver of a stage, awkward looking as he appears, manages his team, as he calls his horses, with the most perfect precision. The law of the road is to keep to the right side of the road, not to the left as in Britain. Great exertions are, I observe from the newspapers here, making to improve the breeds of cattle and horses, by importations of the Teeswater cattle, and of stud-horses from England. The British admiral, Sir Isaac Coffin, has displayed great public spirit in sending over fine cattle and superior horses, from Britain to New England. The price of beef varies from two pence to five pence per pound, according to the prices and quality, from which the value of the animal may be computed. I have nowhere seen any beef equal to the best beef of an English market, or to the kyloe of the West Highlands of Scotland well fed; but beef of bad quality is never brought to market, and a great deal of it is good. I have looked into the markets wherever we have been. Oxen are much used in ploughing, and are so well trained, that they are very useful in many operations of carting on farms. The price of ordinary horses is from sixteen to twenty-five pounds.
‘I observe at the agricultural shows of last year, premiums awarded for milch cows yielding ten or eleven pounds of butter per week, one of them yielding thirteen, and twenty-three to twenty-four quarts of milk per day. One of the breeds of cows is called very appropriately the “fill-pail.” A premium was also awarded for a cow that calved on the 7th of January,—calf sold in March,—another calf put to her, and sold in June,—and a third at her side; the price of the three calves forty dollars.
‘Sheep are not so much attended to as they should be in this country, where the dryness of the weather preserves them from diseases to which they are subject in Britain. The merinos, and crosses with the merino, are those generally seen; but little care is paid to their being well fed before being killed and brought to market. The mutton is of course inferior in quality, and the people led to entertain prejudices against it. Even the slaves in the south are said to object to being fed on sheep’s meat. I have again and again seen good mutton, but far more rarely than good beef and pork. Hogs are universal in this country, and are well fed, frequently, first of all in the woods on chesnuts, hickory nuts, sometimes on fallen peaches and apples, but almost always, before being killed, they get a sufficient quantity of meal, either from Indian corn or barley. Steamedfood is also supplied in some cases. The steam-boiler for food for cattle is well known here. General La Fayette saw one so well constructed somewhere in this country, that he had one of the same pattern made for himself and carried to France.
‘Poultry are excellent, well fed everywhere, and in great numbers about the farm-yards. Turkeys and guinea-fowls abound more than in Britain, which is not to be wondered at, as their relatively cheap price places them within the reach of all. The price of geese and turkeys, even at New York, is frequently not much above half a dollar; ducks and fowls, about one shilling. Eggs, a dollar for a hundred; cheese very good at four pence and five pence per pound.
‘Implements of husbandry are, on the whole, well suited to the country. The two-horse plough, driven by one man, is universally used, unless in bringing in rough stony land, when four oxen or horses are necessary. The cradle-scythe is in pretty universal use. A good workman can cut down an acre of wheat per day. The harvest work being altogether performed by males, and the crops ripening, and of course reaped, at seasons differing from each other much more than in England, the cheerful appearance of the harvest-field all over Britain, filled with male and female reapers and gleaners, is nowhere seen in this country. The prices of implements are not higher than in England. The lower price of wood makes up for the higher price of labor, especially as carpenters are very expert. Ploughing is well executed, and premiums given by agricultural societies at their yearly meetings. I observed, at a late meeting in Massachusetts, sixteen ploughs, drawn by oxen, started for the competition,—that the ploughs were of the improved kind, with cast-iron mould-boards, the ploughing five inches deep, and the furrows not more than ten inches in width. Premiums were at this meeting awarded for various agricultural implements.Threshing-machines are not yet so general as in Britain.’[70]
The principal products of the southern states are tobacco, cotton, rice, and sugar. The first of these is grown largely in Virginia and other of the middle and southern states, and together with the other staples of that portion of the country, is chiefly the product of slave labor.There are at present but two sorts of tobacco raised in the western states: the one with a long and sharp-pointed leaf,—and the other with a round and hairy leaf, which is evidently the best tobacco. The seed is sown in beds well prepared for the purpose, so that in May it is fit to be transplanted. The plants are then put into another piece of ground, at intervals of from three to four feet; they are carefully freed from weeds, and the earth is drawn up to their stems. When they have obtained a certain growth, the tops are taken off, that the remaining leaves may acquire a proper size; worms are carefully removed, and no sucker is allowed to remain. In August, the plants become spotted, and appear of a brownish color; by these tokens they are discerned to be ripe, and are therefore immediately pulled. They lie one night to sweat; next day, they are hung up to dry; when the tobacco has become sufficiently dry to ensure its preservation, it is stripped from the stalks, and barrelled up for exportation; or manufactured into various shapes, for those whom a species of luxury has taught to look upon it as almost one of the necessaries of life. Along with six thousand plants, yielding generally one thousand pounds of tobacco, one person may manage four acres of Indian corn.
