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LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.-NO. 1. 
LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH.—No. 1. 
After leaving Baltimore, there is soon visible a 
striking deficiency in the cultivation, in comparison 
with that of the north; though this difference is 
less apparent in Maryland than farther south, as the 
manufacturing spirit already developed in that 
State is manifest in new and thriving villages occa¬ 
sionally springing up. The increased demand and 
value of agricultural products, necessarily induces 
attention to the cultivation of the soil; and more 
land is inclosed, old fences are repaired or removed, 
and new fields are taken in, and all is better culti¬ 
vated. The farmer soon finds from his increasing 
receipts that his prosperity is identified with that 
of the mechanic and manufacturer ; and that if he 
has to pay a trifle more, which he seldom does, or 
even 50 per cent., which has never been the case, 
for the few domestic manufactured articles which 
he consumes, he is yet vastly better off for sustain¬ 
ing the useful arts of his own country in preference: 
to buying abroad, at even lower rates, for which his 
means of payment would be soon exhausted from 
his inability to secure any fairly remunerating 
market for his products. 
The neighborhood of Washington, proverbially 
sterile, has latterly felt the influence of a domestic 
market for its productions, and many emigrants 
from New York and New Jersey .have sold their 
farms at $40 to $60 per acre, and purchased here 
of a quality originally as good, at from $5 to $10 ; 
and by the use of proper fertilizers, lime, gypsum, 
manures, and a rotation of crops, they are fast bring¬ 
ing them into a productive state, while receiving an 
adequate return for their cultivation. It needs 
strong inducements, however, to lead the best class 
of northern farmers to abandon their social privi¬ 
leges at home, in which they have been born and 
nurtured, and in which they feel that they have 
inherited a right in fee simple, for the privations 
to which they are subject here. The only way in 
which these disabilities can at present be measura¬ 
bly remedied, is by emigrating in masses, bringing 
their schools, society, and mechanics with them, 
as many of the best early emigrants in northern 
Ohio, and other western settlements, have done. 
Extensive changes of opinion, as to the .future 
social and industrial relations of the inhabitants of 
the Southern Middle States, which are evidently 
In progress, and which, if not arrested by any un¬ 
toward event, will, ere long, produce such modifi¬ 
cations in the present system of labor, as will 
secure future emigration, and greatly increased 
prosperity and augmented value to their land. 
As our boat approached Mount Vernon, the 
bell gave token, as if by instinct, that the soil 
which occupied the happiest hours of one of earth’s 
greatest sons, now holds his remains in her bosom. 
That inbred nobility of soul which led him to the 
achievement of deeds in his social, military, and 
civil career, which will commend his name to hal¬ 
lowed remembrance while civilized man inherits 
this glone, equally taught him to regard this culti¬ 
vation of the earth as the noblest and most useful 
occupation of man. And as long as the farmers 
of the United States continue to read the history 
of their country, they will learn that Washington, 
fost in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts 
of his countrymen,” sought in the pursuits of a 
diligent and enlightened agriculture, his highest 
individual enjoyment, and the best welfare of his 
country. It may be doubted, however, whether 
Washington, so extensively engaged in public 
affairs during a great part of his life, made his agri¬ 
culture so productive as has been frequently claimed 
His home estate partakes of that barrenness of soil 
which characterizes a great part of Eastern Vir- 
ginnia; and the want of good markets, and thq^in- 
different cultivation which characterized the 
operations of good farmers in his day, could not, 
without the greatest economy, have resulted in the 
accumulation of a large estate, even on a virgin 
soil. The most rigid and enlightened system 
which the intelligence of his time enabled him to 
adopt, while it might have failed to secure great 
wealth, is still an illustrious example to the present 
and future generation of farmers; and the consider¬ 
able wealth he secured from the partiality of his 
early friend, Lord Fairfax, and his judicious selec¬ 
tions of choice lands at nominal prices, while en¬ 
gaged in the laborious duties of a stripling sur¬ 
veyor, enabled him in after life to refuse all com¬ 
pensation for his seven years’ service as Comman- 
der-in-Chief during our Revolution, and afterwards 
maintain that munificent liberality, wffiich, though 
conspicuous above most others, was among the least 
of his resplendent virtues. 
For a short distance on the hanks of the Potomac 
where the railroad commences, the soil yields a 
natural growth of a variety of trees and shrubs; 
and many a large clustering vine gave evidence 
of its capacity to rear the grape to advantage. 
But on emerging from the bank, we soon entered 
upon a soil, which, whether of the lightest sand, 
an indifferent gravel, or even when inclining to clay, 
with but slight exceptions, gave support to a natural 
growth of uninterrupted stunted pine and oak ; and 
with little variation, this dwarf pine and oak fol¬ 
lowed us from Acquia Creek to Wilmington. The 
bottoms of the Rappahanock, the James, and the 
Appomatox rivers, and for some little distance on 
either side, were an exception. The two former 
especially, below Fredericksburg and Richmond, 
give wide bottoms and some uplands of great fer¬ 
tility; and the inexhaustible beds of marl in their 
vicinity, owing particularly to the unwearied 
efforts of that able friend of agriculture, Edmund 
Ruffin, one of Virginia’s best and most useful sons, 
have of late years been instrumental in resuscitating 
many of the worn-out lands, and almost invariably 
increasing fertility wherever it has been applied. 
Farming, intelligently pursued under this system, 
is generally profitable. Wheat, corn, tobacco, 
potatoes, and the grasses, are raised in profusion, 
and with decided advantage. But in general, the 
country has a barren aspect, indicating too plainly 
to admit of dispute, that a soil, originally lean, has 
been exhausted by a careless system of husbandry, 
which has taken everything off without giving back 
anything in return. If I am asked what is the 
remedy, the certain means of restoration and im¬ 
provement for that broad belt of indifferent land that, 
with few exceptions^ lines the seaboard from Maine 
to Fjorida inclusive, I would say, use lime, marl 
(another form of lime), and gypsum, wherever they 
prove useful, and can be procured at such prices as 
