382 



A Visit to Virginia. — Editorial Notices. 



Vol. XL 



perty valuable until the whole people, shall 

 have acquired an interest in exerting them- 

 selves for the accomplishment of that object. 

 When this shall come to be done, wealth and 

 population will increase and emigration will 

 diminish; but until it shall be done, the 

 former will diminish and the latter will in- 

 crease, as will be proved by every day's fur- 

 ther experience. The sooner they satisfy 

 themselves that slavery, although bad for the 

 slave, is worse for the master, and adopt 

 measures for permitting* the gradual ex- 

 tinction of the system, the sooner will land 

 acquire value; but until that time shall 

 come, the tendency will be rather downward 

 than upward. — Farmers'' Library. 



A Visit to Virginia. 



A WRITER in the National Standard says, 

 "We called upon tlie late President, Mr. 

 Tyler, residing on the north side of James 

 River, about thirty miles below Richmond. 

 To say he is a good cultivator would be small 

 praise. He informed us that when he moved 

 on his farm, three years since, a field of 

 wheat of two hundred acres, which he showed 

 us, would not produce more than the seed, but 

 is now waving with a crop of twenty bushels 

 to the acre. The dressing he applied to his 

 land was shell marl, together with straw and 

 other manure, made on the farm. The marl 

 costs three cents per bushel, delivered on the 

 farm. It abounds in sufficient quantities to 

 last for many years. Ten or fifteen miles 

 above the ex-President's, on the same side 

 of the river, is the family seat of the la- 

 mented Harrison, also in a high state of cul- 

 tivation, and perhaps one of the most eligi- 

 ble situations on the James River. From 

 Mr. Tyler's we proceeded to the estate of 

 Robert B. Boiling, Esq , at a distance of ten 

 miles. We there found farming conducted 

 on a gigantic scale, such as had not entered 

 our imagination. He went with us through 

 his field of wheat, which contained nine 

 hundred acres ! The prospect for a crop 

 was very fine, and we supposed he would 

 have thirty bushels to the acre. He next 

 showed us his grass field, which contained 

 one thousand acres. Owing to the drought 

 it was not as good as expected, but we 

 thought as good as any of ours. His corn, 

 which looked well, though small in conse- 

 quence of the cold, amounted to near seven 

 hundred acres. The oats, owing to the 



* I say "permitting," because I would desire only 

 to see the majority of the people of the South granting 

 to the minority the right to do what they like with their 

 own, and emancipate them if so disposed. I have no 

 desire to see any interference with the right of pro- 

 perty. 



drought, were backward. The number of 

 acres in oats, I think he said, was three hun- 

 dred. His entire plantation contained seven 

 thousand acres of land! The timber, con- 

 sisting of white and black oak and pine, is 

 very large except the second growth. He 

 uses lime from the North River, which costs 

 him six cents per bushel, together with straw, 

 which he spreads over his land in the fall 

 and winter — ploughs under, and then dresses 

 with lime, "rhis mode has brought his land 

 to a high state of cultivation. His land a 

 few years back was very poor." 

 Salem county, June 24th, 3847. 



THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 



Philadelphia, Seventh Month, 1847. 



The Delaware State Journal of the Ulh ult. says, 

 that the Prices' have purchased and ground at their 

 mills on the Brandy wine, this season, 950,000 bushels" 

 corn, and 200,000 bushels of wheat.— This, we think, 

 s no trifling business. 



It is stated in the Journal of Commerce, that a farm- 

 er in Bucks County, who lives on the road from Phila- 

 delphia to New York, has for several years kept a 

 memorandum of the number of cattle passing his door 

 from the West. The number has varied from 20,000 

 to 25,000, the former number being about the average. 

 Most of them are from Ohio and Kentucky. 



OCR readers will observe from the letter of James 

 Gowen,on page 377, that the number of students offer- 

 ing, is not sufficient to warrant him in making decided 

 arrangements for opening his Agricultural College, this 

 coniing autumn, as he had contemplated. This we 

 sincerely regret, as we have no doubt his enterprise, 

 and industry, and capital, and good judgement, ail 

 combined with an enthusiastic desire to promote tlie 

 interests of his favorite pursuit, must have resulted in 

 the establishment of a noble institution, whose bene- 

 ficial influences would have been widely disseminated. 



Through the politeness of B. P. Johnson, Secretary 

 of the New York State Agricultural Society, we are 

 in the receipt of the sixth volume of the Society's 

 Transactions; a work of more than 700 octavo pages, 

 and embracing avast amount of valuable matter, con- 

 nected with the farming interests of the State, as well 

 as much of a general character. 



Since our last number was issued, the price of bread 

 stuffs has greatly declined The reports from Europe- 

 England more particularly— are full of promise for the 

 coming crops of grain. Of the potatoe, accounts are 

 contradictory. It was, perhaps, at our last advices 

 from Ireland premature to form a decided opinion. 

 Wheat flour is now from §5 50 to $5 50, and corn 70 

 cents to 80 cents, in this market. 



