THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



389 



Much can be done by our legislature in aid of 

 agriculture. All unnecessary burthens must be 

 removed. Due encouragement must be given 

 to the formation of agricultural societies. The 

 Board of Agriculture must be fostered and fur- 

 nished with the means of exteiuiing iis usefulnesss. 

 An agricultural survey, as conducted in Massa- 

 chusetts, would be attended wiih the happiest 

 effects. Agricultural schools and pattern liirms, 

 established in different sections of the state, would 

 be highly beneficial. By judicious legislation, 

 the country might, in the course of a few years, be 

 cleared of many vegetable pests which individual 

 exertions can never eradicate. On Blackwater and 

 other similar streams lie thousands of acres ol 

 now useless swamps, which by the concerted 

 action of all the proprietors could be made fertile 

 and valuable land. This can only be brought 

 about by legislation. The law of enclosures^ a 

 good and wise enactment, and one well suited to 

 the country at the time of its adoption, has, by a 

 change of circumstances, become a grievous 

 burthen, and needs alteration. Much time and 

 expense is now annually devoted to making and 

 repairing fences which would otherwise be devoted 

 to the improvement of the soil. 

 All of which id respectfully submitted. 



THE APPOMATTOX LANDS OP PRINCE GEORGE 

 COUNTY. 



[The following notes were prepared by request 

 of the committee by one of its members who is a 

 proprietor and cultivator in the small section of 

 the county described, and which section has a 

 peculiar character, and being almost isolated, is 

 but little known except to its residents, and was 

 not embraced in the foregoing general report. 

 These notes were not sent in until the report had 

 been adopted by the society, and when the action 

 and authority of the committee were at an end. 

 The secretary of the society has therefore sent 

 it with the report, and it is here appended.— Ed. 

 Far. Reg. 



This part of the county lies between the Ap- 

 pomattox river and City Point road from Peters- 

 burg as far as Broadway, which is four miles 

 above City Point. The Ibrmalion of the country 

 IS beautiful. The range of hills which leave the 

 river above Petersburg, and at the foot of the 

 lalls, approach it again below Athol, (a distance 

 01 five miles) forming nearly a semicircle. They 

 contain within their enclosure a bottom of per- 

 •f^-^'^-i''^® thousand acres, to the soil of which 

 It IS difficult to give a general designation, bein^ 

 sandy, mulatto, and pipe clay alternately. Of this 

 nearly the whole is in cultivation, for the fijnces 

 are kept up and fuel is supplied from the woods 

 of the neighboring hills. From the hill or hills 

 me land is an inclined plane to the east, for a 

 mile or more, varying very little. Though the 

 suriace water, finding no natural vents, accumu- 

 lates m many of the lowest places, and these are 

 (.very improperly) called swamps. High land and 



inWn r'^u ^^^""y ^'^^'■^ ^^e" supplied with 

 springs of the purest fresh water. Pine, oak, 



gum, chestnut and cedar are, I believe, found in 

 abundance. The good timber for houses has 

 long since been consumed in Petersburg. No 

 reasonable fear can be entertained that there will 

 ever be a scarcity of wood Ibr fencing and fuel 

 as the quick growth of ihe pmes forbids it. I 

 have been told by a gentleman near me that* he 

 has sold the successive growths of pine from the 

 same piece of land three times since he owned it. 

 Within the bounds assumed I do njt think more 

 tlian one-third of the land is cultivated. Pe- 

 tersburg is a good market Ibr corn-shucks and 

 hay, consequently the cattle are lew and small. 

 Few horses are raised, and only four persons 

 have sheep, and their flocks are small. No 

 disease among the cattle prevails here. 



As the object of the society is to know the 

 available means of improving the land in each 

 section of the county, 1 shall confine myself to 

 that only, leaving all other subjects of inquiry to 

 those members of the committee who are gene- 

 rally acquainted with the county, and who must 

 be better inlbrmed on them than one who is 

 comparatively a stranger. 



jVlarl has not been (bund above City Point 

 nearer than two or three miles, (in this county. > 

 I We have several reasons to be satisfied with our 

 ' location, from the low price of oyster-shells and 

 the success which has attended ihe application 

 of lime to every soil in this part of the county. 

 Mr. Herbert Whitmore's /arm, and Mr. Marias 

 Gilliam's, have in a few years put on a new /ace, 

 and land that was thought worthless, is now well 

 set in clover, and the crops of corn, wheat and- 

 oats are four or five times what they would have 

 been under the old plan. Shells can be bouo-ht 

 in Petersburg fbr 37i cents the hogshead, flb> 

 bushels,) or one dollar delivered on the farm, and 

 on the spot they are to be burned. Three hoc^s- 

 heads will lime a little more than an acre at a 

 peck to 36 square yards. They lose nearly a' 

 third in burning. On that beautilLiI but neglected 

 li'tle farm. Mount Airy, the properly of Mr. 

 Nolting of Richmond, shell lime applied in 1828° 

 and the land cultivated by tenants every year 

 since, can now be plainly seen in the superior size 

 of the crop. Some of the members of the com- 

 mittee know the lad that manure is cheaper in 

 Petersburg than in any town in the Atlantic 

 states, and that six loads of manure can be paid 

 (or by a load of wood, ihe wood and the manure 

 being hauled by the same team, going and re- 

 turning. A farmer finds a ready market, at a 

 (air price, in Petersburg, for every thing that is 

 food for or can add to the comfort of man or 

 beast. 



Draining ia another means of improvement 

 which I deem it proper to mention. A sub-stra- 

 tum of pipe-clay or fuller's earth underlays most 

 ot the county east of the Broadway road, which 

 prevents the rain water from sinking, and on the 

 surface there are lew natural vents, the land be- 

 ing level, consequently tlie water accumulates in 

 the lower places, which are improperly called 

 swamps, and are thought to be of no value. The 

 land is soured, and when cultivated produces no- 

 thing without draining. A few years ago Mr. 

 John E. Meade drained a piece ofthisTtind of 

 wet land, on the City Point road, by surface 

 drains four or five feet at top and a few inches at 

 bottom, across which the ploughs could easily 



