LETTER IV.

Norfolk, (Virginia,) Dec. 13, 1820.

THE little digression into which I was insensibly led in my letter of yesterday, prevented me from completing my remarks on Mr. Birkbeck. I have already mentioned some of my reasons for supposing that, in the ordinary course of things, agricultural profits will be generally low in this country. Nor am I aware of any peculiarities in Birkbeck's situation which would form an exception in his/favour in this particular. It must not be forgotten, that while the imminent danger of flour turning sour at New Orleans, his principal market, is to be set against the advantages he may possess over the farmers in the Atlantic States; in his competition with the graziers of Ohio, his great distance from the Atlantic cities may more than counterbalance the benefit of a readier access to extensive prairies. At present I am told, that the expense of conveying flour from Illinois, and selling it at New Orleans, would leave little or nothing for the grower of the wheat; and I have been assured, on the authority of several persons who have passed through Kentucky and Ohio this autumn, that in many cases the farmers would not cut their wheat, but turned their cattle into it; and that in others, the tenants would hardly accept of the landlord's moiety of the produce which they had stipulated to give him for rent.

Mr. Mellish, the traveller and geographer, whom I frequently saw in Philadelphia, showed me a letter from Mr. Birkbeck, in which he says; "There is an error of some importance in my Letters; and I wish that a correction of it could accompany the publication. In my estimate of the expenses of cultivating these prairies, I have not made sufficient allowance of time for the innumerable delays which attend a new establishment in a new country. I would now add to the debtor side a year of preparation, which will of course make a material deduction from the profits at the commencement of the undertaking."

On the whole, I am disposed to believe that experience will suggest to Mr. Birkbeck some mode of making money, though far more slowly than he expected; and I think the general estimate of the merits of his situation, by the natural reaction of his exaggerated statements, is at present a little below the truth.

I should not be surprised if a new and extensive market were gradually opened to the western farmers among a population employed or created by manufacturing establishments beyond the mountains. Wool may be raised on the spot with tolerable facility; and I have already mentioned the low rate of freight at which, in Ohio, they can obtain cotton from Louisiana and Mississippi in exchange for wheat, which will scarcely grow at all in the southern countries.

As the Waltham factory, near Boston, can sustain itself so well against foreign competition, I do not know why cotton mills should not flourish

in Ohio, where mill-seats are numerous and excellent, provisions low, labour moderate, and the protection contemplated by the duty on foreign articles increased by distance from the coast. Hitherto capital has been wanted, commerce and land-speculations absorbing all that could be begged or borrowed; but the India trade is at present discouraging, the land mania has partly subsided, and money is readily to be had on good security for five per cent.

From what I hear of Ohio, I know of no place where a young, enterprising, skilful cotton-spinner, with from 5000l. to 15,000l. capital, fond of farming, and exempt from those delicate sensibilities which would make his heart yearn towards the land of his nativity, would pass his time more to his mind, or be in a fairer way of realizing a large fortune. To the mere farmer or agriculturist also, I should consider it an inviting State. I was told by the late governor of Ohio-one of the earliest settlers in that State, and for many years one of its representatives in Congress, a very active, intelligent man, with whom I have already made you acquainted-that unimproved land is to be had at 1 to 2 dollars per acre, for good quality; improved with buildings, and pretty good, 6 dolls. and 20 to 30 dolls. for the best in the country. He considers that farming capital, well managed by a practical hard-working farmer, assisted by his family, produces six to nine per cent. at the low prices of 12 cents for Indian corn, and 25 cents for wheat, and fifteen to twenty per cent. at 25 cents for Indian corn, and 50 cents for

wheat. I should imagine this was too high a return to calculate upon where labourers were to be hired, and the capital large; but he seemed to say it was not, and added, that grazing would pay much better interest, the cattle being sold to drovers from Philadelphia, with herds of cattle which they had purchased from the Indians 1000 or 1200 miles from their destined markets.

I asked a very respectable and intelligent resident in Ohio, how he would recommend an Englishman, coming to settle in that State as a farmer to employ his 5000l. supposing that to be his capital. He said he would purchase a farm and stock with 500l. leave 2000l. in government or bank securities bearing interest to bring in a certain income, and the remaining 2500l., he would invest judiciously in land to be left to improve in value as a speculation. On this last, he would venture to underwrite a profit of 100 per cent, in ten years, asking no other premium than the excess above 100 per cent. Many bargains are now daily offering. He said, if a person vested 1000l. in a farm and stock, and in making his house comfortable, 2000l. in government securities, yielding six per cent. interest, and 20007. in land to lie idle, improving in value; the six per cent. which he might safely calculate on making from his farm, besides maintaining his family on its produce, added to the six per cent. for his 20007. in money securities-together 180l-would enable, him to keep a carriage and two horses and threeservants, and to enjoy many of the comforts of life. This, too, I consider highly coloured, after

making every allowance for the difference between his estimate of comforts and ours. His would probably exclude wine, and tea, and coffee; or at least his coffee would probably be pale enough when every pound cost one or two bushels of wheat. English ideas also as to clothes, even on a peace-establishment in the western wilds, and still more as to education, would probably differ widely from those of my informant. The expense of a good boarding school or "seminary" for boys or girls, (in this country they have as few schools as shops, except Sunday-schools, though as many seminaries and academies as stores,) is 351. per annum near Chillicothe. He has some of his family at school on these terms; and I think he said that at the female “seminary” Latin was taught, if desired. In dress and manner he is of about the same "grade," as the Americans would say, as a respectable Yorkshire farmer, possessing an estate of 8000l. or 12,000l. and lives, I should imagine, somewhat in the same style, with a table perhaps more profusely spread with domestic produce,―such as beef, mutton, venison, turkeys, game, and fruit, and more restricted in foreign wine and colonial luxuries. He spoke of going over to England to bring two or three hundred people with him to Ohio, where he would make them so happy;" but his family attachments bind him to home. Such men as the overlooker of your mill, or others equally steady and experienced, but more acute, would prosper well in Ohio under his auspices. They would be growing rich, while the poor settler on land would be only