occurs in the hands of white laborers; and also the injury inflicted
on horses, mules and oxen; the loss of stock for the want of proper
attention, regular feeding, &c.

None can comprehend the force of my remarks so well, as the practical
farmer. Well does he understand the vast expense incurred, and the
loss that is sustained, by the careless and reckless wear and tear,
and destruction of farming utensils and machinery--the improper
treatment of horses--inattention to hogs, cattle, &c. Slaves are
remarkable for their listlessness and indolence, and the little
interest they manifest in anything. Many of them perform their round
of labor with as little apparent concern or interest, as the horses or
mules which they drive before them. There are, I admit, exceptions,
but as a general rule, my remarks hold good. I never owned a negro,
but I frequently employed them as cooks, washerwoman, &c., and many
years observation satisfied me, that as a general rule, that when left
to themselves, they consumed, or rather wasted, one-third more
precisions than would have sufficed for my family under the management
and supervision of an economical white woman.

It is a notorious fact, well known to every one who has had
opportunities of making observations, that in those parts of the
United States where the operations of farming have been confided
mostly to slaves, the lands are exhausted of their fertility and have
become barren and unproductive. Some lands are now in this condition,
which were originally the finest in the United States. Eastern
Virginia is a good sample of the effects of slave labor on the
fertility of lands. This all results from the ignorance, carelessness
and inattention of those to whom the operations of farming are
confided. All soils are capable of improvement by judicious culture,