There are four kinds of tobacco reared in Virginia, namely, the sweet-scented, which is the best; the big and little, which follow next; then the Frederick; and lastly, the one and all, the largest of all, and producing most in point of quantity. The Virginian tobacco is reckoned superior to any raised in the southern states; and great care is taken by the regulations of the state, that no frauds be practised upon the merchants, and that no inferior tobacco be palmed upon the purchaser. For this purpose, houses of inspection are established in every district where tobacco is cultivated, whose regulations are rigorously enforced; this contributes, as much as the real superiority of the article itself, to keep up its price in the market. Every person who intends his tobacco for exportation, packs it up in hogsheads, and thus sends it to one of the inspecting houses. Here the tobacco is taken from the cask, which is opened for the purpose; it is examined in every direction, and in every part, in order to ascertain its quality and its purity; if any defect is perceived, it is rejected and declared to be unfit for exportation. If no defect appear, it is pronounced to be exportable. It is then repacked in the hogshead, which is branded with a hot iron, marking the place of inspection, and the quality ofthe contents; and then lodged in the inspecting storehouses, there to await the disposal of the planter, who receives a certificate of the particulars, serving at the same time as an acknowledgment of the deposit. It is by selling this tobacco note to the merchant that the planter sells his tobacco. The purchaser, on viewing this note, is as well acquainted with the article, as if he had inspected it himself; and he has only to send the note and transfer to the store where the tobacco lies, and it is immediately delivered out, agreeably to his orders. This measure has insured a preference in the foreign market to the Virginian tobacco, and prevents the deterioration of the article.
The soil most proper for the cultivation of cotton is found in the islands lying on the coast. Those belonging to the state of Georgia produce the best, known in France by the name of Georgia cotton, and in Great Britain by the name of Sea Island cotton. This variety of cotton has a deep black seed, and very fine, long wool, which is easily separated from the seed by the roller gins, which do not injure the staple. In the middle and upper country, the green seed or inferior cotton is produced; this kind is less silky, and adheres so tenaciously to the seed, that it cannot be separated without the action of a saw-gin. Though the wool of the green seed, or bowed Georgia cotton, be cheaper than the other, yet its produce is more luxuriant. An acre, which will produce one hundred and fifty pounds of black seed cotton, will generally yield two hundred pounds of the green seed kind. The packing of the cotton is done in large canvass bags, which must be wetted as the cotton is put in, that it may not hang to the cloth, and may slide better down. The bag is suspended between two trees, posts, or beams; and a negro, with his feet, stamps it down. These bags are generally made to contain from three hundred and fifty pounds, to four hundred pounds each.
‘I have been lately favored,’ says Mr. Everett, in his valuable address before the New York Institute, in October, 1831, ‘with a minute statement of the average product of five or six cotton plantations in two of the south-western states, ascertained by putting together the income of a good and bad year. The result of this statement is, that the capital invested in these plantations yields from fifteen to twenty per cent. clear; and the net profit accruing to the proprietor, for the labor of each efficient hand, is two hundred and thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents per annum; being a clear gain of four dollars and fifty cents per week. It further appears that on one of these plantations, (and the same, though not stated, is believed to hold of the others in due proportion,) worth altogether, for land, labor, and stock, ninety-two thousand dollars, the entire amount of articles paying duty annually consumed, is two thousand three hundred dollars. The average crop of this plantation, taking a good and bad year, is fourteen thousand five hundred dollars. Suppose the duties to be thirty-three and one third per cent. and the whole amount of the duty to be actually assessed, in the shape of an enhanced price of the article, (the contrary of which is known to be true, for in several articles the entire price is little more than the duty,) it would amount to less than seven hundred and thirty dollars per annum on a clear profit of fourteen thousand five hundred dollars.’
Rice is extensively cultivated in the southern states. The grains of this plant grow on little fruit stalks springing from the main stalk. It is sown in rows, in the bottom of trenches, made entirely by slave labor. Theseridges lie about seventeen inches apart, from centre to centre. The rice is put in by the hand, generally by women, and is cast so as to fall in a line. This is done about the seventeenth of March. By means of floodgates, the water is then permitted to flow over the fields, and to remain on the ground five days, at the depth of several inches. The object of this is to sprout the seeds, as it is technically called. The water is next drawn off, and the ground allowed to dry, till the rice is between three and four inches in height. This requires about a month. The fields are then again overflowed, and are allowed to remain in that state about a fortnight, to destroy the weeds. It is now about the middle of May, and for two months afterwards the ground is permitted to continue dry; during this interval it is repeatedly hoed, and the soil is kept loose and free. The fields are then once more submerged, in order that the crops may be ripened, and they actually do ripen while standing in the water. The harvest commences in August, and extends into October. The plants are then cut by the male slaves, and tied into bundles by the females. The grains are threshed out by means of hand flails. The outer husk is detached by passing the rice between a pair of mill-stones. The film which still envelopes the grain is removed by trituration under heavy pestles, consisting of upright bars, shod with iron, which are raised several feet by machinery, and then allowed to fall upon the rice, the particles of which are thus rubbed against each other, till the film is removed. When thus thoroughly winnowed, it is packed in casks holding about six hundred pounds each, and is ready for exportation.