624 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 9 



negros may be purchased for £4000, being the 

 eumm subscribed, to be eniployd in the Dismal; 

 but besides that mony, there is no question but 

 the profits ariseing irom the labour of the negros 

 on tile land, which will every year be laid dry, 

 will be very considerable — insomuch that it will 

 not only defray all incident changes, but also pur- 

 chase many more people to finish this great work. 

 And for those which happen to dye, 'tjs probable 

 that their place will be hilly supplyd by their chil- 

 dren, if care be taken to buy as many won)en as 

 men. And because it will be some years before 

 such children grow up to a stature fit to work, it 

 will be [)rudent to lay out part of tlie mony in 

 boys and girls, which will not only season better 

 than men and women, but will be very soon fit 

 for labour, and supply the mortality thai must hap- 

 pen among so great a number. Besides the ad- 

 vantages of propagation, tiiere is another benefit 

 in provideing wives for the men : it will keep them 

 at home, and prevent their rambling abroad 

 anights, li-oni which arise many great inconve- 

 niences. By this practice they learn to be dishon- 

 est, take cold, and lose their rest, whereby they 

 are less fit to do their work the following day. 

 Besides, when they have wives in other liunilys, 

 they are fi-equenlly poisoned by the jealousy of 

 their rivals, who think they have a much better 

 right to the affections of their fellow servar'ls, 

 than any stranger. By this many lose their lives. 



[copy of petition annexed.] 



Tu the ^Ymg's most Excellent Majesty, 



The petition of 



Humbly sheweth : 



That whereas there is a large bdgg, si- 

 tuated partly in Virginia, and partly in North 

 Carolina, which lyes wast by reason of the mire 

 and water with which it, is covered, and cor- 

 rupts the air of all the neighbouring country by 

 the noxious vapours that perpetually ascend from 

 it, to the great annoyance of your majesty's sub- 

 jects : and whereas, many consi^ierable advanta- 

 ges woud arise, both to your majesty and those 

 colonyp, from the efiectual draining of it, which 

 cannot be performed without a very great labor 

 and expence — 



You.r petitioners therefore humbly pray, that 

 your majesty will be gr;;ciously pleasd to grant to 

 your petitioners the said bogg, and all the land not 

 j'et taken up, lying within half a mile of any part 

 of it : and the better to enable ihem to support the 

 heavy charge of draining it, your petitioners fiir- 

 iher pray, that your majesty will please to grant 

 them the said bogg, free fi'om rights, and also 

 exempt them from paying any quit-rent for the 

 space of 50 years, except one pound of hemp to be 

 paid yearly. 



And your petitioners shall ever pray, &c. 



For the Fniniers' Register. 



HASTY OBSKRVATIOtVS CIV THE AGRICULTURE 

 OF THE COUNTY OF KAIVSEMOND. 



By the Editor. 



The county of Nansemond, exclusive of the 

 considerable portion embraced in the Dismal 



Swamp, and other smaller swamps and tide- 

 marshes, is generall}^ of sandy, and naturally poor 

 soil, moderately high and undulating on and very 

 near Nansemond River and the tributary streams, 

 and very level in the larger remaining part of the 

 county. The smaller portion of river lands, and 

 the larger body of the back lands, or " piney 

 woods,"'' as called in distinction fiom the river 

 lands, are very different in several important res- 

 pects, besides that ofthe nature of the soil. 



From the very short and hmifed opportunity 

 which I had for making observations on the agri- 

 culture of Nansemond, it seemed, with a k\v ex- 

 ceptions of spirited and profitable improvements, 

 to be in a very low state : lower indeed, consider- 

 ing the great natural resources for making profita- 

 ble improvements of the soil, and products from its 

 cultivation, than any other part of Virginia, that I 

 have yet seen. It is reported, however, that 

 there is a still more rude and degraded state of 

 agriculture, a still greater neglect of the advanta- 

 ges offered by the soil and its locality, in the adja- 

 cent counties. of Norfbik and Princess Anne: as if 

 the more that nature offers to man of her boun- 

 ties, the less he is disposed to avail of their bene- 

 fits, or indeed of any portion of them in a proper 

 and profiiable maimer. It is indeed passing 

 strange — and not sufficiently explained by all the 

 reasons stated, that the country immediately sur- 

 rounding the oldest, and long the most important 

 commercial town in Virginia — having every advan- 

 tage of markets — with much prodnctive soil, and 

 the most abundant resources for enriching the bal- 

 ance — wilh waters ofiering nearly as rich pro- 

 ducts as the lands — and in addition, with the long 

 continued, and long to be continued annual expen- 

 diture of vast sums from the national treasury on 

 the great public works in this region — that not- 

 withsta^)ding all these and other advantages, that 

 this oldest settled and longest cultivated part of 

 Vn-ginia, and of the United States, should be now 

 the least removed from the wild state of nature, 

 that the inhabitants generally seem to be losing, 

 rather than gaining, in the general progress of im- 

 provement, knowledge, and refinement. If, in 

 addition, tlie mania for emigration to the west 

 should rage hereabout as it is doing in the middle 

 region of V^irginia, the time may come when the 

 howling of wolves will be heard from the suburbs 

 of Norfbik. 



The most general rotation of crops in Nanse- 

 mond, (if any deserve the name of rotation,) is 

 1st, Indian corn, 2nd, grazing — and so on, as long 

 as the land will bring a crop that will pay half the 

 cost of tillage. A still more scourging course is 

 not unlrequent, which is corn every year, as long 

 as the land can bear it, or until the more extended 

 clearings of the cultivator permit him to adopt 

 the improvement of the two-shift rotation above 

 described, and to let his fields have ••rest" every 

 other year, under the close grazing of such natu- 

 ral herbage as maj' attempt to grow. Upon the 

 naturally high fertile shelly lands on Nansemond 

 River, almost continual tillage under corn, as a 

 matter of choice, for many years together, and 

 with little or no manure, was the general practice : 

 and such was the astonishing durability of the 

 lands, lliat to the last thej' gave pretty good crops, 

 and exhiliited e\idences ol great power of resusci- 

 tation in the soil, if allowed any chance by proper 

 resting, or putrescent manure. On the poor back 



