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can be little doubt; & to some of the causes of this [[strikethrough]] submit [[/strikethrough]] we may for a moment advert. 
   
Very many farms & plantations in the South - especially in the Atlantic  had already too many labourers on them before their emancipation. This arose not solely from the general unwillingness of proprietors to separate the members of a family connexion, but from the reluctance of owners to sell, against their own consent, servants who perhaps were born in their house, & who were averse to leave their masters.  The same consideration reconciled them to the maintenance of families, in which the burden of the aged, the infirm, & of children was greater than the profit of the few that laboured. But this motive will no longer suffice, now that the blacks are remitted to their own control, & when the diminished means of landed proprietors forbid the exercise of charity on so large a scale.  The Government has taken on itself the responsibility of suddenly changing the relations between the races; & it would seem to be incumbent on them to provide them with employment, & to the military authorities will they be consigned accordingly.
   
No doubt, the demands of agriculture in the South might continue to occupy the whole of this labour for some time to come, if this could be looked to as a certain, constant, & reliable source of supply.  But this is notoriously no longer the case.  Not only is this labour less efficient than formerly, but being capricious, & fond of change, and by consequence precarious, farmers are already looking elsewhere for a substitute.  
   
Another process lending this way is already begun.- The larger farms and plantations of the South will be subdivided, & let out to tenants, or sold to immigrants.  These last will often be working men themselves, & will give the preference to white labour.  The great body of our own farmers have heretofore been less scientific than we could have wished.  It is hoped they will become more so hereafter, and in that case they also will prefer a more intelligent class of labourers to carry out their plans.  Or if in conducting their operations the aid of blacks is indispensable, they will conduct themselves with the minimum quantity that may suffice for the purpose.  The number required will be still farther lessened by the fact, that farmers [[strikethrough]] are [[/strikethrough]] will now procure as many labor-saving machines as possible; seeking out the best of their kind, including the ordinary agricultural implements.
   
All open lands which can avail of coast, river, or canal navigation for the conveyance of their products or which are near any line of Railroad will be occupied as heretofore - and will absorb a certain mount of this labour.  But some of those farther in the interior, whether originally poor, or, which while their former occupants will seek, as tenants, the better land on the margins of streams or elsewhere,- or be subjected to a different system of husbandry.  Some of the lands will probably be converted into sheepwalks.  Others of a better quality 

[[left margin]] have been subjected to a wasteful system of tillage, must either go out of cultivation for a time,  [[/left margin]]

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-01-22 10:14:59