from patriotism as from economy, dresses made of the cottons manufactured in the country. At the same time they are convinced that it is the only means of preserving the little specie that is in the country, and of preventing its going to England.
The price of the best land does not yet exceed five dollars per acre in the environs of Nasheville, and {244} thirty or forty miles from the town they are not even worth three dollars. They can at that price purchase a plantation completely formed, composed of two to three hundred acres, of which fifteen to twenty are cleared, and a log-house. The taxes in this state are also not so high as in Kentucky.
Among the emigrants that arrive annually from the eastern country at Tennessea there are always some who have not the means of purchasing estates; still there is no difficulty in procuring them at a certain rent; for the speculators who possess many thousand acres are very happy to get tenants for their land, as it induces others to come and settle in the environs; since the speculation of estates in Kentucky and Tennessea is so profitable to the owners, who reside upon the spot, and who, on the arrival of the emigrants, know how to give directions in cultivation, which speedily enhances the value of their possessions.
The conditions imposed upon the renter are to clear and inclose eight or nine acres, to build a log-house, and to pay to the owner eight or ten bushels {245} of Indian wheat for every acre cleared. These contracts are kept up for seven or eight years. The second year after the price of two hundred acres of land belonging to a new settlement of this kind increases nearly thirty per cent.; and this estate is purchased in preference by a new emi-
