64 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



not enjoying equal natural advantages, are shooting ahead of her, on that arena 

 where all the conflicts of political interests, and all the uses of political power 

 are finally exercised and settled ; / mean on the floor of Congress. It behooves 

 her, in a word, to think less of 'iiS and more of '48. Let us hail as auspicious 

 omens, the signs of 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS IN VIRGINIA. 



Beside the multiplication of her manufacturing establishments, and other 

 means for bringing her dormant resources into play, a scheme which in its finan- 

 cial features is as novel as it promises to be efficient, is now now in progress for 

 rendering the Rappahannock River available for the transportation of agricultural 

 produce and passengers above the Falls at Falmouth. If such a project has been 

 elsewhere carried out, I am not aware of it. Two or three individuals, as I un- 

 derstand, have undertaken to revive and execute an almost obsolete act of incor- 

 poration, to make that portion of the river boatable by canal, and yet more by 

 slack-water navigation. They went round, it seems, from farmer to farmer, 

 throughout the bordering country, and obtained their bonds, each to contribute 

 what he said he would be Avilling to give to have the river made navigable 

 to a given point within a certain distance of his farm. Having thus obtained 

 from responsible persons bonds to the requisite amount, these two or three indi- 

 viduals transferred them for a good bonus to moneyed men, who were willing, 

 on the faith of them, and the tolls arising on the trade, to go on with the work, 

 they of course owning all the stock, and receiving all the tolls, to the payment 

 of which the obligees of the bonds, mind you, are as liable as others. 



This, you will say, was quite liberal on the part of tlie farmer-contributors, 

 and quite a safe "business transaction" for the moneyed men, who, be it said, 

 generally get to be such by having an eye to the main chance — and yet it may 

 have been decidenly to the interest of the farmers to get the work done on such 

 terms. With a like manifestation of public spirit and selfish enterprise combined, 

 how many desirable improvements might be accomplished in different parts of 

 the country, if we had the men of energy to undertake them ! 



It is said that by the close of autumn this work will be completed as far as 

 Lee's Springs, near Warrenton , about 56 miles above Fredericksburg ; and this, 

 I rejoice to say, is only one among other expressive signs that this old State, 

 alive since '98 to nothing but party politics, is awakening to a perception of the 

 value and availability of her long-neglected resources. Did you never, when a 

 boy, see 'a land terrapin play 'possum, and refuse to move until he felt the coals 

 burning through his back. And now, gentle reader, if not wearied out with my 

 digressions, I must ask you to accompany me, en cheval, 



FROM THE VALLEY OF THE RAPPAHANNOCK TO THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH. 



Leaving Fredericksburg, which lies in Stafford, by some accounted the poor- 

 est county in the Stale, we traveled over a high, poor clay soil county, part of 

 it significantly yclept " The Wilderness," stopping once on the way to bait our 

 horses and to regale ourselves with that feast by the way-side of all others most 

 relished, if composed of a few " biscuit," a cold chicken, and the hock-end of an 

 old ham, to be eaten in the shade of a spreading tree near a cool spring, with 

 barely enough left to hand over with a kind good-will to your trusty servants. 



For this-country roads, considering that no Grand Jury is soon to sit, we were 

 blessed with a remarkable exemption from accidents and mishaps on the way,* 

 having only once "mired down to the hubs" in this beautiful month of June. 

 Fortunately, by the aid of some kind colored men and their teams, we were lit- 



[* In Mainland the county roads are what they call " mended" twice a year — spring and 

 fall — just before the sessions of the County Courts, to please and satisfy the Judges, the 

 Grand Jurors, and the Lawyers from a distance, who are looked upon by the "common" 

 people as beings of a superior order : next come the Doctors, next the Merchants, and tlien 

 the Farmers — always last in their own esteem. What boy is ever taught the principle of 

 road-making, except at the Military Academy ? The loose dirt scraped into these country 

 roads is all carried away by the first thunder-gust, and hence they are not mended until the 

 last days before the Court. Ed. Farm. Lib.'\ 



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