FARMERS' REGISTER— AGRICULTURE IN VIRGINIA. 



121 



PRIZE ESSAY. 

 ON AGIlICUt.TIIRE IN VIRGINIA* 



By C. W. Gooch, of Henrico county. 



From the Virginia Farmer. 



It has fallen to the lot of the present race of man- 

 kind, to live in an age of improvement, unparalleled 

 in the history of the world. The arts and sciences 

 have been cultivated to a degree of perfection, and 

 are developing results that had never entered into 

 the imagination of the most sanguine enthusiast of 

 any other period. The intellect and industry of man 

 have made all nature subservient to his purposes. 

 Steam has ahnost annihilated space; machinery 

 has overcome most of the obstructions of nature, 

 and promises to multiply, to an indefinite extent, 

 articles of comfort and necessity. Revolutions in 

 the moral and political, as well as physical condi- 

 tion of our species, strike the attention in what- 

 ever direction we turn our eyes. 



But, is it not remarkable, that, at such an era, 

 we look in vain for corresponding improvements 

 in agriculture , that first and noblest of human pur- 

 suits ? In some of the old countries of Europe, 

 surprising advances have been made. And, in 

 several ot the northern and eastern states of our 

 confederation, the people have become sensible ol' 

 the importance of the subject, and are in " the 

 full tide of successful experiment" of an improved 

 system of culture. If, in Virginia, we may con- 

 gratulate ourselves, that several counties, neigh- 

 borhoods, and detached individuals are ibllowing 

 these examples, it is questionable whether they are 

 not counterbalanced by the retrogading and deso- 

 late appearances that are so often met with in other 

 parts of the state? Take the state altogether, it 

 does not appear, to me, to improve at all ; cer- 

 tainly, not pari passu with its population, morals 

 or intelligence. For my own part, I cannot see 

 how it should, under such an accumulation of re- 

 tarding causes. 



The limits of such an essay as this, do not ad- 

 mit of a full discussion of these causes. Some of 

 them will, however, be briefly adverted to, since 

 a knowledge of them may be necessarj' to the 

 proper application of remedies. 



Ours is a neio country, originally of great fer- 

 tility. To account for its exhaustion, it will be 

 necessarry to look back to its settlement — leaving 

 the intelligent reader to recollect many things 

 which I must omit. 



The country below the head of tide-water, 

 which now exhibits so many forests of young- 

 pines, and so many deserted fields of broomsedge 

 and briers, was the first settled part of the state, 

 and bears more of the destroying works of man 

 than any other portion. It has also given subsist- 

 ence to more persons, and has been the hive whence 

 proceeded the great majority of the settlers in the 

 middle and western parts of the state. It gave 

 birth to, and raised more than double its proportion 

 of that swarm of Virginians, Avho have peopled an 

 empire in the west and southwest; and it still fur- 

 nishes more than its ratio of the emigrants who cross 

 the mountains. Its soil was exceedingly fertile 

 when first stripped of the primeval forests. The abo- 

 rigines exterminated the first settlers, and nobly 

 Avarred against their successors. After the settle- 

 ments were considered secure, and emigration from 

 the mother country had increased nearly to incon- 

 venient numbers, the exasperated Indians kept 

 them within narrow limits, and compelled them to 



Vol. I.— 16 



cultivate their lands without rotation of crops or 

 any ameliorating systen>. The settlements, never- 

 theless, progressed with the increase and wants of 

 the population, driving the Indians before them. 

 In this way, parts of lower Virginia were nearly 

 exhausted before the settlements reached the moun- 

 tains. But, the tract of country above the head of 

 tidewater, scarcely felt this Indian pressure ; for, 

 when the Indians were driven into the hills, and 

 found the tide of white men rolling upon their re- 

 treating steps, they took refuge, at once, beyond 

 the Blue Mountains. The advancing settlers then 

 spread out, and located themselves wherever they 

 pleased. The laws permitted them to acquire 

 ownership over land at the price of a few shillings 

 per hundred acres. The policy of these laws was 

 to encourage emigration from abroad, and people 

 the country as rapidly as possible. In one respect, 

 these laws had a pernicious effect on the agricul- 

 ture of the state. They enabled the aristocracy, 

 then numerous and wealthy, to locate and appro- 

 priate to themselves and their heirs, vast tracts of 

 the most fertile lands , which, for several genera- 

 tions, were left uncleared, or were rented out to 

 persons by whose unsparjjig cultivation they were 

 the sooner impoverished. And, after, as Avell as 

 before the revolution, it had a tendency to keep up 

 an inequality among the people. May not too 

 great a reduction in the price of the public lands 

 now held by the United States, ha.\e a similar ten- 

 dency, and cause a still sti'onger stream of emi- 

 grants to issue from the old states .'' This is an in- 

 cidental question which cannot escape the solici- 

 tude of a Virginian at this moment. But it be- 

 longs to politics, with which this essay has but 

 little connexion. 



Of all the causes which have produced the pre- 

 sent dilapidated appearance of Virginia, and pre- 

 vented agricultural improven:ients, the most ope- 

 rative have been the cultivation of tobacco, and 

 the existence of slavery : — I mean negro slavery, 

 in contra-distinct ion to ioAi7e slavery! Whilst I 

 shall speak freely of the disadvantages of the one 

 sort of slavery, as coming within the proper sphere 

 of my remarks, I cannot feel authorised to go out 

 of my way, to comment on the other. All that I 

 ask is, that improper inferences may not be drawn. 



It is probable that seven-tenths of the land that 

 has been cleared east of the mountains, has under- 

 gone the scourge of the tobacco crop. Tobacco 

 has been the staple of Virginia from its settlement. 

 Its culture was greatly encouraged by English 

 and colonial legislation, and has not lost its im- 

 portance on the statute book of later times. For- 

 merly, it was a sort of cash medium of remittance 

 to the mother countr}', and a circulating currency 

 among our citizens. The Inspector's notes passed 

 as readily as do the bank notes of the present day ; 

 and individuals gave their bonds for tobacco, as 

 often as for money. The exhausting effects of its 

 culture, arise as well from its heavy drafts upon 

 the soil, for the juices which contribute to its size 

 and weight, and its oily narcotic qualities, as from 

 the necessaiy process of tillage. The land is stript 

 of every thing down to the cover of decaying 

 leaves — the rich vegetable mould, that had been 

 accumulating for centuries, is then scraped up into 

 hills, mixed with a portion of the soil from below. 

 For many years past, previous coultering has been 

 found necessary in consequence of the injury done, 

 and compactness given to the soil, by the long 



