1847 . 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
299 
55555EK 
FAIRFAX COUNTY LANDS—-EMIGRATION TO VIRGINIA.—No. II. 
Having in the March number of the Cultivator, given 
your readers some of my “ first impressions ” of this por¬ 
tion of Virginia, with a promise to resume the subject 
on a future occasion, I avail myself of a leisure hour to 
fill up in some measure the imperfect sketch then fur¬ 
nished, as well as to reply, through the medium of 
your valuable and widely circulating pages, to the nu¬ 
merous inquiries which have been addressed to me 
from nearly every section of the union, in reference to 
the facilities here afforded for agricultural emigration 
and settlement. A longer residence in, and a more 
intimate and familiar acquaintance with the advanta¬ 
ges and disadvantages of this section, in regard to the 
principal objects which impel northern and eastern 
men to seek its soil, enables me, I trust, to speak 
more confidently of the various inducements which it 
presents in this point of view. The fact, moreover, 
of which I am not unaware, that several very worthy 
and intelligent persons, have within a few years past 
removed hither from the north, and failing from a va¬ 
riety of unforeseen circumstances to realize the expec¬ 
tations held out to them, have returned, with anything 
but a favorable impression of the country, presents an 
additional inducement to a faithful exposition of the 
state of things here, so far, at least, as it may be with¬ 
in my power to give it. 
The peculiar advantages which the enterprising and 
industrious northern agriculturist may reasonably cal¬ 
culate upon, from an emigration to this portion of Vir¬ 
ginia, consist, first, in the low price and intrinsic value, 
for all ordinary agricultural purposes, of the land, situa¬ 
ted within half a day’s ride of Washington, Alexandria, 
or Georgetown, three of the best and most reliable mar¬ 
kets for farming produce of every description to be found 
in the union. The greater portion of these lands have, at 
no very distant period, been subjected to an exhausting 
process of cultivation, by the owners and occupants of 
large plantations, and subsequently abandoned for 
more fertile fields; and the soil, consisting chiefly of a 
clayey loam, being naturally rich, and left to i'ts own 
resources for a succession of years, regaining all its 
elements of fertility, with no other drawback than the 
luxuriant surface growth of pines and evergreens, re¬ 
quires only the judicious application of a little labor 
and capital, to restore it to its original value. The 
unbiassed testimony of competent and disinterested 
judges will bear me out in the assertion, that nume¬ 
rous farms, of from one to five hundred acres, within 30 
miles of the Washington market, which have been pur¬ 
chased at five, ten, and fifteen dollars per acre, are, in 
all essential respects fully , equal in intrinsic value to 
northern farms which command without difficulty from 
forty to sixty and seventy dollars. They are equally 
susceptible of profitable cultivation—require no greater 
outlay of capital and labor to the production of equal 
and often of superior grain and grass—are equally 
well adapted to the growth of wheat, rye, oats, bar¬ 
ley, corn, potatoes, turneps, and all other vegetables 
suitable for market or family consumption—afford far 
greater facilities for the cultivation of fruit of every de¬ 
scription—and are much better adapted from the mild¬ 
ness and benignity of the climate to the raising of all 
kinds of stock. They are liberally supplied with tim¬ 
ber of the best quality—oak, walnut, locust, chestnut, 
maple, cedar, and pine—abundantly furnished with 
water—and deficient only in buildings, fences and 
other improvements, the result of active cultivation. 
The frequent consequence of this state of things, has 
been the inconsiderate investment, by many of the 
northern emigrants, of all or the principal portion of 
their available means in the purchase of these cheap 
and valuable lands, in quantities greater than was at 
all requisite for ordinary or profitable farming, opera¬ 
tions, with the view, either of future speculation, or 
ultimate occupation, and provision for their families— 
leaving themselves virtually without the means either 
of making those improvements and bestowing that cul¬ 
tivation upon the land which alone could adequately 
call forth its resources, or of meeting those current ex¬ 
penditures for the support of their families necessarily 
incidental to the first year or two of a new settlement, 
and which cannot, in the nature of things, be expected 
from their first experiments in the cultivation of the 
■soil. Hence arises one great source of disappointment 
and failure; and after a few years’ struggle, the im¬ 
provident adventurer, having parted with all his capi¬ 
tal in the purchase of his land, and finding himself 
unable to make the necessary improvements, and at 
the same time to derive a comfortable subsistence for 
himself and his family from the proceeds of his farm, 
abandons the undertaking in disgust, and perhaps re¬ 
turns to the north, with a melancholy description of 
the barren and worthless soil of Virginia. Had he 
reserved a suitable portion of his pecuniary means, for 
the gradual improvement of this land and the current 
expenditures of his family, a far different result would 
have ensued. 
2. The healthiness of the climate, attributable in a 
great measure to the uniformity and benignity of its 
temperature, and the mildness of the winters, consti¬ 
tutes another important attraction to the northern emi¬ 
grant. But from this very circumstance arises another 
very prevalent source of disappointment. The only- 
disease which may be regarded as peculiar to the cli¬ 
mate, is that familiarly known at the west as fever 
and ague, and here softened down into the appellation of 
the chills. The vicinity of rivers and streams of water , 
accompanied by imprudent exposure to the morning and 
evening exhalations # produce, more frequently during 
the decay of vegetation at the close of sumrner and be¬ 
ginning of autumn, those disagreeable consequences 
which are attendant upon similar causes everywhere 
else; and the robust emigrant, whose active energies 
are periodically prostrated by this unwelcome visitant 
speedily connects his untoward fortune with the soil 
itself and imbibes a thorough distaste for his c< new 
home.” Now it requires but a moment’s reflection to 
perceive that not the slightest necessity exists for that 
degree of exposure which here, as elsewhere, induces 
disease—:that healthy locations abound—that no situa¬ 
tion or condition is exempt from liability to those 
chronic or local maladies which seem inseparable from 
humanity—that even fevqr and ague is preferable to 
pulmonary consumption, for which it is, with us, to a 
very great extent , a substitute—and that ordinary pru¬ 
dence and attention to the laws of health, will, in nine 
cases out of ten, operate as an infallible preventive to 
the attacks of this insidious foe. 
I have now briefly alluded to the principal causes which 
have, in many instances, combined to render a perma¬ 
nent residence in this section of country distasteful and 
virtually impracticable. Regarding them as I do, as 
by no means formidable, when properly understood and 
intelligently guarded against, in the genial mildues s 
