18 AGRICUILTURAI REPORT.

should be planted within that period in said four townships not less than five hundred olive-trees, unless it should have previously been established that the olive could not be successfully cultivated thereon.

It appears from the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, in December, 1827, that there were 7,414 acres cultivated within the above-named tract, principally in vines, cotton, corn, small grain,&c. The quantity of land devoted to the vines was 271 ½ acres, which, according to an estimate, is not more than one-tenth part of what was originally planted. The vineyards occupied fields which had previously been cultivated with cotton, the vines standing 10 feet apart in one direction and 20 feet in the other, each fastened to a stake. The number of olive-trees standing on the grant was three hundred and eighty-eight, some of which were six years planted and others only three. There were also planted on the tract twenty-five thousand olive seeds. It has been stated that about five hundred French emigrants settled under this concession, yet, comparatively put few made any considerable improvements, although extensive and profitable farms Were in possession of Americans who had pur- chased them from the grantees. The chief reasons assigned for the failure of performance on the part of the emigrants were not only the natural obstacles incident to the settlement of a new country, but many of them came prematurely to their lands without funds sufficient to improve their allotments or even to provide for their immediate support. The region of country to which they were to remove was then a wilderness, almost impervious to the approach of man, and the means of transportation were so difficult and expensive, that many persons, upon their arrival, were compelled to settle temporarily on small lots of land, where their funds were exhausted, and they became unable to make a second settlement on a larger scale. For several years, the colony was remarkably unhealthy, scarcely a family escaping sickness, and numbers of the grantees died. Again, possessing, as they did, but little knowledge of our agricultural economy, strangers to the language, the manners and habits of our people, it is not surprising that they should be retarded in their progress, and be less prosperous than the citizens of the United States.

The chief causes which led to failures in the culture of the olive and the vine were ascribed to the necessity each grantee was under of first obtaining the means of subsistence; the difficulty and length of time required in clearing and preparing the land— nearly seven years elapsing before this was accomplished; yet, very early impor- tations of cuttings were made, a large quantity of which arrived out of season; and when we consider the lateness of the period in Europe at which they had to be taken, and the early time at which they must be planted in Alabama, it is obvious that any considerable delay in the arrival of vessels must have caused them to perish on the way. All of the cuttings which arrived alive were carefully planted, though large numbers of them died, owing, as was believed, to the newness of the soil. Again, the kinds of vine imported did not appear in all cases to be adapted to our climate, and, doubtless, the modes of culture in Europe and in this country are radically different. Finally,