188 



FARMI^RS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3 



affect the land, and no superficial sprinfrs have to 

 be intercepted, except along the loot of the hills, 

 at ;he junction of the high and low land. Being 

 so much secured from both these causes of v/et- 

 ne.?s, which are such great evils elsevvhere, the 

 farmers here, who do not border on the high- 

 lands, have directed their operations exclusively to 

 draining the surface, and seem lo consider nothing 

 else as wanting. My objections to their plan 

 have been ur<red at length, in the foregoing re- 

 marks on bedding. But even if their plan of 

 surface-draining were perfect, and though the land 

 is in a great degree secured from suliterraneous 

 and spring water, still I think that ilie land would 

 be much benefited by deeper ditching. Though 

 there is scarcely a spring which rises lo, and flows 

 off at the surface, still, as before stated, wells 

 every where reach veins of springs at only a few 

 feet below the surface ; the depths of which 

 vary from 2^ feet on the shallowest black, to 6, 

 or at most 8 feet, on the deepest gray land. As 

 the water, and a continued supply, may thus be 

 found in every spot, it may be inferred that it is 

 under the whole of the land. If the whole of the 

 few feet of the earth, lyinif above the marl and 

 the spring?, were of an absorbent and pervious 

 texture, there is no question but that the under- 

 ground spring water, having no low and sufficient 

 outlets, would be continually risino: by the absorp- 

 tion of the soil, and would affect the surface 

 injuriously. This rising of the water may be, 

 and probably is, generally prevented here by the 

 almost universal substratum of close and tena- 

 cious clay, which serves as a shield against the 

 subterraneous water. But still, the absorption 

 must be injurious, wherever the sub-soil is at all 

 open, in fissures, or otherwise; and this I infer 

 must be the case to some extent inider most of 

 the black soil. It is therefore probable that if the 

 ditches, which are now seldom more than 2^ feet 

 deep, were sunk considerably deeper, they would 

 cut into, and discharge at the lower level, much 

 spring water, which now, thouirh never visible, 

 and its operation not even suspected, is slowly but 

 continually rising into and injuring the land, and 

 still more the crops. These remarks apply to 

 ditches on all the low-grounds. But besides, 

 along the base of the hill where ditches are 

 now always kept to cut ofT the little spring water 

 that is visible, it is likely that deeper ditches would 

 serve to cut off a much greater quantity, which 

 now flows in a level so low as not to be visible, or 

 even suspected. Experiment could easily settle 

 these questionable points. 



]My examination of the Gloucester lands, and a 

 email part of Matthews, was commenced on my 

 arrival on the 11th of May, and ended five days 

 afterwards. Even this short time, which at best 

 permitted but a superficial view, was made short- 

 er, (in more senses than one,) by the urgent 

 claims made on my time by the hospitable atten- 

 tions of gentlemen to whom before I was person- 

 ally unknown, and whose kind invitations and at- 

 tentions there was no resisting. The hospitality 

 of Gloucester has long been celebrated; and, as 

 generally in former times through lower Virginia, 

 is carried to an injurious and blameable extent; 

 which however is now a fault in but few other places, 

 because both the land and the owners are now 

 too much impoverished to continue the exercise of 

 old Virginian hospitality. That Gloucester is yet 



able to do so, and that so many of the land-hold- 

 ers are still rich, or in easy circumstances, is only 

 to be accounted for by the general fertility of the 

 land which they have to cultivate. But though, 

 to a visiter and stranger, there is every thing to be 

 gratified with, in the refined manners and social 

 habits which prevail here, and though I had espe- 

 cial reason to be thankful li)r the kindest and most 

 flattering attentions, still these were so many im- 

 [ledimenls to my progress through tlie county, and 

 still greater to my leaving it. The Gloucester 

 people Avelcome the coming, and feast the slay- 

 ing, but do not "speed the parting guest." Being 

 fore-warned of these kindly-meant restraints, 1 

 tried ai first to beg oil from dinner t)arties and 

 visits upon appointment: but with so little efiect, 

 that I soon found it necessary to cease opposition, 

 and was scarcely a free agent during my stay in 

 the county. But in other respects, every aid was 

 given to my movements and observations, when 

 permitted to be so eng;iged; and I was carried 

 either through, or close by and in full view of, 

 nearly all the farms from Severn to Morlh river. 

 The only part of the low-ground district which 1 

 did not see, was the part called Guinea, near the 

 lower part of York river. This is very low land; 

 and in that respect very like that of Matthews. It 

 is settled exclusively by a number of poor people, 

 who live more by fishing than by tillage. The 

 land, though rich, and firm, is so low as to be co- 

 vered by the highest gust-tides, and therefore ia 

 the less safe, and productive. I saw such very 

 low lands, which had sometimes been swept over, 

 and the growing crops destroyed, by salt water, 

 on the farms of J. Sinclair, esq. in Gloucester, and 

 of Wm. II. Roy, esq. in Matthews. On the low- 

 est of these lands at all fit for tillage, cutton is the 

 safest crop. Salt is e\ idently a specific manure 

 for that plant; as lime is for wheat, and gypsum 

 for clover; and of course, must always be fur- 

 nished, to bring the crop to the greatest perfec- 

 tion. 



On North river lies what was the Toddsbury 

 estate, formerly belonging to the late Philip Tabb, 

 who was celebrated as one of the best managers 

 and cultivators in lower Virginia, and one of the 

 earliest who had any pretension to be considered 

 a very good farmer. The estate is now cut up 

 into a number of ditlerent properties, and the gene- 

 ral condition, taken together, has fallen far below 

 its former neat order and productive state. But 

 the beauty of the old mansion and its location, 

 are still striking, even among so many adjacent 

 beautiful places, in better repair, or of more mo- 

 dern construction. The half of the estate owned 

 by Capt. Tabb, a son of the former proprietor, is 

 however in progress to a much hiiiher state of 

 improvement, by.his use of marl, with which his 

 father never ever, made an experiment, though it 

 is on the land in great quantity, and of very rich 

 quality. This is one of the most striking proofs 

 of the universal ignorance among the best, as well 

 as the worst farmers, not many years ago, of the 

 value of this manure, and of the natural constitu- 

 tion, and the wants of soils, on which that value 

 depends. But even the total neglect of marl by 

 Mr. Tabb is nut such strong evidence of this ig- 

 norance, as the contemptuous manner in which it 

 is spoken of by another still more distinguished 

 farmer and improver, John Taylor of Caroline; 

 who gives his opinion in his 'Aralor,' that if marl 



