VIRGINIA. 



299 



bed, occupies a long, narrow belt of about a mile and a half in length ; and to supply the neceb- 

 sary space for its extending business, Lane''s Island, directly in front of the town, has been 

 fixed upon and has received the name of Columbia City. Wheeling is one of the most flour- 

 isliing manufacturing towns in the country, and owes its prosperity to the inexhaustible beds of 

 coal that surround it, and to the easy transmission of its manufactures through the vast agricul- 

 tural regions of the west and southwest ; coal is delivered at tlie manufactories for from 2 to 3 

 cents a bushel. In 1S20 its population was 1,567; at present, it exceeds 11,000. There 

 are in the city 30 steam-engines and 140 manufacturing establishments, producing annually 

 goods to the value of 2,000,000 dollars ; and within a circuit of 25 miles, there are 134 flour- 

 mills, making annually 230,000 barrels of flour, worth nearly as much more. Among the 

 manufactories are ten iron-founderies, steam-engine and machine shops, and rolling-mills, 6 

 glass-works, paper-mills, tanneries, &c. The trade of Wheeling is also extensive ; the annua 

 arrivals and departures of steamboats being 1 ,600, and the flat boats and wagons constantly 

 employed, the latter on the National Road to the east, are numerous. WcUsburg, further up 

 the riveT, owes its growth to the same causes, containing several cotton and woolen factories, 

 glass-works, paper, flour, and saw mills, iron founderies, &c. Population, 2,000. Charles- 

 ion., on the Kanawha, has about 1,000 inhabitants. 



3. Canals. The works for the promotion of internal communication in this State have 

 been mostly executed by incorporated companies, with the assistance of the government. The 

 Internal Improvement Fund, vested in a Board of Public W^orks, consist of a productive cap- 

 ital of about 2,000,000, yielding an annual income of about 115,000 dollars. In 1837, the 

 legislature appropriated upwards of 4,000,000 to aid in the execution of certain works, sev- 

 eral, of which have not, however, been begun. The navigation of the Shenandoah, Rappa- 

 hannock, James, Appomattox, Rivanna, and Dan, has been improved by short canals, locks, 

 and dams, at an expense of about 2,000,000 dollars. The Dismal Sicamp Canal, connect- 

 ing Chesapeake Bay with Albemarle Sound, extends from Deep Creek, a tributary of Eliza- 

 beth River, to Joyces's Creek, an arm of the Pasquotank in North Carolina, 22i miles, with a 

 feeder of 5 miles from Lake Drummond, and a branch, 6 miles in length, to the Northwest 

 River ; it was completed in 1822, but has since been enlarged ; cost, 879,864 dollars. Lake 

 Drummond is connected with the river Nansemond by a canal 10 miles in length. The 

 James River and Kanawha communication is the most important work that lias been under- 

 taken in Virginia. Canals round the falls above Richmond, and those in the Blue Ridge, afibrd 

 a navigation in high stages of the water to Covington. But in 1832, a company was in- 

 corporated whh a capital of 5,000,000 dollars, of which the State has subscribed two fifths, 

 for extending these works ; the project embraces a continuous canal from Richmond to Cov- 

 ington, of which 150 miles, to Lynchburg, are now far advanced towards completion, and a 

 railroad from Covington to the Great Falls of the Kanawha. 



4. Railroads. A continuous line of railway extends across the State from the Potomac tc 

 the Roanoke, of which the following are links : — The Richmond and Potomac Railroad, ex- 

 tending from Potomac Creek in Stafford, through Fredericksburg to Richmond, 70 miles \ 

 the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, between those two cities, 22 miles ; and the Peters- 

 burg and Roanoke Railroad, from the former place to Blakely, in North Carolina, 59 miles ; 

 the Greensville Railroad, from near Belfield to Gaston, on the Roanoke, was constructed for 

 the purpose of striking the river higher up ; the City Point Railroad, extending from Peters- 

 burg to the James River, 10 miles, connects the Roanoke with the deep water of the Chesa- 

 peake ; the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad forms a second junction of the Roanoke and 

 Chesapeake, extending from Weldon to Portsmouth, 78 miles ; the Chesterfield Railroad con- 

 nects the coal-pits of Chesterfield with the James at Richmond, 13 miles, and there are other 

 shorter roads extending from coal mines to the James River above Richmond ; the Louisa 

 Railroad extends from Louisa court-house to the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad, 

 near the mouth of the South Anna, 40 miles ; the Winchester and Potomac Railroad extends 

 from Winchester to Harper's Ferry, 30 miles, where it is connected with the Baltimore and 

 Ohio Railroad, by a viaduct over the Potomac. 



5. Agriculture. Agriculture has always been the chief occupation of the inhabitants, but 

 not to the exclusion of other branches of industry. There is a great diversity in the agri- 

 culture of the State, but it is for the most part badly conducted. The old practice of culti- 

 vating land every year until exhausted, and then leaving it to recover from its own resources, 

 still continues in many places. In others the three-shift system prevails ; that is, first, a crop 



