Agricolture is the most Healthy and Honorable, as It is the most Natural and ITseful pnrsuit of Man, 



A'OL. XI. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y.— SEPTEMBER, 1850. 



NO. 9. 



7raaiNIA LANDS AND FARMING 



EvKRT one who aspires to be an intelligent cultivator 

 of the soil, should know something of the climate and 

 agricultural capabilities of ail of the great farming 

 States of the Union. Among these — from its central 

 |X)sition, its noble rivers, fine harbors, and being on 

 the Atlantic — Virginia, which has been the mother 

 of so many States, lias peculiar claims to the study 

 of every American. It contains 61,352 square miles, 

 or within a fraction of 40,000,000 acres. Vessels 

 drawing fifteen feet of water, come up the Potomac 

 to Washington and Georgetown. Vessels of con- 

 siderable tonnage are seen at the cities of Richmond 

 and Petersburgh. The canals up the James and 

 Potomac rivers are already completed far into the 

 interior, and are still being extended. From steam- 

 boat navigation on the Ohio to Norfolk, through the 

 James River canal, will be about 600 miles. Every 

 body knows that Virginia lies in the valley of the 

 Ohio, as well as on the Atlantic ocean. A loaded 

 canal boat at Portsmouth, which is the southern ter- 

 minus of the Ohio canal, is over 1000 miles from the 

 city of New York, via Cleveland, Buffalo, and the 

 Erie canal ; and its cargo must be reshipped twice 

 in crossing lake Erie. By ascending the Kanawha 

 and descending the James rivers, in Virginia, the 

 ocean is reached in half the distance, and without 

 breaking bulk. This canal is not yet completed. 

 The canal from Cumberland to Ale.xandria, in the 

 District of Columbia, will be in operation all the way 

 by the first of August. 



There are several important lines of railway now 

 being constructed in Virginia, to facilitate travel and 

 the transportation of agricultural produce to tide 

 water ; but we need not stop to name tliem. It may 

 not be amiss, however, to remark that Norfolk has 

 one of the finest harbors in the world ; and that the 

 Potomac, up to Washington city, is more of a bay 

 or arm of the Chesapeake, than a river. Tide rises 

 and falls some four feet, and the river above the 

 bridge is two miles wide. On the Virginia side of 

 the Potomac is the farm of George Washington 

 Parke Custis, the step-son and adopted child of the 

 illustrious Pater Patrix. This farm contains 1100 

 acres. We shall take another occasion to describe 

 this fine estate and i's farming operations. Its ex- 

 tensive meadows yield two tons of hay to the acre, 

 an article which sells in Washington at from $15 to 

 $20. Think of land within a few miles of the me- 

 tropolis of the United States, (which is growing 



rapidly and must soon contain 100,000 inhabitant^,) 

 selling at from |!7 to $12 an acre ! Every acre of 

 this land, with northern husbandry, will yield $30 

 wo.-th of hay a year. The question may be asked 

 why farming lands are so low in the " Ancient Do- 

 minion." This we will answer without fear or favor, 

 according to our own views of the subject. 



Forty years ago slaveholders in the State of New 

 York had learned that negroes were worth more to 

 grow tobacco in Virginia and Maryland, than to 

 raise grain in the now Empire State. Obeying the 

 laws of trade, thousands of slaves were carried south, 

 and slaveholding ceased in New York and New Jer- 

 sey. Now, two-thirds of the slaveholders of Vir- 

 ginia have learned that negroes are worth more to 

 grow cotton, rice, and sugar, at the south, than to- 

 bacco and grain farther north. Obeying still the 

 law of demand and supply, thousands of slaves are 

 annually leaving Virginia, and migrating south to 

 grow cotton, sugar, and rice, for the civilized world. 

 Constantly hearing of the fortunes made in Georgia, 

 Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, 

 the most enterprising planters of Virginia are leaving 

 their partially exhausted estates for tlie El Dorado 

 of a warmer climate, where slave labor is worth two 

 prices. Can it be otherwise than that the millions 

 of deserted acres in the Old Dominion should be of- 

 fered to the enterprize of free labor at mere nominal 

 prices ? 



If all the women in the world insist on having 

 twice as many yards in each calico dress as' formerly, 

 and twice as many dresses in the course of a year, 

 who, pray, but Virginia slaves, are to raise cotton 

 enough to supply this incal(;ulable demand ■? T'ne 

 cotton mills of England alone exported over tb'.rteen 

 hundred million yards of cotton cloth last year, and 

 one hundred and fifty million pounds of co'tton yarn. 

 Let the men of fifty who read this art'.cle, call to 

 mind how sparingly sugar was used when thev were 

 boys, and then reflect a moment on the way in'which 

 poor people, as well as rich, now consume this pro- 

 duct of slave labor. So rapid has been the extension 

 of commerce, and so great the improvements in the 

 machinery for ginning and the manufacture of cot- 

 ton, tliat the world wants, or affects to want a world 

 of cotton fabrics. In short, the day is near at hand 

 when all the slaves in this Republic will either 

 cease to be bondmen, or be employed in the culture 

 of the three great southern staples, cotton, suiar, 

 and rice. Who, then, are to cultivate the northern 

 slave-holding States ? Wlw plaut thoirsands of 



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