Different kinds of produce of West Tennessea.—Domestic manufactories for cottons encouraged by the legislature of this state.—Mode of letting out estates by some of the emigrants.
West Tennessea, or Cumberland, being situated under a more southerly latitude than Kentucky, is particularly favourable to the growth of cotton; in consequence of which the inhabitants give themselves up almost entirely to it, and cultivate but little more corn, hemp, and tobacco than what is necessary for their own consumption.
The soil, which is fat and clayey, appears to be a recent dissolving of vegetable substances, and seems, {240} till now, less adapted for the culture of corn than that of Indian wheat. The harvests of this grain are as plentiful as in Kentucky; the blades run up ten or twelve feet high; and the ears, which grow six or seven feet from the earth, are from nine to ten inches in length, and proportionate in size. It is cultivated in the same manner as in other parts of the western country.
The crows, which are a true plague in the Atlantic states, where they ravage, at three different periods, the fields of Indian wheat, which are obliged to be sown again as many times, have not yet made their appearance in Tennessea; but it is very probable that this visit is only deferred, as they do, annually, great damage in Kentucky.
I must also observe here that the grey European rats have not yet penetrated into Cumberland, though they are very numerous in other parts of the country, particularly in those settlements belonging to the whites.
The culture of cotton, infinitely more lucrative {241} than that of corn and tobacco, is, as before observed, the most adhered to in West Tennessea. There is scarcely a single emigrant but what begins to plant his estate with it the third year after his settling in the country. Those who have no negroes cultivate it with the plough, nearly in the same manner as Indian wheat, taking particular care to weed and throw new earth upon it several times in the course of the season. Others lay out their fields in parallel furrows, made with the hoe, from twelve to fifteen inches high. It is computed that one man, who employs himself with this alone, is sufficient to cultivate eight or nine acres, but not to gather in the harvest. A man and a woman, with two or three children, may, notwithstanding, cultivate four acres with the greatest ease, independent of the Indian wheat necessary for their subsistence; and calculating upon a harvest of three hundred and fifty pounds weight per acre, which is very moderate according to the extreme fertility of the soil, they will have, in four acres, a produce of fourteen hundred pounds of {242} cotton. Valuing it at the rate of eighteen dollars per hundred weight, the lowest price to which it had fallen at the epoch of the last peace, when I was in the country, gives two hundred and fifty-two dollars; from which deducting forty dollars for the expenses of culture, they will have a net produce of two hundred and twelve dollars; while the same number of acres, planted with Indian wheat, or sown with corn, would only yield at the rate of fifty bushels per acre; and twenty-five bushels of corn, about fifty dollars, reckoning the Indian wheat at thirteen pence, and the corn at two shillings and two pence per bushel; under the supposition that they can sell it at that price, which is not always the case. This light sketch demonstrates with what facility a poor family may acquire speedily, in West Tennessea, a certain degree of independence, particularly after having been settled five or six years, as they procure the means of purchasing one or two negroes, and of annually increasing their number.
The species of cotton which they cultivate here is {243} somewhat more esteemed than that described by the name of green-seed cotton, in which there is a trifling distinction in point of colour.
The cottons that are manufactured in West Tennessea are exceedingly fine, and superior in quality to those I saw in the course of my travels. The legislature of this state, appreciating the advantage of encouraging this kind of industry, and of diminishing, by that means, the importation of English goods of the same nature, has given, for these two years past, a premium of ten dollars to the female inhabitant who, in every county, presents the best manufactured piece; for in this part, as well as in Kentucky, the higher circles wear, in summer time, as much from patriotism as from economy, dresses made of the cottons manufactured in the country. At the same time they are convinced that it is the only means of preserving the little specie that is in the country, and of preventing its going to England.
The price of the best land does not yet exceed five dollars per acre in the environs of Nasheville, and {244} thirty or forty miles from the town they are not even worth three dollars. They can at that price purchase a plantation completely formed, composed of two to three hundred acres, of which fifteen to twenty are cleared, and a log-house. The taxes in this state are also not so high as in Kentucky.
Among the emigrants that arrive annually from the eastern country at Tennessea there are always some who have not the means of purchasing estates; still there is no difficulty in procuring them at a certain rent; for the speculators who possess many thousand acres are very happy to get tenants for their land, as it induces others to come and settle in the environs; since the speculation of estates in Kentucky and Tennessea is so profitable to the owners, who reside upon the spot, and who, on the arrival of the emigrants, know how to give directions in cultivation, which speedily enhances the value of their possessions.
The conditions imposed upon the renter are to clear and inclose eight or nine acres, to build a log-house, and to pay to the owner eight or ten bushels {245} of Indian wheat for every acre cleared. These contracts are kept up for seven or eight years. The second year after the price of two hundred acres of land belonging to a new settlement of this kind increases nearly thirty per cent.; and this estate is purchased in preference by a new emigrant, who is sure of gathering corn enough for the supplies of his family and cattle.
In this state they are not so famed for rearing horses as in Kentucky; yet the greatest care is taken to improve their breed, by rearing them with those of the latter state, whence they send for the finest mare foals that can be procured.
Although this country abounds with saline springs, none are yet worked, as the scarcity of hands would render the salt dearer than what is imported from the salt-pits of St. Genevieve, which supply all Cumberland. It is sold at two dollars per bushel, about sixty pounds weight.