on their own good land, and encrease its value, but capital is best employed near cities and towns, where there is a certain market. "But," says Mr. Perry, in reply, "ten acres near New York or Philadelphia, or in such states, are infinitely better for a poor man than hundreds of acres in the west. I know of 60 acres at Feversham, in my native Kent, which average 200l. a year net profit, after immense taxes, tithes, and poor rates, are deducted. How much happier must a man be there than in the west, with 2,000 unprofitable acres. You talk of your wild turkeys and your game, but they are not there; game is more scarce than in England. No honest answer to inquiries can be had in the west, or elsewhere. All praise and lie, because all wish to sell, and think the inquirer wants to buy." Commodore Barney admits the truth of Perry's statements respecting the country generally.
30th.—Mr. Birkbeck (in this day's paper) accuses Mr. Cobbett[29] of lending his active pen to eastern land speculators, who wish to see Illinois settlements in ruin and utterly discarded. Mr. Dunn, however, of this city, says the west is the only country for small capitals and large families, every branch of which shall there fructify, and in due time have each a farm of its own. Surplus produce is marketable enough in the shape of pigs, horses, beeves, and whiskey. The western people can better afford to sell at half, than the eastern can {137} at whole price, because they grow double the quantity per acre, and there is a rapidly encreasing population. The western market is New Orleans, and that only. It is 1,500 miles from Illinois; the produce is sent down the Ohio and Mississipi. A supercargo, or the owner of it, must go with it to sell it,
