Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/49

39 of the other States. Their lands are divided into lots, or granges, of small extent, proportioned to the work of each labourer. In the States of the South, the lots, or plantations as they are there called, are too extensive: the farmer scarcely cultivates any part of the ground which he owns, and does not make from his plantation the half of what it ought to produce. He pursues a similar method to that of the Spanish, English and French planters in their respective colonies of this hemisphere; and as the produce which they cultivate is precious, they prefer their peculiar mode to that of the States of the North, which they consider as more expensive and laborious: and what they lose in the quantity of their produce, is made up in its value. They are contented therefore with this produce; and given up to dissipation and voluptuousness, they trust the labour to their slaves. In the Eastern, or middle States, the method of cultivation is not better than in those of the South; and in general the practice of agriculture is very imperfect.

It is remarkable too, that notwithstanding the country is so abundantly supplied with water, no advantage is taken of it for irrigation: there are neither canals nor dykes to make the rivers useful, and even in their vicinities, the fields are parched and the crops lost during the excessive heats, unless a seasonable rain comes to remedy the evil. To this capital defect may be added another