413 



$60,000,000; and yet tlae census gives to New York but 370,914 formers and 

 farm laborers, and to Georgia, including white farmers and farm laborers, and 

 onlj the males of the slaves, 316,478 persons engaged in agriculture. Besides 

 the other dairy products, milk, cream, and cheese, and the multitude of smaller 

 products of the fj\rm, the principal crops make an astounding aggregate — as in 

 1864, when the corn crop of New York was estimated at $38,000,000, the wheat 

 at 825.000,000, the oats at 833,000,000, potatoes at 819,000,000, and hay at 

 890,000,000. Including the minor cereals, products of orchards and gardens, 

 the production of beef and mutton from pasturage, and a great variety of mis- 

 cellaneous and exceptional products, the currency value cf the agricultural })ro- 

 ductions of this one State in that year was far greater than the money returns 

 of any cotton crop ever produced in the country, and the gold value of such 

 products would be more than equivalent to the gold value of half the cotton 

 crop of 1860. 



" It is evident that the di%'ersification of f;\rm industry, which secures these 

 results in one location, must be applied to reorganized southern agriculture, 

 with modifications such as climate and soil may indicate; and while cotton, as 

 is hoped and believed, will ever be a prominent crop, and a sure reliance for 

 immediate cash returns, it Avill never again overshadow and dwarf other inter- 

 ests essential to permanent success in agriculture. And it is also equally appa- 

 rent that a portion of the labor of these States will eventually be diverted from 

 agriculture and expended upon other departments of industry, especially 

 manufactures ; and that the day is not fir distant when a portion of this cotton 

 will be exported from the States in which it is grown in the form of yarns 

 and coarse fabrics of various grades and styles. And such a day will bring 

 surer prosperity and more abundant wealth than ever blessed those States in 

 the past." 



THE TIDE-WATER REGION OF YIRGINIA. 



The "Old Dominion" had fjur distinct divisions of .sttrfttce and soil, known 

 as the "Tide-water," "Piedmont," "Great Valley," and Avhat is now known as 

 the State of West Virginia, though the State lines embrace a few counties in 

 the lower or northern portion of the valley. 



The former extends from the coast to the bead of tide-water, or the lower 

 falls of the several rivers entering the Chesapeake, including the cities of Fred- 

 ericksburg and Richmond. Two counties, Accomac and Southampton, are a 

 thin strip of level sandy soil, seventy-eight miles long and ten wide, lying be- 

 tween the Chesapeake bay and the Atlantic ocean. 



The whole region is intersected by broad and deep navigable waters — bays, 

 estuaries, and rivers — making a coast line of fifteen hundred miles. These 

 waters are alive with fish, in great variety and excellent quality. The shad 

 fisheries of the Potomac and other rivers are lucrative. A fine, fat herring is 

 caught and cured in prodigious quantities, and constitutes an important and 

 favorite, as well as cheap, item of food for the people of Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia, and of other States to a considerable extent. The distant West makes 

 large demands upon the Potomac fisheries. The oysters of the lower waters 

 towards the sea are famous for quality, size, and fatness, and supply a trade 

 amounting to millions yearly, and extending north and west and to the terri- 

 tories of the Rocky mountains. 



The soil is of diluvial formation, in many places underlaid with marl. Some 

 of the bottom lands are of great fertility ; the uplands a sandy loam, sometimes 

 modified by clay, and occasionally of a gravelly character. For peaches and 

 other fruits and for gardening it is remarkably well adapted, and. is easily and 

 cheaply fertilized by oyster-shell lime, marl, and grasses brought up by the tide.-. 



