Liberia and the Colonization Society, Part 2 [pp. 336-344]

342 LIBERIA AND THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY.
farming of a fertile colony of then twenty-four years' settlement
and culture.
In lower Virginia, of which the general exhaustion and consequent barrenness has been made a by-word-and which condition (when truly stated in former times, and also since, when no
longer generally true) has been adduced often by the opposers ot
slavery to prove the destruction of fertility, capital, and products,
necessarily caused by the use of slave-labor-there are sundry
farms, much less fertile than Liberia, which, for the labor of every
fifty ordinary slaves,-men, women. and children, have more acres annually cultivated (and also kept improving), and more surplus products sold, than those of all Liberia, and more net annual sales made
of surplus products than the stated total value ($12,775) of the
whole farming property and capital in Liberia. No actual products
of the cultivated lands are stated, and therefore no comparison with
them, on that score, can be made, which would show results much
more striking.
Though no products of agriculture were reported, there is light
thrown on that omitted part of the agricultural report by the commercial statistics accompanying the former, of exports and imports
for the two years preceding September 30th, 1843. The exports do
not show a single product of agriculture or of the industry of the
colonists. There are only four articles of export named-camwood, palm-oil, ivory, and tortoise-shell-all of which are obtained
in trade from the savage natives. The total value of exports for the
two years stated, amounted only to $123,694. The imports for the
same time amounted to 157,820. Among the imports there are, of
breadstuffs and other articles of food (which might be substituted by
home products), and of other articles that could be raised abundantly
for sale and exportation, the following:
Pickled and dried fish, value of..$1,803 Hams and bacon........... $3,761
Flour.................... 6,086 Lumber...................... 1,079
Beef and pork............... 8,333 T'obacco.....................13,324
Butter and lard............... 2,363 Cigars....................... 480
Coffee.........................771 Ardent spirits................. 2,230
Navy and pilot bread and corn Sugar.................... 3,546
meal....................... 2,353 Soap........................ 1,655
Vinegar and molasses.......... 1,093 Candles..................... 891
It cannot be alleged, in excuse for their purchase, that the articles which might be well raised for exportation are imported cheaper
than they could be produced-for they sell at very high prices. According to a statement of usual prices in Liberia, published in the
newspapers and elsewhere, some ten months ago, and which I have
not seen contradicted or questioned, some of the foregoing commodities were priced as follows: "Flour, $12 to $16 the barrel; hams
and bacon, 20 to 25 cents the pound; hard bread, $18 to $21 the
100 lbs.; rice, $5 the bushel; butter, 62~ cents the pound; salt
fish, $12 to $14 the barrel; sugar, 25 cents the pound; potatoes,
$1 25 the bushel."