Proceedings of the Far.vees'' Club. 673 



favorable. Yirginia calls up to the northern mind the image of a 

 wide region, once smiling and fertile, but now practically a waste, 

 exhansted by a bad system of tillage, and of late scorched by the 

 desolation of a tierce civil strife. But this, gentlemen, describes but 

 a small portion of that great commonwealth. My home was origin- 

 ally in the Shenandoah valley, and I am personally familiar not only 

 with that fertile district, but with every corner and region of Vir- 

 gina, except two or three counties near Chesapeake bay, and I believe 

 that to-day my State oflers greater facilities, more inducement and 

 opportunities to iarmers of every class and all tastes than any State 

 of the republic. There are large portions of Yirginia which, though 

 the oldest, are in some respects the newest and least understood. I 

 refer now to the southeastern counties, those having Norfolk, Peters- 

 burfif, Williamsburg and Richmond as the nearest market towns. For 

 the average northern farmer of limited means, accustomed to garden 

 tillage, I especially recommend the country between the York and the 

 James, east of the Chickahominy, the very territory that seven j^ears, 

 five and four years ago this spring had fixed upon it the ej'es of two 

 continents as the scene of such extraordinary military operations. 

 Tlie soil of the peninsula is light, mellow and kindly. Yegetables of 

 all kinds flourish well, and all the small fruits give profit. Beneath the 

 surf ice there are great beds of marl, and the swamps afford abundance of 

 muck. The climate is mild, the winters open, the springs early, a.nd the 

 farms within easy communication by water with great cities and an 

 immense consuming population, Near the rivers the average price 

 is about ten dollars, but not over fifteen dollars an acre. A little 

 back, on high and healthful ground, lands can.be had at from five 

 dolhirs to ten dollars, the average being perhaps about eight dollars. 

 In what we call the Piedmont counties, beginnin^g with Loudon near 

 the Potomac and going southward througli Fauquier, Culpepper, 

 Madison, Orange, Green, Albermarle, Louisa, Nelson, Amherst, to 

 Appomattox and the tier just east of these, the price of lands is a 

 little higher, being about fifteen dollars. These lands are well 

 adapted to regular field agriculture, a rotation of clover, wlieat, corn, 

 tobacco. This region was little wasted by the war, and in point of 

 beauty and healthfulness is not surpassed on the continent. West of 

 these, beyond the Blue liidge, lies the Shenandoah valley. This, 

 properly speaking, does not extend south of Staunton. But in fact a 

 depression of the surface continues on till it sinks into the valley of 

 the Tennessee. In these southwestern counties, Montgomery, 

 [Inst.] 43 



