CHAPTER VI.

_United States—Climate—Diseases—Productions—Agriculture east of the Alleghany Mountains—Agriculture west of the Mountains—Wages—Choice of Residence—Progress of Wealth—Wages of the United States and the Canadas—Profits of Capital._

The territory of the United States is situated between 24, 27, and 49° north latitude, and 10° east, to 54° west longitude from Washington. Its mean breadth from north to south is about 830 miles, and mean length from east to west, 2500 miles. The area embraces 2,076,410 square miles, or 1,328,902,400 acres, consisting of the following states and territories: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Florida, and the Arkansas, Michigan, Missouri, North-west and Western territories.

A territory differs from a state in not sending members to Congress; and the President of the United States, with consent of the senate, appoints the executive officers. Congress has power to make general laws in the territories, which become states on containing a sufficient population.

Many people in Britain have difficulty in forming a conception of the extent of the United States, and imagine each state something like the size of the counties in their own country. But some of the divisions into which the territory is separated are much larger than the whole island of Great Britain. The United States must therefore be considered a union of countries—each state, having its own government and laws, is divided into counties, which are subdivided into townships.

Having travelled over only a small portion of the United States territory, lying between 37° and 45° north latitude, embracing the states of New England, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and the territory of Michigan, my remarks shall be confined to this region, which might, with propriety, be divided into the eastern, middle, and western states, if particular consideration was intended to be given it.

The climate of that portion of the United States which I travelled over participates of the general character of the continent, having the extremes of heat and cold. The length of winter will of course vary with the latitude, which, in the north, will be nearly six months, and in the southern part, about six weeks.

This region is intersected by the Alleghany mountains, commencing in the state of Maine, and passing through New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, dividing the country longitudinally. Some parts of this range is of considerable height—Mount Washington, in New Hampshire, being 6634 feet above the level of the sea. Monadnock, in the south-west corner of New Hampshire, was the most elevated point which I was near, being 3254 feet in height, and, with the exception of the falls of the Niagara, the only truly sublime object I saw in America. The Alleghany range varies in breadth at different places. Across the mountains in New Hampshire is about 120 miles—in New York, about 150 miles, and in Pennsylvania, 130 miles. In such situations, climate will be affected by altitude as well as latitude.

In the country east of the Alleghanies, north-east winds prevail for a considerable part of the year, especially in the New England states, where they are cold and raw to human feeling in the spring months. To the west of the Alleghanies, the most prevalent wind is from the south-west, and is mild in temperature. The winds blowing chiefly from different directions, on opposite sides of the mountains, have been ingeniously accounted for by Volney and other writers, and thought to be connected with the trade winds, gulf stream, a cold current of air from Davis’ Straits, and the configuration of the country. There seems to be an opinion amongst the writers on this subject, that the climate of the west is two or three degrees milder than the east, under the same parallel of latitude—the winters of the latter being more severe, and the summers of the former cooler. Judging from human feeling, this may perhaps appear to be the case from the influence of the sea air, in the country bounded by the Atlantic, but the thermometer observations which have been published seem to make the temperature nearly alike at the same altitude on both sides of the Alleghanies. The meteorology of the United States has not, however, been properly investigated, and the most important difference to the farmer, in the climate of the two countries, is a deeper fall of snow in the east than in the west, and a steadier winter.

To the east of the Alleghany mountains, where north-east winds prevail in spring, consumption is a frequent complaint with the human race, and more especially near the sea-coast, the air being particularly keen at certain seasons. This disease is most frequent in the New England states, where the cold and dampness of the north-east wind is strongly felt. The inhabitants of New England have not that dark seered complexion so common in other parts of the Union, many of them closely resembling the people of Britain. It is probable the florid complexion of the people, and their proneness to consumption, arise from the dampness of the climate. To the west of the Alleghanies, the most common complaint is bilious fever, in every variety of type, passing by the names of “ague,” “chill and fever,” and many etceteras. Fever is essentially a disease of the country, and seems connected with the luxuriance and decay of natural vegetation. In every part of inhabited America, fever, originating from this cause, must be frequent, and will be more severe towards the south, as the heat and length of summer increase. It is common on the banks of rivers and on the prairies, from exhalations produced by the rays of the sun; and on first clearing wood lands, the same effects are produced. With the progress of cultivation, fever is likely to abate, and I have no doubt the fatality of the disease in this region is at present heightened by the quantities of animal food consumed by the inhabitants. On both sides of the Alleghanies, inflammatory complaints, arising from sudden transitions of temperature, are common. There is no reason, however, to imagine this part of America more unhealthy than the Canadas, unless the prevalence of north-east winds in the east, and the want of cultivation in the west, are more unfavourable than a severe and steady winter.

