J835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



417 



the net profit of an acre of land, well set in grown 

 mulberry trees, at less than .*;100 per annum, and 

 some writer has put it at .^300. Now, can this 

 be shown conclusively — or, in other words, are 

 any of your various companies prepared to rent or 

 purchase lands, well set in grown or five years old 

 trees, at any thing like the above prices? If these 

 queries can be answered in the affirmative, hun- 

 dreds of our citizens who are now forcing their 

 lands into market, to move west, at from $5 to $7 

 per acre, would be induced to remain and cultivate 

 silk. 



There is no agricultural staple in the world, as 

 little liable to fluctuation in price, nssilk. It. will 

 be at least fifty years beiore we can supply the 

 home demand; and England must ever be an im- 

 porter to an immense amount. 



Now, sir, let me state one more fact, in regard 

 to the net profit per acre per annum, in this State, 

 of cultivated land. It is less than $6, and I am 

 fullv prepared to prove it. 



Very respectfully, 



J. E. GRAY. 



P. S. I myself have gone largely in the busi- 

 ness. 



SOJIE ACCOUNT OF THE WILD HORSES OF 

 THE SEA ISLANDS OF VIRGINIA AND MA- 

 RYLAND. 



Pliarsalia, (Accomac,) BOih July, 1835. 



To the Editor of the farmers' Register. 



Your favor of the 20th inst. I did not receive un- 

 til nine days after its date, and during a period of 

 considerable engagement. You wilfdo me only 

 justice, by attributing the tardiness of the reply to 

 these causes, rather than indifference to your 

 wishes. No enterprize, of a temporal nature, 

 more deeply enlists my feelings, than the improve- 

 ment of the agriculture of Eastern Virginia, and 

 particularly of this interesting section of the state: 

 and the man of science who voluntarily devotes 

 his labor and talents to the accomplishment of an 

 object so important to the best interests of our 

 country, I would honor as an illustrious benefactor. 

 The Eastern Shore of Virginia possesses physical 

 advantages to the agriculturist and man of taste, 

 rarely united in any other portion of the earth. 

 Its climate is in bad repute abroad, and I regret 

 my inability to give my testimony in favor of its 

 salubrity. But the autumnal bilious, remittent, and 

 intermittent fevers of our peninsula, depend upon 

 causes, perfectly under the control of human skill 

 and industry; and the period will come, when its 

 general health will equal that of any other coun- 

 try in the same latitude. The inflammatory dis- 

 eases of our spring and winter, are comparatively 

 mild; and pulmonary andthoracick affections more 

 rare than in any other more northern portion of 

 the United States. There are more cases of 

 coughs and dangerous colds, terminating in fatal 

 consumptions, in one village of our northern and 

 eastern states, in a single winter month, than oc- 

 cur in the dense population of our two peninsular 

 counties in a whole year. While marshes and 

 low grounds can be drained, the Eastern Shore 

 has no reason to despair of a pure atmosphere; 

 but industry must be excited into activitv to ac- 



Vol. Ill— 53 



complish so desirable an object. The marshes of 

 Italy, and particularly in the vicinity of Rome and 

 Naples, though exposed to a hotter sun, have in- 

 jured the health of those populous cities but little, 

 until within the last few years, when they have 

 been neglected. 



That the health of this shore is susceptible of 

 immense, improvement, my own experience fur- 

 nishes abundant evidence. The gentleman who 

 owned the farm on which I have resided for nearly 

 twenty-four years, was forced to leave it, and seek 

 a healthier situation. Every member of his fami- 

 ly had been attacked with a dangerous grade of 

 bilious lever, in August and September — and ver- 

 nal intcrmittents — that surest proof of miasmatic 

 poison, and a sickly situation — were frequent. 

 This did not deter me from a purchase; for the 

 source of this terrible contamination, I soon dis- 

 covered, and instantly applied the remedy. I 

 drained two pretty extensive ponds of half stag- 

 nant water, near the homestead, and half a hun- 

 dred others more remote, as soon as I was able: 

 and the consequence was, that during the whole 

 period of my residence here, with a numerous fam- 

 ily, not. one case of spring intermittent has ever 

 occurred, and but few fevers of any kind, and those 

 yielding readily to the gentlest remedies. 



But I am travelling, inadvertently, from the 

 more immediate subject of your letter, if youragri- 

 cultural work obtained a wider circulation here — to 

 which it has the highest claims — I might occa- 

 sionally offer some hints, that your superior judge- 

 ment could improve, in a way to add to its merit- 

 ed popularity. Permit me to assure you, that I 

 would, at, any time, be highly gratified with an 

 opportunity of furnishing a column or two of plea- 

 sant or useful matter for your interesting and patri- 

 otic journal; but the subject, to which you have 

 invited attention, will, I fear, disappoint my 

 wishes. 



The florid description which you have recently 

 received of "wild horses" and "horse pennings" 

 u pon our Atlantic islands, was better suited to what 

 they were thirty years ago — and indeed, before 

 my knowledge of Virginia — than to their present 

 appearance. The horses have been gradually di- 

 minishing in number, by neglect, until on one 

 island, they are nearly extinct; and the rustic 

 splendor, the crowds, and wild festivity of the 

 Assateague horse-pennings, scarcely retain a 

 shadow of their ancient glory. The multitudes 

 of both sexes that formerly attended those occa- 

 sions of festal mirth, were astonishing. The ad- 

 joiuing islands were literally emptied of their sim- 

 ple and frolic-lov'ng inhabitants, and the peninsula 

 itself contributed to swell the crowd, for fifty miles 

 above and below the point of meeting. All the 

 beauty and fashion of a certain order of the fe- 

 male population, who had funds, or favorites to 

 command a passage, were sure to be there. All 

 who loved wild adventure — whose hearts danced 

 at the prospect of a distant water excursion, and a 

 scene of no ordinary revel, where ihe ocean rolled 

 his billows almost to their feet; all who had a 

 new gown to show, or a pretty face to exhibit, 

 who could dance well, or sing; belles that sighed 

 for beaux, and beaux that wanted sweethearts; all 

 who loved to kiss, or to be kissed, to caress, or be 

 caressed; all, in short, whose hearts delighted in 

 romance, without knowing its name, hurried 

 away to this anxiously expected scene of extrava- 



