10 



ai;i)C iarnur Vi iilontl) la JHeitor. 



rccolU-ctn.l that it belongs to the class of what 

 me called speciid niuiiuies, adnpte.l to imrticiilar 

 soils and even on the suil.-i to which it i.s a(hi|iteU, 

 retuiii-iMi; to he used in ditrerent qiiamilies ac- 

 rordiii" K> the coiidilion of the land lo wliicli it 

 is a|>i.hed,tliis spirit of caution is not an niii-eason- 



uhle one. . . , ,• i ,.„ 



JJein- somewhat of a vioneer in the lime hns- 

 handi-v in tliis portion of the Stale, leel mysel 

 called" on, -entleiiien, to give you the results o 

 mv experience. I have ii.e.l ahout 1-2,000 nish. ot 

 it,"(slaked iiipasurc,) iVonia qnany opened tor the 

 purpose on luv own land, which has heei, spread 

 over ahont 150 acres,al an average, therclore, ot 

 80 hushels to the acre, rionie accounts which 1 

 had reail of its eflects elsewhere, not expressed 

 with the accnr.acy and discriniination so iiiucli to 

 be desired in such connnunications, had led me 

 to expect a decided effect from it upon the ffrow- 



ina- croi'— t'y ^^'l''"^!' • ""-""" ''"= ""''"I'' °' V 

 emu or wheat, immediately succeediu2 the appli- 

 cation of the lime. Tn this, 1 was disappointed ; 

 but the discrepancy is probably accounted lor l.y 

 the fact that 1 have not hitherto used lime :n 

 combination with putrescent maiuires from the 

 firm yard or the stable, while others have most 

 probably done so,lhou-li that circumstanc^ vvas 

 not noted in thecumnnmications to which 1 re ei. 

 Mv first disappointment, however, in regard to 

 the efiVcts on the growlns: crop, was more thaii 

 comi.ensated bv tlie marked, unequivocal, and 

 dc-cided effect'l have never failed to jierceive 

 from the lime alone in the doixr succeeding the 

 wheat crop— with which it has been my general 

 l,ractire to apply the lime at the time ol seeding, 

 hanowiiiL' in the lime and wheat .it one and the 

 same operation. The increased lu.xuriance ot 

 the clover has furnished, of course, conclusive 

 evidence of the improvement of the land Iroin 

 the ain)lication of ilie lime, and has in Us turn, 

 inured to the still further amelioration ot the 

 poll All mv observations in regar.l to lime 

 would lead ine to the opinion that it is the most 

 permanent of all manures, and to conc_nr in the 

 conclusion"so forcibly stated by Dr. Jj'.mes An- 

 derson, one of the most copious and able ol all 

 the British writers on agriculture, "''" '", '"^ 

 most valuable "Essay on Lime" says Ilia! is 

 cff-eds on the soil loill be felt, perhaps as Ion l^ as lie 

 soUexisIs;" and this conclusion he jnstihes bv 

 the mode of its action altering the nature and 

 constitution of the soil itself, and emhiing .t with 

 cnpacities and afnnitics which it never^ jclore 

 possessed. My ai>i'licatioi.sof lime have oecii al- 

 most enlirelv on a close gravelly loain, ot_ a 

 brownish or"eray color; and the result ot a sm- 

 cle exiieriment on land of a diiferent description 

 wonld lead me to believe that it is not adapted 

 to the red ferrrusinous clay soils of the sides and 

 base of our. soutli- west mountain:). It is a proverb 

 in England and Scotland that 

 '• !!■■ li)nl Mnrl5 sand 

 \Vi;i -non buy I'^nd ; 

 Bin \\i: that limrls clay 

 'J'lirnws all away." 

 The reason that Dr. Anderson suggests for the 

 comparative inctTiciencv of marl on clay sods is, 

 that clav forms a larize proportion ot marl, and 

 the addition of clav to clay, therefore cannot be 

 expected to pro.luce so good an etieot. 1 he 

 same reasoning would furnish a solution of the 

 supoosed want of a.lnption of lime lo the red 

 clav soilsof the south-west mou:ilains/;ra;.'r. and 

 of 'its nnrpiestionable eilicacy on tlie_ adjacent 

 m-ayloam.sas a chemjcal analysis o! •he t.vo 

 BoiU has, I understand, disclosed the existence 

 nireaily of two per cent, of lime iii the former, 

 and ol' hardly any sensible quanuty whatever m 



the latter. . ,, i ■ ,i,i.. 



