ART. VIII.-1. Report of the Committee on Agriculture, on a Geological and Agricultural Survey of the State, to the Legislature of South-Carolina. R. W. ROPER, Chairman.

1842.

2. An Inquiry into the nature and benefits of an Agricultural Survey of the State of South-Carolina. By JOHN BACHMAN. Charleston: Miller & Brown.-1843.

SOON after the organization of our government, our planters formed an Agricultural Society composed of some of our most distinguished patriots and citizens, which was organized in Charleston, and is still in existence. By its exertions and labors much has been added, from time to time, to the agricultural wealth of the State. Subsequently, Agricultural Societies have been established in different sections of the State, and one has been, within a few years, formed, which meets annually at Columbia, composed of delegates from the other Societies, and is denominated the State Agricultural Society.

At the meetings of this highly respectable and important body, all subjects connected with agriculture and its improvements, are discussed. By this means, a free interchange of opinions and views has been elicited, and considerable advantage has accrued.

To the energy and perseverance of Mr. Roper, the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture in the State Legislature, we are indebted for the passage of a bill at its last session, providing for an agricultural survey of the State.

Much money has been heretofore expended by the Legislature for internal improvements, first in the improvement of our State-roads, and in making our rivers more navigable— much, subsequently, upon our rail-roads. How far the good resulting therefrom will be equal to the amount of money expended, it is not our intention to inquire. We may remark, however, that although some good has arisen, and much more may be expected, from these improvements, yet they are far from realizing the high hopes and expectations which were awakened when they were commenced. The money has, however, been expended, and the works have, to a certain extent, been completed, and we must await the issue of time for the results.

Predicated upon the beneficial effects of these improvements, and with sanguine expectations, in advance, of their powerful influence in promoting and enlarging the wealth of the State, and making Charleston the commercial emporium of the South, a mercantile enthusiasm, if we may so express ourselves, was excited, and commercial conventions, with all the paraphernalia connected with such meetings, were brought into play. The dignitaries of the State, including lawyers, doctors and planters, indeed members of all professions, some of whom ultimately changed their pursuits to become merchants, were chosen as delegates to these bodies. As is usual in popular assemblies, eloquent and enthusiastic addresses were made, producing powerful excitement and high expectations. Speculation became the order of the day. The slow process of labor, industry and economy was forgotten. Men hoped to become suddenly rich, and to acquire and enjoy the luxuries of life without effort. Imagination usurped the supremacy, while judgment slept. Like the stories in the Arabian Tales, which, in our boyhood, we read with such delight and enthusiasm, these visions of wealth and splendor have proved delusive, and now that the excitement has passed away, and rea'ity, in its stern and fierce aspect, is presented to us, we find that we have wasted our time and fortune, and that if we would save ourselves from utter ruin, we must exercise our common sense, and return back to a sober, practical view of things.

The morbid feeling to which we have just alluded, has not been confined to ourselves. It has pervaded other portions of our land, and other countries, and has been everywhere attended with equally disastrous results. Nor is it peculiar to our age. Like famine, pestilence and war, it occasionally visits nations and people, and produces a destructive epidemic influence, which sweeps over the land, and is sure to carry ruin and desolation in its track. It arises from false views of the elements of a nation's greatness and the sources of its prosperity. These do not result from wealth alone, and the accumulation of an already overgrown capital. That people or nation alone is destined to become great, prosperous, independent and happy, which is frugal and industrious, which adapts its style of living and its expenditures to its positive means, and which seeks its enjoyments more in intellectual and moral pursuits, than in the affectation of splendor and

display. In the one case, the noblest attributes of our nature are constantly exhibited; in the other, the worst feelings, passions and emotions of the human heart are indulged.

It is not desirable in any government, and, least of all, in a republic, that the power of the individual citizen should be felt alone through the medium of his wealth. Where money power has the ascendancy, especially that produced by the astuteness of money-speculators, cunning and chicanery take the place of moral and intellectual excellence. Monopolized wealth and luxury have been, in times past, the ruin of all great nations, and the solemn lessons which our country has recently received, in the revulsions of our commerce, the prostration of our agricultural interests, and the overthrow of many of our banking institutions, will, we trust, exert a salutary influence upon its fortunes, through all time to

come.

Our State is essentially agricultural, and if we wish to sustain her in the high position she has heretofore maintained, we must preserve and improve her agricultural resources, and the advantages of a prosperous commerce will necessarily follow. Merchants always go where they can make money. Trade, to be flourishing, must be free. Forcing it, is not unlike setting up a number of hot-houses in a cold country, and cultivating the products of a warm climate, in order to compete with the importer, when they are freely admitted. It is evident that too many of our citizens have been ruined by the illusory expectations of suddenly acquiring wealth, and now that bitter experience has taught us the vanity of these expectations, it is to be hoped that our future plans will be regulated by greater caution and prudence.

