1837] 



FARiMERS' REGISTER. 



22» 



tlioir lamls, of which, they have, as yet, vvasleil 

 and destroyed but a small [)ro|)ortioii. It would 

 bt! both very easy, and very prolitable, to otleci 

 this object, il" conunenceil now; bin if the edort is 

 delayed as loni; as is expected, the lands of War- 

 ren will be reduceil to the same hopeless state ot 

 iuipoverishnient us has been produced by the like 

 course on much land north of the Roanoke and 

 other parts of the hke hilly re<);ion of Y'lrginia, 

 in the same ranife above the falls. Hopeless, be- 

 cause the naturally rich st)il, vvhicii, if lelt, could 

 have recovered, will be washed away, and no cal- 

 careous manures can be obtained to aid in reviving 

 these, or to teriilize the naturally poor soils. War- 

 ren county now has a lar<re [jroportion of produc- 

 tive soil, and nmch tliat is very valuable; but let 

 these be as much worn and washed as the contin- 

 uation of the present cultivaiion will certainly ef- 

 fect, and there will be no agricultural region more 

 worthless, or of which the profitable resuscitation 

 will be more desperate. 



The present productiveness of the Warren lands, 

 and the great returns which have been derived 

 from even their heretofore wasteful and impover- 

 ishing cultivation, is sufficiently proved tiy the 

 amount of annual income, and of' accumulated 

 wealth, of all the cultivators who have pursued 

 well (that is with industry and economy,) their 

 very bad s^'slem; and of the whole number, the 

 proportion is very large of thriving and wealthy 

 men. 



It was stated above, that the rocks of Warren 

 are of the same kind as are found in the narrow 

 strip of country in Virginia which lies over and 

 immediately above the fiills-^and that the flice ol' 

 the country, in form and unevenness, was like a 

 higher range of lands, as in Brunswick. Amelia, 

 &c. But I should infer, that in the texture and 

 character of the soil, the lands of Warren were 

 more like those of a siill higher ranije, such as are 

 presented in Charlotte county in Virginia. Tfie 

 appearance of the deep red clay sub-soil, and its 

 known improvable nature, where lying under the 

 best soils in Warren, seemed to indicate its gene- 

 ral resemblance to the fine soils of Wanlslbrk in 

 Charlotte, and on James river in Goochland, both of 

 which somewhat ap[)roach the peculiar character- 

 islicsof the noble soil ofthe South-west Mountains. 

 I have long been satisfied that the peculiar value 

 ofthe latter lands, and their fitness to be improved 

 by clover and gypsum, is caused by their having a 

 large (though still not sufficient) natural proportion 

 of lime. No one has thought of trying clover and 

 gypsum in Warren; but I incline to believe that 

 they would operate well on the best soils, (as the 

 slopes ofGreat and LitdeFishing creeks,) and if so, 

 there would be found new and immense resources of 

 fertility and profit. But without resorting to these 

 aids, and by merely using putrescent manures, and 

 avoiding the most exhausting tillage, it would be 

 easy to preserve the present productive condition 

 ofthe Warren lands. 



There are scarcely any pine trees in the natural 

 forests, and none at all on the good red soils. Oaks 

 of difierent kinds form the principal growth, and 

 next to oaks, hickory seemed most abundant on 

 the better soils. I saw but little of the latter kind 

 of land — and on that, no growth that elsewhere 

 indicates very great fertility, or calcareous, or oth- 

 erwise very fine soils — as pawpaw, walnut, locust, 

 hackberry, &c. Much ofthe surface is strewed with 1 



small rocks, (notrouiulcd,) the kinds of which have 

 an evi(rent relation to the (|ualities ofthe soils; and 

 an observer who united a knowledge of mineralogy 

 and geology with that of the agricidlural (jualitieg- 

 ol'soiis, might, in this respect, make impoi;tant and 

 highly useful discoveries. 1 greatly regret that I 

 cannot bring any such knowledge to bear on ag- 

 ricultural investigations — though even to my igno- 

 rance, it is evident that great would be the public 

 gain if vve had any well informed, observing and 

 communicative liirmers, who understood how to 

 apply to agriculture the truths of chemistry, min- 

 eralog}^, and geology; or, if our chemists and geol- 

 ogists had any thing oli and did not slight in iheir 

 investigations, and treat with disdain, the proper 

 knowledge of agriculture. 



The stones are rarely thick enough to require 

 being removed, or to be put into heaps, to be out of 

 the way of tillage; and their presence is considered 

 desirable on the hilly lands, as serving partially to 

 prevent the washing away ofthe soil. I infer that 

 it is not the existing stones which have this efl'ect, 

 mechanically, but that the soil, formed by the for- 

 mer disinteijration of such stones, resists washing. 

 The stone Ibund on the ridges is quartz, (or "flint 

 rock,")^v'^''6,ordullyellow, and incliningto brown, 

 according to its greater or less degree of purity — ■ 

 and the whiJest and purest indicates the poorest 

 soil. On the richest soils of tlie slopes there are 

 other kinds of stone. The first is principally alu- 

 minous, of a dull yellowish brown color, when 

 newly broken, and the fi-acture as rough as that of 

 a half burned brick. The gravel, which is very 

 abundant over this land, is mostly formed by the 

 former disintegration of this comparatively soil 

 rock. On the best soils of the slopes, besides this 

 rock, there is another kind, or perhaps t\vo others, 

 the black and blue, both very hard, heavy, and 

 evidently containing much iron^ The li-acture is 

 smooth, the interior color is dilferent shades of 

 slate color, and sometimes purple. In some, it 

 has a blackish ground, filled as thickly as possible 

 with minute specks of white. The deeper cuts 

 made for the railway (along the ridge) exhibit 

 throughout what seems as the mouldering skele- 

 ton of an ancient rock formation. To the eye the 

 appearance is that of rock, as shown in the regular 

 structure of its layers and veins, and position of the 

 materials; to the touch, it is but earth, and crum- 

 bles into a mixture of clay, fine sand, and coarse 

 (Travel, all of which are seen separate, though 

 close adjacent, before the removal. The colors 

 are also as different, and distinctly separated, as 

 are the qualities which affect texture. Parts of 

 the rock form a perfectly white earth, some yel- 

 lowish or pale red, and some a deep red inclining 

 to purple. The present exposure would present 

 an interesting study lor a geologist — and yet I 

 doubt whether the liarmer could learn any thing 

 from the report of a geologist on the rocks of this 

 region, except perhaps that "here is granite — 

 here grauwacke — and there lies micaceous slate;" 

 Irom which we are able to learn as little from tlie 

 men of science, as they will stoop to acquire of our 

 more humble practical knowledge. The world ha.s 

 as yet derived almost nothing of the immense, ines- 

 timable benefits, which are to be found, and might 

 be attained by proper instruction, in the combined 

 application of science and agriculture. All the 

 most important principles in agriculture rest on 

 the truths established by, or derivable from, chem- 



