383 



Prospects in Virginia, for new Settlers. 



Vol. X 



Prospects in Virginia for neAv Settlers. 



Proposed selllement of Neio Jersey farmers 

 in the vicinity of Petersburg. 



The following letter to the editor of the Fanners' 

 Library, a work which we have repeatedly taken oc- 

 casion to recommend for its sterling worth, and the 

 April No. of which is perhaps more than usually 

 stored with valuable matter, we think contains many 

 wholesome truths, which can scarcely be too thorough, 

 ly looked into by particular sections of our country 

 With the warm and sunny South, are associated in our 

 minds all tliat is exuberant in nature and delightful to 

 animal enjoyment. IIow greatly then does it behove 

 those who are located in the midst of these privileges, 

 to inquire with earnestness into the real causes of the 

 comparatively slow progress which has been made— 

 the comparatively small account to which these privi- 

 leges have been turned within the last quarter of a 

 century. Let the matter be looked into fearlessly and 

 dispassionately, and with a determination not only to 

 discover the true nature of the evil, but also to remedy 

 it, if possible. A knowledge of a disease, is said to 

 be half a cure. Posterity will bless the head and the 

 hand that may contrive and bring into effectual ope- 

 ration the means by which public sentiment shall be 

 so corrected and regenerated, that labour shall be 

 viewed as honourable in whole communities, where 

 now it is regarded as beneath the dignity of a gentle- 

 man. " JVo idle white population can prosper." — Ed. 



Hicksford, Greenville Co., Va., Feb. 12th, 1846. 

 To the Editor of the Farmers' Library : — 



This place takes its name from the cir- 

 cumstance of its being- a '■'fording'''' place 

 on the " Meherrin'' river, and is the seat of 

 government of the county above named. 

 The surrounding country is flat, and the 

 growth of timber is pine and oak. I did not 

 expect so soon to strike the cotton region, 

 but that plant constitutes, here at the end of 

 a day's rail-road journey from Washington, 

 one of the chief staples of the county; hence 

 it is carried by rail-road to the factories at 

 Petersburg, and the surplus thence to the 

 North, where capital, greater industry, and 

 superior intelligence, assisted by the legi-s- 

 lation of the country, are levying, and will 

 forever levy contributions on sloth and igno- 

 rance. By superior intelligence, I do not 

 mean that there are not, in tiie slaveholding 

 States, men, very many men, of bright and 

 cultivated intellect, excelling in vivacity 

 and force, men of the same relative stand- 

 ing toward the masses, to be found in the 

 North— not at all! When I speak of the 

 superior intelligence of the North, I refer to 

 the masses, to the great body of voters, who 

 prevail at elections and control the legisla- 

 tion and shape the policrj of the country! 



Suppose it were possible, by some magic 

 power, to lift up this whole county, and 

 place it in the midst of Penn.sylvania, or 



New York, or Connecticut, or Massachu- 

 setts ! Imagination can scarcely conceive a 

 greater transformation than it would under- 

 go, in the course of a few years. The por- 

 traits of Hecate and of Hebe present no 

 greater contrast than would the pictures 

 of what it is and what it would be. The 

 land is naturally good and easily tilled, with 

 a rail-road for transportation of produce at 

 the rate of five cents a bushel for corn, and 

 eight for wheat, with great water power, 

 which in New England would give employ- 

 ment to many more people than now inhabit 

 this county, all of whom would be non-pro- 

 ducing consumers of agricultural produce. 



Oak wood is cut and brought and delivered 

 in the village for $1 50 per cord, and pine 

 wood is delivered at the rail-road depot for 

 seventy-five cents ! You may judge, there- 

 fore, of the cost of labour. The land around 

 sells from $1 to $3 or $4 an acre. A gen- 

 tleman residing here has lately offered 1500 

 acres, within two miles of the rail-road, for 

 84 an acre, on one, two, and three years' 

 credit, with all necessary buildings, even an 

 ice-house, and a great quantity of wood, and 

 oak and ash timber. River low grounds, 

 that with indifferent cultivation will yield 

 from forty to fifty bushels of Indian corn, 

 sell for ^12 to $15. Surely it behovea 

 those who are invested with power to rule 

 over the destinies of this naturally glorious 

 region of country, to renounce the miserable 

 blighting spirit o? party, and to strive with 

 one heart to discover and banish the moral 

 incubus, whatever that rnay be, which sheds 

 its withering blight over the face of this 

 land. You would imagine that in a country 

 where houses are going to ruin, where fields 

 once arable and fertile are abandoned to 

 wood, and the wild tenants of the woods 

 coming back to reinhabit them, you would 

 see every man at work, struggling night 

 and day to resist the progress of dilapida- 

 tion, as "a brave man struggling with the 

 storms of fate;" but instead of that, it is a 

 rare thing to see a white man labouring 

 systematically at the plough, through the 

 whole country. The taverns and country 

 stores are filled with young men, apparently 

 half educated, and altogether unused to 

 personal labour — not brought up in a fond- 

 ness for books, and with no means at hand 

 to indulge it, apparently the genteel but 

 impoverished descendants of opulent and 

 honourable ancestors — men of high cultiva- 

 tion and chivalry, with whom these old 

 States so abounded before and at the time 

 of the Revolution. 



A difference in estimating the value of 

 time seems to constitute the great distinc- 

 tion between Northern and Southern men. 



