SOLON ROBINSON, 1849 231 



which they hope will not only improve their own herd, 

 but give an impetus to improvement of the stock of all 

 that region. They have also contracted for 40,000 bush- 

 els of lime to be sent forward. This will cost them, deliv- 

 ered on their plantation, ten cents a bushel. Mr. B. has 

 just been informed that a great freshet in the Roanoke 

 has burst their embankment and injured their crop of 

 corn materially, and has probably destroyed a great deal 

 of corn upon all the low grounds of other plantations. 

 New York, Nov. 1th, 1849. 



Farm of Mr. Bolling, in Virginia. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 8:254-55; Aug., 1849] 



[May ?, 1849] 



One of the most interesting places that I have visited, 

 during my long journey through the southern states, is 

 the farm of Robert B. Boiling,^ at Sandy Point, on the 

 James River, 70 miles below Richmond, and 65 above 

 Norfolk, at the junction of the Chickahominy. It is the 

 old Lightfoot- estate, and contains about 7,000 acres, 

 2,700 of which, in one enclosure, Mr. B. has in cultiva- 

 tion ; that is, 1,000 acres in wheat, 535 in corn, 50 in oats, 

 and the remainder is one half in clover, and the other half 

 in fallow, including the necessary ground for yards, gar- 

 dens, buildings, and roads, which are plenty and good. 

 Of course, the quantity of acres, in the different crops, 

 vary slightly with each year. 



* Boiling was considered one of the best planters in the Old Do- 

 minion. For further description of his agricultural operations see 

 American Agriculturist, 9:364-65 (December, 1850). A complete 

 description of this plantation and Boiling's plantation method was 

 given by his overseer, A. Nicol, in the Farmers' Register, 9:213-16, 

 343-45, 485-87, 586-89 (1841). 



^ Bolling acquired the Sandy Point estate through his wife, Sarah 

 Melville Menge. Her mother had received it through her first 

 marriage with William Howell Lightfoot. See William and Mary 

 College Quarterly, series 1, vol. 3:108 (October, 1894). For fur- 

 ther information on the Lightfoot family, see Tyler, Lyon Gardiner 

 (ed.). Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, 4:169-70 (Lewis His- 

 torical Publishing Company, New York, 1915). 



