EFFECTS ON PUBLIC INTERESTS. 859 



The message of the present Governor of Virginia to the legislature, 

 in January, 1852, stated, upon the evidence of official documents, 

 that the assessed values of lands in the tide-water district, had been 

 increased more than 17 millions of dollars in the twelve years pre- 

 ceding the last assessment of 1850. The governor properly ascribed 

 this increased value of lands of this region to the recent fertilization 

 of particular portions. With all well-informed residents, or those 

 acquainted generally with the past and present circumstances of 

 this region, there will be no question as to the ivhole of the in- 

 creased value being due to the use of calcareous manures. For 

 before the introduction of this still recent practice, both the intrinsic 

 and the market values of lands had decreased as they have con- 

 tinued since to decrease in the neighbouring counties in which 

 there has been very little or no use of marl or lime. All other 

 improvements of agricultural practices, great as they certainly have 

 been, have not sufficed to replace the productive power wasted by 

 the generally exhausting tillage. 



But great as is this declared general increase of value of the 

 lands of this tide-water region alone and, as I maintain, from the 

 effects of calxing alone it is not near so much as can be truly 

 asserted, and satisfactorily proved from the public documents and 

 statistical tables, defective as they are for this course of investiga- 

 tion. This is not the place to offer in detail the authorities and 

 proofs of these important facts. But this shall be done in another 

 paper, which will be a communication to the State Agricultural 

 Society. In that paper I will maintain, and expect to establish, 

 the following propositions, of which the enunciation will be here 

 stated concisely, in advance of the proofs, and deductions therefrom, 

 which will hereafter appear : 



1. The parts of lower Virginia, long settled and cultivated, and 

 also the neighbouring upper counties, had been decreasing in pro- 

 duction, in population, and especially in productive or labouring 

 population, in wealth .generally, in the intrinsic or productive value, 

 and also the selling and assessed values of lands, for more or less 

 time, previous to the commencement of the improvement by marl- 

 ing; and such decrease has continued to this time, and is still pro- 

 ceeding, wherever there has been no marling or liming. 



2. In the counties in which most land has been improved by 

 marling or liming, and only since these improvements were in pro- 

 gress, there has been a marked change from the former declining 

 condition, just stated, to increase of value of lands, of wealth gene- 

 rally, and of products of taxation and as a later and as yet less 

 advanced effect, an increase of population also. 



3. This change from decrease to increase of the values of lands, 

 though not indicated by official documents earlier than the assess- 

 ment of 1838, (there having been no previous assessment later than 



