“STATUS OF VIRGINIA AGRICULTURE IN 1870. 27% 
sively, particularly in localities having convenient transportation to the 
northern markets. Great numbers of hogs were formerly raised in the 
counties adjacent to the Dismal Swamp, from which was made the finest 
quality of Virginia bacon. The business is still pursued to some ex- 
tent. In the neighborhood of Norfolk are the largest vegetable and 
fruit gardens in the South, which for the last thirty or thirty-five years— 
perhaps longer—have been supplying the northern markets with early 
fruits and vegetables, until now the trade has acquired extraordinary 
proportions, and is still growing from year to year. The soils of this 
part of the State are, as a rule, light and easily worked; very fertile 
along the margins of the streams, and readily susceptible of improve- 
ment generally, from the inexhaustible beds of shell-marl lying within 
its limits, and but a few feet below the surface. It embraces the coun- 
ties of Prince George, Surry, Sussex, Southampton, Isle of Wight, 
Nansemond, Noriolk, and Princess Anne. 
2. Piedmont district.—This is, by excellence, the tobacco-growing re- 
gion of Virginia. Leaf of fine quality for both manufacturing and 
shipping purposes is grown in several counties north of James River, 
and in one or two at the southern extremity of the valley ; but the best 
descriptions, and always commanding the highest prices, are produced 
in this district, and more particularly in the counties bordering on and 
adjacent to the Blue Ridge. The general surface of the country is quite 
undulating, in many places hilly, with a soil for the most part naturally 
fertile, and resting on a strong red clay—in some places yellow. It 
abounds in springs and streams of the purest water. The soil is also 
well adapted to corn, wheat, and clover. The counties constituting this 
division are Dinwiddie, Chesterfield, Powhatan, Amelia, Nottoway, 
Lunenburg, Greenville, Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Halifax, Charlotte, 
Prince Edward, Cumberland, Appomattox, Campbell, Bedford, Pittsyl- 
vania, Franklin, Henry, and Patrick, a very large and important sec- 
tion of the State, extending from James River on the north to the Caro- 
lina line on the south, and from the Petersburg and Weldon road on 
the east to the Blue Ridge on the west. This is the only large division in 
the State in which the slaves formerly outnumbered the whites. There 
is still much disparity between the races in several of the counties; but 
owing to the gradual influx of settlers from the North, and the tendency 
of the blacks to move farther south, the numbers are becoming every 
year more nearly equalized. ; 
i. THY VALLEY. 
Naturally this is the most fertile region of the State, and, as it was 
only partially subjected to the blighting infinences of slavery, it has 
ever been the most prosperous. Ii is the division in which the system 
of mixed husbandry has been most fully carried out. It is a superior 
grain and grass country, yielding bountifully of wheat and corn, and 
‘stocked with fine animals. Great numbers of cattle are fattened for 
the northern markets. The horses are generally of the heavy draught 
breed, attaining large size like the western animals. Sheep and swine 
thrive. Dairies abound in every part of the valley, and fine butter 
is the source of considerable income. Apple orchards are numerous. 
For the most part it is divided into farms of small size. The soils are 
to considerable extent calcareous, resting on a limestone formation. 
We see in the population only a small infusion of the old Virginia 
element, being composed chiefly of Germans and Scotch-Irish. Before 
the war more evidences of prosperity were exhibited here than in any 
other division of the State east of the Alleghany Mountains; and 
