364 



FARMERS^ REGISTER. 



[No. 6 



more nrirrow dellRorravinep, (they cannot be cnll- 

 ed valleyf!,) which are eeldom wet, except near 

 their lower ends. 



From the ciiaracters of thif= land, it. may be in- 

 ferred, as is truly the case, that no other kind i? 

 made to exhibit po easily and stronij-lv the opposite 

 effects of good and bad culfure. On some firms 

 still, (as on nearly all at some Ibrmer times,) 

 barren red galls rover almost half the surface of 

 these hills; and on others, they are covered, uni- 

 formly and heavily, with crops of gram or grass, 

 which mark soils of great fertility. 



3. These rich, or once rich hills, chanir^ almost 

 insensibly, as we recede fi-om tlie river, to the poor, 

 and generally "<rray lands," which constitute the 

 third, and very far most extensive body of lands, 

 and even though the limit ol"observation be drawn 

 only three miles li-om, and parallel to the river. 

 These lands areofthal pale color, not liiiired with 

 red, which, though incorrectly desiiriiated, are well 

 known through middle Virginia, as "grav lands." 

 The sub-soil is also "gray," and generally a gra- 

 vel. The soil is a loam, and is here caili'd"licrht;" 

 though we in the lower country would certainly 

 notconsider it a sandy, or light" soil. It is poor, 

 in the virgin state, and the surface nearly or quite as 

 broken or steep as the river hills; and altogether, 

 it would seem to be as worthless land as ( have 

 elsevyhere seen tillasre thrown away upon, but for 

 the tew yet indubitable evidences "afforded of the 

 capability of this land of being highly and profit- 

 ably improved, by putrescent manure and gvpsiim 

 combined — of which some particulars wilf be sta- 

 ted in the course of the succeeding remarks on a 

 particular farm. 



Nearly the whole of this region, including all 

 the two first classes of soil, and as much of the 

 third as was cleared, was at former times greatly 

 impoverished, by exhausting tillage, and liy the 

 total want of every means for restoring or retain- 

 ing fertility. Eut lor more than twenty 3'ears, and 

 in some cases much longer, nearly every farm has 

 been kept in an improving state, thoush, with 

 much variety of eflecls; and taken altogether, the 

 wholestringpfriver farms Ibrms a highly improved 

 and Btill improving district. The great recupera- 

 tive power of the originally rich lands, and especi- 

 ally of the low-grounds — and the good effect of 

 gypsum and clover on both the hifrh and low, 

 have afforded the strangest inducement, and the 

 principal means, for making this general improve- 

 ment. 



In the following pages will be submitted the re- 

 sults of my personal observations and inquiries in 

 regard to a particular farm of the district described 

 generally in the foregoing remarks; to which that 

 general description applies correct!}^, and which 

 furnishes striking and unquestionable evidence of 

 the improvement and profit which may be there 

 made, by a judicious direction of industry. 



No. IV. 



SOME ACCOINT OF THE FARMIIVG OF RICH- 

 ARD SAMPSON, KSQ., OF GOOCHr..ANr>. 



The farm of Richard Sampson, is eighteen miles 

 above Richmond, and lies either just above, or is 

 cut through by, the western out-cropping of the 

 great coal field. It is about central of the region 

 above generally described, and was naturally worse 

 than the best, and better than the worst of these 



lands. The original tract was bought in 1816, the 

 time of the highest prices, for thirty thousanri dol- 

 lars. It then consisted of six hundred and seven- 

 ty acres in all, about two hundred and thirty-live 

 of which are of river low-ground, and the balance 

 of river hills, except a very small part which ex- 

 tended into the gray or poor back land. By sub- 

 sequent purchases of tliis latter kind, the owner has 

 enlarged his farm to one thousand and filiy acres. 

 At the time of his purchase, about thirty-five to 

 forty acres only ot' the highland was in hut tolera- 

 ble condition lor tillage, and promising an immedi- 

 ate product that would pay for us workinij. All 

 the balance had not only been worn down lO' a 

 state of poverty, but was galled and gullied, as 

 badly as a long continued course ofshallow plough- 

 ing for com and other grain crops could effect — the 

 corn rows beinir laid off and ploughed both ways, 

 or crossing at right anu'ies, and, of course, running 

 up and down hill. The farm had been for the 

 previous thirty years cultivated by Philip Wood- 

 son, who is still alive, and always was a highly re- 

 spectable man. and whose statements command 

 entire credit. He had first been employed asman- 

 ao'er by the proprietor, who was his kinsman, and 

 whose son-in-law he afterwards became; and in 

 these two capacities, and subsequently as tenant 

 under the succeeding proprietor, his long exhaust- 

 ing management continued; which, however, was 

 not mo're exhausting than most lands, if able to 

 bear to it, were there subjected to. Tenants, nei- 

 ther then or now, can be supposed to feel (or to 

 believe themselves to be) interested in improving' 

 the lands they rent. Mr. Woodson told Mr. Samp- 

 son that lor these thirty years, certainly, and sup- 

 posed from a much earlier time, the regular course 

 of cropping, or rotation, had been corn and wheat, 

 repeated incessantly, without an interval of rest 

 between any two terms. As t6 any other means 

 for mitigating the rigor of this course, the then 

 almost universal practice, of the proprietors as 

 well as tenants, may satisfy us that there was but 

 little used. What rate of production the washed 

 and gullied hills were reduced to, under this sys- 

 tem, could not be known; but Mr. Woodson stated 

 that twelve bushels of wheat to the acre was a, 

 good crop for the low-grounds. 



The new purchaser considered the low-groundss 

 as the only land worth any thing for cultivation — 

 and for that he was content, to pay the purchase 

 money. The highland (with the small exceptioti 

 of the thirty-five to forty acres above named,) was 

 merely valued as a place of residence — as produ- 

 cing wood and some grazing — and for what might 

 possibly be crca/ed oi' future fertility and produc- 

 tion. Of still less value were the latter purchases 

 esteemed, made, at various times, and of sundry 

 persons; sometimes to get a little more wood-land 

 — sometimes to remove a bad neighbor. One of 

 the latest of these additions, which I saw, coat 

 something over three dollars the acre; while for 

 the piece adjoining, worth no more, but more dif- 

 ficult to be acquired, six dollars was paid. 



The rotations adopted, were diflferent on the 

 low and high lands, and have not remained re- 

 gular on either; but have been altered, either for a 

 time, or entirely, according to changes of circum- 

 stances. Such changes must be called for on any 

 farm in a progressive slate of iuiprovemenf, even 

 when markets do not greatly change the demand 

 for different products. 



