TRIP FROM RAPPAHANNOCK TO SHENANDOAH. 65 



erally backed out of this dilemma, and, after an hour's delay, proceeded for the 

 residence of Col. John Thom, a most gallant and well-bred gentleman, " all of 

 the olden time," as was well evinced by his cordial reception of us, and especially 

 by his solicitude for the comfort of the ladies, without which there can be no 

 pretensions to good-breeding. Though we came upon him unexpectedly at 9 

 P.M., and found him all alone, for the nonce, it only showed us that "old 

 Virginny never tires." You cannot surprise them with any call on their hospital- 

 ity any more than you can "catch a weasel asleep." To other people, hospitality- 

 comes by education — the Southern gentleman takes it in the natural way. 

 *'Haud experientia loquor." Men, women and children — servants, carriages and 

 horses, were all promptly and kindly provided lor ; and after a good night's rest, 

 the morning, heralded by the songs of birds, offered to us our first view of the 

 " Elue Ridge" Mountains, with their undulating outline, like the mighty waves 

 of a troubled ocean, in the hazy distance. 



Berry Hill is one of those large old " places," even yet so common in the South, 

 which Time, that " waits for no man," begins to tell upon, as on its venerable 

 proprietor. It is, in fact, not easy to say how a farm of 1,000 acres can be 

 restored to pristine fertility, on which, during fifty years or more, has been played 

 the game denounced by Poor Richard, of '• always taking out of the meal-tub 

 and never putting in." I should suppose, as indeed I am told, that gypsum 

 would act well on these lands ; but no kind or quantity of grasses which it may 

 be made to produce, and which it is the object of gypsum to promote, if always 

 grazed or otherwise carried off, instead of being turned in, can long enable the soil 

 on which it grows to resist the effect of exhausting rotations of cultivated crops. 

 Lime, too, pops at once into the minds of every one as the great elixir vita, that 

 would in a few years restore this exanimate region, and clothe it again with 

 verdure and fertility ; but the distance and dearness of that resource put it out 

 of the question in these upland counties. The truth probably is that only by the 

 " inclosing system," recommended by Arator, can aay attempt be made toward 

 general resuscitation in the old grain-growing States, where capital and force are 

 so out of all proportion small, when compared to the size of the farms — and even 

 for that there is not of these one-tenth part of what is necessary to bring their 

 arable lands back to an average of twenty bushels of wheat and forty of Indian 

 corn. 



IS'or are these Southern States the only portions of the United States that are 

 falling into irremediable consumption, under the syphun-like operation of our 

 Western domain, which is draining the Atlantic States to the very lees. Behold 

 the famous Western New- York, already sunk to below fourteen bushels to the 

 acre of Wheat, and according to the best opinion, the whole State producing no 

 surplus of that gram, beyond her own consumption, since ISHS. Nor is it be- 

 lieved that the surplus produced in Pennsylvania is large, or so great as it was 

 twenty or even thirty years ago. Still there is something extraordinary in the 

 comparative increase of the value of lands and of population in Virginia and some 

 ■other States, worthy to be investigated by the political economist. For instance 

 —according to Professor Tucker, an eminent statistical writer, as you have said, 

 and as a general scholar an ornament to our country — the decennial increase in 

 the value of land in Virginia has been 31 per cent., while that of her population 

 has been but 7. On the other hand, the decennial increase in the value of land 

 in New-York has been been but 27 per cent., and that of her population 37 — the 

 average decennial increase between 1815 and 1S35. 



It is to be remarked, however, that much of this great popular accession has 

 taken place in the large cities of New-York and Pennsylvania — that of both 

 New-York and Philadelphia bearing, with remarkable regularity, the proportion 

 of one-tenth, to the population of the States. Another reason for the non-ad- 

 vancement of the value of land in New- York, which I have not, or do not recol- 

 lect to have seen mentioned, is her proximity to Michigan and other portions of 

 our cheap and fertile Western lands, almost within sound of the woodman's ax 

 on the frontiers — axes handled, for the most part by her own sons, with facilities 

 for removal, " bag and baggage," that must for a long time retard tbe general, 

 steady, and progressive improvement of the old States, New- York included. If 

 New-England is in a condition of general amelioration and prosperity, it is be- 

 cause there they have touched bottom and gone through the ordeal. Estates 

 (161) 5 



