TABLE NO. XV. AGRICULTURAI PROI UCTS OF THE SLAVE STATES-1850. 28,878,064,992 lbs., valued ar above, $214,122,523 וי .4,338,370,661 lbs. valued as above, at $155,223,415 Balance in pounds, 24,539,694,211 Difference in value, $59,199,108 Both quantity and value again in favor of the North! Behold also the enormousness of the difference! In this comparison with the South, neither hundreds, thousands, nor millions, according to the regular method of computa tion, are sufficient to exhibit the excess of the poundmeasure products of the North. Recourse must be had to an almost inconceivable number; billions must be called into play; and there are the figures telling us, with unmistakable emphasis and distinctness, that, in this depart ment of agriculture, as in every other, the North is vastly the superior of the South-the figures showing a total balance in favor of the former of twenty-four billion five hun dred and thirty-nine million six hundred and ninety-four thousand two hundred and forty-one pounds, valued at fifty-nine million one hundred and ninety-nine thousand one hundred and eight dollars. And yet, the North is a poor, God-forsaken coun try, bleak, inhospitable, and unproductive ! What next? Is it necessary to adduce other facts in order to prove that the rural wealth of the free States is far greater than that of the slave States? Shall we make a further demonstration of the fertility of northern soil, or bring forward new evidences of the inefficient and desolating system of terra-culture in the South? Will nothing less than "confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ,” suffice to convince the South that she is standing in her own light, and ruining both body and soul by the retention of slavery? Whatever duty and expedience require to be done, we are willing to do. Additional proofs are at hand. Slaveholders and slave-breeders shall be convinced, confuted, convicted, and converted. They shall, in their hearts and consciences, if not with their tongues and pens, bear testimony to the triumphant achievements of free labor. In the two tables which immediately follow these remarks, they shall see how much more vigorous and fruitful the soil is when under the prudent manage ment of free white husbandmen, than it is when under the rude and nature-murdering tillage of enslaved negroes; and in two subsequent tables they shall find that the live stock, slaughtered animals, farms, and farming implements and machinery, in the free States, are worth at least one thousand million of dollars more than the market value of the same in the slave States! In the face, however, of all these most significant and incontrovertible facts, the oli garchy have the unparalleled audacity to tell us that the South is the greatest agricultural country in the world, and that the North is a dreary waste, unfit for cultivation, and quite dependent on us for the necessaries of life. How preposterously false all such babble is, the following tables will show: |