70 
for the purposes of agriculture. They are too far from the road to pay for hauling ; 
but for manufacture upon the spot, into a thousand useful forms of domes- 
tic or farm utensils, they would prove a source of wealth. In Middlesex: “ The 
Dragon swamp, which divides this from Gloucester county, is a vast belt of 
cypress timber, extending nearly thirty miles, with an average width of one-half 
mile. Very little effort has been made for the development of this vast source 
of wealth. At the head of navigable water, no enterprise offers a better invest- 
ment for capital.” 
It is scarcely necessary to refer to the mineral wealth of Virginia. To men- 
tion even the names of the counties, in connection with the several minerals 
discovered within their boundaries, would occupy the allotted space. The whole 
valley of Virginia, for instance, is full of iron, various ores of which are so com- 
mon that they have been used for making walls instead of fencing. From 
Botetourt, through Roanoke, Montgomery, Pulaski, Wythe, Smyth, Carroll, 
and Washington, to the southwest corner of the State, iron, of fine quality, is 
found in great abundance. It has been practically and successfully tested, for 
/many years, at a few points. Several furnaces are now in operation in Wythe 
and other counties, and more are in contemplation. In Pulaskiis found “ iron- 
ore in great abundance of the finest quality. There has been, until recently, 
no effort to develope it. A company from Pennsylvania have purchased 
several tracts, and are now building houses, with a view to commencing opera- 
tions in the spring. They have purchased very low, and I have understood 
the property, if located in Pennsylvania, would command several millions.” 
Since the war, a company from Connecticut has purchased a property in Carroll, 
and have erected a smelting furnace costing some $100,000, and will shortly 
commence working it. They have raised a large amount of ore, said to be very 
rich. 
The Bath furnace property, in the Shenandoah valley, with several thousand 
acres of wood-lands in the vicinity, is offered, under compulsory circumstances, 
for a short time, at a price nearly nominal; and there are other iron-bearing 
tracts of, perhaps, equal cheapness. But this condition of things is now rapidly 
disappearing, and prices are advancing as the pressure of adverse circumstances 
is removed. 
Gold is found in Stafford and other counties, and has been worked to advan- 
tage at various points. Copper is seen in the mountains of the Blue Ridge, and 
is abundant in the upper portion of the valley of Virginia, and is mentioned par- 
ticularly in Louisa and Smyth. Coal is found in all the southwestern counties. 
In Pulaski, as is claimed, the coal beds underlie 100,000 acres. Lead has been 
discovered in Wythe, Smyth, and other counties ; zinc in the same counties ; 
and plumbago in Smyth. Salt is abundant in Washington, Smyth, and other 
southwestern counties. Barytes is reported inSmyth and Montgomery. Gyp- 
sum, slate, marls, ochres, kaolin, pipe and fine clay, limestone, and serpentine, 
are very abundant in many sections. The minerals of Virginia will soon be a 
source of wealth to individuals and the nation. 
4. There are few specialties in Virginia agriculture, except tobacco and 
wheat, and stock growing in mountainous regions. ‘The scarcity of money, and 
despondency, caused either by defeat in the late war, or from losses sustained in 
it, have operated to depress enterprise. A correspondent expresses the general 
feeling thus: “'There is not energy enough among our farmers or laboring 
classes to make a specialty of anything, except to get bacon and corn-dodgers 
enough to drive starvation from their doors. Stock is about the only resource 
upon which we depend for what little money we require. Farms are large, 
averaging from 500 to 3,000 acres, and we hold on to them with a death grip, 
as if our interest in Heaven depended upon our broad acres, and will not culti- 
vate it ourselves nor allow others to do so.”? This is the case, to some extent ; 
yet the evidence is abundant of a growing disposition to sell, to invite immigra- 
