620 



FARMERS' REGISTER— MINERALS OF VIRGINIA. 



of the owners have rendered their low grounds 

 very productive and valuable. One of my rela- 

 tions cleared a piece of about ten acres of this 

 land, and continued it seven years in succession in 

 tobacco; from three to four |)lants of which s:ene- 

 rally made one pound. The next year (the 8th) 

 he seeded it in wheat, but so luxuriant was its 

 growth, that he made no wheal worth cutting. 

 JNlanv of the straws were from eight to ten feet 

 hi2;h,"and large in j)roportion (almost incredible, 

 though a liict.) The last and present year, (9th 

 and 10th,) this piece of groun(l was put in corn; 

 both years it produced abundantly — the last equal- 

 ly as good as the first year. It will be planted 

 again the ensuing year in corn. 



This is not the only valuable advantage derived 

 from the draining system. Ft has made every fa- 

 mil)" contiguous to tiie creek nearly free from au- 

 tumnal fevers. On this stream there were three 

 large marshes ; in fact two of them formerly had 

 been millponds. In their former situation, these 

 places harbored muskrats, minks, rackoons, otters 

 and wild ducks, in abundance; and during the 

 winter season afforded good sport for the hunts- 

 man. The spring brought trouble and loss to the 

 farmer. He was at this season busily and active- 

 ly engao-ed in w atching his cattle, to prevent their 

 living in the quagmires. When he planted his 

 corn^ the strictest attention was required to pre- 

 vent the black birds from pulling it all up. About 

 ■water-melon time (say August,) until about the 

 first large frost, mothers and their house-gang 

 were pretty much engaged in providing theways 

 and means to prevent the moschetos from enter- 

 ing their houses at night to molest their " little 

 ones." I can well remember when I was a boy, 

 that my mother in the moschcto season, would 

 have the w indows and doors shut, and at times 

 keep tobacco smoke about the house to drive off 

 this troublesome little animal. Since reclaiming 

 these marshes, the health of the neighborhood has 

 greatly improved, and we now rarely meet with a 

 case of the old fashioned ague and fever. 



I tender respectfully my salutations to your cor- 

 respondent who writes under the signature of R. 

 N. hoping he will continue his observations on 

 draining,"&c. I am more fond of hearing a ser- 

 mon when I can see the preacher's face. I am 

 more fond of reading essays when the signature is 

 m propria persona. 1 may hereafter say something 

 in relation to the different kinds of soil on low- 

 grounds, and its adoption to the growing of tobac- 

 co, corn, wheat, oats and turnips. 



p. ^V. HARPER. 



Green Field, Nottoway Co. > 

 2Sth Dec. 1833. S 



BIINERAL RESOURCES OF VIRGINIA. 



From the Richmond Enquirer. 

 The following communication is certainly on a 

 most interesting subject, and is from the pen of 

 one of the most accomplished mineralogists in the 

 United States. He is well know'n as the Editor of 

 the Geological Magazine of Philadelphia^ — and no 

 man in this country is more capable of apprecia- 

 ting our invaluable mineral resources. Many of 

 the focts which he relates in this letter are new and 

 important — and his general views are striking, 

 and entitled to great consideration. 



Fredericksburg, Dec. 4th, 1833. 

 To James Madison, Esq. 



Dear Sir, — I had the unfeigned pleasure of re- 

 ceiving your letter, respecting the proper manner 

 of opening to the public the extent of the mineral 

 resources of Virginia. I beg to assure you it is 

 particularly gratifying to me, to find jour opinion 

 of the utility of a measure we have so frequently 

 conversed about, entirely coinciding with my own. 

 I sit down most willingly to give you a sketch of 

 my opinion of those resources, and of a worthy 

 and practical manner of developing them. It is 

 too important a subject to be well examined in the 

 compass of an ordinary letter; but I will endeavor 

 to make it as little tedious as possible. 



It happens opportunely, that the Governor of 

 this state, in his recent message, has recommended 

 the very measure approved of, a geological survey, 

 to the Legislature. Such a measure has already 

 been authorised by the Legislatures of Alassachu- 

 setts and JNIaryland : and I have for some time 

 perceived, a strong feeling in favor of it has been 

 rapidly growing up in this state. This comes in 

 the natural order of things. Formerly, this coun- 

 try presented the spectacle of an immense territo- 

 ry, with a small population sparingly scattered on 

 its immense border. Now, its condition is greatly 

 changed ; for, although the impressions of the re- 

 volution are still fresh upon all minds, as if all had 

 been contemporary with it, we have the energies 

 of a nation, numerous and powerful in exfenso, 

 forcibly displaying themselves on ever}' side. Some 

 of the cities are growing up into the first class of 

 magnitude, and the general wants correspond to 

 the increase of numbers. Those labor-saving ma- 

 chines, canals and rail-roads, are gradually extend- 

 ing themselves over the face of the country ; and 

 tiie distant agriculturist finds, in the facilities they 

 give him for the transportation of his produce to 

 market, a compensation for his former high prices. 

 But corn, wheat, and edible commodities are not 

 the only things human ingenuity can produce; 

 and the day has passed by, w hen the value of an 

 acre of land was to be estimated solely by the 

 number of bushels it would produce. That square 

 acre goes down in a solid mass towards the centre 

 of the earth, and the w ants of man and his curiosi- 

 tv w ill not permit him to rest, until he knows, to 

 a certain extent, Avhat that mass consists of, and to 

 what useful purpose he can apply it. Geology 

 is the science which enables him to gratify that 

 curiosity. 



The ancestors of the present generations knew 

 not two hundred years ago, the wants which press 

 upon their descendants; they were few in num- 

 ber, and their greatest anxiety was for a secure 

 and abundant means of existence. They held the 

 country when it was in its infant state, but their 

 children enjoy it in the mature state ; and the boy's 

 wants are almost forgotten in the urgencies of 

 those of the man. Yet, most happily, the easy 

 means of satisfying them exist. The wise dispen- 

 sations of our Creator have j)rovided those for eve- 

 ry stage of society ; it is man who is to blame, if, 

 having health, he consents to remain poor and mi- 

 seralde; and the same may be said of communi- 

 ties of men, who disregard the resources which are 

 benevolently placed w ithin their reach. 



It has often been remarked as a surprising cir- 

 cumstance, that the early settlers of Virginia seem 

 never to have suspected the existence of gold iu 