The agricultural productions are the same as what have been noticed as the growth of the Canadas. A portion of this country may, however, be termed the region of Indian corn, which grows with uncommon luxuriance, and is one of the most important plants in American farming. Mr John Taylor of Virginia called it the “meal, meadow, and manure” of the farm, and it well merits his emphatic description. It is used as human food in a variety of forms; in maintaining and fattening animals during winter it far surpasses every agricultural product, and affords a great quantity of materials for manure. When soil and climate are adapted to its growth, it furnishes more nourishment for man and beast on a given space, and with less labour, than any other plant. It is the only means of fattening animals during winter in remote parts of the country, and, under present circumstances, no district which I visited in course of my tour can become eminent in breeding and fattening live stock, which is not congenial to the growth of Indian corn. It does not seem to be cultivated with success beyond 43° north latitude, and an agricultural emigrant, who values the necessaries of life, ought only to settle where this plant can be successfully grown.

Indian corn seems to differ from most other agricultural plants, by growing vigorously for a succession of years on certain soils without an application of manure. There is much evidence to establish this fact in the Western United States, and amongst the Indians in Upper Canada. I saw it growing luxuriantly on soft prairie soil in Ohio, which farmers assured me could not produce a wheat crop without an application of manure. It is this peculiarity of Indian corn which has given rise to some exaggerated accounts of the fertility of American soil, by producing so many crops without manure. In some parts of the country, Indian corn seems to be like an indigenous plant, and its growth for a succession of years is perhaps no greater test of fertility of soil than grass is in Britain.

The soil on the eastern side of the Alleghanies is generally of an inferior description, with exception of the lands on the banks of rivers. The cleared lands have been long cropped under the robbing system, and are far from being productive. The whole of the land that is worth occupying is owned by private individuals, although a great portion of it is covered with forest; and I was frequently told, that in all situations near a village, or which had ready access to water-carriage, forest land was more valuable than what had been cleared, fuel having became so dear of late years. Much of the land covered with wood is not worth cultivating, and should the forest be removed for fuel, it is likely to remain in pasturage or be suffered to produce trees again. The price of farms varies from L.5 to L.30 sterling per acre, according to quality of soil, buildings, and situation. Labour can at all times be had, and every description of produce finds a ready market. Manures are chiefly employed in growing vegetables, and can be bought from the stablers of New York at 7d. sterling a cart-load, similar in shape and size to the carts used in Scotland. Market gardening is the most profitable department of farming, and the growing of grass ranks next.

Notwithstanding the good markets, command of labour, and low price of manure, the cultivation of grain in this part of the country is attended with little profit, which circumstance, joined to a grass crop being more lucrative, illustrates the parts nature and man perform in the production of farm produce which has been so often alluded to. And a Briton who has been accustomed to pay a high rent will be very apt to overlook, on first reaching America, many circumstances affecting the profits of farming.

Land which has been impoverished by a long succession of crops, under the robbing system, will not yield much grain without a plentiful supply of manure, which the rate of labour may frequently prevent being applied without incurring loss. Suppose an acre of wheat to yield with a moderate application of manure twenty-four bushels of wheat per acre, which is worth $1 per bushel. The cost of producing the crop, including twice ploughing, harrowing, seed, sowing, harvesting, and carrying home, thrashing, dressing, and marketing, will amount to $14, leaving only $10, or L.2, 2s. 6d., to meet the interest of capital employed in the purchase and cultivation of the land, taxes, professional profit, and the purchase and application of manure. If the purchase money of the land and capital invested in cultivation amount to $60 per acre, the interest may be taken at $4, leaving only $6, or L.1, 5s. 6d. sterling, for taxes and manure. The cost of manure is scarcely worth estimating, but the expense of its carriage and application are so high as often to forbid its use. On the assumed data there will only remain about 18s. sterling per acre to meet the carriage and spreading of manure. The expense of labour is strikingly exhibited in contrast with the value of the crop. The wages of a labourer may be stated at seventy-five cents per day, and the value of an acre of wheat would employ a man about thirty-two days. In Britain a wheat crop of similar productiveness, at ordinary prices and rates of labour, would employ a man between eighty and ninety days. The same mode of management is obviously not suited to both countries.

In grass husbandry human labour is but little employed, nature being the chief agent of production, and hence it is remunerating. The difficulty of transporting certain kinds of grass produce from a distance, such as hay and fresh dairy produce, keeps up the price of these commodities, but the small quantity of labour bestowed on their production is the chief cause of their profitableness.

