Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 249 



under the canopy for this waste of time and timber and muscle, not 

 one ; and the whole aim and intent of civilization is in direct oppo- 

 sition to it and demand a reform. Argument can be piled on 

 argument to prove the truth of these assertions, but I only enter 

 protest against farm fences, as I have these twenty years, and wait. 



Adjourned. 



May 16, 1871. 



Nathan C. Ely, Esq., in the chair. Mr. John W. Chambers,. Secretary. 

 Eastern Virginia. 



Mr. Marshall, Petersburgh, Va., expressed wonder that so few 

 people came his way, when there is, in his opinion, so much to draw 

 them. There is, he said, despite Ku-Klux, not a more law-abiding 

 people in the world than the people of Virginia. " I do not know 

 of a single overt act that has occurred against a northern settler 

 since the war. I am a northern man myself, came here with the 

 army, and have been an earnest and active republican ever since the 

 republican party has been in existence, and yet I have always been 

 treated with courtesy by all with whom I have come in contact, and 

 have made as many friends here as I could have made in any other 

 section of our country, and mine is not an isolated case. Any north- 

 ern man that may come here can rely on the friendly disposition of 

 the inhabitants. So much in reference to the people, and now a word 

 about the land. Our lands are well wooded and well watered ; and, 

 considering the primitive way that farming is carried on here, really 

 productive. According to the agricultural report of 1869, you will 

 find that our average yield per acre is fifteen bushels of corn, ten 

 bushels of wheat, fifty bushels of potatoes, 418 pounds of tobacco, 

 146 tons of hay, which, considering that nine-tenths of our farmers 

 never manure their lands, and the greater part have only a one-horse 

 plow and some only a hoe to raise their crops with, speaks well for 

 the fertility of the soil. Our markets are a fair average with the 

 best in the United States, our public school system is equal to any 

 in the north, our roads tolerably good, the health of the country 

 unsurpassed anywhere, railroads and canals numerous, churches of all 

 denominations in every direction, and land abundant at from five 

 dollars to twelve dollars per acre. "We have 20,000,000 acres of land, 

 scarcely one-fourth of which is occupied; and yet, if this country 

 were thickly settled, it could be made the garden spot of America. 



Mr. J. B. Lyman — There is some good land on the river banks, 



