on rich land, and sells them at half a dollar per bushel; just 300 less in quantity per acre, and 100 per cent. more in price than in England. "I guess," says he, "that we Ohio folks do not manage potatoes so well as they do in Ireland and England."—"No, sir, if I may judge by your quantity, you do not indeed." "No, I guess not." Quantity of acres of produce is here thought to be of much greater importance than quantity per acre. The great object is to have as many acres as possible cleared, ploughed, set, sown, planted, and managed by as few hands as possible; there being little capital, and therefore little or none to spare for hired labour. Instead of five acres well-managed, they must have 20 acres badly managed. It is not how much corn can be raised on an acre, but how much from one hand or man, the land being nothing in comparison with labour. Eight hundred dollars per hand is, and has been made from one slave annually.
I passed all this day through a fine rich landed country, full of the natural means of living well by the sweat of the brow. The poor complain of want of money, and others of a scarcity of it; but none of want of common necessaries, such as bread, meat, and whiskey. At my inn for the night, I met and spent the evening with Mr. Chichester, {178} a polished, gay, and interesting American gentleman, travelling together with his mother and sister, in their family carriage, attended by a negro, from Kentucky to Virginia. I found them very communicable and free with me on discovering that I was an Englishman, bound to their Illinois friends, the Flower family; "who," they say, "are very happy and content in their log cabin, where balls and good society are often found." "This family," says Mr. Chichester, "is very popular, and of
