1S37] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



231 



that lias been made of this part of tlie value. | 

 But to all who will send their crops to market hy 

 the railway, or who possess lands that will he in- 

 creased in value and price by the new fiicility nl- 

 fJjrded, there are inducements ollered to sustain the 

 work, still more important. It is true that these 

 profits cannot be apportioned accordinfj 'o the re- 

 spective amount ol" subscrij)iions, but will be shar- 

 ed by all, whether contributintr to aid the work or 

 not. Rut that very condition should *jive fiprce to 

 the moral oblijialion on all who are to be mani- 

 festly benefited, to aflbrd aid — and that they should 

 not remain indebted to the contributions or alms oi" 

 others, for profit and wealth to themselves. 



The Ibrest irrowth of Warren is fjenerally beau- 

 tiful — beintr principall_v of oaks, whi(di surpass all 

 other trees in beauty and mafrnificence. In many 

 pans there is very little nnder-fjrowth, and the 

 trees, and the whole rrround as left by nature, form 

 a scene as beautiful as any fjrove or pleasure 

 gtrounds planted or nursed by man, and far more 

 gratifyins; to my view than any such product of 

 art. The little villaiie of Warrenton owes its 

 great and peculiar beauty to havinnr been built in 

 an oak forest, and many of the trees having been 

 left, and of course as irrefrular in position as nature 

 would fix, and correct taste would desire them to 

 he. A lew acres of the fine oaks in some parts of 

 Warrenton, for beauty and rfrandeur, are worth all 

 the aspens, balm-of-ijileads, lombard3^-poplars and 

 other exotics planted in straifrht lines and at right 

 angles, in the Capitol Square in Richmond. I hear- 

 tily wish that the trees of our Capitol Square and 

 their tasteless superintendents, whoever they are, 

 were both rooted out effectually. The bad taste 

 exercised in the planting of that beautiful location, 

 was as great, as the total ignorance of the qualities 

 •of soils and manures displayed in the means used 

 to enrich the ground. 



The village of Warrenton is three miles distant, 

 by a nearly level cross ridge route, from the Ra- 

 leigh and Gaston rail road. I was informed by 

 the engineer who has in charge that division of the 

 road that a lateral railway from "Warrenton might 

 be constructed and used so cheaply, that it is sur- 

 prising that it has not been undertaken bv those 

 interested in the trade and prosperity of Warren- 

 ton. The existing trade of that place is merely of 

 import — of commodities brought to be sold by re- 

 tail to the neighboring people. Ot' course all the 

 heavy transportation is towards Warrenton — and 

 to facilitate that alone, and to avoid any chanire of 

 loading between Petersburg and Warrenton, would 

 bean important object. But this is not half the bu- 

 siness that might be expected for this little railway. 

 It would make Warrenton, what it never has yet 

 been, or aspired to, a place of deposite and sale for 

 country produce, and of the export trade to larger 

 towns. This will follow of course, (if the present 

 trade is retained) when the transportation from 

 Warrenton is made almost as easy and as cheap 

 as if it was altogether on the main road. All the 

 people of the neighboring country buy their man- 

 ufactured goods and groceries in Warrenton, and 

 a vast amount of money is in that manner annu- 

 ally expended in that place. Now if the mer- 

 chants would buy, as well as sell, and could give 

 the Petersburg and Norfolk prices, with the mere 

 deduction of the cost of transportation to market, 

 (and surely they could afford this to all who bought 

 of them,) then the convenience and interest of the 



farmers would concur in making that a place of 

 sale, as much as now a place li^r llieir jnirchases — 

 and the one kind of tratic would oiler additional in- 

 ducements lor the other, so as greatly to increase 

 both, and the whole trade of all kinds. 



The great improvement made by substituting 

 canals (or niill-tionds is extending in the counties 

 of Halifax and Warren. I was told of several re- 

 cent changes of the kind, which had worked ad- 

 mirably. By one, a pond of three hundred acres 

 has been changed to valuable arable land. In 

 another case, Mr. W. W. Thorne, of llalifiix 

 county, owned a mill, the pond of wliich was 

 deemed so injurious to the health of his neigh- 

 bors, that they offered him twelve Itundred dollars 

 to cut the dam. He made a canal which is onlj- 

 six feet wide, and which, as yet, takes in only the 

 smaller of two streams, which before supplied his 

 pond: and notwithstanding, besides the pecuniary 

 payment, and his share of land covered by the 

 larn-e pond, he has gained a considerable increase 

 of water power — while his neighbors have gainer? 

 the fiir greater benefit of relief from sickness. 



It seems, that though the mill law of North 

 Carolina is much the same as that of Virginia, 

 that in practice its operation is not so enormously 

 unjust and injurious; because, for the erection of 

 every new mill, it is necessary for the proprietor 

 to establish clearly that a mill is there wanting for 

 the public convenience, before he can ])ut it up. 

 It is therefore that Warren is yet generally healthy, 

 instead of being like Brunswick, or as it would have 

 been, if situated in Virginia. The general practice 

 •under the law in Virginia, is for juries to assess 

 very small damages for the land actually over- 

 flowed, none lor any land otherwise damaged by 

 the accumulation or discharge of water — not a 

 cent for the chance of poisoning a neighborhood 

 by the production of malaria — and withal, to grant 

 this power of destruction, not because the public 

 interest strongly requires a new mill — nor even 

 because individual interest requires it — but often 

 because the whim, or the isnoiance, or even the 

 spirit of rivalry and malice in an individual, 

 prompts him to build up another mill in a neigh- 

 borhood, where there were, before, more than 

 enough for all useful purposes. The only efl^ec- 

 rual opposition has generally been found to be 

 that of the owner of an older mill, who dreaded 

 the opposition of a new one: and their neighbors, 

 who were to suffer disease or death from the new 

 poisoning establishment, have generally acted as 

 if they had no interest whatever in the question. 

 Yet it"" we could bring back the money (and mo- 

 ney's worth of time and labor,) paid and lost by 

 the sickness, and prostration of vigor, caused by 

 the effluvia of mill ponds — and the population des- 

 troyed, or driven abroad to the west, by the same 

 cause — Virginia would be made at once compara- 

 tively a rich and populous country. 



From the Cultivator. 

 MULT.EIIV A SAFEGUARD AGAINST MICE. 



The common Mullein, ( Verbascum,) Harkher- 

 mer informs us, after being properly cleared of the 

 adhearing earth and other impurities, is extensive- 

 ly used in German graneries, roots, stocks and 

 flowers, in order to prevent the depredations of 

 mice, and that it affords a complete protection 

 against these vermin. Bundles of it are placed in 



