102 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



IIO^V FAR SHOULD WE GO IN ENCOURAGEMENT OF DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES? 



Do not, Sir, understand me as beinir willing to carry the practice of self-supply 

 to the anti-social extreme that would shut up every man in his own shell, and 

 lead to a state of barbarism by placing every individual in a state of isolation. 

 Independence is a great blessing — but the greatest may be too dearly bought. I 

 would not have* every farmer construct a vat to tan his own leather, because it 

 would cost more than it would come to ; but I w^ould have him send his hides 

 to be tanned, in preference, by the tanner nearest home, who would be most apt 

 to take his moat or his butter in part payment, provided he would supply his 

 leather at a fair price. Our country— nay, this State — is a Avorld in itself in ex- 

 tent and in capacity for producing all the necessaries and most of the luxuries of 

 life. With her capacity to produce provisions of all sorts — with her deposits of 

 iron, of lead, of coal, of salt — her supplies of timber and of water-power — for how 

 little need she go out of the State, and is it not self-evident that the more there 

 are at other employments within her borders, the better and the more convenient 

 is the market for the products of the agriculturist ? The great obstacle, after all, 

 is not so much in want of capital — not so much in any peculiar cast or prejudice 

 of politics — but for the Avant of early, and proper, and suitable instruction of her 

 young men in branches of knowledge which are indispensable to the perception 

 and bringing into activity of great industrial resources. If she had possessed 

 her schools of Art and Industry — such as they have in France — would she not 

 have been ashamed to send copper ore, as 1 see she did some weeks since, from 

 Prince William County all the way to Massachusetts, to have it smelted and 

 valued ? 



RESOURCES OF PAGE COUNTY. 



But to proceed on our journey. On reaching Luray, the county town of Page, 

 "we came — as they say in the East — to "quite another guess sort of country." 

 The vailey which forms this county is traversed through its whole extent by 

 the waters of the Shenandoah, and is justly considered as one of the most 

 fertile in that celebrated Valley — still retaining the reputation in that respect, 

 which it justly acquired in its early settlement, by comparison with older sec- 

 tions — a reputation which v/ill not now stand the test, in comparison with 

 newer settlements in more western States, or even with the Valley of the Ka- 

 nawha, in this. In Page County some gentlemen of undoubted intelligence and 

 candor gave me the average product at 15 bushels of Wheat — and Corn in pro- 

 portion ; but 12 would probably be nearer the mark, though in this County the 

 proportion of absolutely poor land is very small. Its husbandry is mixed, be- 

 tween grazing and grain ; and altogether it is one of the most fertile and inde- 

 pendent counties in the States. It contains 374 square miles, or 243,100 acres — 

 and if you will afford me the room, it would be no more than fair to quote in its 

 favor the statement of Martin, that the land in this County " is generally of the 

 very best quality of limestone valley land; — considered in relation to its agricul- 

 tural advantages it is, with the exception of Jefferson, the richest County of its 

 size in the State." You may judge of its water-power from the fact that there 

 are, or were in it in 1835, more than 100 mills, saw, merchant, and grist: be- 

 sides six carding machines ; three oil-mills ; six hemp-mills ; ten tan-yards ; one 

 blast-furnace for smelting and two forges for making bar-iron. "Vast quantities 

 of iron ore are found in every part of the County ; copper, lead and magnesia are 

 also found in considerable quantities." — With all these advantages it is difficult to 

 account for the apparent decrease of population since 1830, except on the ground 

 of some great oversight or mistake. Martin states it at 8,327 in 1830, and Darby 

 gives it a population of only 6,194 in 1840 — of which 216 were Free Colored, and 

 781 Slaves. Its access to market is by wagons to Winchester and across the 

 Blue Ridge through Thornton's Gap to Fredericksburg — except when the Shen- 

 andoah is in boa table condition in early spring. The hire for negroes is, for men, 

 from $50 to $75 a year, and women $30— and for white laborers $7 to SI a month ; 

 and the price of land from $30 to $50, and even $60, when well improved. The 

 nature of the soil is much the same in this as in other parts of the Shenandoah 

 Valley ; its less undulating surface, and the higher price of land, seem to have 

 given it the direction it has taken — more to grain-growing and to lattening cattle 

 brought Ao\n\ from the western mountains — and invite less to Sheep Husbandry. 



(24G) 