Nothing can be more certain tl.a'! too i..^.u., 

 beneficial effects of lime as a maiune,"!! a .arge 

 maiorityof our .soils, in which, according to an 

 analysis by Mr. lluilin, of as many .as si«;;en 

 different specimens taken from various and <. in- 

 fant parts of the State, lime is very rare;y cner 

 found as an original and natural mgreoient. 1 l.e 

 important i.ractical question, then, i.s, "'''•=",'"' 

 the expense of the application is justihed bv the 

 benefits of the manure. This is a question which 

 every person must determine for liims.^It accorrt- 

 in<' to his particular position, and Ins own views 

 of"profit and loss. For myself, 1 will only sav 

 that I have always found the best application l 

 could make of money derived from the land, 

 ,vfi5 lo return it back to the land iti the shape ot 



in.iirovement. There is no investment of capi- 

 tal which can be more safe, and in iimety-nine 

 out of a hundred cases, none half so prohtable. 

 If by laying out five dollars in manure on an acre 

 of land you make it produce you 'iO bushels o 

 wheat worth a dollar a bushel, when it produced 

 but five bushels belbre, and this product is re- 

 newed to yon every four years in an ordinary ro- 

 tation of crops, have you not secured an interest 

 of one hmidred p.u- cent, on the outlay you have 

 made, and at the same lime, increased the value 

 of your land four hmidred per centr And yet 

 results such as these, extravagant as they may 

 seem, and thotish we may be unconscious o 

 them ourselves, are ol'ten achieved by a liberal 

 and spirited system of improvement. The pas- 

 sion of us VirVmi'i farmers is to aciimre more 

 land— not to make the land we already possess 

 more productive. If a farmer should a.ld yearly 

 to his possessions a hundred acres ot land, he 

 would doubtless consider himself getting along 

 very prosperously in the world. But it at no 

 .'[•eater expense he can make a hundred acres ot 

 hmd twice or thrice as productive as they were 

 before, is he not doing much better, with the 

 great advantage of having a more com|)act sur- 

 face on which to concentrate his labor and care. 

 The mistbrtnne of our Virginia agriculture is 

 that we have already too much land lor the la- 

 bor we can brins to cultivate it. As we are not 

 likelv to make a'voluntary curtailment ot the ex- 

 tent of our firms, the greatest practical reform 

 that can be introduced into their management is 

 to curtail the arable sirface on each, and to lay 

 down a larger portion of our lauds to grass. In- 

 stead of wastini the energies of our soil by aii- 

 auallv spreading' over a wide surface a siiperh- 

 cial, negligent, and teazing cultivation, yielding 

 eoniiiarativelv nothing, how much better would 

 it be to culfn"ate one lialf or one third of the 

 si.ace we now do, to concentrate upon that all 

 our resources of labor and improvement, and lo 

 leave the rest to recruit itself by the healing pro- 

 cess of nature. Liebig has explained in a very 

 in-enious and philosophical manner the process 

 by^which lands laid down to grass are constantly 

 renewing and improving themselves, and has 

 thus confirmed the deductions of our own obser- 

 vation by the demonstrations ol science. Should 

 anv one'doubt whether we should derive from 

 the reduceil surface, better cultivated, a product 

 equal to that of the whole under inadequate cul- 

 ture, let him recollect the instructive story told 

 iiy old Columella, in his De re rustica, ol a Ko- 

 iiian vine-dresser, who had a vineyard and two 

 dau.dners; when his eldest daughter was married, 

 he gave her a third of the vineyard for a portion, 

 and vet he had the same quantity of fruit as be- 

 fore; when his second daughter was married, he 

 Olive her the half of what remained, and still the 

 produce of his vineyard was undimmished. 



This anecdote of the Roman agriculturist, 

 gentlemen, i.oints the full force ot it.s moral 

 against that fatal mania for emigration which has 

 hTtherto carried off so large and valuable a por- 

 tion of our population to seek wider domams 

 for themselves and their families in the prairies 

 of the west. U is not more land that we need. 

 We haveenou-h and more than enough already, 

 if properly cultivated and improved, for our- 

 selves and'our children alter u,-. It is industry, 

 improvement, good husbandry we want to de- 

 velope the natural capabilities of our soil, and to 

 make it adequate to every reasonable wish, an( 

 even to the tbndest dreams ol prosperity and 

 wealth. With these, seconding the gilts ot Prov- 

 idence by which we are surrounded, we shall 

 have nothing to envv to the untamed abundance 

 of the west, tempting us from the cherished 

 scenes of our childhood and the hallowed tombs 

 of our ancestors. I am happy to believe, gentle- 

 men, that a brighter day is now dawnmg upon 

 us and that the eminenl natural advantages ami 

 superior capabilities of Virginia are beginning to 

 be aniireciated, at their true worth, by the citi- 

 zens of our sister States as well as m be more 

 and more felt by her own children. While emi- 

 gration from oiir borders has, in a great measure, 

 Teased, other states are hegiiniing, in their turn, to 

 send to us tributes of their moral, industrious, and 



enterprisins iiopulation, attracted hither by the 

 advantages of our climate, our numeixus naviga- 

 ble rivers, our water power, our mineral resour- 

 ces, our favorable geogi-apbical position, our kind 

 and improvable eoils. Of these welcome swarms 



liom kindred hives, I have recently become ac- 

 quainted with one of so inteiestmg a character, 

 nibracing persons of great respectability, from 

 one of the oldest and most highly improved 

 counties in the State of New York, (the county ,/l 

 of Dutchess) that I cannot deny myself the grati- 

 fication of reading to you a letter! have recently 

 received from an intelfigent citizen of the county ^ 

 of Fairfii.x, in answer to some enquiries I addre?3- 

 ed to him, giving me the particulars of their eettle- 

 nient and establishment in that county. 



