358 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 6 



examine our mineral resources for improving our 

 lands, all within the reach of the present genera- 

 tion — and then stand, j-ourself, in wonder and 

 amazement, that we should possess so much va- 

 cant land, and so little improvement. But alas! 

 the wild western lever is up, and we leave lands 

 here behind us, as good and as cheap, to go into 

 a wild s|)eculation. I should like for you, or some 

 person who is a competent judge, to examine the 

 lands of our Dismal Swamp. A new discovery 

 has been made b}' some enterprising gentleman, 

 who is now making an eflbrt to cultivate a small 

 portion of it. There is supposed to be a stratum 

 of marl, or calcareous earlh, Irom two to five or 

 more feet below the top of the earth, and I am told 

 that such land (though covered with water in the 

 winter) is bare of timber, save very small growth. 

 That the swamp possesses some as fine soil as 

 ever was, there can be no doubt ; and that a por- 

 tion of our country now almost deserted, and where 

 lands is cheap, is as good as ever was, there can 

 be no doubt. It only wants improvement. As a 

 proof beyond contradiction, I would refer all who 

 doubt, to the firm now owned in Nansemond by 

 Gen. John (J. Crump, who came there last Janu- 

 ary, (it is true, with a good force.) Land that 

 never produced any thing before, now has as fine 

 corn as the western country can produce; and you 

 would ask how did he do it 7 The only answer is, 

 that he carted out thousands of loads of calcareous 

 earth, from what are called the shell banks, and that 

 has produced it : while the very spot that he re- 

 moved this earth from, produces belter corn than 

 previous thereto ; and of this earth, he has more 

 than can be removed in ages. Not only Gen. 

 Crump, but hundreds of olhers can do this, if ihey 

 would avail themselves of the advantages offered. 

 All we want, are some enterprising people to begin 

 and go ahead — being first sure they are right. My 

 wheat crop, this year, has failed, owing to the 

 rains in May: my corn and oats good; but corn 

 generally injured by the wet. I hope though, we 

 shall make average crops. 



I am pleased to find that you are, at last, giving 

 into the opinion that silk would be a profitable cul- 

 tivation for eastern Virginia. If you will examine 

 all the country, you will find that the mulberry tree 

 is easily and quick raised ; and all we want is, 

 management to give employment to our aged .and 

 infirm negroes and little children, that generally 

 include about tvvo thirds of the black fanuly. 



JOHN T. KILBY. 



For the Farmers' Register. 



THE RESPECTABILITY OF LABOR WHO 



MOST ASHAMED OF IT. 



Wardsfork, Charlotte County. 

 Labor is of high origin, and of ancient respect- 

 ability. It is only held in low estimation by the 

 low-bred and ignorant part of the community. A 

 young upstart applied to me a few years ago for 

 an overseer's place : By way of applying a touch- 

 Etone to his tenets, I told him I should expect him 

 to work with his own hands: his sensibilities 

 seemed to be a little touched — and he asked me if 

 I expected him to work "like a niggerV "No in- 

 deed sir," said I, "by no means— I would have 

 you work like a white 7nnn: a negro, sir. requires 

 an overseer, but you will not." He seemed to be 



a little perplexed at the unexpected turn I took 

 upon him, and appeared ashamed that he had put 

 the question ; but his prejudices against Iaf)or, I 

 thiid<, were not removed. Labor has been honor- 

 ed by the example of the greatest and be?t men 

 of ancient and modern times. Among the Ro- 

 mans, says a respectable historian, "the first ma- 

 gistrates, and the generals of the armies, cultiva- 

 ted their fields, and thrashed their grain with those 

 hands which had vanquished the enemy anil sup- 

 ported the state; and tiie Roman jieople blushed 

 not to give the command of their armies to those 

 illustrious laborers, taken fiom the plough. Cin- 

 cinnatus was found working in the field, by those 

 who came to salute him dictator ; Marcus Curius, 

 after having conquered the Sabines and Samnites, 

 and driven Pyrrhus out of Italy, was possessed of 

 only one small farm, which he cultivated himself." 

 A fine example both for Whigs and Jackson men. 

 Scipio Afi'icanus, after having defeated four of the 

 greatest Carthaginian generals, and even Hani- 

 bal himself, took up his spade and ditched — not, I 

 presume, "like a nigger," but like a white man, 

 and a great man. He was of a different way oi 

 thinking from our little overseer, just mentioned. 

 There is a wandering tribe of work-haters among 

 us, who are a serious pest to every neighborhood. 

 They are perfectly acquainted with the minute ge- 

 ography of every plantation : there is not a grape 

 or persimmon tree, that is known to the most 

 aged opossum, but what they are perfectly ac- 

 quainted with ; they know the negroes, hogs, 

 and sheep of every plantation, as well as the 

 owners; they can tell of all the Saturday night 

 marriages, and the Monday morning whippings, 

 that are transacted throughout the neighborhood ; 

 who hath a negro in the woods, and liow many 

 stripes he gets on coming home ; how old aunt 

 Sukey tongued the overseer, and uncle Tom es- 

 caped from his master's cane ; they are famous 

 for bush caucuses, fence conversations, five-corn 

 gambling, knife-swaps, and button sales with the 

 greenhorns among the Cuflees. These arc they, 

 who are so far below envy, that are so high 

 above work. I know not such mortal cancers on 

 the body politic as these. They fiisten more es- 

 pecially on the property of the virtuous poor, and 

 suck them to the dregs. They arc ever trotting 

 from one house to another, and scenting out the 

 meat which his industrious neighbor has laid up 

 for his funily, and nothing short of a kick would 

 drive him home till tifter dinner — and when he gets 

 seated at table, fairly or unfairly, asked or unask- 

 ed, he never rises until he sees the end of all 

 things. They trace their pedigree up to great 

 granddaddy, and down to the tenth cousin, not af- 

 ter honorable blood, but to enlarge their range 

 for sponging : they are going fiom county to coun- 

 t)', fi'om neighborhood to neighborhood, eating out 

 their poor kin. and driving them to the west. 

 These itinerant idlers are roving under the pre- 

 tence of "getting jobs:" but it is a job of eating, and 

 not of work, they are after. They threaten wor- 

 thy characters with constables — talk the loudest of 

 liberty and equality on court-days and musters, 

 and swear they are as free men as any — aye, the 

 very lieest, to be sure, if freedom from Wv^rk con- 

 stitutes liberty. They abuse the rich for being 

 proud and aristocratic, because they wont play at 

 five-corns, and dance a jig with ihem over a po- 

 tiito cellar, — "how do ye do" with them over a 



