446 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



from $10 to $20 per acre, and large tracts of unimproved, but naturally fertile 

 soils, are fti market for from $2 to $5 per acre. The quantity of land taken up 

 by the settlers respectively, varies greatly, many purchasing from five hundred 

 to a thousand, and even two thousand acres, with a view to future speculation ; 

 and others being governed in this respect by their means, their peculiar views of 

 farming operations, and their probable prospects of realizing compensating prof- 

 its on the capital and labor hivested. Probably the greatest number of settlers 

 have contented themselves with from one hundred to one hundred and fifty acres, 

 although there are several with twenty-five, thirty, forty and fifty acres, who 

 find themselves "well to do in the world " Aviih these humble allotments, and 

 who contrive by a thorough and systematic cultivation of every portion of their 

 domains to compensate for their limited area when compared with that of their 

 neighbors. 



3. With regard to the average products of these lands, and their comparative 

 productiveness under their former and present owners, I am not in possession of 

 sufficient means of information to speak with any certainty ; and probably a suf- 

 ficient length of time has not yet elapsed since the change to afford the requisite 

 materials for determining this point. In the greater number of instances, 1 am 

 inclined to the opinion that an injudicious and exhausting process of tillage, unac- 

 companied by the application of fertilizing manures, has rendered the work of 

 reclamation a slow one, and that at least a period of from two to five years will 

 be required to place the soil in a condition for testing its capabilities of production. 



4. The improvements already introduced by the new settlers in buildings, pro- 

 cesses of labor, agricultural implements, &;c., are very perceptible and obvious; 

 and it is easy for the passing traveler in any portion of this county to distinguish, 

 at a glance, as he rides by, the farms belonging to the " Yankees," from those of 

 the original settlers. In fact, in many instances, he may travel for miles with- 

 out discovering any other but these " Yankee " settlements, the " steadings " of 

 the Virginians being generally remote from the road and for the most part out 

 of view, while the Northerner uniformly locates within a few rods, at farthest, 

 from the highway, that he may " have an eye to windward," and know " what 

 IS going on." There is likewise a very manifest difierence between the archi- 

 tectural taste of the two " people " in the erection, arrangement and conveniences 

 of the family mansion — the advantage being decidedly in favoV of the North. 

 Seldom, moreover, do you find a good, substantial barn, on a Virginian farm of 

 ordinary pretensions. Never do you find a Yankee without one, even though its 

 expense may seriously cripple and retard the construction of his dwelling. The 

 vast, lumbering, unsightly and cumbrous market-wagon of the Virginian, with 

 its retinue of five powerful horses, surmounted by " out-riders," and filled with 

 supplies adequate to the relief of any ordinary garrison, to say nothing of beds 

 and bedding for the accommodation of men, women and children, during the 

 journey of two or three days and nights to the market town, is wholly unknown 

 to the enterprising and ingenious Yankee ; nor could he by any possibility be 

 made to believe that his two-horse lumber-wagon could not easily transfer to 

 Washington and Creorgetown, in a single day, at least twice the quantity and 

 value stowed in these immense and formidable machines. As to the matter of 

 fact involved in these rival pretensions, 1 cannot undertake to determine ; but 1 

 " opine " that ten years hence the present market-wagon of Fairfax County will 

 be ranked among the curiosities of the past. Sure I am that a New-Yorker who 

 had never witnessed a similar vehicle would stare with amazement upon its 

 enormous volume and its intricate machinery : and that the advent of sucii a 

 wagon, accompanied with all its " fixins," in Broadway, would create a sensa- 

 tion at least equal to that with whicii the good citizens of Newburgli on the 

 Hudson surveyed the first steamboat which anchored opposite their goodly town. 



5. The wages ordinarily paid for free labor in this vicinity are from seventy- 

 five cents to one dollar per day ; and so far as my own experience goes, and my 

 information ext<;nds, no difiiculty exists in obtaining this species of labor for aH 

 tiie various purposes for which it may be required. 



6. The " proximity of slaves and slavery," except so far as this institution is 

 to be regarded in a moral point of view, and in connection with the principles of 

 a sound and enlightened political and social economy, is by no means " olVensive " 

 or "annoying" to our people, under the circumstances iu which they find them- 



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