(Here Mr. Rives read the letter referred to a3 

 follows.) ^ » 



" I proceed to viake the following answers to your 



enquiries. ,, , , r j 



How many citizens of JVew York have purchased 

 land in your county 9 _ v. 



.\iisvver.— From the best information lean ohlain 

 there are about ffly-six families that have purchased 

 land some of which have not removed, but the grenler 

 pari of them now reside in the county ; these fami- 

 lies averaice from three to fve persons, making about 

 two hundred persons in all. 



How much land in all have they purchased f 

 \n-<wer.— Thirteen thousand Jive hundred and 

 thirl,, two acres. They have very generally prefer- 

 red small sized /araw, from one hundred and fjty 

 to two hundred acres, but Ihey have been compelled 

 to purchase large farms, or ralher large tracts oj 

 land, which Iheij are culling up as fasl^asthey ccin. 

 Have the,/ been siificienthi long established to in- 

 dicate what their system offirmiwj: may be? _ 

 Answer.— i do not think they have. But their 

 system, so far as I have observed if, is in favor oJ the 

 cultivation of grass over that of gram, and thus Jar 

 the,, hive made rapid i,nprovemenls r»i (.le appear- 

 anie of their far„is, if nothing else. ThcyrcnarK 

 that if clover will grow well, they are salt.yed they 

 can make the land rich. , ^ n- ,c, 

 Have thexi used lime and with what ejject. I 

 \nswer.— I do not think they have used lime to 

 an,, extent, so as to know what its effects will be. 



'irheit appears to be the pivsped of a farther ac- 

 ccession of settlers from that quarter ? 



Answer.— 2'/ie pi-ospcd seems to be very good. 1 

 have no doubt from the information I have obtamed, 

 that the,, will continue lo come amongst us. I lity 

 seemtobei'jcli^hled with the climate and general y 

 pleased unth our people, and I know of no one lolio 

 has settled here who is desi>-ous to return to the north. 

 Thei-e is now a sii-ong disposition amongst the 

 icealth, Jarmcrs of Dutchess county (the ridiest 

 counti'i in the Stale) to pwcliase lands and remove to 

 this count,j. .Wuc/i mia-hl be done by our Legislators 

 to promote this emigration so important to our im- 

 poverished and wilderness state, but J forbear lo enter 

 upon this topic at the present." 



This a-ricnltuial immigration into our State 

 from New York marks a new and cheering era 

 in the history and fortunes of Virginia. It has 

 all taken place within two or three years past, and 

 consists of some of the most intelligent, worthy 

 and substantial farmers of one of the most iin- 

 nroved and fertile districts of the north, it is 

 impossible to prize too highly such an accession 

 of industry, capital and intelligence to our agri- 

 cultural community, or to estimate the full extent 

 of the gooil effects, direct and consequential, 

 which it may bring in its train. What an emphat- 

 ic homaae is it, gentlemen, to the superior natu- 

 ral advantages of our State, which have hitherto 

 been too m'uch sli-hted and neglected by our- 

 .selves. It is but the beginning ot the influx of 

 enterprise, skill and wealth which will flow in 

 upon us li-om other States, while we retain in coii- 

 lentment and happiness our own native popula- 

 lion, if bv improved systems of husbandry we do 

 our nart "in .leveloping and demonstrating tie ca- 

 pabilities and productive powers of our soil, under 

 the hand of persevering and enlightened culture. 

 Wha' a field of usefulness to our country is hero 

 opened to us all ! It is a race of noble emulation 

 in which we may all contend lor the prize ot true 

 patriotism. It is an oft quoted .saying ot a cele- 

 brated writer, that whoever makes two ears of 

 corn, or two blades of grass, to grow where oiilv 

 one grew hetbre, deserves better ot mankind, and 

 performs more essential service to his country 

 than the whole race of politicians put logethcr. 

 How much is the merit and the magnilnde ot thi.^ 

 service increased, when at the same time by the 

 example of his frnitfiil laboi-s he attaches, with 

 new and indissoluble ties, his children and his 

 neighbors to the land of their birth, and brings a 

 dozen usefii) citizene intollie State, where nfore- 