Having failed, comparatively, in our other efforts, having found even that our agricultural productions have been diminishing in value, the next object has been to inquire into the means of developing the resources of the State, by improving her soil, and adapting it to various forms of agricul· ture and husbandry.

An agricultural survey, we regard as the first step towards the realization of this important end. Any one who has traversed many portions of our State, cannot but have observed, with deep regret, that many plantations, the former abodes of our citizens, have been deserted and are now lying waste. The homes of their fathers have been abandoned by their

sons, because the land has been regarded as barren, and all the endearing ties and associations connected with them have been broken up, in order to seek adventure in a new and virgin soil. To compensate for this emigration, our Legislature has endeavored to bring the fruits of the labors of the husbandman to our markets, and while doing this, (which was certainly laudable,) they have too much neglected our internal wealth. Our agriculturists have, for some time past, confined their attention to rice and cotton, two important staple articles, and in doing so, have neglected other products equally important, and which, if raised at home, would have saved us from sending so much money abroad to enrich others and make ourselves poor. Among these articles we may mention flour, which was once supplied from the upper country, and hay, peas, oats and butter, and even cattle, hogs and sheep. We are not prepared to say, what amount of money has been drained from our State, to obtain these articles from abroad, but it has been immense. The consequence heretofore has been, that the necessaries of life, in the way of provisions, have been high, and those, especially, living in cities, have felt it deeply, and their property has been affected; for where provisions and the means of living are high, labor and every thing else must be so likewise. The planters themselves have felt the evil effects of directing so much of their attention to two articles, inasmuch as when their crops have failed, they have still, in many instances, had to purchase provisions at an enormous expense, which has oftentimes involved them in debt.*

But this is not all. According to the price and quantity of the crop made, will be their capability of meeting the advances made them by their factors, or the payments on their purchases, since most planters who purchase, do so on a partial credit. When cotton and rice are high, the price of laborers and lands too becomes advanced in value. The planter, sanguine as to great results, purchases more laborers under the full expectation of soon paying off the debt, but, in a few years, these articles become low in price,—the

*Every planter ought to cultivate his own provisions, for, in purchasing them, he loses much in quality and quantity; besides, in the latter case, he does not have fodder for his cattle, and if he lose his main crop, he has to get advances from his factor for provisions for his laborers, and they are apt to be stinted, for, when we buy, we do not give as freely, as when the laborers raise them.

instalments on his debt become due,-the crop will not pay the interest, and the creditor, after waiting some time, forecloses the mortgage, when it is found that the property will not pay the amount due, independent of the loss sustained of the first instalment paid in, which is usually one-third of the price. These fluctuations in the prices and crops, and the effects as just described upon the planters, have frequently occurred, and at present are truly distressing. Any material changes then, in the amount and prices of our two staple commodities, rice and cotton, are likely to exert a powerful influence upon our monetary affairs. We will here introduce some interesting statements, in this connection, taken from Mr. Roper's report:

"In the early years of the Province of South-Carolina, the inhabitants struggled to supply their necessities by the produce of wheat, silk and tobacco. Indifferent success attended these efforts; when rice, in 1693, was casually introduced, became a staple, and gave new impulse to industry.

"Indigo, another exotic, of which 1,300,000 lbs. were formerly exported, was first cultivated in a garden for amusement, in the year 1742, and contributed to the revenue of the needy planter, who pursued the noisome and unwholesome process, till the article was gradually superseded by a more approved quality from the East-Indies. "Cotton, a native of Persia, first unfolded its flowers in our State in the year 1798, and continues to spread its snowy fleece over the land. These staples were all exotics. Competition has driven one from our market, and it is vital to consider how long we may possess the others.

"Rice, in its culture, is limited to sectional portions of the States, to inland and river swamps, susceptible of irrigation by fresh water. Seventy thousand acres of land are capable of growing the whole rice crop of South-Carolina, which, on an average, may be computed at 120,000 barrels, and at $15 a barrel, would amount to $1,800,000, a limited sum for a chief staple article.

"The produce of this grain, in the whole Union, is only 88,954,958 lbs., or 148,258 barrels, of which 75,000 barrels are exported to Europe, 23,000 to the West-Indies, 30,000 to various parts of the United States, and the balance consumed at home. The rice shipped to Europe, has to come in competition with that from Brazil, Calcutta, Batavia, Manilla, and other parts of India, which is prepared by rice-mills in London, Liverpool, and Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Lisbon, and Bordeaux now, and soon be in operation in so superior a manner as to vie in quality with the best Carolina rice. So that when the primest rice commands in the markets of the North of Europe $5 the cwt., that from India brings $4. In addition to this, Italy grows her own rice, and even Cuba, a large consuming market, is now producing no inconsiderable quantity. These facts prove the competition that Carolina must experience in this staple.

"Let us now turn our consideration to our other great staple, cotton,