170 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



are found, which are ponds of rain water in winter, 

 but dry in summer. None of this lar<fe propor- 

 tion of our lands has paid the expense of clearing 

 and cultivation, arul much the greater part still re- 

 mains under its native growth. Enough however 

 has been cleared and cullivaled in every neigh- 

 borhood, to prove its utter worlhlessness, under 

 common management. The soils oi" ridge lands 

 vary between sandy loam and clay loam. It is 

 difficult to estimate their general product under cul- 

 tivation ; but judging from my own experience of 

 such soils, the product may be I'rom five bushels of 

 corn, or as much of wheat, to the acre, on the most 

 clayey soils, to twelve bushels of corn, and three 

 of wheat on the most sandy — if wheat were there 

 attempted to be made. 



"The slopes extend from the ridges to the 

 streams, or to the alluvial bottoms, and include the 

 whole interval between neighboring branches of 

 the same stream. This class ofsoils forms another 

 great body of lands — of a higher grade of fertility, 

 though still far from valuable. It is generally 

 more sandy than the poorer ridge land, and v/hen 

 long cultivated, is more or less deprived of its soil, 

 by the washing of rains, on every slight declivity. 

 The washing away of three or four inches in 

 depth, exposes a steril subsoil (or fi^rms a "gal!") 

 which continwes thenceforth bare of all vegetation; 

 a greater declivity of the surltice serves to form 

 gullies several feet in deplh, the earth carried from 

 which covers and injurea the adjacent land. 

 Most of this kind of land has been cleared, and 

 greatly exhausted. Its virgin growth 'is often 

 more of oak, hickory, and dogwood, than pine; 

 but when turned out of cultivation, an unmixed 

 grovvih of pine follows. Land of this kind in gen- 

 eral has very little durability ; its usual best pro- 

 duct ol" corn may be, for a lew crops, eighteen or 

 twenty bushels — and even as much as twenty-five 

 bushels, from the highest grade. Wheat is seldom 

 a productive or profitable crop on the slopes, the 

 soil being generally too sandy. When such soils as 

 these are called rich or valuable (as most persons 

 would describe them,) those terms must be consi- 

 dered as only comparative ; and such an applica- 

 tion of them proves that truly fertile and valuable 

 soils, are very scarce in lower Virginia." 



The ridge-lands are universally acid in a high 

 degree; which, according to the doctrines main- 

 tained in the work above quoted, is but repeating 

 in other words the great deficiency of lime, and as- 

 serting the great value and profit of using calca- 

 reous manures on these otherwise worthless soils. 

 It is on ridge-lands that the greatest improvements 

 by marling have been produced in lower Virginia ; 

 and when once so improved, these will be perma- 

 nently among the most valuable lanils in the 

 whole region. On some of the lands from which 

 the above quoted picture was correctly drawn, I 

 have since made as much as 35 bushels of corn to 

 the acre, without any manure, except marl ; and 

 the land marled at dilHrenl times, fiom one year 

 to twenty years before, showed, in the crop of 1839, 

 degrees of improvement increased in proportion to 

 the length of the time which had pas?ed since 

 the first and only application of the manure. It 

 is these extensive and before seeming hopelessly 

 barren lands, whidi, vvhen marled, will make low- 

 er Virginia both a rich and healthy region. For 

 the same defect of natural constitution which for- 

 bids these poor soils to hold putrescent matter, and 



thus store up fertility, causes the products of pu- 

 treliicliun to be diiTused through all (he atmo- 

 sphere, lor the production of disease; and the same 

 process which will retain the Ibod of plants in the 

 soil, cuts off from the air its previous supply of 

 poisonous exhalations. 



In generalizing the characters of the different 

 soils of this great region as above, and attemptmg 

 to arrange them in separate classes, let me not be 

 understood as meaning that the dis ^iguishing 

 marks belong to all of each class, or that there are 

 always certain and evident lines ol" separation and 

 distinction between the different kinds of soils 

 named. I have stated the strongest marked fea- 

 tures of each, though but a pmall proportion of 

 the whole surface is so strongly marked. And as 

 the surface is passed over by insensible gradations 

 lirom the ridge of the slope, there is an intermix- 

 ture of characters in most places. Thus, ridge- 

 lands of any extent no where preserve through- 

 out their precise rigid character, but in some 

 places more or less partake of that of the slopes. 

 For strictly speaking, the ridges being the precise 

 lines of separation between streams (iowing to op- 

 posite directions, are extremely narrow; but as 

 the same ridge formation stretches out into the 

 intervals between the side springs, the same ge- 

 neral character of soil may spread for miles in 

 width, and over the general surface, with the ex- 

 ception of the narrow margins and very slight 

 slopes of the head springs and their brooks. 

 Again — the soils designated as on "slopes," 

 though being on a surface generally declining 

 from the highest ridges, still are sometitnes level 

 for considerable extent, and even lake in many of 

 the lower ridges between the branches of sinali 

 streams. These exceptions, and the grounds of 

 them, are obvious both to the practical observer, 

 and to one who would merely judire of effects 

 from the causes above supposed. The explana- 

 tion is rendered necessary, however, because the 

 terms used, "ridges" and "slopes," are not sufR- 

 cientlv precise, or descriptive. 



In the whole of the tide-water region, to which 

 my description of soils and the levels of surfaces 

 are more especially applicable, though often bro- 

 ken in surface, and even very hilly, (in com- 

 mon parlance,) still, correctly speaking, there is 

 no such thing as a hill between the liills of the 

 rivers and the sand-hills on the sea-shore ; that 

 is, there is no spot of land rising from all sides 

 greatly or even considerably above the genera! 

 level." What are called hills, are numerous 

 enough, and often high, and sometimes steep. 

 But the}' are only slopes rising from a lower to a 

 higher level, and on the sides of a deep ravine or 

 narrow valley cut down through the general level 

 or plane of all the ridges. The thick forest growth 

 on these ridges, serves to form the visible horizon 

 from every point of view ; and that horizon is 

 every where as even in height and as level as it is 

 possible lor any Ibrest growth to be. 



The very remarkable and continuous levels of 

 the summits of the ridges, notwithstanding their 

 narrowness and crookedness, suggest some other 

 considerations which will be briefly mentioned. 

 They present the most admirable sites for the 

 construction of rail-roads, if the route is at all suit- 

 able to the points of supply and demand of agri- 

 cultural products. The advantages for this pur- 

 pose are not only in the near approach to a level 