A man with capital may purchase a farm to the east of the Alleghany range, and occupy it with a prospect of having a good return for the capital invested, if he possess prudence and industry. He must not, however, lavish capital on fanciful improvements, or employ much labour on finical operations. Wages are so high that he will require to calculate the value of every day’s labour, and render the closest personal superintendence, and perhaps also assistance. Unless this is done farming will be unprofitable, as a great many of the workmen are idle and unsteady. Farming cannot, however, be pursued on a large scale with a prospect of success, from the difficulty of superintending the operations and forming a proper division of labour with unskilful and untractable workmen. There is, however, an excellent field for prudent skill and industry near all towns. In short, science seems scarcely to have been thought of in American farming, and a cautious application of it in draining and other improvements, in particular situations, would be remunerating.

Land may be rented in many parts of the country on fair terms, more especially near towns. In such situations many British emigrants successfully pursue market gardening and dairy husbandry. Native Americans prefer occupying land of their own to paying rent for the use of a farm belonging to others.

The labouring emigrant does not readily find agricultural employment on the east coast, from the country being thickly settled, and the constant influx of emigrants without funds to support them. He should, therefore, lose no time in pushing back into the country, where wages are higher compared with the price of the necessaries of life and land, and where information necessary to a settler on cheap land, can alone be acquired.

The soil on the western side of the Alleghanies is generally much superior to the eastern, although it is to be found of all descriptions and degrees of fertility. It has not been very long cropped, and the natural composition of a great portion of it will, under any circumstances, render it productive of wheat and Indian corn. Almost all the land in the eastern part of this district is owned by private individuals, but much of it remains uncleared of forest. Towards the west the greater part of the land is held by the United States government, and costs $1¼ per acre. In every part of the country forest or improved land may be purchased, and the price is governed by local situation and other circumstances. Labour can generally be had, except in the extreme west. Farm produce is in constant demand, and prices are regulated by the markets of the towns on the east coast and New Orleans, to all of which there is access by rivers, canals, or railroads. Prices may, therefore, at all times be considered lower than the markets on the east by the expense of transport. Manures are very seldom used except in the neighbourhood of large towns, where the demand for vegetables and shortness of carriage render it worthy of the farmer’s attention.

The money wages of labour may be stated to be nearly the same from the east to the extreme west, but any difference that exists is towards a rise in the west. In the same direction a decline in the price of produce takes place. Therefore, as the distance from the markets on the coast increases, the farmer pays a greater share of produce to the labourer, and must be remunerated either by the low price of land or its natural fertility. Labourers are of a more unsatisfactory description than in the east, land being so cheap that every prudent man is enabled to purchase a farm for himself in the course of a year or two, and it is only the imprudent who continue labourers. The character of the workmen renders labour dearer than is at first apparent.

The country to the west of the Alleghanies is of such extent, and gradually increasing in distance from the seaport towns which regulate the price of the land produce, that farms of equal quality of soil vary from 5s. 4d. to L.12 sterling per acre.

A person possessed of capital may purchase a farm in many situations with advantage. But the exercise of prudence and industry in choice of situation and management is particularly called for. The price of produce is so low compared with labour, that only a small portion of capital and labour can be profitably applied to the cultivation of the soil. In almost every instance where cultivation is followed personal assistance will be necessary to obtain profit. It has already been remarked, that money wages in the west are nearly the same as in the east, and as hired men are generally boarded, the western employer has some advantage from the cheapness of provisions. Supposing an acre of ground without an application of manure yields twenty bushels of wheat, which sells at 50 cents per bushel, and a labourer gets $120 a-year with board, the value of an acre of wheat will employ a man twenty-six days without including board. To the east of the Alleghanies the value of an acre of wheat was stated to pay the wages of a hired man about thirty-two days, including board. In the one case, however, manure is supposed to have been applied, and in the other it had not. But in many parts of the west, wheat generally sells considerably lower than 50 cents a-bushel, and in such situations a hired labourer either obtains a greater share of the produce, or the fertility of the soil is greater. In Sangamon county, in the state of Illinois, the soil of which is very fertile, the price of wheat at Springfield was 37½ cents when I was there. Supposing wheat to yield twenty-five bushels per acre, its value would employ a labourer about twenty-five days. In every situation the hiring of agricultural labour ought to be determined by calculation. If the former obtains a fair profit from the outlay of capital he need not repine at the wages of the labourer, however high they may be.

An emigrant will not always find agricultural employment to the west of the Alleghanies from the low price of farm produce; but there is always a demand for labour in towns and villages, at high wages, and he need not remain idle if he is disposed to work. An industrious and sober man must rapidly accumulate wealth by working for hire, and many perhaps err by purchasing land instead of continuing to work under the direction of others. On leaving New York, a gardener, who was working at Haddington when I left Scotland, gave me ten pounds sterling, which he had saved since his arrival in America, to enable his wife and family to reach him. A young man, whom I had often employed at spade-work on Mungoswells farm, at 1s. 6d. a-day without board, was earning, by sawing stones at Cincinnati, 4s. 3d. a-day with board.

