336 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



fhermome'er observrd at sunrise, 2 P. M. and 9 

 P. M., at Old Point Comfort, and the quantity ol 

 rain in inches, have been as follows : 



The climate may therelbre be considered a mild 

 one. Lettuce and cabbage plants stand the win- 

 ter with slight protection, and the fig-tree rarely 

 suffers. The live oak, though by no means a 

 general forest tree, grows luxuriantly in many 

 places, and appears here very nearly to have 

 reached its northern terminus. 



The soil of Elizabeth City, for the most part, 

 consists of a light sandy loam about seven inches 

 deep, based invariably on stiff clay. In the Back 

 river country it contains a murh smaller propor- 

 tion of sand," and is consequemly sliffer and more 

 difficult to work. Extensive alluvial depnsitcs are 

 Jbund in the neighborhood of most of our water 

 courses, containing large quaTiiiiie.9 ol' marine 

 shells in all stages of decomposition, imbedded in 

 a dark rich vpHetahle mould, commonly called 

 Indian banks, from the supposition that they were 

 deposited by the Indians. Shell marl has been 

 found at the heads of some of our creeks. One 

 sample, that I analyzed, yielded about 65 per cent, 

 of lime. In the Back river district no vestige ol 

 marl has been discovered, although the Indian 

 banks are abundant. Green sand has been found 

 on James river, a few miles above Newport s 

 Noose. I have heard of but one experiment 

 with it, and that did not result favorably. Nor 

 have the experiments with marl been generally 

 successful ; from the (act, I believe, of its havina 

 been too freely used on land entirely deprived ol all 

 vegetable matter. On the farm adjoining Hamp- 

 ton', owned now by Mr. Jefferson Sinclair, it has 

 been of serious disadvantage. It was applied ^by 

 the former proprietor at the rate of from 250 to 500 

 bushels per acre. Neither corn, wheat or oats 

 were grown upon it. Clover and Palma Cliristi 

 appear to be the only crops at all capable of re- 

 sisting its deleterious influence. 



Your opinion, that the, lands in lower Virginia 

 are entirely devoid of calcareous matter, must be 

 received with some modification. 1 have ana- 

 lyzed soil taken from lour different parts of my 

 farm on Hampton Roads, all high land, and lound 

 in each instance a portion of lime. This, m con- 

 junction with the fact that marl, except in very 

 email quantities, has invariably proved injurious 

 when used in this neighborhood, would go far to 

 prove that our lands in the south-east part of the 

 county contain a fair proportion of lime. Do not 

 understand me to say that they contain enough ; 



for on the very fields where I found lime by ana- 

 lysis, I am using the Indian banks with manifest 

 advantage, especially to the clover crop. 



The following is about the average analysis I 

 made of my soilT 440 grains of earth contained of 

 Water of absorption, - - 15 gre. 

 Coarse silicious sand and gravel, 8 

 Dndecomposed vegetable fibre, 1 

 Fine silicious sand, - - 353 

 Calcareous sand, - - - 5 

 Carbonate of lime, - - 4 



Veiretable matter destructible by 



heat, . - - - 7 

 Silica, - - - - 27 

 Alumina, - - - - 7 

 Veizeiable and animal extract, 3 

 A trace of magnesia. 

 Loss, 10 



440 



Our water is good and abundant. We have 

 springs, but our supply is usually derived from 

 wells'! We have rarely to ditr more than ten feet. 

 In summer our out cattle frequently suHer for 

 want of water ; there is no excuse for this, as it 

 could be so easily remedied by sinking wells in 

 the neighborhood of their ranaes. But in lieu of 

 these, we resort to water holes scooped out to re- 

 ceive the rain water, that at certain seasons 

 covers our woods. This supply in course of lime 

 becomes stagnant and putrid, and ultimately 

 dries up. 



In this county we may safely say, that we 

 suffer more from wet than drought- 



Where water-power is used for manufacturing 

 purposes, we rely exclusively on the tide-water, 

 by damming up the heads of creeks. In this way 

 we get a small fiill, which enables the miller to 

 I'riiici about filteen hours out of 24, on both the 

 flood and ebb tides. Mr. Dubre has on Back 

 river a mill on this construction which grinds 

 excellent meal and flour. 



We have no mill ponds in the county. There 

 was a few years past, a very extensive one on the 

 county road leading to Yorktown, but the property 

 has recen ly fallen into ihe hands of Mr. William 

 MrClain, who proposes to convert it into an arti- 

 ficial meadow. He has already expended a large 

 sum in tide gates, diichina and embankments, and 

 is sanguine of success. This will be a most im- 

 portant, improvement, as ii will at once break up 

 a hot-bed of deadly malaria. 



The proportion of cleared to uncleared land £ 

 have no correct means of knowing, but we have 

 estimated as follows: two-filihs in arable land, 

 one-tenth in waste land, and the remainder in 

 woods. 



A large portion of the wood land is covered 

 with a second growth of pine, having been once 

 under cultivation and turned out. 



Very little has been done in the way of artificial 

 meadows, and our natural meadows consist chief- 

 ly of salt marsh. These afford extensive and 

 luxuriant grazing, and in some situations the cat- 

 tle are raised exclusively upon them, having never 

 tasted a grain of corn, or blade of fodder.- 



The amount of hay cured is very limited ; 

 none is offered for sale, and I presume not more 

 than 50 acres are annually mowed. This is the 

 more surprising, as all the artificial grasses thrive 



