196 



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



less beautiful." Another distinguished gentleman 

 who now resides in Western Virginia, and who 

 was specially appealed to for information on the 

 subject, furnished a detailed description, from 

 which the following is extracted. " 1 he natural 

 bridge in Scott is rather a tunnel through a hill 

 than a bridge. I have never visited it but once, 

 not thinking it worth a second visit, though I often 

 pass within a few miles of it. The arch of- the 

 lower or southern end is said to be 200 feet high, 

 though it appeared less to my eye, — but it quickly 

 becomes lower as you pass through ; — so that from 

 that cause and a bend in the tunnel it is twilight 

 or almost dark in the tunnel. At the upper end 

 where the creek enters the arch it is not 50 feet 

 high, so that there is no grandeur or beauty 

 belonging to this bridge, except in the approach to 

 the lower or south end." 



AVith such authorities as these, confirmed by 

 various verbal reports, and in ignorance of Col. 

 Long's account, it will readily be perceived that 

 if the natural curiosity in Scott has sutTered unjust 

 disparagement, it was altogether unintentional and 

 not easily avoided, and this explanation is not only 

 due to the writer himself of the " General De- 

 sciption of Virginia," but to your candid and libe- 

 ral corres}K)ndent, as well as to the public. 



Your other correspondent, " JNJockjack," writes 

 as if rather in an ill humor. He selects one or 

 two passages from that portion of the article "Vir- 

 ginia" which you published in the Register, and 

 because the facts stated therein do not correspond 

 with his own opinions, he denounces without hesi- 

 tation the whole article, and seems to lament that 

 a " currency and potency" should be imparted to 

 it by the sanction of your name, Avhich would not 

 have been accorded to its own merit. In justifi- 

 cation therefore of your favorable estimate, and 

 not because the writer of the " General Descrip- 

 tion" has been either convinced by the statements 

 or enlightened by the logic of your corresjiondent, 

 an attempt will be made to vindicate the passages 

 objected to; — not by referring to the authority of 

 Mr. Walsh — but to the far better evidence of those 

 who have written and spoken from actual obser- 

 vation, — of the hundreds it might be added, Avho 

 if it were necessary could be called on to testify to 

 the facts stated, — facts which are susceptible of 

 perfect demonstration to any one desirous of solv- 

 ing the problem, and who will take the trouble to 

 ride a few hours in any direction in the tide water 

 district of the state. The writer will indeed 

 throw out of view the testimony of his own obser- 

 vation, except so far as to disclaim the cliaritable 

 excuse of ignorance which your correspondent has 

 gratuitously framed for him, and except also for 

 the purpose of deploring (if indeed he is deceived) 

 the spectral illusion which has presented to his own 

 eye in common with so many others, — pictures of 

 barrenness and decay, where scenes of fertility 

 and beauty are said to exist. The passage par- 

 ticularly objected to, is as follows : " The tide 

 water or eastern section is in general low, level, 

 sandy and unproductive, and parts of it exhibit al- 

 most as desolate an aspect as the pine barrens of 

 Jersey." " Mockjack" — repudiates this state- 

 ment, and asserts that " there is perhaps no country 

 in the world which contains a larger proportion of 

 land that will repay the expense of cultivation than 

 Eastern Virginia. Some portions of it," he adds, 

 " are poor, and so are some portions of Eevpt and 



Mexico, but I rather tliink that the whole country 

 included between the meridian of Richmond, (ex- 

 tended to Maryland and North Carolina,) and the 

 Atlantic Ocean, v.ould ha found, on experiment, to 

 produce much more than the same number of 

 acres includetl \n one body, in any other region of 

 the state." It is worthy of remark that although 

 the whole controverted passage from the " Gene- 

 ral Description," is considered by your correspon- 

 dent as highly objectionable and exceedingly ivon- 

 derful, all his observations appear to be directed 

 against the solitary word " unproductive.^' He 

 does not assert in positive terms that the tide- 

 water section is otherwise than generally low, 

 level and sandy, except indeed so far as the terras 

 themselves may be considered as descriptive of an 

 unfertile region. He regards productiveness and 

 fertility as predominant features in the landscape, 

 and the barren portions of soil as only occasional 

 shadows, forming the exception. The writer of 

 the impugned passage, reverses the position, and 

 considers that the fine and productive spots are in- 

 sufficient to impart the generoZ character of fertili- 

 ty to the whole. Here then is issue joined upon 

 a question of fact. The mode of proof resorted to 

 by JNIockjack, derived fi-om certain statistical 

 documents, will be presently noticed. Let refer- 

 ence be first made to a few written authorities se- 

 lected from among various others, with which it 

 would be idle to incumber your pages. Bever- 

 ly, one of our earliest historians, a native of the 

 country, and familiar with it in its state of almost 

 primitive wildness and freshness, writes as follows: 

 " The middle of the necks or ridges between the 

 rivers is generally poor, being either a light sand, 

 or a white or red clay within a thin mould." Mr. 

 Gilmer who traversed every section of the state, 

 is perhaps still more to the point. " The State of 

 Virginia may be divided into four zones, essentially 

 differing from one another, but having a character 

 constant in each. The first, extending from the 

 sea coast to the termination of tide water at Fre- 

 dericksburg, Richmond, &c. is low and flat, some- 

 iimes fenny, sometimes sandy, and on the margins 

 of the rivers composed of a rich loam covered with 

 a luxuriant and even ranlc vegetation." — [First 

 Am: edition Rees' Cyclopedia. Art: Virginia.] 

 The writer of the prize essay on Virginia agricul- 

 culture, published in the 2d number of the Farm- 

 ers' Register, uses the following language: " The 

 country below the head of tidewater, 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 

 tlie destroying works of man than any other por- 

 tion." Again — " The newly discovered quantity 

 and value of our marl resources, seem to favor the 

 hope, that from this source alone, a marked change 

 will soon take place in the appearance of this most 

 tattered and desolate looking portion of Virginia." 

 But it would be needless to multiply authorities 

 on this subject when the testimony of hundreds of 

 daily eye witnesses might be safely appealed to, 

 (or abundant confirmation. It remains therefore 

 to consider the conclusions which your con'espon- 

 dent has drawn from the tables of population and 

 revenue. If the proposition maintained by him be 

 correctly understood, it is this. If the tide water 

 district sustains an equal population, and yields an 

 equal ainount of taxation with any other part of 

 the state, in proportion to its territorial extent, it 



