1838] 



F A R JNl JC R S = R 10 (> I S T K R 



179 



ful and leisurely observation, of the reporter, that 

 my sunilry altompis in this journal to fief?cribc, 

 and to fiirnisli uselhl instruction by (locribinir, 

 some of the most intorcstinn: and peculiar tij^ricul- 

 fnral soils and practices in Virginia, iiave !iad but 

 little effect in sproadini^ the praciices which were 

 described and recommended. For this want of 

 common views and jiremises, it also often happens 

 that a person is tiic less filted to describe to stran- 

 gers, becaufjc of his loni,"- and intimate acquaint- 

 ance with the scenes and circumstances winch 

 furnish t'le subjects ; and the reverse, that a new 

 and even hasty and inaccurate observer and re- 

 porter mav be more likely to seize on the most 

 curious and novel points, and impress them the 

 more deeply on others, who are as io;norant of the 

 subject treated, as was the reporter bnt a short 

 time before. I hope to be excused for thus pre- 

 seniinir the claims of ignorance, or of very new 

 and imperfect acquaintance with the subject, to 

 n)ake agricultural reports ; for if that claim is not 

 allowed, there will be but little of value left to 

 mine, in this or in previous attempts, matle under 

 the like or f^reater disadvantages, of want ol' know- 

 ledge, and want of time and opportunity forproper 

 observation. 



Nearly half the boundaries of the county of 

 Gloucester are formed by the wide waters of York 

 river; but it is not on these waters, as I had sup- 

 posed, and as most strangers suppose, that the dis- 

 trict known as " low-ground^' is situated. This 

 great body of land is principally on the other side 

 of the county, and consists of more than 35,000 

 acres in one body. It befjins a little below Glou- 

 cester point, (opposite Yoiktown,) on the lower 

 part of York river, and includes the whole coun- 

 try to the North river. The short rivers Severn 

 and Ware cut through the low-ground, and the 

 extent of these and of North river, as exhibited on 

 the map of Virginia, shows the breadth of this 

 great body of land. The Severn, Ware, North, 

 and East rivers, are, in fact, not rivers, but merely 



wide— (and my imagination did not stretch lar- 

 iher, ) — were separated by ridges, or prujecting 

 points of higher land, dividing the waters of each 

 two contiguous rivers. But not so. Though 

 there are numerous and frequent variations of 

 level, yet thej' are so slight, that the eye can 

 scarcely distinguish them with certainty, or know 

 whether the general inclination of surface, lor a 

 mile or two together, is as it may ajipear, or direct- 

 ly the opposite. It is not by trosling to the eye, 

 but to the standing and flowing oCrain water, and 

 other certain indications, that the levels of the sur- 

 face are known ; and to the sifrht alone, the whole 

 of this great tract, varying from two to more than 

 si.K miles in width, (or more than the whole length 

 of the short rivers which cut through it,) and from 

 the mouth of York to the mouth of Piankatank in 

 length, is an almost perfect level, elevated but a 

 few feet above the tide-waters which intersect the 

 country. 



The "high-lands," which, by an abrupt and ve- 

 ry marked change, form the land or western boun- 

 dary of the low-grounds, are as different as one 

 soil and surface can well be from another. The 

 distance of twenty yards, and often much less, 

 will (renerally take the observer from low-ground, 

 having all its peculiar marks and qualities, to high- 

 land possessing none of them. For the present, 

 my remarks will be confined to the low-ground 

 district. 



The four short rivers are merely creeks, fdled 

 with the refluent waters of the Chesapeake. 

 They receive but little spring or fresh water in 

 streams, and therefore they furnish almost no al- 

 luvial deposite, to have formed, or aided in forming, 

 the low-grounds. But though not indebted to 

 the usual mode or source of alluvion, this great 

 and valuable body of land is not the less certainly 

 formed by deposites of the water. But it must 

 have been an oceanic, and not a river deposite; and 

 I entertain no doubt, but that the land once was 

 the bottom of the Chesapeake bay, and afterwards 



arms of Mobjack bay, which itself'is a broad and up-heaved by some ancient convulsion of nature, 



deep indentation of the jjreat Chesapeake bay 

 North river is between Gloucester and Matihews ; 

 and East river is wholly in the latter county; but 

 I have named them with the others because all 

 join to form iMobjack bay, and because the con- 

 tinuous level body of low-grounds, of simJar ap- 

 pearance, general character, and (jeoloirical for- 

 mation, extends across and around the whole; so 

 that a very uniform face and character are present- 

 ed on all the Chesapeake slope (if that may be so 

 called which is almost a deacl level,) of the penin- 

 sula formed by the York and die Piankatank ri- 

 vers. The same marked and pecidiar character 

 which distinguishes the Gloucester low-grounds, 

 belongs also to the Back river lands in Elizabeth 

 City; which, like the former, also lie on the reflu- 

 ent waters of Chesapeake bay. Indeed, the Back 

 river lands, which I had before slightly viewed, 

 and which are described in Vol. iii. of this work, 

 (page 414) are as much like the GIouc<'sler low- 

 grounds, as if they were part of them. The prin- 

 cipal difl'erence is, that the Back riversoil contains 

 gravel generally, and sometimes rolled stones or 

 pebbles, both of which are entirely wanting on 

 the Gloucester flals. 



Almost every stranger would suppose, that the 

 rivers are merely bordered hy low-grounds ; which, 

 however broad they might be— even if a mile 



a^, more recently, other regions have been known 

 to be, so as to be raised above the waters which 

 once covered it, and to which it owes its singular 

 formation, and irreut fertility and value. 



Contrary to the usual mode of describing soils, 

 I shall begin with these at the bottom, or at least 

 as low as the foundation is yet known. This is 

 believed to be one entire and continuous body of 

 what is here and elsewhere erroneously called 

 marl ; ancient sea-shells, broken down, disinte- 

 grated, or by their soilness ready to become so ; 

 which bed is seldom more than six feet below the 

 surface, frequently not three, and sometimes near 

 enough to be cut into by the plough ; and which 

 reaches lower than any digging for wells has yet 

 been carried. Wells, however, generally reach 

 enough water within G or 8 feet, sometimes within 

 four; and the deepest diggings heard of were in 

 one well of sixteen, and another of twenty feet ; 

 and of these, lor all but the upper three or four 

 feet, the digging was in these shells, or marl. 

 The earth on the marl is always wet with veins 

 of spring-water, and generally it is sufficiently 

 abimdant to sup[ily a well, dug any where as dt ep 

 only as the marl, and sometimes before. There 

 Usually lies over the marl a reddish yellow layer 

 of sand, having enough of clay to be adhesive, 

 and which varies in depdi from an inch, or lees, to 



