274 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER, 



forefathers overlooked, which we find best per- 

 formed by operalives fresh from the Emerald 

 Isle. 



REPORT TO THE STATE BOARD OF AGRI- 

 CULTURE, 



ON THE BRANDON FARMS. 



By Edmund Riiffin. 



General description of the alluvial and low lands 

 of a part of James river.— The low-grounds or allu- 

 vial lands on the tide- water of James river are of 

 two distinct kinds, and both of them very different 

 from what are usually called "low-grounds" on that 

 and other rivers and smaller streams above tide. 

 In all the latter cases, great as is the diversity of 

 soils and their conditions, there would always be 

 understood to be ageneral agreement in these cha- 

 racters : soils having been formed by ihe depo- 

 eites of overflowing freshets, to which the lands 

 are still more or less subject — being wet enough 

 generally to need draining, on account of springs, 

 as well as of inundation — and rich and well con- 

 stituted as to their earthy, as well as alimentary 

 ingredients. The low or alluvial lands of the 

 tide water of James river, especially from Curies 

 Neck, in Henrico, to Jamestown island in James 

 City county, inclusive, are either ofreceni or o{' an- 

 cient alluvial Ibrmalion. The recent alluvial, are 

 the marshes, still subject to be covered by tides, 

 either of common or uncommon height. These 

 lands contain scarcely any silicious sand, and 

 their only earthy ingredients are such as would 

 remain long suspended in slowly moving waters, 

 and subside slowly where the water was still, or 

 the least agitated. Of course, this deposite is 

 etill and continually going on, and will continue 

 as long as fine earthy and putrescent matters are 

 washed from the hiijher country, and brought 

 down by the river. Half the weight and per- 

 haps nine-tenths of the bulk of such soils con- 

 sist of vegetable matter. But as rich as they are, 

 even the highest of these lands are worth nothing 

 for tillage, and scarcely any thing for grass and 

 pasturage, unless embanked I'rom the tide as 

 well as being drained. And when so embanked, 

 and made dry enough )or tillage, the vegetable 

 and putrescent matter, and oi" course much the 

 larger portion of the soil, run quickly iiiio decom- 

 position, (from which they were protected before, 

 by being continually covered by or saturated 

 with water,) and the land actually rots away, 

 until its surlace has been reduced so low, that it 

 has became again too wet for cultivation, or even 

 for good grass ; when the wetness will again 

 protect the remaining soil from further waste. 

 All the many and very expensive improvements 

 of such lands, by embanking and draining, after 

 a few years of luxuriant and heavy products 

 under tillage, have been lost, and the lands have 

 become again, as at first, worthless for agricultu- 

 ral purposes ; and, by loss of their former height, 

 and of their previous fine growth of trees, (if the 

 land had been high enough to bear trees,) these 

 embanked lands, when again yielded to the do- 

 minion of the tides, are greater nuisances than 

 before. There is scarcely an estate having 



such land attached, which would not be made more 

 valuable by the total removal of the marsh. And 

 if all the tide- marshes on the river and its creeks 

 could be sunk twenty feet below the lowest tide, 

 it would be almost as great a blessing to the pro- 

 prietors, and to the neighboring residents, as 

 would be the draining of all the mill ponds. The 

 marshes, however, as a source of disease, bad as 

 they may be, are exceeded in that respect by the 

 mill ponds. Of course, the river farmers rarely 

 derive any substantial benefit from these marshes, 

 to counterbalance their ill effects. 



The only other kind of what may be considered 

 as low-grounds are al?o manifestly of alluvial 

 formation, but of a time very remote, and when the 

 waters which deposited these lands had an ele- 

 vation, a volume, and degree of rapidity and power, 

 very far exceeding those of the river now. Ge- 

 nerally, where the lands (other than marshes) 

 do not exceed 20 feet in perpendicular elevation 

 above high tide, and are moderately level, they 

 are of this ancient alluvial formation. They are 

 scattered at intervals along both sides of the river, 

 but much the larger part on the northern side, in 

 detached pieces, varying in size from less than 

 100 to several thousands of acres together. Such 

 lands were at first among the richest of lower 

 Virginia, and for their valuable qualities and 

 general advantages are still among the most 

 desirable liirming lands in our country. The well 

 known and valuable farms of Curies Neck, Shir- 

 ley, Eppes' Island, Berkeley, Westover, VVey- 

 anoke, Sandy Point, and Jamestown Island, on 

 the north aide of James river, and of small parts 

 of Jordan's Point, Flower-de-Hundred, and all 

 Brandon, on the south side, as well as other 

 tracts less known to the writer, are of this par- 

 ticular formation and character. And though 

 varying greatly, in many respects, they all pos- 

 sess a general uniformity ol aspect and of quality, 

 which distinguish them from all other neigh- 

 boring lands. These general remarks are but 

 prefatory to the particular subject of this report, 

 which will be the two Brandon estates, in Prince 

 Georae county. 



The Brandon lands. — Brandon Neck, (the old 

 and still usual name (brail bodies of land thus stretch- 

 ing out into the river,) is a broad and low-lying 

 peninsula, formed by James river and Chapokes 

 creek, and contains several thousand acres of land, 

 distinctly marked from the very poor and high table 

 lands, that lie immediately adjoining. The whole 

 "neck" rnibiaces uot only the two estates of 

 Upper ai)dJ>iOwer Brandon, which alone will Ibrm 

 the particular subject of this report, but also two 

 smaller farms adjacent, of inferior soil, and to which 

 no farther reference need be here made. Thus the 

 name Brandon has several different applications, 

 which should be borne in mind, to prevent con- 

 fusion. The whole peninsula ia called Brandon 

 Neck. Brandon, simply, was the one estate 

 tbrmerly held by Benjamin Harrison, and which, 

 after his decease, being divided between his two 

 sons, G'^orge E. Harrison and William B. Har- 

 rison, the two separate properties are now 

 known, the former as Lower I3randon and the 

 latter as Upper Brandon. The terms lower and 

 upper have no relisrence to the elevation of the 

 surface, but merely to the relative position of the 

 lands in regard to the river. These two estates 

 are each divided into two separate farms ; and 



