FARMERS' REGISTER— MINERALS OF VIRGINIA. 



621 



tl e state, which we know at this time to be very 

 extentively diifused across its whole territory. 

 Considering how much of it has been found of 

 late, it does appear to want some explanation ; but 

 perhaps this may not unreasonably be found, ni the 

 very woody state of the country, and in the exclu- 

 si\ie occupations I have alluded to. It is necessity 

 which is the mother of invention, and they wei-e 

 not under the immediate necessity of looking for 

 it. In Chesterfield and Henrico counties, whicli 

 are nearer to the first communities of tlie Ancient 

 Dominion, bituminous coal crops out on the sur- 

 face very obviously ; these indications could hard- 

 ly escape their notice, or be misunderstood by 

 them, as they came from a country where coal 

 was already in domestic use. But in none of the 

 ancient records of Virginia that I have seen, is this 

 coal alluded to; and the reason it had no impor- 

 tance in their eyes, most probably was, that their 

 fuel was the wood, from which they were obliged 

 to disencumber the ground to plant their corn. 



Things which they could put to a profitable use 

 we find did attract their attention. We have the 

 proof of this, in the use they made, as far back as 

 1619, under the government of Sir George Yeard- 

 ly, nf white and blue fossil marl, for the purpose of 

 manuring their lands, and by the aid of which 

 they obtained wheat at the rate of thirty bushels 

 to the acre. But granite and other stones of con- 

 struction, soapstone, porcelain clay, and other nu- 

 merous mineral substances, now having an intrin- 

 sic value, they paid no attention to. Most proba- 

 bly it never occurred to any of them, that a break- 

 water would be constructed at.Cape Henlopen, for 

 the protection of the future navies and commerce 

 of their country : much less could they suppose 

 that the rocks for its construction would be brought 

 from the neighborhood of Wilmington in Dela- 

 ware, and some of them from the banks of the 

 Hudson river. Then is not a stone in the earth 

 but is therefor a wise purpose, and it is our igno- 

 rance and indolence which make us blind to this 

 important truth. 



It has been acknowledged by the most eminent 

 writers, that the prosperity of Great Britain is 

 mainly founded upon her mineral riches. The 

 substitution of human ingenuity for manual labor, 

 is the distinguishing character of modern times; 

 but all the complex and multifarious machinery 

 of her manufactories, cannot operate without steam, 

 nor can this bp gathered without fuel. The main 

 source, then, of the wealtli of tliat country, is coal : 

 without it, the cloths, the cottons, the iron, the cut- 

 lery, the pottery and a hundred productive branch- 

 es of art, would cease to exist there, and witli them 

 their immense commerce, and their j)OAverful navy. 

 But thirty millions of tons of bituminous coal, ex- 

 clusive of non-bituminous or anthracite, are annu- 

 ally raised there, and every thing is prosperous: 

 wealth increases, great pulalic and private under- 

 takings are projected and executed, and such is the 

 demand for every mineral substance, that all re- 

 ceive an intrinsic value, sufficient to enable them 

 to sustain even the expenses of a distant transpor- 

 tation. So true is this, that the flagstones of the 

 side-walks of the City of London, are brought 

 from the nortlicrn parts of Scotland, and the gra- 

 nite used for the construction of the new London 

 bridge, was imported from the same distant coun- 

 try. Every quarry, then, of mineral substances 

 in that island, is a source of profit to its proprie- 



VoL. I.— 66 



tor, supports the flimiliesof many industrious men, 

 and assists to maintain the great transportation in- 

 terests which conduct the material to its destina- 

 tion ; whilst these interests, to be permanently 

 })rosperous, depend again, where navigation is out 

 of the question, upon well constructed roads and 

 canals. 



Here then we perceive the nature of the pros- 

 perity of that industrious country, and can no lon- 

 ger be surprised that geology, the science which 

 teaches men how to judge from external indications 

 the probable subterranean value of surfaces^ should 

 be so assiduously cultivated. 



Let us apply, then, my dear sir, this useful les- 

 son to the United States, and especially to the fine 

 state of Virginia. The general complaint is, that 

 the arable land is impoverished by our cultivation, 

 and that the old class of wealthy proprietors, once 

 the ornaments of America, is fast disappearing. 

 There is no doubt much truth in this,ancl it would 

 present a melancholy perspective, if no remedy 

 was apparent. But in relation to agricultural ma- 

 nagement, a great efTort is obviously now making, 

 to introduce an ameliorating and more systematic, 

 culture. It has already been attended with suffi- 

 cient success to insure the confidence of the farm- 

 ing interest. This is a great point gained, — exam- 

 ple going much farther than precept with farmers. 

 Many of them are only to be diverted from their 

 antiquated and unproductive practices, by being 

 surrounded with successful examples. The more 

 you talk to them, the more obstinate you make 

 them, their minds being pre-occupied with the no- 

 tion, that you want them to seal their own humilia- 

 tion by surrendering their judgment to yours, and 

 this they will not do. But make twenty five 

 bushels of wheat, where they only make ten^ and 

 let them see numerous instances of this, and they 

 will soon come to. I think therefore the agricul- 

 ture of the state is in a progressively improving 

 condition, and that ere long the beneficial effects 

 will be generally felt and acknowledged. 



In the meantime, it has been ascertained from 

 the very superficial examinations the state has re- 

 ceived, that its mineral resources are not surpassed 

 by those of any state in the union ; and yet noth- 

 ing has been done to develope them, and make 

 them part of the active wealth of the country. 

 Does this supineness proceed from rational doubts 

 that the result would be problematical.^ What evi- 

 dence, and whence derived, have we of the proba- 

 bility of this.' Public patronage has not yet been 

 extended to any branch of this important object ; 

 and private enterprize, where it has been guided 

 by sound discretion, as the instance of the bitumi- 

 nous coal pits of Chesterfield county, has been 

 brilliantly rewarded. But let us suppose the whole 

 district in which this valuable coal field is situated, 

 to have been so deeply covered with other mineral 

 substances, that no external indications had pre- 

 sented tliemselves, and that the coal, as frequently 

 occurs, laid below the depth of the wells of the 

 country, and we may fairly suppose that that coal 

 field would not have been discovered unto this day. 

 In the absence of public patronage and private en- 

 terprize, the same supineness that condemns so 

 many other mineral products, to their subterranean 

 obscurity, would have also included it. But nature 

 there gave a hint v.liich could not be mistaken ; 

 the coal cropped out conspicuously on the surface, 

 and could not be neglected. May we not reasona.- 



