FARMERS' REGISTER— REPLY TO G. W. F. AND MOCKJACK. 



195 



contains information that will be valuable to far- 

 mers who reside on the sea board. On the Chesa- 

 peake bay, and at the mouths of our rivers, and 

 perhaps for a coiisiderable distance above their 

 moutlis, the sand is making fearful inroads upon 

 the land, and to all who havesuiFered from this in- 

 vasion, the subjoined extract may be of the great- 

 est importance. I regret that I have not leisure 

 to make a comparison between the district of coun- 

 try mentioned by De Candolle, and our own. It 

 may however not be amiss to remark, before I 

 conclude, that tlie Scotch broom {Spartium Scopa- 

 fium) M'hich is found in this neighborhood, and is 

 most abundant in Warwick, will probably answer 

 the purpose of the Genista Scoparia, with which 

 I am not acquainted. J. p. 



" No districts of country appear so hopeless of 

 being reclaimed from utter barrenness as those 

 which are subject to a periodical invasion of sand, 

 blowMi over them by the prevalence of certain 

 winds. The sands on the sea shore, from whence ■ 

 this supply in general originates, by their capilla- 

 ry action, attract and preserve in their interstices 

 the water which may chance to be beneath them, 

 cr perhaps the soft portion of the sea water itself, 

 and consequently they are always somewhat moist 

 at a little distance below the surface, though the 

 extreme dryness of the surface itself prevents any 

 vegetation from fixing itself upon it. In Holland, 

 England, and other countries where this is the 

 case, it is usual to plant and preserve with great 

 care, the s-ea grasses and sedges ( jlrundo arena- 

 ria, JElymus arencrius, C'arex arenaria, Sfc.) which 

 possess long creeping rhizomata,sufiicient in some 

 measure to bind the sand, and check its being 

 drifted by the wind. But this expedient is very 

 limited in its effects, and not to be compared with 

 the benefits that have resulted from planting tim- 

 ber in the manner that has been practised on the 

 coast of Gascony, where it was first adopted by an 

 engineer of the name of Bremonlier. 



" ' Bremontier's plan,' says De Candolle, ' is 

 wonderful for its great simplicity. He sows in the 

 dryest and most shifting sand, the seeds of the 

 broom (Genista scoparia,) mixed with those of 

 the sea pine (Pinus maritima,) and then covers 

 over the spaces that are sown with branches from 

 the nearest pine forests, by which means the sand 

 is, to a certain extent, prevented from shifting. — 

 The broom springs up first, and thus serves the 

 double purpose of further restraining the sand, and 

 of nursing the young pines. The latter grov/ for 

 seven or eight years under slielter of the broom, 

 whose foliage becomes mingled annually with the 

 sand, which it thus partially fertilizes. After this 

 period the pine overtops the broom, and frequently 

 entirely kills it with its shade. In ten or twelve 

 years the rising forest is thinned for th.e manufac- 

 ture of tar, and for procuring branches to cover the 

 newly sown districts. After twenty years have 

 passed, a fall of the trees commences for the manu- 

 iiicture of resin. These forests, placed on the 

 dunes (drifting sandhills,) along the sea side, shel- 

 ter the whole country behind them from the conti- 

 nuous action of the westerly winds, and thus, whilst 

 they themselves yield a supply of an important ar- 

 ticle of commerce, they protect the produce of the 

 rest of the country. It is highly desirable that this 

 prodigious undertaking, the most splendid agricul- 

 tural enterprise of our nge, should gradually be 



completed, and thus provide a shelter for the whole 

 district between the mouths of the Adour and Ga- 

 ronne. I regret that the character of this work 

 does not admit of my entering into further detail, 

 and I close this account by stating that I have her- 

 borized during a Avhole day in these forests sown 

 by Bremontier on perfectly dry sand, upon which, 

 before his time, there could scarcely be seen any 

 trace of vegetation." 



" GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF VIRGINIA" — RE- 

 PLY TO THE RE3IARKS OP " G. W. F," AND 

 THE .STRICTURES OF " MOCKJACK." 



To ihe Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



In the 3d number of the Register, two writers 

 have noticed in a widely different spirit, the " Ge- 

 neral Description of Virginia" which was trans- 

 ferred to your first number from the Encyclope- 

 dia Americana. Your correspondent G. W. F. 

 seems to have justly regarded the task of present- 

 ing a brief yet iaitliful outline of the moral and 

 physical features of a country, as one of no incon- 

 siderable difficulty. To select from a mass of 

 materials derived from dilTerent sources and on 

 various subjects; — to reconcile discordant state- 

 ments, — and compress the whole within ^rescr(6ed 

 limits, — without omitting any thing very essential, 

 and at the same time without sacrificing the in- 

 terest of the narrative, may appear not very labo- 

 rious or difficult to the cursory reader ; — but to 

 him who has achieved it, it is known to be full of 

 embarrassment. In the performance of such a 

 task, where so much reliance is unavoidably placed 

 upon the testimony of others, and so little upon the 

 personal observation of the writer, — even with the 

 utmost fidelity of purpose, all that could reasona- 

 bly be expected, would be something like an ap- 

 proximation to truth. We know that the sources 

 of error are almost universal, embracing not only 

 the frequent illusions of the senses, but the infi- 

 nitely varied causes of prejudice and false judg- 

 ment. G. W. F. is one of those Avho would just- 

 ly appreciate considerations like these. He would 

 kindly commend where he thought commenda- 

 tion due, and would frankly point out errors and 

 omissions wheresoever they existed, not so much 

 indeed from the gratification of exposing error as 

 from the higher gratification of vindicating truth. 



The author of the " General Description," never 

 having seen himself the natural bridge in Scott 

 county, regrets that whilst collecting his materi- 

 als, he was not fortunate enough to light upon Col. 

 Long's interesting account of that singular struc- 

 ture. The result of actual observation by a man of 

 science and taste would liave promptly received the 

 notice to v/hich it is entitled. Authorities, how- 

 ever, of scarcely inferior weight and of equal re- 

 spectability were consulted, and formed the ground 

 of the opinion respecting the bridge in Scott coun- 

 ty compared with the one in Rockbridge. The 

 late Francis Walker Gilmer, a man of accurate 

 observation and extensive attainments, — who tra- 

 velled much in AVestern Virginia, and was perfect- 

 ly familiar with the country, — in an article which 

 he wrote for the 1st American edition of Rees' 

 Cyclopedia [see Tit. Virginia] speaks in the foL 

 lowing terms of the natural curiosity in Scott, 

 comparing it with its more illustrious rival in 

 Rockbridge. " There is another natural bridge 

 in Scott county of nearly the same height, that is 

 to sav 200 feet, but from the thickness of its arch 



