PROSPECTS IN VIRGINIA FOR NEW SETTLERS. 



475 



square acres are incluiled in the acre, 28 feet being 

 the perch or pole insteiid of 16V. 



The varieties of potatoes in Great Britain and Ire- 

 land are very numerous. A native of the Emerald 

 Isle has told me he was acquainted with 100 kinds, 

 and Rees mentions more than .sixty. The names 

 given them are taken from some property, use or 

 excellences, or from the place where they are 

 grown. Thus, Connanght Cups take their name 

 from that part of Ireland called Connanght, and from 

 the use sometimes made of them by the peasantry'. 

 White and Red Dons are white and red gentlemen. 

 Berwick Blues and Perth Reds are di.«tinguished by 

 their color and the Scottish towns, Perth, and Ber- 

 wick. 



The titles are sometimes ludicrous — fuUy express 

 ing the value placed on this root by the lower classes. 

 'ITius they have English, Late White and Red Cham- 

 pions ; Winter, Late, Red-nose and Pink-nose Kid- 

 neys : Irish Apples, Golden Tags, Ox Noble, Poor 

 Man's Profit, Lady Queens, Lords, — and the gentle- 

 men before-mentioned — the Dons, and the Diimken 

 Landlord. 



This root is said to be a native of Peru — the land 

 of Guano, and was first carried to Europe by Sir 

 Walter Raleigh, who on his return from Virginia in 

 lGi!3, left the seed in Ireland. It may now be called 

 the bread-root of Europe. With the manure from its 

 native country more than 18 tons per imperial acre 

 have been produced in England. 



PROSPECTS IN VIRGINIA FOR NEW SETTLERS. 



PROPOSED SETTLEMENT OF NEW-JERSEY FARMERS IN THE VICINITY OF PETERSBURG. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Library : 



HicKSFOKD, Greenville Co. Va. F»b. ID, 1846. 



This place takes its name from the circum- 

 stance of its being a "forduig " place on the 

 " Mcherrin ' River, and is the seat of govern- 

 ment of the county above named. The sur- 

 rounding country is fiat, and the growth of tim- 

 ber is pine and oak. I did not expect so .soon to 

 strike the cotton region, but that plant consti- 

 tutes, here at the end of a day's railroad journey 

 from Wa.sliington, one of the chief staples of the 

 county ; hence it is carried by railroad to the 

 Factories at Petersburg, and the surplus thence 

 to the North, where capital, greater indu.stry 

 and superior intelligence, as.sisted by the legisla- 

 tion of the countrj-, are levying, and will forever 

 levy contributions on sloth and ignorance. By 

 superior intelligence I do not moan that there 

 are not, in the slaveliolding States, men, very 

 many men. of bright and cultivated intellect, ex- 

 celling in vivacity and force, men of the same 

 relative standing toward the masses, to be found 

 in the North — not at all ! When I speak of the 

 superior intelligence of the North, I refer to the 

 maxxes, to the great body of voters, who prevail 

 at elections and control the legislation and 

 shape the policy of the covntry ! 



Suppo.se it were possible, by some magic 

 power, to lift up this whole county, and place it 

 in the midst of Pennsylvania, or New-York, or 

 Connecticut, or Massachusetts ! Imagination can 

 scarcel}' conceive a greater transformation than I 

 it would undergo, in the course of a few years. 

 The portraits of Hecate and of Hebe present no ' 

 greater contrast than would the pictures of what 

 it is and what it voiild be. The land is naturally | 

 good and easily tilled, with a railroad for trans- I 

 (999) 



portation of produce at the rate of 5 cents a 

 bushel for corn and eight for wheat, with great 

 water power, -which in New-England would 

 give employment to many more people than 

 now inhabit this county, all of whom would be 

 non-producing consumers of agricultural pro- 

 duce. 



Oak wood is cut and brought and delivered 

 in the village for $1 50 per cord, and pine wood 

 is delivered at the railroad depot for seventy fire 

 cents I You may judge, therefore, of the cost of 

 labor. The land around sells from $1 to $3 or 

 $4 an acre. A gentleman residing here has 

 lately offered 1500 acres within two miles of the 

 railroad for $4 an acre, on one, two and three 

 years' credit, with all necessary buildings, even 

 an ice-house, and a great quantity of wood, and 

 oak and ash timber. River low grounds?, that 

 with indifferent cultivation will yield from 40 to 

 50 bushels of Indian Com, sells for $12 to $15. 

 Surely it behooves those who are invested with 

 power to rule over the destinies of this naturally 

 glorious region of countrj-, to renounce the mis- 

 erable blighting spirit of party, and to strive 

 with one heart, to di.scover and banish the moral 

 incubu.9. whatever that may be, which sheds its 

 withering blight over the face of this land. You 

 would imagine that in a country where houses 

 are going to ruin, where fields once arable and 

 fertile are abandoned to wood, and the wild ten- 

 ants of the woods coming back to reinhabit . 

 them, you would see eveiy man at work, strug- 

 gling night and day to resist the progress of 

 dilapidation, as " a brave man struggling with 

 the storms of fate ; " but instead of that, it is a 

 rare thing to see a white man laboring system- 

 atically at the plow through the whole country. 