A person cannot purchase and farm land to the east of the Alleghanies without possessing a considerable portion of capital; and to the west of the mountains land is not likely to be cultivated with profit without personal labour. The luxuries of life being prepared in the east, to meet an extensive demand, are cheaper than in the west by the expense of transport from one market to the other. It is the reverse with the necessaries of life; and the agricultural emigrant ought to be guided in his choice of residence on either side of the Alleghanies by his habits, finances, and wants.

All wealth, according to the views I have endeavoured to establish, being the result of nature and labour, the riches of a community must be regulated by the soil and climate of the country, and the skill and industry of the inhabitants. The soil and climate of two countries being equal, the most skilful and industrious people will be the wealthiest—with equal skill and industry the inhabitants of the country most favoured by nature will become the richest. Under a parity of circumstances, with regard to nature and inhabitants, the oldest nation will be the wealthiest, and the progress of new countries in wealth will depend on the facilities of cultivation—a forest-covered surface yielding wealth slower than one clothed with grass. The ratio of extent of territory to the inhabitants of new countries also affects the progress of wealth. With a limited surface capital will rapidly increase, from the cheapness and division of labour that will necessarily ensue, and wealth will be unequally distributed amongst the inhabitants. With an extensive surface capital will accumulate slowly, and all the inhabitants will enjoy an ample share of the necessaries of life, without possessing much tangible capital.

The first settlers in this portion of the United States had to struggle with severe privations. Besides being engaged in warfare with the natives, they settled in insulated situations in the midst of a densely wooded surface, without experience as to the mode of rendering it fruitful, or possessing facilities of communication. They were unable to subsist by their labour, and many perished for want of food. But on every portion of cleared surface nature continued productive, and her exertions being aided by new skill and industry, wealth appeared in the progress of time. There being no rent, and scarcely a burden of any kind to pay, the inhabitants reaped the combined fruits of their own and nature’s labour without division. Individuals had as much land as they chose to cultivate; and having every inducement to render it productive, they rewarded labour with liberal wages. The abundance of land induced labourers to turn landholders, and reward others with high wages, who likewise became landholders. Thus there was a constant progression in society, by the prudent and industrious labourers rising into wealth, and receding from the first point of settlement on becoming landholders. These movements continue up to the present time with the existing cause—abundance and cheapness of land, to which many of the peculiarities of the country and its inhabitants may be traced.

Good land being sold by the United States government at $1¼ per acre, people will not permanently hire themselves for a less reward than can be obtained by cultivating on their own account. When competition depresses wages, operatives commence farming, and wages rise. Thus the wages of labour are regulated by the profits of farming, and will continue to be so until all the good land is occupied.

The profits of farming do not regulate the wages of labour in the Canadas, because land is there held by monopolists, or sold at a monopoly price. And the late rise in the price of land in Upper Canada not only renders the ultimate prospect of labourers becoming landholders more distant, but also lowers the wages of operatives through competition, by tending to confine them to their professions. But supposing land to be equally abundant and cheap in the Canadas and United States, and the wages of labour to be regulated in both countries by the profits of farming, wages would necessarily be higher in the United States, from possessing superiority of climate. Nature performs more towards the manufacture of agricultural produce in the United States than in the Canadas, and the reward of industry, which is divided between the landholder and labourer, is consequently greater.

This view of the wages of labour in the different parts of North America which I visited, is supported by facts, wages being generally considerably higher in the United States than in the Canadas. During the summer of 1833 the carpenters of New York struck work when getting 5s. sterling per day, and by doing so obtained 6s. per day. The future prospects of operatives appear to be good, a vast portion of the best land of the country being still unoccupied, a subject which will be afterwards noticed.

The profits of capital employed in farming do not seem to affect the profits of capital invested in other fields of production. Indeed, the high price of labour, and the difficulty of combining systematically and giving proper effect to agricultural labour in most parts of the United States, render the employment of much capital in farming unprofitable. The high price of labour affects the investment of capital in other channels, and it will be found difficult to manage a large fortune safely and profitably. On this account wealth is seldom accumulated in large masses, while almost all the inhabitants have it in their power to acquire a competency. The customs of the people are favourable to this degree of wealth—a father’s property being generally equally divided at death amongst his children. Capital, however, in many cases, will enter into competition with labour, and its profits in the United States, where the fields of production are so extensive, and its inhabitants so enterprising, cannot be low for many generations to come.